Portrait in Death

by J. D. Robb

  “I gotta get back on.” Shirllee reached over, opened the bubble.

  “Me, too.” Steve looked up from the picture, met Eve’s gaze. “Did that help any?”

  “Maybe. Appreciate it. Let’s go, Peabody.”

  “But my curly fries just came through.”

  “Life’s full of hard knocks.”

  As Eve headed out, Peabody scooped the fries into a napkin.

  She comforted herself that food eaten on the run had no calories.

  When they stepped out, Eve reached over and snatched a fry. “No salt?” The first bite had her wrinkling her nose. “How can you eat these without salt?”

  “I didn’t have the chance for salt. Life’s full of hard knocks,” Peabody added in sober tones.

  They started at the top of the Portography list. As Eve interviewed potentials she gained an image of Hastings. He was a maniac, he was a genius, he was impossible, he was insane yet compelling—depending on who she spoke with.

  She caught one of his former assistants on a location shoot in Greenpeace Park.

  The models—one man, one woman—were hyping what Eve was told was active sportswear. To her, they looked as if they were preparing to take a long hike through the desert in the buff-colored skinny tops and shorts, the clunky boots and long-billed caps.

  Elsa Ramerez, a tiny woman with short, curly dark hair, tanned limbs, scooted around handing things to the photographer, signalling the rest of the crew, grabbing up bottled water or whatever other task was snapped out at her.

  Seeing her day going from too long to endless, Eve stepped forward, laid a hand on the photographer’s shoulder.

  The thickly built blonde was no Hastings, but she delivered an impressive snarl.

  “Take a break,” Eve advised and held up her badge.

  “We’ve got all the proper permits. Elsa!”

  “Good for you. I’m not here about your permits. Take a break, grab some shade. Otherwise, I can hang you up for twice as long in pretty red tape while I have my trusty aide verify all the permits. Elsa?” Eve crooked a finger. “With me.”

  “We’ve only got the location for another hour.” Elsa jogged over and was already dragging paperwork out of a satchel. “I’ve got everything right here.”

  “Save it. Tell me about Dirk Hastings.”

  Elsa’s sweaty face went stony. “I’m not paying for that window. He threw the bottle at me. Crazy son of a bitch. He can sue me, you can lock me up, but I’m not paying for the broken window.”

  “You worked for him in February. From . . .” Eve perused her notes. “. . . February fourth to February eighteenth.”

  “Yeah, and I should put in for combat pay.” She took a bottle out of the holster she wore on her hip, glugged. “I don’t mind hard work—hell, I like it. I don’t mind temperament, got one of my own. But life’s too short to deal with crazy people.”

  “Do you recognize this person?” She held out the image of Sulu.

  “No. Terrific face. Nice shot. Very nice. What’s this about?”

  “Did you have access to Hastings’s disc files and records when you worked as his assistant?”

  “Sure. Part of the gig was filing the shots, or locating one he wanted to finesse. What is this? Is he saying I took something of his? Took his work? That’s just crap. Hell, I knew he was crazy, but he wasn’t vindictive.”

  “No, he’s not saying you took anything of his. I’m asking if you did.”

  “I don’t take anything that’s not mine. And I sure as hell don’t put my name on somebody else’s work. Shit, even if I was some sleazy bitch, I’d never get away with it. He’s got a look. Hastings has a style, the bastard, and anybody with an eye would know.”

  “Is this his work?”

  Elsa glanced at the photo again. “No. It’s good, real good, but it’s not over the edge into great. This one?” Elsa tapped a finger on her shoulder to indicate the photographer behind her. “She’s good. Very competent. Gets the shot, produces the look the client’s after. Straight commercial stuff. Hastings can do this blindfolded. But she’d never be able to do his artwork. Maybe you have to be crazy to cross that line. He qualifies.”

  “He attacked you.”

