by J. D. Robb
“Especially female people,” he muttered, still brooding.
“Yeah. French’s parents divorced about eight years back. He’s Harry D. French, currently living in the Bronx with his second wife. You got time to snip off that thread and take a look at his data? If it was a professional hit, maybe it was payback to him for something.”
“I’ll run him now. The mother?”
“Sherry Tides French. I ran her last night. Manages a damn candy store at the Newark Transpo Center. Whistle clean. I can’t see it coming down through her.”
She tossed him back his nuts, rose, and plucked her jacket from its hook. “Since you’ve got McNab, how about having him run the wire? Let’s see if we can find out where he buys it. The lab analysis should be coming through before midday.”
“Yeah, I’ll put him on it, keep him busy. Keep his mind out of his pants.”
“There you go.” Eve shrugged into her jacket and headed out.
Eve’s first stop was the hotel manager. She requested disc copies of guest records, records of current hotel personnel, and any employee who’d been terminated or had quit in the past year.
Before she could begin her song and dance about aiding the police in a homicide investigation, the possibility of a warrant, she was handed a sealed file containing everything she’d asked for.
She was told that the staff had been instructed by Roarke to give her full cooperation and any data she requested.
“That was easy,” Peabody commented as they took the elevator to the forty-sixth floor.
“Yeah, he’s been busy.” Eve tapped the file on her open hand, then passed the file to Peabody.
She uncoded the police seal on the door, stepped in.
“How do you pass a few hours in a hotel while you’re waiting to kill someone? Enjoy the view, watch a little screen, have some dinner. He doesn’t make or receive any transmission from the room link or fax or computer. Maybe he does on his personal,” she mused, wandering the parlor. “Checks in, verifies he’s here.”
She turned into the kitchen, studied the counter, grimy now with the sweepers’ dust. In the sink was a neat stack of dishes.
“He uses the AutoChef at six. Plenty of time before turndown. A good hour before the earliest start. Probably he knows the routine, that this particular room gets done around eight most nights. He’d have checked the hotel events calendar, so he’d know a big deal party’s going on, a convention’s coming in, another’s midswing. Hotel’s near capacity, so housekeeping’s not going to come by early. Hey, let’s have a steak.”
She moved closer to the sink. “He probably ate in front of the screen, on the sofa, or at the dining table. You wouldn’t waste a hotshot place like this by eating standing up in the kitchen. Then he has dessert and coffee, pats his belly. He brings his dishes into the kitchen, puts them tidily into the sink. He’s used to taking care of himself, picking up for himself. Doesn’t like messy dishes in view.”
She looked at the way the knife and fork were lined up beside the plate, how the dessert plate, the cup, and saucer were stacked on top. A little pyramid.
“He probably lives alone. Might not even go for a server droid. He doesn’t live in hotels, not all the time. You live with maids around, you don’t clear your plates from the table.”
Peabody nodded. “I noticed something last night. Forgot to mention it.”
“What?”
“You know all the goodies hotels like this have for guests. The bathroom stuff—fancy soaps and shampoos, creams, bath bubbles? He took them.” She smiled at Eve’s speculative look. “Lots of people do, but most of them aren’t waiting to kill somebody, or haven’t just finished killing somebody.”
“Good eye. So he’s either frugal or he likes souvenirs. How about towels, the robes, those little slippers they put beside the bed at night?”
“They put slippers beside the bed at night? I’ve never stayed in a place that—the robes are there,” she finished, catching herself before Eve could. “Two of them, bedroom closet, unused. I don’t know how many towels you get in a place like this, but there’s enough for a family of six in the bathroom. They’re unused, too.”
“He’d have used towels prior to turndown. A shower after his traveling day maybe.” She started toward the bedroom as she spoke. “And a good boy who clears the table would certainly wash his hands after he pees. He didn’t hold his bladder for five hours plus.”
