Page 71 of For Better or for Ransom

“I’ll check with my colleagues. I’m sure they kept an address for him,” Officer Roig said. “I have to say that, when Miquel introduced us, I didn’t see this flourishing collaboration between us coming.”

Luke chuckled. He bet she didn’t. “That’s because you were mad at him for mansplaining all sorts of things.”

Mercè chuckled as well. “I was,” she admitted. “He told me you’re dating his ex-wife.”

The ability Spaniards had to mix business affairs and personal matters was something Luke was still getting used to. Then again, perhaps now that the professional boundaries had been lifted, he could take advantage of it?

“I’m not dating her. Sol and I are living together,” he set the record straight. “What else did he tell you about me?”

“That he likes you—for Sol. He’s happy she found someone.”

“Really?” Luke only heard the squeal in his voice after he said that.

“You have to give Miquel some credit,” Mercè continued, completely unaware of the cascade of conflicting feelings she’d unleashed in Luke. “He’s annoying and his ego is the size of a football field, but he’s the perfect ex. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.”

41

Luke

The Four Seasons? Why doesn’t it surprise me?” Divya muttered, when they parked at the upscale hotel on Cala Formentor, on the north of the island, where Fairbanks was staying.

“Because he’s a posh American?” Luke chuckled.

“Come on, mate. Don’t be judgy.”

Luke and Divya saw showrunner Jasper Fairbanks almost immediately after parking. They recognized him based on the pictures Sol had found of him online. He was lounging by the pool, overlooking the sea and surrounded by Mediterranean shrubs and pines. He was crouched on a lounge chair, his computer on his lap, and enveloped in a thick, white bathrobe.

“Do you also find it eerie that he’s next to the swimming pool after FadeToBlack’s latest post?” Divya managed to say exactly what Luke was thinking.

“He was in Los Angeles when Leonardo disappeared.” Luke grunted under his breath, as they approached the showrunner, still out of earshot from him.

“Are we sure about that, then?” Divya was at the point in the investigation when she’d started questioning everything—not only the assumptions they’d made based on hard evidence, but also the facts. It proved a very effective technique when they were stuck in an investigation—and they were most definitely moored when it came to reaching Leonardo’s whereabouts.

“We know that he entered the country, and the island, via private jet from Los Angeles yesterday.” The showrunner could still have technically flown out of the island undetected just to fly back and make sure to create a commotion that would make his arrival memorable—and buy him an alibi when it came to Leonardo’s disappearance.

“Would you mind moving? You’re blocking the sun,” Fairbanks told Luke as the detective approached his lounge chair.

“Jasper Fairbanks? I’m Luke Contadino,” he introduced himself and then proceeded to do the same with Divya.

It wasn’t lost on Luke that Jasper hadn’t expected to see them there. Surprise flickered across his face. The detective couldn’t avoid thinking how quintessentially Californian Fairbanks looked: besides the bathrobe, he was wearing tall socks, sliders, sunglasses, and a cardinal-red USC hat.

“What are you guys doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be looking for Leonardo?” Fairbanks, who Luke assumed to be in his mid-forties, closed his laptop and sat up.

“We are.” Luke gave him one of his business smiles. “We’re also wondering what you’re doing on the island.”

“I’m here to encourage you to do your job, obviously!” Jasper argued. When the two pairs of eyes in front of him judged him for a few seconds, he added: “I was going to tell you that I was here, but then the stupid gummies incident happened at the airport. I was so embarrassed. That’s why I hate flying. Even when you have a perfectly uneventful flight, something bad ends up happening once you’ve landed!”

“So you were going to call us?” The disbelief in Divya’s voice matched Luke’s.

“Of course! I wanted to know how you guys are doing? What the news is on good old Leonardo. Then I got here, a bit high and jet-lagged. Slept for probably fifteen hours straight. I woke up this morning, came to the swimming pool to catch up on some email, and it’s all so⁠—”

“Chaotic,” Luke offered when Fairbanks didn’t seem to find the word, but the showrunner dismissed him with a flick of his right hand.

“Complicated,” Divya said. But Fairbanks frowned at that.

There was a silence while the three of them seemed to be at a loss for words.

“Paradisiac.” Divya sighed after a few seconds. She was no longer looking at the two men, but the waves and nature ahead of them had caught her attention. There was not a trace of tension on her features or her body language, and she seemed content. Happy even.