  She sighed, shuffled her feet. “Okay, not exactly. I didn’t move fast enough when he was in the zone. Didn’t anticipate, and yeah, anticipation’s part of my job. He yelled, I yelled back. I got a temper, too. He threw the bottle, and okay, so he didn’t actually throw it at me. He just winged it through the window. Then he says how I’m paying for it, and starts hurling insults. I walked out, didn’t go back. Lucia sent me my pay, in full. She keeps things sane around there. As much as possible.”

  Eve detoured back to Portography to pigeonhole Lucia.

  “I won’t say a bad word about Hastings. I’m sure you’ll find plenty who will. If he’d listened to me he’d have a lawyer and he’d be suing you for false arrest.”

  “He hasn’t been arrested.”

  “All the same.” She sniffed, then sat at her desk. “The man is a genius, and geniuses don’t have to abide by the same rules as the rest of the world.”

  “Would one of those rules include murder?”

  “Accusing Hastings of murder is so ridiculous I won’t respond.”

  “He threw one of his assistants, bodily, into the elevator. Heaved a bottle at another. Threatened to pitch another out of the window. The list goes on.”

  Her red, red lips bowed up. “There were reasons for all of that. Artists, true artists, have temperaments.”

  “Okay. Putting Hastings’s genius artist temper aside for the moment, what about security on his files, his records, the image discs?”

  She shook her head, fluffed at her white hair. “All but nonexistent. He won’t listen to me, or anyone about it. He can’t remember passcodes and procedure and gets upset when he isn’t able to access an image when he wants it.”

  “So anyone can.”

  “Well, they have to get up there first.”

  “Which narrows that down to models, clients, the revolving assistants, the staff, and employees of the retail end.”

  “Cleaning crew.”

  “Cleaning crew.”

  “Maintenance.” She shrugged. “They’re only allowed in when he’s not. They make him edgy. Occasionally he allows students. They have to pay, and aren’t allowed to speak.”

  Eve bit back a sigh. “Do you have a list of the cleaning crew, the maintenance crew, the students.”

  “Of course. I have a list of everyone.”

  Back at Central, Eve closed herself in her office. She put up a board. She hung the images of the victims, the texts Nadine had received, the lists of people she’d questioned, and had yet to question. Then she sat down, spread out her notes, and let her mind drift.

  She’d re-interviewed Jackson Hooper and Diego Feliciano, and this time their stories were almost identical. Didn’t know nor recognize Kenby Sulu, and had been home, alone, on the night in question.

  Possible connection between Hooper and Feliciano?

  Eve shook her head. She was letting her mind drift too far, she thought, and reined it back.

  The killer wanted something from the victims. Their light. Hastings had said he wouldn’t put that light out. Was the killer putting it out, or was he transferring it? Into himself.

  For what purpose?

  Glory, he wanted glory, acknowledgment, acclaim. But that wasn’t all.

  The victims had been chosen for specific reasons. Youth, vitality, innocence. Both had been bright, of mind, of spirit, of face.

  Bright lights.

  The killer used the data club to transmit. So he frequented the club. He knew how it worked, knew it drew the college crowd.

  Was he one of them, or did he want to be?

  Couldn’t afford college? Kicked out of college? Taught at college instead of being acknowledged as an artist?

  He knew imaging, was skilled in the art. Her mind wandered to Leeanne Browning. Al
ibied, but alibies could be manufactured.

  She added to her notes: Possible connection between Browning and/or Brightstar and Hastings?

  Using the computer, she called up a city map, ordered pertinent locations highlighted. The two crime scenes, the two universities, Portography, the parking port, Browning’s apartment, Diego’s apartment, the club, and the two victims’ residences, the two dump sites.

  Both victims had been dumped near their place of employment. Why was that?

  Where was his place of employment? she wondered. Where did he do his work? This very personal, very important work.

  Near the club? He’s mobile, but why go too far afield to troll, to hunt, to observe, then to transmit?

  Both victims had recognized their killer. She was sure of that. Casual acquaintance, good friend, fellow student, teacher. Someone they’d seen before. Yet they hadn’t run in the same circles, known the same people.

  Except for Hastings, and the club.