She paused at the parlor bath, a smaller version of the master with a blue glass shower stall, snowy white towels, and a gleaming john discreetly tucked behind blue glass doors. “Bath amenities are gone from here, too.”
“I didn’t catch that before. He cleaned the place out.”
“Why spend money on soap and shampoo if you can get it free? Particularly when it’s top-of-the-line stuff.” She continued to the bedroom, scanning briefly before she walked into the bath.
This one was huge, with a pond-sized tub, a separate shower offering six jets at adjustable heights and speeds, and a drying tube. She’d spent time in a Roarke hotel before, and knew that the mile-long counter would have been artfully decorated with fancy bottles of creams and lotions. This one was bare.
Frowning, she walked over to the brass rack that held three thick and monogrammed hand towels. “He used this one. Let’s have a bag.”
“How do you know he used it?”
“The monogram’s not centered like the others. He used it. Washed up after he’d finished with her, dried his hands, then, tidy guy that he is, hung it back up. She must’ve come in, walked straight in here to take the used towels, put in fresh. He’s somewhere waiting for her, getting a look at her, figuring.
“Maybe the closet,” she said. “She starts to walk through again, carrying the used towels, probably dumps them on the floor. She turns down the bed, doing her job, making it nice for the guests. Then he’s on her. Snatches her beeper before she can press an alarm, tosses it over there where we found it.”
The rest was done on the bed, Eve thought.
“He didn’t give her time to try to run. There’s no sign in the suite of a struggle, not that she could have managed much of one against a guy his size. The bed linens got soiled and tangled, but nothing else. Everything else is orderly, so he got her there, did it all there. To music.”
“That’s the creepy part,” Peabody murmured. “The rest of it’s nasty, but the music part’s creepy.”
“When he’s done with her, he checks the time. Hey, didn’t take so long. He washes his hands, probably tsk-tsks about the little scratches she managed to dig into him, changes his clothes, packs up, scooping his amenities into his case. Then the son of a bitch picks up the towels she dropped and carries them out to her cart. Not going to change the sheets, of course, but we don’t want to leave more of a mess than necessary.”
“That’s cold.”
“Oh yeah, it’s cold. An easy job. In and out of a plush hotel in a matter of hours, a good meal, a fresh supply of bath products and a big, fat fee. I can figure him, Peabody. I can figure him, but I can’t figure who pointed him here, or why.”
She stood silent a moment, bringing the image of Darlene French into her mind. And as she did, she heard the sound of the hall door opening. With one hand on her weapon, she signaled Peabody to the side with the other. She moved down the hall quickly, quietly, swung around the corner, weapon in hand.
“Damn it, Roarke! Damn it!” Disgusted, she shoved the weapon back in her holster as he shut the door. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for you.”
“This room is sealed. It’s a crime scene and sealed.”
The seal, she imagined, would have taken him less time to uncode with his clever fingers than it had for her to do so with her master.
“Which is why, when informed you were on the premises, it was the first place I looked. Hello, Peabody.”
“What do you want?” Eve snapped before her aide could answer. “I’m working.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that. I assumed you’d want to follow through on some of the interviews you mentioned last night. Barry Collins is at home, but his supervisor’s available at your convenience, as is another maid, Sheila Walker, who was a particular friend of the victim’s. She came in to clear out Darlene’s locker for the family.”
“She can’t touch—”
“And so I told her. Not until you clear it. But I’ve asked her to wait so that you can speak to her.”
She sizzled, sparked, then cooled down to smolder. “I could tell you I don’t need any help setting up interviews.”
“You could,” he agreed, so pleasantly she didn’t know whether to snarl or laugh.
“But, you saved me some time, so thanks. I will say I don’t want you, or anyone else in this room again until I’ve cleared it.”
“Understood. When you’re done you can reach me at zero-zero-one on any ’link.”
“We’re done, for now. Let’s start with Sheila Walker.”
“I have an office set up for you on the meeting room level.”
“No, let me talk to her and the other one on their turf. Let’s keep it informal, keep them comfortable.”
