by Robb, J. D.
The minute they hit the porch, Bella wiggled down to race inside. “Mine!”
Her little high-top sneaks sent out echoes and bounced with lights as she danced in the foyer.
Dingy beige walls showed off lighter squares, rectangles, ovals where art had hung, and the wood floor showed considerable wear and tear. But roomy, Eve figured, with its high ceilings and wide staircase.
Obviously thrilled, Bella grabbed Peabody’s hand to tug her along, jabbering all the while.
The living area focused on what looked to Eve like an ancient brick fireplace. Light poured in the trio of windows overlooking the dilapidated front yard.
Eve noted the dinge, the scars, while Peabody rhapsodized over the natural light, the wide-planked oak floors.
Hanging back a bit, Eve looked at Roarke. “You pointed them at this place?”
“She has good, solid bones, a fine history, and is exactly what they wanted.”
“They wanted old and decrepit?”
“They wanted old and character, some grounds, and that blank slate in or near their neighborhood. She’s far from decrepit. Neglected she is, but she’s a beauty who just needs some attention and imagination.”
Eve narrowed her eyes. “You were going to buy this place.”
“I was, yes. I had an offer ready to go when Mavis contacted me.” Then he smiled. “And it seemed to me this had come across my desk exactly for this reason. Fate, darling Eve.”
As Bella had with Peabody, he took her hand, pulled her along. “Come on, see the rest. Give her a chance.”
They caught up with Peabody, who was now touting the joys of the woodwork, the moldings, and a window seat in what she termed a perfect study.
Eve poked her head into a half bath, and its red-and-gold wallpaper had her stepping quickly out again.
They made their way through the main floor into a huge space where Mavis spread her arms.
“I love how open all this is, right? Kitchen, the family room, the dining room, and you can just see everything.”
Eve saw it, all right. A stunning display of ornate, dark cabinetry, acres of solid black counters, and weird, fussy lights hanging everywhere.
Plus, a lot more dinge.
“So iced having the double fireplace thing.”
“There’s a big pantry,” Leonardo put in, and hauled Bella up when she lifted her arms. “We’ll spend a lot of time in this space, I think.”
“After it’s Mavis and Leonardo–ized.” With a laugh, Mavis spread her arms again. “It’s ult ugly and mega sad. Roarke said it’s a—what is it?”
“Gut job,” he supplied.
“Gut job! We can donate the totally ugly cabinets, hit it with some color and freaking happy. We can hang in here and see Bella and Number Two wherever they are. And we have back stairs!”
She spun in a circle, then hurried toward them. “Let’s go up. Whoever thought I’d live in a house with two sets of stairs?”
Because the sheer joy overwhelmed even the dinge, the dust, the scars, Eve put aside her reservations.
Upstairs, the doors read black to Eve, but Peabody instantly went into rapture again about solid mahogany, stripping, refinishing.
Big rooms, Eve thought, and lots of light again. Which wasn’t so much of a bonus at the moment, as it highlighted lots of scary wallpaper.
Bella grabbed Eve’s hand, then Roarke’s.
“Das! Ork!” And raced into one of the rooms. “Mine!”
She chattered, danced. She seemed particularly pleased with a window seat, then the big closet, and finally tugged Roarke’s hand until he crouched down to her level.
She jabbered.
“Ah, I see. I’m sure you have it right. Yes, of course, that’s just the thing, isn’t it now?”
Clearly pleased, she hugged him, wiggled her butt, then raced off laughing.
“What the hell was she talking about?” Eve demanded.
“I haven’t a single clue, but she seemed firm on it.”
With a shake of her head, Eve walked to the big window. It overlooked the back—and a lot more overgrown yard, some sort of shed or garage.
With big shady trees, she thought, a wide patio.
“I get it. I get what she sees here—sort of anyway. And I get what she wants. What they want. But, Jesus, it’ll take months, maybe years to do all that.”
“Two to three months,” he corrected. “Most is just cosmetic.”