  She did a search for imaging studios within a five-block radius of the data club. Tried a cross match with the registered owners to her lists from Lucia and came up goose egg.

  She’d have Peabody get an employee list, then cross-check that.

  Rubbing absently at the headache dead center of her forehead, she contacted Peabody in the bull pen. “Get me something from vending, will you? I don’t have any credits on me and those damn machines won’t take my code anymore.”

  “It’s because you kick them.”

  “Just get me a damn sandwich.”

  “Dallas, you’re off shift five minutes ago.”

  “Don’t make me come out there,” Eve warned and clicked off.

  She worked through the change of shift, hearing the rise and fall of it through her open door. She ate at her desk, washing the lousy sandwich down with superior coffee.

  She filed her updated report, harassed the lab, left two snippy messages for Morris, then turned to stare at her board again.

  He’d already picked the next, and unless she found the connection, the right connection, some other bright light would be extinguished.

  She gathered her things and prepared to accomplish at least one of the items on her to-do list. She’d go home and kick Roarke’s ass.

  The prospect didn’t put a spring in her step, but she’d stalled long enough. But as she approached the elevator, she spotted Dr. Mira coming toward her.

  “I thought I’d catch you.”

  “Just,” Eve said. “We can go back to my office.”

  “No, no, you’re on your way home, I’d like to do the same. Why don’t we walk and talk. Do you mind taking the glides?”

  “That’s fine. You’re done with Hastings?”

  “Yes. Fascinating man.”

  Mira smiled as they stepped on one of the down glides. She managed to look fresh as morning even after a long day. Her suit was cream colored and spotless. Eve couldn’t figure out how anyone could wear something that close to white in New York, particularly in or around Central and not have it go gray in an hour. Her hair, the tone and texture of rich sable, was fluffed around her face. She wore pearls.

  One of the top profilers in the country, and she wore pearls to work, Eve thought. And smelled faintly, freshly floral—like the tea she liked to drink.

  She stepped off the first glide in her neat, feminine pumps, then stepped on the next.

  “Irascible,” Mira continued. “Contentious, irritable, amusing. And brutally honest.”

  “So he’s clear?”

  “In my opinion—and I believe in yours before you sent him to me.”

  “I figure he might throw somebody off a roof in a tantrum, but he’s not the type to sit down and plan cold-bloodedly, or execute in the same fashion.”

  “No, he’s not. He could use some anger therapy, but it would probably be lost on him. I rather like him.”

  “So do I.”

  “Your killer has Hastings’s arrogance, or its kin, but lacks his confidence, and his spontaneity. And while Hastings is more than content to be alone, the killer is lonely. He needs his images as much for companionship as for art.”

  “The people in them become his companions?”

  “In a way. He’s absorbing them—their youth and energy, and by the absorption who they are, who they know. Their friends, their families. He’s taking their life force.”

  “He doesn’t abuse them. It’s all very neat and tidy. There’s no rage. Because they’re him or about to become him.”

  “Very good.”

  “He preserves their image, showing them at their best. Pretties them up for the camera, poses them in some flattering way. Part of that’s the art, right—look what I can do, look how talented I am. But part of it’s vanity. We’re one now, and I want to look good.”

  “Interesting. Yes, very possibly. This is a complicated person, and one who sincerely believes he has a right to do what he’s doing. Perhaps even an obligation. But he doesn’t do it selflessly. It’s not a holy mission. He wants credit. He may have been disappointed in his art in the past, feels as though his talent’s been overlooked. By Hastings, or someone who preferred Hastings over him. If, as seems logical, he took the initial images of the victims from Hastings records, part of the motivation might be to outdo his competition.”

  “Or his mentor.”

  Mira raised her eyebrows as they walked into the garage. “I don’t see Hastings as a mentor.”

  “Neither would he, but the killer might.”

  “I’ll spend some more time on this if you like. I’d need your updated reports.”

  “I’ll make sure you get them. I appreciate it.” To buy more time, she walked Mira to her car. “Dr. Mira, you’ve been married a long time.”

