Page 7 of Targeted at Christmas

“You are, I’m afraid…” Cooper admitted, a catch to his voice. “Eckhart was being investigated by the Bureau for suspected public corruption.”

“Seriously?” Lexi’s lower lip hung down in disbelief.

“Yeah. He was accused of taking bribes in exchange for receiving preferential treatment from a building inspector.”

Lexi frowned. “And you think I tried to bribe him…?”

“Not saying that,” Cooper put out convincingly. “This is strictly routine as part of the investigation,” he insisted, even while knowing it went further than that.

Her features softened. “So, I barely knew Horace, apart from some brief chats here and there on what was expected in the process of performing his duties in order to get the necessary approvals along the way on projects I was involved with. I can assure you that everything was aboveboard. I never offered him any money whatsoever. It’s not the way I do business.”

Cooper saw nothing in her inflection or body language that made him question her honesty. But that didn’t mean she was totally innocent of any wrongdoing either.

“That’s good to hear,” he said of that last declaration. “I just need to know if Eckhart ever tried to solicit you for money in order to get any favors from him, relative to the job?”

“Absolutely not!” Lexi’s voice raised an octave. “If he had, I would have reported it to the authorities,” she insisted. “Our conversations were strictly professional—and often in the presence of developers that I worked for. If Horace was crooked, I had nothing to do with it. My reputation as an award-winning architect is extremely important to me. I would never do anything to jeopardize that by trying to cut corners against the interests of myself or my clients.”

Again, Cooper was given no reason to doubt her sincerity or integrity as an architect. Or, for that matter, a human being. But what about other architects who worked at the studio who may have had contact with Horace Eckhart?

Cooper fixed his gaze on her beautiful face and asked coolly, “Is there anyone else working here that I can ask about Eckhart?”

“No, not since my husband died two years ago,” Lexi answered somberly, the pain of her loss plainly evident in her voice. “I work alone as an architect and architectural consultant. Not even an assistant, though at times I feel as if I could surely use one.” She drew a breath. “If you’re wondering about the De La Garza Architects name of the company, it was the name we created when establishing it. It was easier to keep than change after Jonathan died.”

So she’s widowed, too, Cooper mused with surprise, given her age. But then, he wasn’t much older and forced to deal with the same thing in having to do for himself what he once had a marital partner to share the ups and downs with. This twist certainly seemed to make it that much less likely that Eckhart’s alleged public corruption involved Lexi De La Garza in any way.

“I’m sorry to hear about your husband,” Cooper told her, feeling her pain more than she knew.

Lexi nodded maudlinly. “It’s gotten easier over time—somewhat.”

“That’s good.” He sighed, thoughtful as he stood. “Well, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time.” He wanted to leave it there, but felt compelled to add for clarity, “As I said, it’s just routine work as we look for answers…”

“I understand.” She nodded, a tiny smile playing on her lips, then rose to her feet. Lexi peered at him and, wrinkling her dainty nose, asked pensively, “So, you think that Horace may have been killed related to bribery?”

“Still too soon to tell,” Cooper confessed. “All possibilities are on the table—including being a victim of a carjacking that happens more often than it should in Maricopa County, unfortunately.”

“Well, I hope you figure it all out,” she said. “Wouldn’t want Horace’s death to go unanswered, however it happened.”

“Neither would I,” he stressed to her. “We’ll get to the bottom of it—one way or the other.” In his mind, that meant continuing the investigation into public corruption and looking at the building inspector’s homicide as an added element, with direct ties or not. Cooper had a feeling that it was more likely the former than latter. But gazing at the appealing architect, he no longer saw her as being caught up in the middle of a bribery scheme, per se—though not ruling out that it still could have landed on her doorstep, if only by association.

Chapter Three

Lexi studied the FBI special agent after walking him to the door. Tall and solidly built with short dark hair, he had a triangle-shaped face, intriguing blue-gray eyes, a hawk nose and a chiseled chin. To say that he wasn’t extremely handsome, even sexy, would be an understatement. As such, no use in rebuffing what her own eyes could plainly see, no matter how tempting to do so. He was wearing a navy wool blazer over a crisp white cotton micro dobby shirt, dark brown wool trousers, and black monk-strap loafers.

He flashed her a crooked grin and passed Lexi his card. “Should anything surface in your line of work that may be relevant to our investigation, I’d appreciate if you gave me a call—day or night.”

She glanced at the card, which had his name, occupation, office number, cell phone number and email address. Looking up at him, Lexi responded, “Will do.”

Cooper met her eyes and seemed to want to say more, but refrained doing so. Instead, he nodded and walked off.

Lexi went back into the studio. Shamelessly, she found herself almost wishing he could have stayed a while longer and talked about anything other than his investigation, but knew this would be highly inappropriate. Wouldn’t it? Yes, it would be, she told herself adamantly, then softened her own stance somewhat, but still reached the same conclusion.

Probably not a good idea for a widow architect to be flirting—or even thinking about it—with an FBI agent who was likely married, seeing someone or otherwise spoken for and had no interest in stepping out of his lane at the Bureau.

Lexi’s thoughts wandered to Horace Eckhart and the surprising revelation that, prior to his death, he was under a federal investigation for bribery as a building inspector. Was he guilty? Though there had never been any overtures made to her, she couldn’t help but ponder if she had missed this in his character when they communicated with each other. And did this allegation play a factor in his murder?

If so, could Horace have been accepting bribes from any other architects or developers that she worked with? The notion was quite disturbing to Lexi, to say the least. She was sure, though, that if anything was there, Cooper Reid would uncover it.

I’ll just focus on my own life and total innocence, Lexi told herself as she went inside her workspace room, separate from her office. It was spacious with tall windows and a skylight, bringing in lots of sunlight. There were all the tricks of her trade for creating architectural drawings and sketches, detailed proposals, and basically anything her clients and potential clients needed in order to sell herself in getting their business.