Page 31 of For Better or for Ransom

“Why would you think that?” Sandro grabbed at the turtleneck he was wearing as if he’d been deeply wounded.

“To an outsider it can look like that,” Divya threaded carefully. “You’ve had a wave of media recognition because of your performance the night Leo disappeared. There’s talk about the play running for longer with you as the lead now…”

“Oh, that’s been confirmed actually,” Sandro volunteered.

“It has?” Luke double-checked.

“We heard back from the producers and financing folks this morning.” Sandro’s shoulders sagged, tiredness setting in fast. His tone was almost sad. “The play is a go.”

“Can we congratulate you?” Divya asked and Luke also wondered about it.

“I told them I won’t be available to play Oedipus until we find Leo. I just…” Sandro breathed deeply, closed his eyes for a couple of seconds. “I can’t.”

Luke didn’t know what to believe. Was Sandro Palau truly that affected by Leonardo’s disappearance? Or was it just a matter of pretending he was and taking advantage of the whole situation a few weeks later?

The detectives thanked the actor, who gave them his personal number and begged them to call if they thought of anything else to ask him—or found Pascual.

···

As they walked through the narrow streets toward the beach and the W Hotel there, Divya asked: “Do you think Sandro could be the mystery person Leo was seeing?”

Luke had deemed that possibility too implausible—and obvious. Of course everyone could suspect Pascual was having a fling with a cast member. Next they would probably suspect Pili Garcia.

“Are we also calling him Leo now?” he simply quipped.

“Answer my question.”

Luke reconsidered the possibility of Sandro and Pascual together once again. Perhaps it was that he’d never been much of a fan of the person they were searching for, but he couldn’t picture the two actors together. “Isn’t Leonardo like fifteen years older than Sandro? And have you seen Sandro? I mean, I know neither of us is into men but the chap is beautiful.”

Divya’s gaze drifted upward. “I think people who are into men consider Leonardo quite gorgeous as well, mate. And I can’t bloody believe you are the one telling me they can’t be together because of the age difference.”

Luke made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “That’s different.”

Divya’s gaze tightened into a razor-thin line. “Why is it different?”

Luke bit his tongue and thought. There was no way of answering that question without sounding like a prejudiced arse. Divya was right. Shutting off prejudiced arses was precisely one of the reasons he was set on getting the title. He was tired of people assuming his and Sol’s relationship was just a temporary fling—even if they lived together now—just because of the bloody age gap.

“You’re right,” he told Divya. “Sandro could be Leonardo’s lover. But how do we get to ask him that without sounding like we’re prying?”

Divya smiled. “I think I have an idea.”

18

Luke

Their trip to the W Hotel hadn’t been productive. Several staff members remembered seeing Leonardo Pascual the day he was interviewed there by Sol, they also remembered the journalist. Luke wasn’t surprised: she was simply memorable.

But no hotel employee recalled having witnessed Pascual talking to the person Sol had seen with the actor when he was about to leave. Reviewing the footage from that day had also rendered no result. Had it been any other witness—and not Sol—Luke would start to wonder if they’d perhaps imagined they saw Leonardo with someone mysterious the day they disappeared. But Sol wasn’t the inventive type—at least not outside of her fiction.

Despite the lack of new usable information, Divya and Luke decided to at least take advantage of their trek to the beach to have lunch there. They called Sol to ask for restaurant recommendations. She gave them a couple of options and accepted the proposal to join them for lunch. Sol told Luke to order something for her. She’d grab a taxi and meet them in the restaurant. The detectives followed her suggestion and went to Can Ros.

“Sol really has taught you how to handle yourself in a Barcelona restaurant.” Divya smirked after Luke had ordered black rice with cuttlefish and fried fish.

But even if Divya was teasing him, Luke couldn’t help the smile. “She has.” He knew that Sol would approve of his choices.

“So…should we talk now about that title you’re so set on getting?”

“It feels weird,” Luke admitted. “Hearing you say it like that, out loud.” He ran a hand over the back of his neck nervously and checked the restaurant’s door, even if it was too early for Sol to be there. “I mean, first I need to make sure she really wants to marry me as well.”