“I’m surprised the bartender didn’t smell it,” Michael offered.
“He’s surrounded by booze.” She understood what Michael was trying to do, but she didn’t want him to throw Van under a bus. “And my staff was coming out of the kitchens. You can get overwhelmed with smells.”
“I can tell you why Brock Foster didn’t smell the poison,” Nate offered. “He was doing a shit ton of cocaine. From the lines of white powder on his dresser, you interrupted his hit. It looked like he’d already done a line and was ready for number two. That would have screwed him in numerous ways. We need to wait for toxicology and Caleb’s autopsy.”
“Could it have been in the coke?” Michael’s expression brightened at the thought.
“I smelled it in the drink,” Ty insisted.
“Caleb seems to think it was in the drink,” Nate replied. “But we’re early in this. We need to be patient. Lucy, tell me what happened this evening. How did you end up in his room?”
Gemma held a hand up. “I would like a moment to confer with my client in private.”
“I don’t think we need to do that. It’s simple.” Lucy decided to plunge ahead. “The room service line got a call from Mr. Foster’s suite, and he requested a glass of Scotch. That should be in the record. They would send the request to the main bar. The main bar couldn’t find the bottle and called to the ballroom, where it had been mistakenly stored. Van poured the drink and printed out the receipt. Normally I would have sent someone to take it up, but we were short staffed at the moment, and I did it myself. I didn’t realize it was Brock Foster until I was inside the room and I needed him to sign the receipt. He was drinking and said some nasty things and then he died. I called Ty and he brought Michael and Caleb.”
“Did you touch the body?” Nate asked.
She shook her head. “No, and I feel bad about that, but I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t try CPR or anything.”
Ty put a hand on her knee. “You couldn’t have helped him. You only would have exposed yourself. You did everything you could.”
She hated how useless she’d felt in that moment. “I did nothing.”
“I believe that’s Ty’s point,” Nate replied and pushed his chair back. “All right. That’s all I need for now. Lucy, I’m going to ask for your blouse since it’s got some of the drink on it. Other than that, get some rest. I’m going to interview the bartender and the part of Foster’s family that’s still awake.”
Gemma stood up with a sigh. “Well, you’re going to be a terrible client.”
“I hope I won’t be a client for long,” she admitted. She wanted this whole thing cleared up.
Nate shook his head as he got to his feet. “I told her to stay the hell away from him, and she didn’t listen to me either. After what happened earlier this week, I thought she should wait until the Fosters checked out to start her job.”
“I wasn’t going to let him get her in a bad position.” Michael stared down at the table. “This is my fault. I should have escorted her.”
“You can’t follow me around. You had your own work to do. If I’d known he was in that suite, I would have sent a male server,” she replied.
“You know if they ask, I’m going to have to give up that tape, Lucy,” Nate explained.
“The tape?” Ty was on his feet.
“The security tapes at Trio.” Gemma stuffed her notepad into the sleek bag she carried. “I heard some of what the sister was saying before she went nighty-night. She was talking about how this was reprisal for what happened at Trio. We should talk about that.”
“It was nothing. He tried to make a move on me. I took care of it,” she explained.
“I was there,” Michael said. “I can promise you she didn’t do anything but protect herself. Any security tape will prove that. It’s a good thing.”
“Maybe the first encounter, but I’m worried she might have said something in the second encounter,” Nate began. “If I can’t solve this thing before the feds are called in, I’ll have to tell Zane to turn it over. If it was actual video tape, he could erase it or tape over it, but it’s in the cloud. There’s a footprint. There’s no sound on that tape, but Lucy’s face is clearly visible. They’ll bring in someone who can read lips. Did you say anything they can use against you?”
The room seemed to go cold.
She hadn’t told them. She’d promised Nate and then she’d kept the incident to herself because she didn’t want to disrupt the harmony they’d found.
“What do you mean second tape?” Michael’s voice had gone low.