by J. D. Robb
“It won’t be my problem. Sir.”
A smile flickered around his mouth before he nodded, sat again. “Fill me in.”
She did so, as thoroughly and concisely as her written report. And as she did so, she watched Whitney’s lips purse, his eyebrows raise. Those were the only reactions.
“In all these years the Feebs haven’t put Yost in New York?”
“They may have, sir, but not as indicated by any data I’ve been able to access. They have followed the wire, but not, as far as it shows, the specific length to specific outlets. I fail to understand how something that basic could have been neglected. The luggage, the hairpiece, those apply directly to French. But it’s likely he’s repeated that pattern, or a slight variation at other times. The FBI profile on the suspect is intricate and thorough, which is why I have yet to request one from Doctor Mira. I intend to do so, as corroboration, and with the additional data I’ve accumulated.”
“Cover that, and make certain you have documentation and paperwork on every step. Jacoby may be the type to try to hang you up on technicalities. Media-wise, I want you low profile. The tone of the case shades toward Roarke, which shades toward you. I don’t want you to give any statements until you’re cleared to do so.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t look so smug about it. You’ll be tossed to the media hounds before it’s finished. No leads, I take it, on who might be pulling the strings here, or why?”
“No, sir.”
“Then keep your focus on Yost. Smoke him out. Dismissed.”
“Yes, sir.” She turned to the door, one step behind Peabody.
“Dallas?”
“Yes, Commander?”
“I believe you can tell Roarke to expect a little federal pressure.”
“Understood.” She strode to the elevator, resisted kicking the wall. “She’s nothing but a tool to him. Darlene French to Jacoby,” she muttered. “No more human to him than she was to Yost. The son of a bitch.”
“She’s got you, Dallas.”
“That’s right. And she’s going to keep me.” Eve started to step into the elevator, then spotted Stowe inside. “Stay out of my face.”
Stowe raised a hand in a gesture of truce. “Jacoby’s gone back to the field office. I just want a minute. I’ll ride down with you.”
“Your partner’s an asshole.”
“Only about half the time.” Stowe tried a smile. She was a trim woman in her middle thirties who did her best to spruce up the federal dress code with a pretty swing of honey brown hair. Her eyes were shades darker, and direct. “Listen, I want to apologize for Jacoby’s remarks, and his attitude.” She let out a sigh. “And my apology doesn’t mean squat, however sincere.”
“Maybe it means squat, even if it doesn’t mean diddly.”
“Fair enough. Look, when you cut out the red tape, we’re all cops and all after the same thing.”
“Are we?”
“Yost. You want him, we want him. Does it matter to you who turns the key in his cage?”
“I don’t know. You guys have had a lot of years to turn that key. About as many years as Darlene French got to live.”
“True enough. Personally, however, I’ve had three months, and of the three probably one in pure man hours to assimilate data on Sylvester Yost. If it gets us closer to stopping him, I’ll hand you the key.”
When the doors opened on the garage level, Stowe glanced out. She’d have to ride back up to the main lobby level. “I’m just asking you not to let Jacoby’s temperament get in the way of the goal. I think we can help each other.”
Eve stepped out, but turned and laid her hand on the door to keep it open. “Keep your partner on a leash, and I’ll consider it.”
She let the doors close and walked to her parking slot. Her pea-green unit sat, dented, scarred, and with a bright yellow smiley face some joker in Maintenance had painted beaming out from the rear window.
It was probably a very good thing Eve didn’t have that riot laser.
chapter seven
Eve hit the salon first and was pleasantly surprised when her vehicle made the trip without embarrassing her.
She’d walked through the doors of Paradise before, tracking another murderer, another sexual homicide. Another case that had involved Roarke. The first one, she thought, that had connected us.
It had been more than a year, but the opulent decor of the salon hadn’t changed. Soft, soothing music played, harmonizing with the splashing waterfalls and drifting through the air delicately scented by the long sweeps and tall spires of fresh flowers.
Patrons sat or lounged amid the splendor of the waiting area, sipping tiny cups of genuine coffee or spring-hued glasses of fruit juice or fizzy water. The receptionist was the same bountifully breasted woman in snug, short red who had greeted Eve before.
The hair was different, Eve noted. This time around it was Easter egg pink and styled in a streaming fountain of curls that burst out of a high cone on the crown of her head.
Recognition didn’t register in her eyes, but dismay and annoyance did the moment she spotted Eve’s worn jacket, scarred boots, and shaggily styled hair.
“I’m sorry, we serve by previous appointment only in Paradise. I’m afraid all our consultants are fully booked for the next eight months. May I suggest an alternate salon?”
Eve leaned on the high counter, crossed her boots at the ankles. “You don’t remember me, Denise? Gee, I’m really hurt. Wait a minute! I bet you’ll remember this.” Smiling cheerfully, Eve pulled out her badge and pushed it under the receptionist’s expensively sculpted nose.
“Oh. Oh. Not again.” Even as the words tripped out of her mouth, Denise remembered just who the cop had married since last they’d met. “I mean, I do beg your pardon, miss, I—”
“That’s Lieutenant Miss.”
