by J. D. Robb
“They were . . . extraordinary. My mother’s twin, Sinead, she opened her home to me. Just like that.”
“Well, West County folks, they’re known for their hospitality, aren’t they?”
“I’m still baffled, and grateful. I’m grateful to you, Ms. O’Bannion, for telling me. I wanted you to know that.”
“She’d have been pleased, don’t you think? Not only that you know, but that you’ve taken these steps. I think she’d be very pleased.” She set her coffee aside, opened her purse. “You didn’t take this when you were in my office before. Will you have it now?”
He took the photograph of a young woman with red hair and pretty green eyes holding the dark-haired little boy. “Thank you. I’d very much like to have it.”
A guy in a white suit sang about love being quiet and tricky. Eve sipped champagne and had to agree. At least about the tricky part. Why else was she struggling to take her mind off murder and pretending to do something more than taking up space in a Philadelphia ballroom?
God knew love—and she would kick Roarke’s ass later for deserting her—was the only reason she was standing here while some woman in lavender silk rambled on and on and on about fashion designers.
Yes, yes, yes, she knew Leonardo personally. Jesus, he was married to her oldest friend. And she could’ve used a good dose of Mavis at the moment. Yes, for God’s sake, he’d designed the dress she was wearing.
So the fuck what? It was clothes. You put them on and you weren’t naked or cold.
Love obliged her to edit her thoughts so her part of the conversation—when she could shove a word through the wall of noise the woman built around her—went something like: Yes.
“Ah, there’s the most striking woman in the room. Excuse us, won’t you?” Charles Monroe, smooth and handsome, beamed a smile at Eve’s tormentor. “I simply have to steal her.”
“Kill me,” Eve muttered as Charles drew her clear. “Take my weapon out of my bag, press it to the pulse in my throat, and fire. End my torment.”
He only laughed and swung her to the dance floor. “When I spotted you I thought you might be on the point of drawing that weapon and blasting the woman between the eyes.”
“I imagined ramming it into her mouth. It was never shut anyway.” She gave a quick shudder. “Anyway, thanks for the rescue. I didn’t know you were here.”
“Running a bit late, only just arrived.”
“Working?” Charles was a top-level LC.
“I’m with Louise.”
“Oh.” And because he was a man who made his living selling himself, Eve couldn’t quite figure how he and the dedicated Dr. Louise Dimatto developed, and maintained, a relationship.
Took all kinds, she reminded herself.
“I was going to get in touch with you,” he continued. “About Jacie Wooton.”
The cop shifted back to the forefront. “You knew her?”
“I used to. Not well, really. I don’t think anyone knew Jacie well. But we ran in similar circles, so we’d bump into each other now and then. Or did, before she got busted.”
“Let’s find a corner somewhere.”
“I don’t know that this is the time—”
“Works for me.” Taking charge, she pulled him from the dance floor, scanning the little packs of people, the tables, and decided to take it outside.
There was a terrace festooned with flowers, scattered with more tables, more people. But it was quieter.
“Tell me what you know.”
“Next to nothing.” He wandered to the edge of the terrace, looked out over the lights of the city. “She was well-established before I got into the life. She liked everything top drawer. The best clothes, the best venues, the best clients.”
“The best dealer, then?”
“I don’t know about her dealer. I don’t,” he insisted. “I’m not going to claim I don’t know anything about that end of the business, but I stay clean. Spotless now that I’m dating a doctor,” he added with a smile. “Jacie’s busts took everybody by surprise. If she was an addict, she hid it well. If I knew anything, Dallas, I’d tell you. No hesitation, no bullshit. As far as I know she didn’t have friends. Not real friends. Or enemies. She was the job.”
“Okay.” She started to slip her hands into her pockets, remembered the little copper-colored number didn’t have any. “If something occurs to you, however small or remote, I want to hear about it.”
“That’s a promise. It’s shaken me, the way it happened, the rumors I’m hearing. Louise is worried.” He glanced back toward the terrace doors. “She hasn’t said anything, specifically, but she’s worried. When you love someone you can tell when they’re carrying stress.”