“Seriously?”
“She’s rock solid under the questionable decor and unhappy neglect.”
“You’d know.” She thought of the dilapidated farm in Nebraska he’d turned into a postcard on a bet.
Yes, he’d know.
“Okay, if she wants my nod on it, she’s got it. But something’s off. The dimensions. The west wall stops way before it should. You can see that from the outside, and that patio deal extends beyond where this house stops.”
“The main part of the house. You’ve a good eye.”
“I’d have to be blind not to see it. What’s the deal?”
“Mavis’s next reveal.”
They went out again where McNab was talking about updated electronics, house systems for security, entertainment, business. All in a language she knew no one understood but Roarke.
And he and Roarke went into geek speak as they walked downstairs again.
“I can convert the lower level into a studio,” Mavis said, “and Leonardo’s got the kick-ass attic space. But I really want to show you the bonus round. Out here. Roarke, what did you say we could do here?”
“Blow out this wall, install glass accordion doors to the patio.”
“That. So instead of this dink door, imagine that. And we can put a playhouse out there for Bella and Number Two, and have a garden. We can still walk to our favorite joints, and to parks and, well, everything.”
“To us,” Peabody said. “Because we’re going to miss having you in the same building.”
“Like nutso,” McNab agreed, and scooped Bella up. “Gotta have my Bellamina fix.”
“Nab,” she said with swoon-worthy love, and kissed him.
“We like hearing that, don’t we, honey bear?”
Leonardo opened another door off the patio. “We’re counting on hearing it.”
Another kitchen, not as big as the other, and this one so white it looked like a lab. White walls, floors, counters, cabinets.
It made up for the white with a dining and small lounging area with candy-pink walls.
“Need my sunshades,” McNab said, and winked at Bella.
“Gut job,” Mavis said.
“Not entirely. They’re good cabinets and laid out well. I’d paint them out,” Roarke suggested. “And tear up the white tile on the floor. If the hardwood doesn’t run under it, I’d install it, match what runs through the rest.”
“Tell them about it all,” Mavis requested, “while we do the tour. You do it better.”
“Well then, the owners—it’s been in the same family for four generations—converted this space to accommodate visiting friends and family, and then for parents who they wanted close—but not in the same space, so to speak.”
They walked through, paused at a sunny little room with a small fireplace flanked by built-ins—and dominated by floral wallpaper.
“The mother-in-law of the owner used this as a craft room.”
“It’s a good size for it,” Peabody commented. “Sunny, and plenty of storage.”
Mavis just beamed at her.
“And the living area, with more unfortunate wall coverings, and the fireplace—as throughout the house—converted from wood-burning. The basement area’s finished—floors, walls—though they used it primarily for storage. A full bath down there, and potentially another bedroom. There are three upstairs, and two full baths with the master and a Jack-and-Jill for the other two.”
“The woodwork’s amazing. I’m so glad they didn’t paint it. The high ceilings, the oak floors.” Peabody sighed. “Are
you going to tear down the walls, open it up to the main?”
“Too much house for us,” Leonardo said.
“Rent it out.” McNab nodded. “You could close off the back door if you didn’t want tenants back in your yard. You got that private entrance there on the side.”
“Yeah, it’s nice the way the entrance faces the side. You’d get morning light in here. Do the fixes,” Peabody said, “and you’d rent it out in a heartbeat. This neighborhood, all this room.”
“You gotta get Dallas to do a run on any potentials though.” McNab wandered the room. “You’re really private back here. You want the right tenants, and the security we already talked about.”
“We already picked the tenants.” Still beaming, Mavis cuddled next to Leonardo, who had Bella back on his hips. “You guys.”
McNab turned slowly, and Peabody just blinked.
“Some cops you are,” Eve muttered. “You didn’t see that coming?”
Peabody found her voice. “Oh, listen, this is beyond mag of both of you, but we are cops. We’re cops and can’t afford the rent on a place like this.”