“Of course.” Denise tried out a lilting laugh. “I’m afraid I was distracted. We’re so busy today. But never too busy to make room for you. What can we do for you?”
“Where’s your retail section?”
“I’d be delighted to show you. Is there a particular product you have in mind, or are you just browsing? Our consultants will—”
“Just show me what you’ve got, Denise, and get me the manager of the area.”
“Right away. If you’d just come with me. Can I get you and your associate any refreshment?”
Peabody spoke fast, knowing Eve would cut off any hope given half a chance. “I’d like one of those pink fizzy drinks. Nonalcoholic,” she added when Eve gave her a baleful stare.
“I’ll have it brought right in to you.”
Retail was up a level, a short ride on a silver glide, and beyond a small oasis complete with pool and palms. Wide glass doors parted with a fluid little tinkle at their approach. On the other side, the retail area spread in an artful fan, with each spoke dedicated to a different form of beautification.
Staff here wore flowing red coats over snowy white skinsuits. And those were worn over perfect bodies.
Each display counter held its own miniscreen where simultaneous demonstrations were being shown on skin care, body toning, relaxation techniques, and emergency hairstyling.
All with lavish use, of course, of products sold on site.
“Please, feel free to look around while I fetch Martin. He oversees our retail service.”
“Man, look at all this great stuff.” Peabody edged toward a display of skin care with a dazzling arrangement of frosted glass bottles, gold tubes, and red-capped pots. “Fancy places like this give out great free samples.”
“Keep your hands in your pockets and your mind on the job.”
“But if it’s free—”
“They’ll just talk you into spending six months’ pay on gunk to go with the giveaways.” The place smells like a jungle, was all Eve could think. Hot, oversweet, and eerily sexual. “It’s got to be the oldest con in the books.”
“I won’t buy anything.” She spotted one o
f the enhancement displays with all those fascinating colors. Girl toys, she thought. And yearned.
But all the color and flash was nothing compared to Martin.
Denise hurried out in front of him, clicking her three-inch red heels over the white floor, like a handmaiden before royalty. She didn’t bow, but Eve was certain she thought about it before scurrying away and out the glass doors again.
Martin swept up, his long trailing cloak of sapphire brushing the floor, the skinsuit of silver beneath it sparkling over a long, muscled body. His pecs rippled, his biceps strained, his privates bulged.
His hair, as silver as his suit, was swept up from a sharply planed face in a complex arrangement of twists that were caught in sapphire cord and left to dangle down his back.
He smiled, held out a hand crowded with rings.
“Lieutenant Dallas.” His voice was seductively French, and before she could stop him, he’d taken her hand and kissed the air an inch above her knuckles. “We’re honored to welcome you to Paradise. How may we be of service to you?”
“I’m looking for a man.”
“Cherie, aren’t we all?”
“Ha. This particular man,” she said, amused despite herself. She drew a hard-copy image of Yost out of her file bag.
“Well.” Martin studied the photo. “Handsome in a brute fashion. The Distinguished Gentleman does not, in my opinion, suit his facial features nor his style. He should have been gently dissuaded from that purchase.”
“You recognize the wig?”
“Hair alternative.” And his eyes twinkled as he said it. “Yes. It’s not one of the more popular styles as the gray is something most looking for alternatives wish to avoid. May I ask why you’re seeking this man here in Paradise?”
“He bought the hair alternative here, along with a number of other products. May third. Cash. I’d like to talk to whoever waited on him.”
“Hmmm, do you have a list of the products he purchased?”
Eve pulled it out, handed it over.
“Quite a lot for a cash purchase. As for the Captain Stud, much more appropriate for him, don’t you agree? Just one moment.”
He strolled off, showed the list and photograph to a brunette at the near skin-care section. She frowned, studied the papers, then with a nod, hurried away.
“We think we may know the consultant who tended to this customer. Would you prefer to use a privacy area?”
“No, this is fine. You didn’t recognize him?”
“No, but I don’t interact with customers unless there’s a problem of some sort. Or unless the customers are, such as yourself, VIPs. Ah, here’s Letta now. Letta, ma coeur, I hope you’ll give Lieutenant Dallas your assistance.”
“I’m sure.” And there was just enough Midwestern twang in the voice to make Martin wince.
“You waited on the man in this photograph?” Eve asked, tapping a finger on the picture Letta held.
“Yes. I’m almost sure it’s him. He’s had a little sculpting around the eyes and mouth in the picture, but it’s the same basic facial structure. And this product list fits.”
“Was this the first time you’d seen him?”
“Well . . . I think he’s been in before. But he wears different wigs—hair alternatives,” she corrected, sliding an apologetic glance toward Martin. “And he varies his skin tones, eyes. He likes a lot of different looks. A number of customers—clients,” she amended, shaking her head at herself, “do. It’s one of the services we provide at Paradise. Varying your looks can vary your mood and improve—”
“Save the sales pitch, Letta. Tell me about the day he bought those items.”
“Okay. I mean, yes, madam. I think it was early afternoon, because we still had some of the lunch crush. I’d spent a lot of time with a woman who had to look at everything we had in blonde. I mean everything, and then she ended up doing the ‘I’ll think about it’ routine.”