“Yeah, I guess so. You’re going to want to be careful, Charles. You don’t fit the vic profile on this, but you’re going to want to be careful.”
“Always,” he replied.
She didn’t say anything to Roarke about the conversation on the shuttle ride home. But she turned it over in her mind, replayed it, considered it.
When they were back in their bedroom and she was shimmying out of the tiny dress, she ran it by him.
“Doesn’t sound like he’ll be much of a source on this,” Roarke commented.
“No, but that’s not what I’m thinking about. After we went back in, I watched him and Louise together. They’re practically like turtledoves or something. You know they’re going to roll around naked tonight.”
“Naked turtledoves. No, not an attractive visual. Let me think of another.”
“Ha-ha. What I’m saying is how can she roll naked with him tonight knowing he’s going to be doing the same deal with however many clients are on his book tomorrow?”
“Because it’s not the same.” He flipped down the bedspread. “One’s personal, one’s professional. It’s his job.”
“Oh, that’s just bullshit. That’s just a bullshit rationalization. And if it’s not, can you stand there and tell me if I was a sex pro, you’d be perfectly fine, just iced with me riding some other guy’s stick?”
“You have such a way with words.” He looked at her, standing with the glittery dress in one hand. She wore nothing but a matching triangle over her crotch, too small to be called panties, a triple chain of multicolored stones she’d yet to remove, and high, backless heels.
And an annoyed scowl.
“No, I wouldn’t be fine with it, or iced, or anything remotely like it. But then I don’t share. Christ, you look sexy. Why don’t you come over here and we’ll roll around, naked as turtledoves?”
“We’re having a conversation.”
“You are,” he corrected, as he stepped off the bed platform and toward her.
“And speaking of conversations . . .” She evaded, nipping neatly behind the sofa. “I still have to beat you brainless for leaving me with that woman, the one who looked like a skinny purple tree.”
“I was unavoidably detained.”
“My ass.”
“Oh, darling Eve, I’m thinking very fondly of your ass.” He feinted, she countered. And they circled the sofa. “Better run,” he said softly.
And with a quick whoop, she did. When they were both breathless, she let him catch her.
She had nothing. No breaks, no fresh leads, no old ones that looked promising. She juggled her list of suspects and possibles, looked for openings. She recanvassed the area around the crime scene, studied lab reports.
She ran the elements through IRCCA, searching for similar crimes, and found one in London more than a year before that could fit. Still open. It wasn’t exact, she mused. Messier, sloppier.
Practice session?
There was no note on elegant stationery, just the mutilated body of a young LC. Not the same type as Wooton, Eve acknowledged, and wondered if she was grasping at straws.
There were plenty of slice-and-dice, a number of LCs, especially on street level, who’d been assaulted, even killed, by clients or would-be clients. But nothing that matched the ba
rbaric elegance of Jack.
She spoke with neighbors, coworkers, associates of those on her possible list, keeping the interviews informal and discreet. Pushing, poking for that crack. But nothing broke.
She faced her Sunday off with annoyance and irritability. Hardly a picnic of a mood. Her only hope of getting through it, Eve decided, was to get Mira in some quiet spot and pick her brain.
“Maybe you should give her brain, and your own, a day off.”
She frowned over at Roarke as they crossed the sidewalk to Mira’s pretty house, set in her pretty neighborhood. “What?”
“You’re muttering out loud.” He patted her shoulder supportively. “I don’t know as talking to yourself when knocking on the door of a shrink is the best of behaviors.”
“We’re only staying a couple of hours. Remember? We agreed on that.”
“Mmm.” With this noncommittal sound, he pressed his lips to her forehead. And the door opened.
“Hello. You must be Eve and Roarke. I’m Gillian, Charlotte and Dennis’s daughter.”
It took her a beat as she rarely thought of Mira by her given name. But Mira was stamped, clearly, on her daughter’s face.