“You could if it’s what you’re paying now.”
Peabody immediately shook her head. “Mavis—”
“Shut up. You, too,” Eve ordered McNab. “Shut up and hear her out.”
“I knew you’d get it.” Tears welled again as Mavis threw herself at Eve. Tears fell again as she drew back. “Sorry, sorry. I can’t. Leonardo, you tell them.”
“These are my girls,” he said. “The most precious things in my life. And I’m going to have another precious thing come into my life. How could I risk them? You said it yourself. It’s private here, and we’d need to do background checks, and even then … It’s not the same as apartment living. We don’t want someone we don’t know living here with us, sharing the yard with us. We need friends. Someone we know, without question, Bella and the baby will be safe with.”
“You’re cops,” Mavis managed. “What’s safer than living beside cops? And we love you.”
As if hitting a cue, Bella threw out her arms to Peabody.
“But it’s—”
“Don’t be stupid.” Eve spoke flatly. “Because I’m going to tell them, flat out, they don’t rent to anyone they don’t know. Not here, behind a gate, when they’re fricking celebrities with a kid and another coming. It’s you or it goes empty, which is stupid. This is the perfect solution for everybody.”
Tears still raining, Mavis hurled herself into Eve’s arms again. Eve just rolled her eyes, and patted Mavis on the back.
She watched Peabody and McNab exchange looks, could interpret the nonverbal conversation between them. Especially when tears spilled from Peabody.
“Please, for God’s sake, say yes before we drown in here.”
“Peas,” Bella said, and stroked Peabody’s damp cheek.
“We’d love to be your tenants.”
To Eve’s relief, Mavis launched herself at Peabody. Somewhere in the hug, they both began to bounce, and Bella to laugh like a maniac.
“Great, that’s settled. Now I have to get to work.”
“Don’t you want to see the rest?”
Eve shook her head at Mavis. “I’ve seen enough. I don’t know how or why, but this place is perfect for the five … five-point-whatever of you,” she corrected with a gesture toward Mavis. “Roarke says it’s rock solid, so it is. He says you can fix it up in a couple or three months, so you can. Between him and McNab, you’ll have the best security there is.”
Mavis wiped at her eyes. “I’ve got a bottle of champagne, for everybody but me, Bella, and point-whatever.”
“Pop it, enjoy it. We’ll come back for another bottle once you exorcise the demon walls. So … congratulations all around. Sincerely.”
She got out before more tears flooded. Roarke took her hand, kissed it as they walked around to her car.
“Well done, Lieutenant. And when did you cop to the big reveal?”
“The minute we walked into that science lab of a kitchen. Attached rental space, Mavis and Leonardo beaming with Peabody mooning over tiara moldings.”
“Crown moldings.”
“Whatever.” She turned for a last look. “It really will work for all of them.” When they got into the car, she looked at him. “And when did you have the idea of Peabody and McNab as tenants?”
“As soon as Mavis and Leonardo fell in love with the place. But I didn’t suggest it, and they both came up with it immediately themselves. As you said, a perfect solution.”
She settled back, started to reach for her PPC. Stopped herself. “I’m sorry I had to break up the moment.”
“We all had the moment. Now they can bask in it together. But instead of doing whatever’s next on your cop list, why don’t you take this time to catch me up so I can help if need be.”
“I’ve already earmarked money stuff for you to look at.”
“And there we are. A perfect solution for us as well.”
It kind of was, she thought.
She spent the time he drove uptown catching him up on murder.
7
“I do know Merit Caine and his family a bit. I don’t know the Huffmans, but know of them.” Roarke considered as he wound through traffic. “I recall seeing the engagement announcement, and hearing a bit of this, a bit of that.”
“I’d like to hear the bits.”
“I’ll say it’s an open secret the Huffmans—the elder Huffmans—have an association with Natural Order, so some of the bits came from surprise Merit would align himself with that family.”