“Whatever you prefer. She’s in the domestic employees’ lounge. I’ll show you.”
“Fine. You might as well hang around, too,” Eve said as she walked through the door he opened. “You’ll make her feel protected.”
Less than three minutes into the interview, Eve saw she’d called it right. Sheila was a tall, thin black girl with enormous eyes. More times than Eve could count she looked toward Roarke for reassurance, direction, and comfort.
She had a beautiful accent, like island music, but between it and the muffled tears, Eve began to feel a headache brewing.
“She was so sweet. That girl was so sweet. You never heard a bad word out of her mouth about anybody. Had a sunny disposition. Usually, if a guest got to see her or talk to her when she was cleaning, they’d give her a big tip. ’Cause she made them feel good. Now, I’ll never see her again.”
“I know it’s hard, Sheila, to lose a friend. Could you tell if there was anything on her mind, any worry?”
“Oh no, she was happy. In two days, we have off, and the two of us, we were going shopping for shoes. That girl, she loved to shop for shoes. Right before we went for turndowns we were saying how we’d go early and get ourselves one of those free makeovers at the beauty counter at the Sky Mall.”
Her thin, exotic face crumpled. “Oh, Mr. Roarke, sir!”
At the fresh bout of weeping, he merely took her hand, held it.
Eve picked away for another half hour, and took away scattered pieces that formed an image of a carefree, cheerful young woman who liked to shop, go dancing, and was having her first serious love affair.
She’d had a regular breakfast date with her boyfriend every morning after shift. They ate in the employee lounge, except on payday, when they splurged on a meal in a coffee shop a few blocks away. Routinely, he walked her to her transpo station, waved her off.
But they’d been making tentative noises about getting a small apartment together, maybe in the fall.
She’d said nothing to her best friend, as Sheila claimed to be, about seeing, hearing, or finding anything unusual or concerning. And had wheeled away her cart that last evening with a smile on her face.
The bell captain, who she interviewed in a lounge for the bellstaff, gave her a similarly rosy picture of Barry. Young, eager, cheerful, and starry-eyed over a dark-haired housekeeper named Darlene.
He’d gotten a raise only the month before, and had shown anyone he could collar the little gold heart necklace he’d bought for his girl, for their six-month anniversary.
Eve remembered Darlene had been wearing just such a necklace, playing with it, as she’d waited to enter 4602.
“Peabody, girl question,” she said as she walked between her aide and Roarke across the lobby.
“I’m quite a girl.”
“Right. You have a fight with your boyfriend, or you’re having second thoughts about the whole deal, anything like that, do you wear a present he’s given you?”
“Absolutely not. If it’s a big fight, you toss it back in his face. If you’re considering dumping him, you shed a few tears over it, then stick it in a drawer until you work up to the break off. If it’s a minor spat, you tuck it away until you see how things are going to shake down. You only wear something he’s given you, at least in plain sight, when you want to show him and everybody else that he’s your guy.”
“How do you keep the rules straight? It’s boggling. But that’s sort of what I figured. Hey.”
She slapped at Roarke’s hand as he tugged the chain around her neck and popped the tear-shaped diamond he’d once given her from under her shirt.
“Just checking. Apparently, I’m still your guy.”
“It wasn’t in plain sight,” she said with some satisfaction.
“Close enough.”
And catching the gleam in his eye, she narrowed her own. “You try kissing me out here, and I’m going to knock you down. Let’s go talk to Barry anyway, Peabody,” she said, sliding the pendant under her shirt again. “Close off this angle. You,” she continued, tapping a finger on Roarke’s chest, “I need to talk to sometime later about the whole media business.”
“I’ll be at your disposal. Nothing I like better.”
The smile he gave her faded, his eyes sharpened as he heard a voice softly crooning a verse of an old Irish ballad.
Before he could turn, an arm snaked around his neck, locked. He’d have countered, was shifting his weight to do so, when the laugh sounded in his ear, and sent him back, all the way back to the alleyways of Dublin.
