Page 10 of For Better or for Ransom

It had to be written in a tasteful fashion and not show how they were exploiting the fact that Leonardo was surrounded by a whirlwind of media interest because of his disappearance—while still very much exploiting that media interest.

Sol reread her first draft one more time and sighed. She would not have predicted that morally gray situation when she was in college. Yet lately it looked as if her profession as a journalist was a mixture of balancing acts on the morally gray scale. She didn’t feel the same way about her profession as an author, but her about-to-be-self-published mystery novel was far from paying any bills.

Her cell phone rang and she was ready to send it straight to voicemail—unless it was Luke, her mother, or one of her good friends in the city calling—when she saw the name of her first ex-husband on the screen. She picked up.

“You saved me from a tedious reread,” she told Miquel in Catalan. “But I can’t talk for long because I’m on a very tight deadline.”

“So it was you the journalist who was interviewing Leonardo Pascual yesterday when he was kidnapped. I thought so,” he answered, also in Catalan.

“One: how do you know that there was a journalist interviewing him? Two: I wasn’t with him when he was kidnapped. I was with him hours before he went missing. Three: We don’t know that he was kidnapped, actually. And four: this is, of course, all off the record.” It had been a longtime belief of Sol Novo that you could never be too careful when talking to another journalist, and her first ex-husband happened to be one of those as well.

“I didn’t call you fishing for a scoop,” he said. She could almost picture him smiling, but did she believe him? “I called you to see if you were okay. Are you okay?”

Was she? “Now that you ask…not sure, to be honest.”

“Because someone was kidnapped only after you were with him?”

“We don’t know that he was kidnapped!” Sol protested but she knew that Leonardo’s disappearance and the note they’d found at his dressing room all seemed to indicate he had been, indeed, taken against his will by someone. “Whatever, he probably was. I keep thinking something could have happened to him even in the hotel where we did the interview. Maybe I should have seen something and helped him.”

“It’s not your responsibility, Sol.” As usual, Miquel’s easy-going manner and laid-back attitude managed to relax her. “Did you see anything?”

“Not really. We did the interview at the Wet Deck of the W. It’s the terrace by the pool with views of the sea,” Sol explained.

Miquel made a noise in recognition. There was nowhere chic or interesting in Barcelona he wasn’t aware of.

“And then Leonardo left in a hurry when we were done. I was still grabbing my phone, notebook, and everything else and he was already almost out of the door. I think I saw him talking to someone on his way out though,” she suddenly recalled.

“Who?”

She closed her eyes, trying to picture it again. “Not sure because I only saw them from behind. I assumed it was someone asking to take a selfie or for an autograph because of Leonardo’s manner. He was super polite, as usual, but I could see he was a bit bothered. He didn’t want to be late and he still needed to cross half the city by taxi.”

Why was it again that Sol was telling Miquel all of this? It was helping her process what had happened the previous day to voice out loud what she was just now remembering—and she’d been extremely clear that he couldn’t publish anything.

“Have you told the police?”

The question shook her. “I just remembered! I haven’t told anyone. And Luke is investigating the case!”

Miquel’s usual relaxed manner was tinged with something akin to extreme interest. “Is he now?”

“Yes, and that was also off the record.”

“I’m only asking because, of course, I care about you and your partner.”

She couldn’t hide her skepticism. “Of course.” She chuckled.

“But also because my ex is also investigating the case—from the police side.”

“Would this ex of yours be officer Mercè Roig by any chance?” She could totally see them together. Officer Roig was definitely Miquel’s type: driven, outspoken, and absolutely stunning.

“Same one. I was going to offer to introduce Luke to her. You know I keep excellent relationships with all my exes—” Miquel boasted.

Sol couldn’t refrain from saying: “And there are definitely a lot of exes.”

“Which is very handy because I know people everywhere,” he reasoned.

Sol admitted that was indeed a sound argument. Even if, with his knack for networking and being easy on the eyes, Miquel would have no problem getting to know people—one way or another.

“So you don’t need me to introduce you to Mercè, then?” he asked.