She rolled her purple eyes, caught Martin’s, then after a jolt, relaxed when she saw his smile of sympathy. “So when this client approached asking to see the Distinguished Gentleman, true black and gray, it was a relief. He knew just what he wanted, even if it wasn’t what I thought of as right for him.”
“Why wasn’t it right for him?”
“He was a big, beefy guy—gentleman—with a square-shaped head. Just a look about him that made me think he worked with his hands, like a trade. The DG was just too fussy elegant for him. But he was set on it. He put it on himself, seemed to know just how to fit it.”
“What kind of hair did he have? His hair, not the alternative.”
“Oh, he’s bald as a baby’s . . . He’s a natural scalp. Totally. Very healthy scalp, too. Good tone and polish to it. I don’t know why he’d cover it. He saw the Captain Stud on display and asked for that, too. It was a better look. Sort of made him look like a general, I thought, and when I said so he looked very pleased. Smiled. He has a really nice smile. He was very polite and courteous, too. He called me Miss Letta, and said please and thank you. You don’t get that sort of thing all the time in retail service.”
She paused a moment, frowned up at the ceiling. “Then he told me he wanted to buy some Youth. He laughed a little, because you know how that sounds—buy some youth—and I laughed a little and we went over to skin care. We’re trained to assist clients in all areas of our product line, to streamline their Paradise experience and all. I took him from department to department that way. With him telling me exactly what he wanted, and with him, very courteously again, turning off my suggestions for add-ons. We finished with the dietary product, and I said that he certainly didn’t need it. And he said that he was afraid he enjoyed his food a little too much. When he was done, he indicated that he would take the purchases rather than take advantage of our free messenger service, so I totaled and made him a carryout parcel. Then he handed over that huge wad of cash, and my eyes about fell out on my shoes.”
“It’s not usual for a client to pay cash?”
“Oh, we do a lot of cash transactions, but I’ve never personally done one over two thousand dollars, and this was more than four times that. I guess he saw I was goggling, because he smiled at me again and said that he preferred to pay as he went.”
“You spent a lot of time with him then.”
“More than an hour.”
“Tell me about his speech pattern. Did he have an accent?”
“Sort of. Not really anything I could place. He had a kind of high voice. Almost like a woman’s. But very nice, soft and well, cultured, I guess. Come to think of it, his voice fit the DG more than it fit him, if you know what I mean.”
“Did he mention his name, anything about where he lived, where he worked?”
“No. Early on, I tried to coax his name out by saying something like: I’d be happy to show you other styles, Mr. . . . But he just smiled and shook his head. So I called him “sir” the whole time. I suppose I thought he lived in New York because he took away rather than having sent or shipped, but I suppose he could have been from anywhere.”
“You said you thought you’d seen him in here before.”
“I’m pretty sure. Not long after I started working here, in the early part of the Christmas rush. Late October, maybe early November. At the skin counter again. He was wearing a coat and hat, but I really think it was the same man.”
“Did you wait on him?”
“No, it was Nina. But I remember, sure, I remember now because we bumped into each other behind the counter getting products for our clients and she said how this guy was buying the whole Artistry skin-care line—that’s who makes Youth. That’s a couple thousand, and a really good commission, so I took a peek thinking how I wished I’d snagged him instead of Nina.”
“But you hadn’t noticed him before or since.”
“No, ma’am.”
Eve took her through a few more questions, then asked to see Nina.
Nina’s memory wasn’t as keen as Letta’s. But when Eve moved from her t
o other clerks, she picked up just enough to be certain Yost dropped into Paradise once or twice a year.
“He’ll have other places, other cities,” she told Peabody when they were back in the car. “But on this same level. He won’t settle for less. Always cash, and he’ll know what he wants when he walks in. He pays attention to advertising, researches his products.”
“Watches a lot of screen.”
“Likely, but I’d bet this guy runs the product data on his computer. He wants a handle on the ingredients, the manufacturer’s record, the consumer endorsements. Let’s see what EDD can do about tracing that skin line backwards from last October when he made that purchase. He bought the whole ball of wax so that could mean he’d seen the ad, done the research, then decided to try it out. Artistry’s bound to have a site for consumer information and questions.”
She tried the luggage store next. None of the clerks recalled a man meeting Yost’s description buying the carry-on. But downtown, she hit gold, so to speak, with the silver wire.
The clerk had an excellent visual memory. Eve clued into this the moment she stepped up to the small display counter with its riot of loose stones, silver coils, and empty settings under the glass. The clerk’s eyes wheeled, his lips began to tremble. She heard his breath heave and initially feared a cardiac incident.
“Mrs. Roarke! Mrs. Roarke!”
His voice was heavily accented with what she thought might have been East Indian, but she was too busy wincing to worry about his origin.
“Dallas.” She slapped her badge on the countertop. “Lieutenant Dallas.”
“We are honored. We are unworthy.” He began to shout something unintelligible to one of his associates. “Please, please. You will select anything you want in our humble establishment. As a gift. You like necklace? Bracelet? You like maybe earrings.”
“Information. Only information.”