Then his back was hard up against the wall, and he was looking into the laughing eyes of a dead man.
“Not as quick as once you were, are you now, mate?”
“Maybe not.” In a lightning move, Eve had her weapon out and pressed to the man’s throat. “But I am. Step back, asshole, or you’re dead.”
“Too late,” Roarke murmured. “He already is. Mick Connelly, why aren’t you in hell, and holding my place?”
Cheerfully ignoring the laser at his throat, Mick cackled. “Ah, you can’t kill the devil, can you, till he’s ready to go? Aren’t you a sight, you bastard. Aren’t you?”
And Eve watched, baffled, as the two of them grinned like morons.
“Easy, darling.” Roarke lifted a hand, gently nudged Eve’s, and her weapon, down. “This ugly son of a bitch is in the way of being an old friend.”
“That I am. And isn’t it just like you to hire yourself a female bodyguard?”
“Cop.” Roarke’s grin spread.
“Well, Jay-sus.” Chuckling, Mick stepped back, tapped Roarke playfully on the cheek. “You never used to be quite so chummy with a badge.”
“I’m very chummy with this one. She’s my wife.”
Staring, Mick clutched his heart. “She needn’t bother dropping me. I’m dying of the shock. I’d heard—oh, one hears all manner of things about Roarke. But I never believed it.”
He bowed, rather charmingly, while Eve secured her weapon, then took her hand and kissed it before she could avoid it. “It’s pleased I am to meet you, missus, pleased as I can be. Michael Connelly’s my name, and Mick to my friends, which I hope you’ll be. Your man here and I were lads together long ago. Very bad lads we were, too.”
“Dallas. Lieutenant Dallas.” But she warmed a bit because his eyes, green as summer leaves, were twinkling with such good humor. “Eve.”
“You’ll forgive the . . . exuberance of my greeting my old mate here, but the excitement got the better of me.”
“It’s his neck. I have to go,” she said to Roarke, but held out a hand, in a manner that demanded a shake rather than a kiss on the knuckles. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise for certain. And hope to see you again.”
“Sure. Later,” she said to Roarke, then signale
d an avidly watching Peabody toward the door.
Mick watched her stride off. “She’s not sure of me, is she, boyo? And why should she be? Christ, it’s good to lay eyes on you, Roarke.”
“And you. What are you doing in New York, and in my hotel?”
“Business. Always a little business. In fact, I’d hoped to run you to ground to discuss it with you. Deal and wheel, wheel and deal.” He winked. “Have you any time for an old friend?”
chapter four
He looked damn good for a dead man. Mick Connelly wore a petal-green suit. Roarke remembered he’d always been one for color and flash. The cut and drape disguised most of the heft he’d added in the last years.
None of them had had any heft to speak of in their youth, as varying types of hunger had kept them bone lean.
His sand-colored hair was cut short and sharp around a face that had, like his body, filled out with age. He’d had the front teeth that had bucked out like a beaver’s fixed somewhere along the way. He’d lost the pitiful excuse for a mustache he’d insisted on sporting, and had never come in at more than a smudge over his top lip.
But he still sported the Irish pug nose, the fast, crooked grin, and eyes of wicked and dancing green.
No one would have called him handsome as a boy. He’d been short and skinny and covered from top to bottom with ginger-colored freckles. But he’d had quick hands, and a quicker tongue. His voice was pure south Dublin, tough music suitable for choreographing flying fists.
When he stepped into Roarke’s office in the old and elegant main house of the hotel, he planted his hands on his hips and grinned like a gargoyle. “So, you’ve done for yourself, haven’t you, mate? I’d heard, of course, but seeing’s a kick in the arse.”
“Seeing you’s the same.” Roarke’s voice was warm, but he’d had time to recover from that instant of surprise and pleasure. A part of him held back, calculating what this ghost from the dead past might want of him. “Have a seat, Mick, and catch me up.”