  They’d come a long way together, Mira thought, for Eve to bring up something personal without prompting. “Yes, I have. Thirty-two years next month.”

  “Thirty-two. Years.”

  Mira laughed. “Longer than you’ve been alive.”

  “I guess it has its ups and downs.”

  “It does. Marriage isn’t for the weak or the lazy. It’s work, and it should be. What would be the point otherwise?”

  “I don’t mind work.” At least, Eve thought, as she tucked her hands in her pockets, when she knew what she was doing. “People back away from each other sometimes, don’t they? It doesn’t mean they feel any different, just that they need a step back.”

  “There are times we need to be by ourselves, or work something out on our own, certainly. In any partnership, the individuals require personal time and space.”

  “Yeah. That makes sense.”

  “Eve, is something wrong with Roarke?”

  “I don’t know.” It spilled out before she could bite it back. “I’m being stupid, that’s all. He wasn’t acting like himself one night, and I’m blowing it into a BFD. But, damn it, I know how he looks at me, I know the tones of his voice, his body language. And it was off. It was all off. So he was having a bad day, why can’t I let it go at that?”

  “Because you love him, so you worry about him.”

  “We didn’t leave things on an easy level last night, then he never came to bed. I got called in early this morning, left him a memo. But I haven’t heard from him all day. He all but threw me out of his office last night, and I haven’t heard from him all day. That’s not right. That’s not Roarke.”

  “And you didn’t contact him at all today?”

  “No. Damn it, it was his turn.”

  “Agreed,” Mira said with a warm smile. “And you gave him his personal time and space.” She leaned forward, surprised Eve with a light kiss to the cheek. “Now go home and pry it out of him. You’ll both feel better.”

  “Okay. Right. Thanks. I feel stupid.”

  “No, sweetheart. You feel married.”

  Chapter 12

  Her puke green police issue was in front of the house when Roarke arrived, so he knew Eve was home before him.

  He wasn’
t ready to talk to her or anyone else for that matter. But he could hardly ignore the fact that the man who’d stood in as his father for most of his life was laid up with a broken leg.

  He’d check on Summerset, then try to sweat out some of the fatigue and frustration in the gym, swim a few laps. Maybe get good and drunk. Whatever worked.

  Meetings hadn’t. The day-to-day demands of running or overseeing his business hadn’t. Nothing had been able to erase the image of a pretty redhead with a bruised face from his mind.

  So he’d just try something else.

  He stepped inside, relieved—and guilty for the relief—that Eve wasn’t in the foyer, or the front parlor. At the moment, he was forced to admit he wasn’t feeling quite equipped to go up against her again.

  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so bloody tired, and so off his stride.

  Setting his briefcase aside, he glanced toward the wide curve of stairs. Likely she was up and at work in her home office, and with any luck she’d be busy with whatever case was occupying her for some time yet.

  Still, he hesitated. He wasn’t handling her well. Wasn’t handling a bloody thing well, come to that. He just needed a bit more time to himself. A man was entitled to that, wasn’t he?

  Surely a man was entitled to a little time to think, for Christ’s sake, when his whole life had been turned inside out.

  He dragged a hand through his hair and cursed under his breath as he walked back to Summerset’s quarters.

  He heard the blast of music from three rooms away, and nearly turned on his heel in retreat. Mavis. God knew he adored the woman, but he didn’t have the energy for her just now.

  On the other hand, with her there, he could make this duty visit all the quicker.

  At any other time it would have amused him to see his dignified majordomo stripped to the waist and stretched out in a sleep chair having blue goo slathered on his face. Trina, one of the few people on or off planet who actively terrified his wife, was doing the honors as she shuffled her feet to the beat of one of Mavis’s music discs.

  She’d chopped off her raven black hair close to the scalp and had a neon pink design of a butterfly dyed over the crown. She’d repeated the motif with temporary tattoos—or so he assumed—at the corner of her mouth, and in a running line, necklace style, over her shoulders and along the tops of her impressive breasts.