A Model Murder

by Claire Kane

  Victor glared. “Then you’re not denying it?”

  Teddy shrugged again and rolled up his sleeping pad before gathering a few belongings into a worn hiking backpack. He stood, belched loudly, then hopped down out of the boxcar he’d slept in. “Ya’ see, kid, there’s a funny thing about truth. For a lot of people, they think truth is what you make it. And so they act that way—as if they’re always right, no matter what anyone says to the contrary. Me? I’ve seen truth, and I’ve seen lies. Truth can be pretty weird sometimes. Thing is, it doesn’t do any good to tell someone the truth when they’ve already made up their minds as to what the truth is. Ya’ followin’ me?”

  Victor frowned. “So you’re saying you didn’t murder those girls.”

  Teddy locked eyes with Victor. “You’re gonna believe whatever you wanna believe, Angel Boy. But it ain’t gonna change the truth. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta bell to ring, over on First.”

  Victor watched him go, fuming. He reached out to Teddy’s mind again, but the man shut down his attempts with contemptuous ease. “Nice try,” he said, chuckling quietly without even looking back. “Best to just leave me alone.”

  As he watched the man go, Victor scrambled to come up with some way—any way—to get him to talk. Teddy hadn’t exactly trumpeted his innocence, but something about what he said kept Victor from passing judgment. And yet, how to get any straight answers?

  When a direct attack fails, Rao’s voice said in his mind, you attack from the flanks.

  Victor looked to the sky. Since when did you become a military strategist?

  He felt Rao’s customary smirk. Since I finished my croquet tournament. I won, by the way. You should have seen it.

  Victor rolled his eyes and trailed Teddy. He wasn’t about to let a night’s worth of searching go to waste.

  Help me out, cat. I mean, that’s what we do in Heaven, right? Transparency and all that?

  Well, Rao replied, I could just give you the answer, but where’s the fun in that? Use your brain, Vic. I know you picked one up at least since dying. Though, making Lacey fall over in a mall like that? Smooth move.

  “I wasn’t thinking,” Victor said aloud. He noticed that Teddy perked up and stopped.

  “What was that, kid?”

  Here’s your chance, Einstein, Rao said. Now. I’m heading off to check on my grandkittens. Ciao miao!

  “Ciao miao?” Victor muttered. “Where’d she get that stupid phrase?”

  “You still talkin’, kid?”

  Victor blinked over to Teddy, an idea forming in his head. “My girlfriend. She’s going to do some volunteer work at local homeless shelters.” Victor hoped Lacey wouldn’t make him a liar.

  “And?”

  Victor warmed to the topic. “And I was thinking that maybe you could introduce her to a few people. Help her see your side of society for a change. She’s from… money… and I don’t think she gets just how hard life on the streets is.”

  Teddy eyed him for several seconds. “You’re pretty desperate, aren’t you?”

  “Have you ever loved a woman, Ted?”

  The vagrant stiffened, then softened, turning his eyes toward the water. “You telling me this is some way to impress your girl? Not sure what she’d want with a dead guy. Not like you can give her anything in the bedroom.”

  Victor buried his face in his hand. “It’s not like that.

  “Clearly.”

  “Look,” Victor said. “I’m not judging you. I don’t know whether you killed anyone or not. Just… meet Lacey, and help her help people like you.”

  Teddy’s face looked amused. “People like me?”

  The angel sighed. “I’m not good with words. I’m just asking for some simple help. I’m sure I can talk to Heaven and get you something to make it worth your while.”

  Teddy’s eyes glinted. “You making a promise?”

  Victor looked up at the sky, and one of the unspoken impressions that came to angels filled his mind. He turned his eyes back to Teddy and nodded resolutely. “Promise.” He extended his hand, and Teddy glanced at it, then gave Victor a look of incredulity.

  “Oh,” Victor said. “Right. Can’t shake.”

  “Well, then, kid, let’s talk about details.” The other man’s grin was thin but alarming. Victor saw cold calculation in the man’s eyes, and hoped he hadn’t unintentionally made a deal with the devil.