Though her hair was longer, well past her shoulders and curling, it was the same rich sable. Her eyes were the same mild and patient blue, but they were homed in on Eve’s, looking deep. Her frame was longer, lankier like her father’s, and she’d draped it in some loose, airy top and pants that stopped inches short of her ankles.
One of those ankles carried a tattoo, a trio of connecting chevrons. Bracelets jangled on her wrists, rings jingled on her fingers. Her feet were bare with the toes painted a pale pink.
She was Wiccan, Eve recalled, and responsible for a couple of Mira’s grandchildren.
“It’s lovely to meet you.” Roarke was already taking Gillian’s hand, and smoothly stepping between two women who were obviously taking each other’s measure. “You favor your mother, who I’ve always considered one of the world’s loveliest of women.”
“Thanks. Mom said you were very charming. Please come in. We’re spread out”—she glanced back to where a baby’s strong wails poured down the stairs—“as you can hear, but most of us are in the back. We’ll fix you a drink, so you’ll be braced for the onslaught of a day at the Miras.”
There were a considerable number of them there already, gathered in the kitchen/activity room that was as big as a barn, and nearly as noisy. Through the two-story glass wall of the back, others could be seen on a wide patio decked with chairs and tables and some sort of large, outdoor cooking device that was already smoking.
She could see Dennis, Mira’s delightful and absent-minded husband, manning it with a long fork of some kind. He had a Mets cap over his explosion of gray hair, and baggy shorts nearly down to a pair of knobby knees Eve found secretly adorable.
Another man was with him, his son maybe, and they seemed to be holding an intense and spirited debate with a lot of laughter and beer-swilling from bottles.
There were kids of various ages milling or running around. And a girl of about ten who sat on a stool at the big work counter, sulking.
Food was spread out all over, and urged on them while introductions were made. Someone pushed a margarita in her hand.
When he opted for beer, Roarke was told he’d find them outside in a cooler. A young boy—Eve was already losing the names as they came at her like grapeshot—was given the task of escorting Roarke out and introducing him to the rest.
With the boy’s hand clasped on his, Roarke looked over his shoulder, shot a wicked grin at Eve, and strolled outside.
“It looks chaotic now, but . . . it’ll get worse.” With a laugh, Mira took a bowl of yet more food out of an enormous refrigerator. “I’m so glad you came. Lana, stop pouting and run upstairs. See if your aunt Callie needs any help with the baby.”
“I don’t see why I have to do everything.” But the kid scooted down and away.
“She’s irritable because she broke the rules and can’t have screen or comp privileges for a week,” Gillian commented.
“Oh.”
“Her life, as she knows it,” Gillian said as she bent to pick up a toddler—sex undetermined for Eve—from the floor, “is over.”
“A week’s an endless stretch of time when you’re nine. Gilly, taste this coleslaw. I think it could use a bit of dill.”
Obediently, Gillian opened her mouth, accepted the bite her mother held out on a fork. “Bit more pepper, too.”
“So, um . . .” Eve already felt as if she’d entered a parallel universe. “You’re expecting a lot of people.”
“We are a lot of people,” Mira said, chuckling.
“Mom still thinks we all have the appetites of teenagers.” Gillian rubbed a hand absently over Mira’s back. “She always makes too much food.”
“Makes it? You made all this?”
“Hmm. I like to cook, when I can. Especially when it’s for family.” Her cheeks were pink with pleasure, her eyes laughing as she winked at her daughter. “And I drag the girls into helping out. It’s shamefully sexist, of course, but none of my men are worth two damns in the kitchen.” She glanced out the window wall. “Give them a big, complicated smoking grill, however, and they’re right at home.”
“All our men grill.” Gillian gave the toddler a little bounce on her hip. “Does Roarke?”
“You mean, like, food?” Eve looked out to where he stood, apparently enjoying himself, picnic casual in jeans and a faded blue T-shirt. “No. I don’t think he has one of those.”
