Beach Bags and Burglaries (A Haley Randolph Mystery) by Dorothy Howell Page B

have a choice.”
    “Then explain it to me,” Shuman said.
    This didn’t seem like the best time to get into the whole I’m-solving-a-murder-to-avoid-a-wedding thing, so I went with something easier.
    “If anything bad turns up on this guy, I’ll tell you everything,” I promised.
    Shuman was quiet for a while. I knew he wasn’t happy about it, but I also knew he’d go along with it.
    “Text me the info,” Shuman said. “I’ll get back to you.”
    “Thanks,” I said. “I owe you.”
    He hung up.
    I texted him the info I had on Gabe Braxton and then slid my phone into my pocket. This really wasn’t the vacation I’d hoped for. I had to turn things around.
    At breakfast, Marcie and Bella had said they were heading to the beach. This sounded like just the boost my day needed. I decided to put my murder investigation on ignore and forget about all my other problems—for a while, anyway.
    “Haley?”
    I knew by the way my knees started to tremble and my heartbeat picked up that Luke Warner had called my name.
    I spun around and, oh my God, there he stood.
    I got the feeling he’d been watching me for a while, which caused my heart to beat even faster.
    Luke walked over. “I saw you talking to a maintenance worker. Is everything all right?”
    He sounded genuinely concerned—and, jeez, he looked great—but I couldn’t forget our history. I forced myself to calm down.
    “Are you stalking me?” I asked.
    “I was just out for a walk,” Luke said with an easy grin.
    Luke has a terrific grin.
    He was also a terrific liar—all in the line of duty, of course.
    Luke was an FBI agent who’d been working undercover when we’d met a few months ago. He had extensive experience pretending to be someone other than himself, so a lie could roll oh so smoothly off of his tongue. When he’d finally revealed his true identity, I wasn’t happy about being deceived—or about some of the other things that had happened. Luke tried to make it up to me, but I was done with him.
    Until now.
    Maybe.
    I wondered if he’d mention what had happened between us a few months ago when we’d both been searching for a murder suspect in the Garment District and something had sparked between us—long story. I doubted he would—the whole thing wasn’t exactly a shining moment for him—and that was okay with me. I didn’t really want to think about it, either.
    “I saw you yesterday inside the hotel talking to the detectives,” Luke said. His brows drew together. “Are you all right?”
    I couldn’t be certain whether Luke knew what was going on with Jaslyn’s murder.
    “You don’t know?” I asked.
    “I’m just here for a wedding,” he said, and gave me another grin.
    I’d fallen for his cover story once before; I wasn’t doing it again.
    “A hotel maid was murdered,” I said. “I’m sure you heard about it.”
    “I read it on the Internet,” Luke said. “But I’m staying away from the news as much as possible, since I’m on vacation.”
    “You hadn’t heard that I found her body?” I asked.
    “Haley, that must have been awful for you,” he said, and again sounded genuinely concerned.
    This hardly seemed like the time to remind him that Jaslyn’s was not the first dead body I’d ever discovered.
    “Why did you come into the room where the police were interviewing me?” I asked.
    Luke gave me an I’m-an-idiot-sometimes shrug, and said, “I made a wrong turn, went into the wrong room.”
    “Which room were you looking for?” I wanted to know.
    He paused, and I saw in his expression that he knew I didn’t trust what he was saying.
    And it was true. The bottom line was that I didn’t trust Luke. He’d claimed he was here for a wedding, and that may have been true—or he could have been here working undercover investigating Jaslyn’s death, or something totally different.
    Of course, working undercover was his job—and a pretty cool job, at that—so I guess he couldn’t help that he had to lie