  NINETEEN

  “You volunteered me to do what?”

  Victor had expected this, and had a plan. “You want to know who killed those girls, right?”

  Lacey paced across her tiny living room, swiping furiously across her phone’s screen, alternately frowning or raising her eyebrows as if impressed. Victor walked over and caught a glimpse of Lacey in a variety of poses and outfits. A surge of longing filled him. Lacey had always been beautiful to him, but to see her exceptionally done up and posing like that just blew him away.

  She sensed him watching, and promptly hid her phone.

  “What?” he said.

  She glared. “Personal space,” she said.

  “You just don’t want me to see you looking sexy, do you?”

  She scoffed, but he could feel her embarrassment and knew he’d hit close to home whether she’d admit it or not. “If you insist on knowing, I’m reviewing the results of my shoot for the other night. I was asked to pick personal favorites for marketing purposes. But you were saying?”

  Victor blinked. “I was?”

  Lacey turned on her computer and slipped off her shoes while it booted “You said you had a surefire way to confirm Teddy is the guilty party.”

  Victor waggled a hand uncertainly. “More accurately, I’ve got a place where you can safely talk to him and see whether you’re going to be any more convincing than I was.”

  She grimaced slightly. “You didn’t happen to tell him who I was, did you?”

  He shook his head. “Should I have?”

  “No, but he’ll know me. We’ve already spoken. He remembered me from TV, and knew what I used to do for a living. He wasn’t easy to get information from even when I bought him a sandwich. He kept wanting more.”

  “Well, then my idea is perfect,” he said, walking over to the window to stare out at the snowy afternoon. “We’ll have a whole Christmas buffet waiting for him.”

  Lacey began checking her e-mail, noting she had painfully little these days and hoping Jack had sent her the formal offer she was sure he’d send. She felt a bit crestfallen when nothing from him was there. “Somehow,” she said without looking back to Victor, “I don’t think that’ll have quite the impact you may think it will.”

  “Well, we need to think of something,” he said. “He keeps blocking me from his mind, and if he only wants you for your meat and cheese…”

  Lacey rolled her eyes but couldn’t help smiling a little. As annoying as Victor could be, she really had missed him. And she had felt safer at night since he’d been back. Though he might be a bungling idiot, on occasion, he was kind, honest, and even mildly amusing. His abilities as a ghost also offered her unique resources for tracking down the killer.

  Finishing her e-mails, she checked her news feeds to see whether any additional murders had occurred. She was grateful she hadn’t been dreaming of all of them, but was beginning to wonder whether she should hope to see more, on the off chance it gave her a lead.

  “I’m sorry you had to see Jessica die,” Victor said quietly, reading her thoughts.

  Lacey softened slightly, and glanced at him. “I didn’t actually see the death. Just the lead up. But that…” and she shuddered. “I could feel her fear, Victor. Her adrenaline. Like I was her.”

  His expression turned pensive. “And you think these dreams have something to do with our spiritual connection to one another?”

  She half-shrugged. “That’s for you to research. I’m pretty sure I won’t find it even on Google.”

  He crossed to her. “So what are you researching?”

 
; She smiled, and her fingers played over the keyboard. “Everything and anything I can with regards to this mysterious little scenario. Police reports, crime statistics, social media sites, anything I can find on those girls from the coffee shop. You name it. Somewhere in all of this, there’s got to be something that’ll at least point us in the right direction.”

  “And legwork?” he asked.

  “You already know I’ve been doing that. I plan on doing as much as I have to.”

  “Nice to know. I look forward to seeing you on the runway.”

  Lacey didn’t manage to hide her blush. She wasn’t sure what it was, but something about Victor seeing her as a model was inexplicably humiliating. “Do you really have to keep bringing that up?” she muttered.

  “Hey, I think you look hot,” he answered. “Models are attractive for good reasons. You should be flattered. I thought girls like feeling pretty…” he trailed off suddenly, noticing Lacey’s expression. “Oh,” he said, sensing her thoughts. “You’re not quite as happy about this as I thought you’d be.”

