Page 19 of Seductive Secrets

“Do tell,” Kasim replied, stealing Rosalee’s last piece of bacon. She didn’t admonish him. Instead, she smiled and moved her chair closer, leaning her head against his shoulder and, Angela suspected, placing her hand on his thigh.

Dash leaned forward. “It’s entirely possible that this DuBreck fellow hid something far away, but it’s most likely that he put something important into a safe deposit box, locker, or lock box close by so that he could access it when he needed it. Very few people want to have important documents or valuable items too far out of reach. So if we split up, take a picture of the key to everyone within a two or three mile radius of DuBreck’s home, any place that might have a storage capability, and ask if they recognize the key, then we’ll eventually find the source.”

“So, we should all take a picture of the key, except for one person, who actually has the key?”

Dash shook his head. “I don’t think the key should leave this house. Everyone takes a picture of the key while the actual key remains safe. Once we find what it unlocks, then someone can come back here to grab it and unlock the source. But we’ll all be around, including several of my guys for safety.”

“My guards can help as well,” Kasim announced.

Dash nodded. “Thanks. I was able to get four of my people out here spur of the moment, but the more protection available, the better.”

Kasim nodded his agreement. “Rosalee and I will also research the fiancée.”

Marco chuckled. “I was wondering how you two were going to avoid an international crisis by being seen out and about.”

Angela grinned. “You and your world leader schtick!”

Rosalee merely smiled and Kasim, as usual, hit them with his “you will obey me” glare. All of them laughed and Kasim rolled his eyes. Apparently, no one around this table would fall for the tactics that left other world leaders trembling in their boots.

“You are correct. If I’m seen, it would cause a great many problems.”

“Not to mention, Rosalee can’t be seen out and about either. She’s become a celebrity over the past few months.”

Chloe nodded her agreement. “I’ve had several people at events ask me who designed your wedding dress! It was stunning!”

Chloe had previously been a member of the very exclusive society circle in Charleston, South Carolina. Her parents had blackmailed her into being the perfect daughter,demanding that she marry the perfect man, so that he would reinforce their sagging bank accounts. But then, Chloe had met Marco. He had eliminated the blackmail issue and rescued Chloe from that ridiculous situation. Chloe was now free from her parents’ manipulations and madly in love with Marco. With Marco’s connections to a royal, an aristocrat, a lawyer with a reputation for winning, and Dash, who knew every skeleton in everyone’s closets, no matter how deeply a family tried to hide those secrets, no one messed with the couple. In other words, the Charleston social scene had embraced Marco. His prestige was made even more profound because he refused to socialize with snobs.

Rosalee smiled, squeezing Kasim’s arm. “I can’t take credit for the design. As soon as the wedding was announced, I received hundreds of designs from people all over the world. But I chose a design from a little known designer named Ashley Kettering. She’s a sweet and fascinating woman and…” She paused, glancing towards Dash. “Well, never mind.”

Dash choked on his coffee and the rest of the group laughed. When the man recovered, he lifted his hand in the air, shaking his head. “You don’t need to worry about me. My single status means I’m a happy man! Very happy! Perfectly content!”

Everyone around the table laughed except for Callum when Chloe’s eyes narrowed at the man. “You know, I have a friend who–”

Callum shook his head. “Not gonna happen!” he told her firmly, but gently because he genuinely cared for Chloe now that he saw how happy she made Marco.

After another round of laughter, they returned to the mysterious key.

“My team can generate a list of storage facilities, banks, and every other place that uses keys for storage,” Dash explained. “However, it won’t include apartment buildings or places that aren’t obvious. I suggest that we split up and take the picture of the key around to as many businesses and apartment complexes as we can, starting in a circle around DuBreck’s apartment.”

Kasim nodded. “Rosalee and I will work with my guards to dig into Mark’s financials. There might be a clue to what the key opens from places he frequented or, if we are lucky, a charge for a lockbox on his credit cards.”

“We should look into Dr. Abernathy’s fiancée’s as well,” Rosalee added. “If Mr. DuBreck was worried about being caught with dangerous documents, then he might have asked his fiancée to purchase a safe place to store them.”

Marco nodded. “I agree that you should focus on her as well, but first go through Mark’s financials. If it were me, I’d never put a friend in jeopardy by asking them to pay for something for me. The connections are too easy to track.”

“I agree,” Callum replied. “But not everyone thinks the same way we do.”

“Another possibility,” Kasim interrupted. “There might be another woman besides the fiancée involved. The key might open another apartment.”

“Good point,” Dash replied. “The key could have nothing to do with the blue powder.”

James stood up, stacking empty plates. “We also need to consider the possibility that the blue powder isn’t connected to any of this. Mark might not even know that the blue powder was hidden inside the statue. It might have been put there by a fellow student years ago.”

Everyone followed, standing up and taking dishes with them to the sink.

Angela carried the dish that had contained the eggs, setting it slightly further away since it would probably need to be hand washed. “I thought you assumed that my company was shipping the blue powder, and thought it was some new kind of designer drug.”

“We don’t know that,” James replied, touching the small of her back as he went to the table for another load of dishes. “We’re just assuming things now in order to figure out how to move forward. Until Mike gives me more information on what the substance is, then we should assume that it isn’t used for cleaning toilets.”

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