There were soy dogs and burgers, the potato salad of Roarke’s fantasy, cold pasta, big chunks of fruit swimming in some sweetened juice, fat slices of tomatoes, the slaw, and deviled eggs. Bowls, platters, trays of those and more were shuffled around. The beer was cold and the margaritas kept coming.
She found herself in a conversation with one of Mira’s sons about baseball, and to her frozen shock had a small, blond child climb up her leg and into her lap.
“Want some,” he burbled at her and grinned with his ketchup-smeared mouth.
“What?” She looked around in mild panic. “What does he want some of?”
“Whatever you’ve got.” Mira patted the boy’s head as she passed by to take the baby from her daughter-in-law and cuddle it.
“Okay, here.” Eve offered her plate with the hope the boy would take it and go back about his business. But he just dipped his fat little fingers into her fruit salad and came out with a slice of peach.
“Like it.” He took a bite, then generously offered her the rest.
“No, you go ahead.”
“Off you go, Bryce.” Gillian hefted him off Eve’s lap and instantly became her new best friend. “See what Granddad’s got for you.”
Then she plopped down beside Eve, arched her eyebrows at her brother. “Go away,” she told him. “Girl talk.”
He ambled away, good-naturedly. Amiability, Eve thought, appeared to be a common trait for the men in this family. “You’re feeling overwhelmed and just a little out of place,” Gillian began.
Eve picked up what was left of her burger, bit in. “Is that an observation or the result of a psychic scan?”
“A little of both. And a little of being the daughter of two observant and sensitive people. Large family gatherings can be odd for those who don’t have one of their own. Your Roarke adjusts more seamlessly.” She glanced around to where he sat with Dennis and Bryce. “He’s more a social animal than you, and part of it’s from the work he does, part’s just his nature.”
Gillian took a forkful of pasta salad. “There are a couple of things I feel compelled to say to you. I hope you won’t be offended. I don’t mind offending people, but I prefer to do it deliberately, and this wouldn’t be deliberate.”
“I don’t bruise easy.”
“No, I don’t suppose you do.” She switched her food for her margarita. “Well, first, I have to say that your husband is, without question, the most ma
gnificent piece of work I’ve ever seen in real life.”
“I’m not offended by that, as long as you remember the mine part.”
“I don’t poach, and if I did—and there was anything left of me after you’d got done, he wouldn’t even notice. Added to that, I’m very much in love with my husband. We’ve been together a decade now. We were young, and it concerned my parents. But it was right for us.” She nibbled on a slice of carrot. “We have a good and satisfying life, three beautiful children. I’d like to have another.”
“Another what?”
Gillian laughed, turned back. “Another child. I’m hoping to be blessed with one more. But I’ve wandered from my purpose, and I doubt this group will give me much more time alone with you. I’ve been jealous of you.”
Eve’s eyes narrowed, flicked back in the direction where Roarke sat, then back when Gillian let out a low, almost purring laugh. “No, not because of him, though one could hardly be blamed there. Jealous of you and my mother.”
“You lost me.”
“She loves you,” Gillian said, and watched something like embarrassment pass over Eve’s face. “She respects you, worries about you, admires you, thinks of you. All the things she does for and about me. And this relationship, well, annoyed me on some primal level.”
“It’s not at all the same,” Eve started to say, and Gillian shook her head.
“It’s very much the same. I’m the daughter of her body, her heart and spirit. You’re not of her body, but you are, without question, of her heart and her spirit. I was of two minds when she told me you were invited today.”
She licked salt from the rim of her glass as she studied Eve. “The first was purely selfish—why is she coming? You’re my mother. The other was rampant curiosity. At last, I’ll get a good look at her.”
“I’m not in competition with you for Mira’s . . .”
“Affections?” Gillian finished with a little smile. “No, you’re not. And it was my flaw, my self-absorption that caused those unattractive and destructive feelings in me. She’s the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever known. Wise, compassionate, strong, smart, giving. I didn’t always appreciate it, you don’t when it’s yours. But as I’ve gotten older, had children of my own, I’ve come to treasure everything about her.”