  She pivoted her chair around to face him, and locked her eyes on his. Her thin-lipped response was barely above a whisper. “Victor St. John, I’ll have you know that I am a woman and a human being, not some object to be gawked at. I utterly detest the way women are objectified by marketing. And to have you taking their side? Is this all I ever was to you?” And she gestured at her chest, then her legs. “I thought I knew you better than that. I thought that you were actually a decent man.”

  She spun carefully back to face her computer.

  “Lacey, no. I—”

  “I think it’s time for you to leave, Victor.”

  He touched her shoulder, knowing she’d at least see the gesture. “Babe, that’s not what I meant—”

  “Just go,” she said quietly.

  He made to reply, but he knew she was perfectly serious. He reached out to her mind, but she recoiled immediately, and he backed out, not wanting to offend her further. I can finally read a woman’s mind, and yet I still can’t figure out what she really wants, he thought ruefully. Great.

  “I’ll see you later,” he said sullenly. Shoulders hunched, he made his way out through the nearest wall.

  As soon as she saw him leave, Lacey slouched in her chair, hating the fact that she felt like crying. It had been hard enough to get excited about taking a job like this, even if Jack hadn’t yet formalized things, but to have Victor give her another reason not to? It tore at her heart. She wondered whether she should just call Jack and cancel, and find some other way to figure out the murders, and hope to make rent and bills.

  “How could he?” she murmured, a sob escaping despite her attempts to keep it inside. “I thought he really cared about me.”

  “Granddaughter?”

  Lacey composed herself at once, quickly dabbing her eyes dry and straightening her hair. “Yes, Nainai? I’m sorry if I woke you.” She rose to go into the bedroom, but Nainai was already wheeling herself out.

  “What has my lovely Lacey sad on such a beautiful winter morning?”

  “Oh, Nainai, it’s nothing. I’m just caught up in a few things.”

  Her grandmother’s expression told Lacey her lie hadn’t been very convincing. “You were arguing with him, weren’t you?”

  Lacey paused, unsure how to proceed. How long had Nainai been awake? How much of her discussion with Victor had her grandmother heard? Would the old woman think Lacey was going crazy, too?

  “It’s fine,” Nainai said. “I already know how you feel.”

  Lacey’s eyebrows scrunched. “You do?”

  Nainai gave her a patient look. “Lacey, I think it’s wonderful how you’re so young, and spirited, and that you want to stand for this cause or that. I know you feel your worth should be about more than just the good looks you inherited from your grandmother,” and the old woman gave a playful shake of her hips. “But it’s not so bad to be pretty. There are plenty of women who would love to think they are, or already are but don’t realize it.

  “Your young man wasn’t trying to say you were anything less than the intelligent, capable, beautiful person you are. We both know men can get hot and bothered about a nice figure, but you ought to see him the same way you want him to see you. He’s a piano that plays more than a mating call, Lacey. Even before he died, I could tell he truly cared about you. I can see it even more clearly now. You’re in his every thought.

  “Don’t go driving away a good prospect just because he has good eyes. You really do have a beautiful face and a truly excellent figure. Like I said, you got it from me. It’s okay if Victor sees that, because for him, it’s a package deal. Learn to accept him for who he is, too.”

  Lacey sagged into her chair with a sigh. She really had overreacted. While she still hated the fact that women’s bodies were, essentially, used to sell things, it hadn’t been fair to take it out on Victor. He’d made no secret of just how attractive he’d found her from the first time they’d met, and, if she were honest, it had been more than a little flattering to know that she’d caught his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Nainai,” she said. “You’re right about him.” Something hitched in her brain, something her grandmother had said. She sat up straight and stared at the woman. “Wait—did you say something about knowing Victor’s thoughts?”

  Nainai raised her eyebrows. “Don’t you?”

  Lacey frowned. “Well, yes, but we have a special connection. Can you actually see and hear him?”

  Nainai smiled enigmatically. “When you are as seasoned and wise as I am, you can perceive many things, even if it doesn’t involve your eyes and ears. You can even see the future, because you know so much of the past. People think they’re good at keeping secrets, but over the years, the attentive person learns how to figure out what isn’t being said.”