“Money often speaks to money.” She shrugged. “But my impression was he’s in love with her. So that trumps the parents. What do you know about the parents—the Huffmans?”
“They’re respected for their medical skills, from what I know, and, of course, for their wealth and position. But liked is a different matter. Where, again, from what I know, the Caines are both respected and liked well enough. Then again, from what I recall, the daughter’s quite beautiful.”
“Yeah, she’s got the looks. And she’s a manipulator, a bone-deep liar.”
He glanced over. “A murderer?”
“She’s involved, one way or the other.”
“In that case, I expect the Caines will take a big step back from her, and this.”
“Including the fiancé?”
Roarke braked at a light. “I have to go by my impression of him.”
“That’s good enough for me.”
On the green, he drove on. “If Merit was unaware she was having an affair—male or female doesn’t matter, it’s the affair at the bottom—he doesn’t strike me as the type to say bygones.”
“Don’t know why he would.”
“Added to it, she pulled him right into it, didn’t she, by calling him in as her legal rep, and lying to him.”
Eve shifted to face him. “So you agree she lied to him, spun the same story she spun, initially, to me.”
“Ah well, my impression again. No one knows, precisely, what goes on inside a relationship except those inside it, but my take is yes, she lied to him, has been lying to him. Using him, basically, as her beard. He wouldn’t take kindly.”
“Agreed. But there’s more.”
Roarke nodded along as she outlined the terms of the trust.
“Ah, well then, now you have it. She needs to marry to get the money, and with the Natural Order angle, she has to marry a man, a white male. Better yet if she conceives a child with him in wedlock. That sews it closed for her.”
“Right? She does that, she can walk away with everything she believes she’s entitled to. Caine would have served his purpose. I’d like you to look into the trust, make sure of the details—and what kind of money we’re talking about.”
“An entertaining way for me to spend the evening. Will you spend yours trying to suss out how the lovely lying Gwen managed to be in two places at once?”
“I’ve backed off from her doing the
dirty work personally. But she admits tossing her ’link, buying a new one. She could have contacted someone who’d do it for her. Meet up, give said unknown subject the key card, then gone into her apartment.”
“The hard edges of the order believe they’re doing the righteous by harming or eliminating those who fall outside their lines.”
“So she’s …” Eve worked up a teary voice. “ ‘I thought she was my friend! Then she assaulted me, tried to … I can’t even say! When I refused her, when I fought her off, she said she’d tell Merit, tell everyone we’d been together. We’ve been intimate. Please help me. Please don’t let her do this.’ ”
Roarke glanced at Eve as he turned and drove through the gates. “Well done, Lieutenant. Just the right amount of horror and desperation.”
“She’s a stone-cold bitch. Normally, I admire that. But she’s the kind of stone-cold bitch who uses people, then discards them.”
“Like the young, yet-to-be-Officer Shelby.”
“Yeah, like Shelby. And there will be others between her and my victim. I’ll find them.”
“I’ve no doubt.”
The last burst of the spring day struck the stone and glass of the house with a fiery flash of light. It flamed in the windows, struck the towers and turrets like torches.
“It hits me, six years ago—just a handy number—Mavis was doing some gigs at the Blue Squirrel and waiting tables there to pay the rent on an efficiency apartment about the size of the master closet in that place downtown. I was sleeping in a bigger apartment, sure, but not really living there. I mostly lived at Central.
“Now I’m living in a freaking castle, and she’s going to be living in a big-ass brick house.”
“Life can have some happy turns.”
“Yeah, for some of us. Not for Ariel Byrd.”
They got out of either side, met around the hood. “Think of this,” he suggested. “Gwen Huffman isn’t having a happy turn, either.”
“Good thought.”
They went in together where Summerset waited in the grand foyer with the fat cat at his feet.
“As you’re both late, but unbloodied, I assume you toured Mavis’s new home.”
“He gets to know?” Eve jabbed a finger as the cat trotted over to rub her legs. “Bag of bones gets to know, but I don’t?”