  Lacey’s eyes widened. “The other night, in the mall. You told me to beware of something. Can you tell me what?”

  Nainai made to speak, but her face clouded over and her shoulders hunched slightly. “You know, it’s awfully cold in here. It’s not usually this cold in Tokyo.”

  “You’re not living in Tokyo anymore, Nainai. Remember? I brought you here to the States?”

  “Oh, that’s right.”

  Lacey pursed her lips in thought. Her grandmother’s memory was clearly fading, but there was something in what she’d just said, and in the possibility that her discernment (when she was lucid) might be better even than Victor’s, who seemed to rely on actual mind reading. Though it was a stretch, it was worth a shot.

  “Victor was going to have me meet with Teddy,” she said softly. “I wonder…”

  “Confucius say,” Nainai interrupted, “that muttering granddaughters make for one-sided conversation.”

  Lacey faced her grandma. “Sorry, Nainai. I was just thinking aloud.”

  “Well think a little louder, then, so I can at least give you a penny for your thoughts.”

  Lacey smiled at that. “Nainai, I think I have an excellent idea for our Christmas dinner. You may even make some new friends.”

  TWENTY

  Trend’s lobby was already packed by the time Lacey shouldered her way inside. Various news outlets were there, clamoring near the empty set-up podium, a red-velvet rope keeping them at bay. KZTB was there, a new anchorwoman speaking into a camera. At least Lacey wouldn’t be bothered by an old coworker and having to share pretend smiles and hugs of missing one another. Cathy was an editor, not a reporter, and she was the only one who held the title of “friend” in Lacey’s book.

  Lacey had contacted Victor within minutes of their argument, and had called him back to her place for a sincere apology. He took it in stride, as he always did, and eagerly agreed to her plan of bringing Nainai to meet Teddy. As an olive branch, Lacey had invited him to the press conference, and now, here they were.

  Words buzzed in the air, over each other: “Murder,” “Models,” even “Mayhem,” which was a bit too cheesy-dramatic
for Victor’s taste, who literally walked through the crowd. He took his place on one of the stools behind the podium, placing a hand to his chin as if he were considering the crowd with the air of a GQ cover model.

  Very funny, Lacey mentally told him.

  Honestly, though, don’t you think I could pass for a pretty boy? He stood up and sucked in his cheeks like Zoolander, before doing a little model walk, swaying his hips. The elevator swished open and out stepped Geo, who did almost a mirror-image catwalk to the chair Victor was once seated in. Lacey stifled a laugh, covering her mouth.

  Abruptly, Victor’s face fell.

  What’s wrong, Victor? Lacey asked.

  Victor’s eyes scanned the room deliberately for several long seconds, but finally he shook his head. “There’s a dark presence here. Like, it just showed up.” His eyes lit, and he shot a glance at Geo, who was clearly faking smiles for the cameras. “Who’s that guy?”

  Lacey’s gaze darkened. Geo. Talent manager. Seems to run the place. I’d say he’s Jack’s right-hand man, but I get the sense they mostly just tolerate each other. Why? You think he’s—

  “The source of the darkness?” Victor frowned, and focused his attention on the well-dressed man. “Maybe.”

  Lacey raised an eyebrow. What do you mean, “maybe”?

  Victor floated over toward Geo and hovered around him, examining him from all angles (even doing a headstand) as the colorful little man dropped soundbites for reporters or posed just right for photos. He carefully dove into the man’s thoughts, and tried broadcasting them to Lacey. At once, he was assaulted by a million different ideas, spinning inside the man’s mind: shoot schedules, the need for new models, “stupid press conferences” and unwanted attention, Jack’s plan to handle the mess, deadlines, fury that the new product line for spring wear hadn’t arrived, and who would “have to pay” because of it.

  “This guy has the mind of a woman,” he said, turning back to Lacey. “Did you catch any of what I sent?”

  Lacey subtly shook her head. It was more like noise on top of noise. It wasn’t at all as clear as when you showed me that vision of those girls from the coffee shop talking to the cops. What’d you get from him?