Twisted Taste

by Michelle Dayton

  Throughout the day, Jess had noticed that although people were divided on their opinion of Todd, everyone felt the same about Helen. They loved her. Todd’s wealthy friends fawned over her, perhaps because of her beauty or perhaps because she always managed to turn the conversation back to her guests. The Fielding staff jumped to attention—in a doting way—whenever she needed something.

  At one point Helen kindly corrected one of the newer members of staff who was pouring Pinot Noir into a Bordeaux-style glass. Jess heard another staff member whisper to the new recruit, “You’re lucky it was Helen who noticed. Todd would have pretended to have a heart attack and then lectured you for thirty minutes.”

  A passing waitress carrying appetizers agreed. “Honey, we’re all so lucky Helen’s here now. Todd used to have these kind of parties and bring in strippers to entertain his guests.”

  Helen was also a good twenty-five years younger than Todd. Jess supposed that kind of age difference was not unusual when the man was wealthy and the woman was beautiful. But as she watched Todd’s hand dip down to cup Helen’s bottom and heard Helen’s false-sounding coo of delight, Jess couldn’t suppress a tiny nose crinkle before her poker face took over.

  “You’re so cute and naïve,” Adam whispered, drawing her away. “Trophy wives are just a way of this world.” Jess couldn’t help but be impressed how effortlessly he held on to the Australian accent, even after all the wine.

  “I’m not naïve,” Jess retorted. “I know it’s common. I suppose it even makes sense if the man prizes beauty above everything else and the woman is ambitious in that kind of way.” She paused, willing her brain to rise above the remaining port-fog. “It just makes me feel sad for Helen.”

  Adam’s eyebrows shot up and he cocked his head in an exaggerated way that she’d noticed he did for this particular Chase-character. “Sad for her? Why?”

  Turns out the port was more powerful than the filter between her heart and her mouth. “Because she’ll never feel the way I feel when I’m with you.”

  His features froze for a moment, transformed from Chase into full-on Adam. He bent over to whisper in her ear again, and this time it was only his own voice. “You know I fucking love you, right? And we’re leaving. Right now.”

  Chapter Six

  Adam’s cell phone rang just as Jess stepped out of the shower. Wrapping a towel around herself, she picked up her own phone from the counter to check the clock. Just after ten. She’d completely lost track of time after the tour and tasting. To be fair, time wasn’t the only thing she’d lost track of...the universe had pretty much disappeared after she and Adam returned to the hotel room and he pounced on her.

  “You left AMA?” she heard Adam ask. “Why?”

  When he saw her hesitating in the doorway between bed and bathroom, he turned his phone on speaker. Jess heard Celeste laugh. “Because I feel perfectly fine now. Must have just been bad food poisoning.”

  “Then why didn’t the doctors want you to go?”

  Celeste sighed. “Something about waiting for my blood work to be redone. Something was screwy with it the first time, I guess.”

  Adam and Jess met eyes. “So,” he said, “now you don’t think your partner tried to hurt you?”

  A long pause. “No,” Celeste said. “If that was the case, I’d definitely be dead.”

  “Jesus, C.” Adam covered his eyes with one hand. “Why’d you get tangled up with a guy like that?”

  “It’s a mistake I won’t make again,” she answered, her breezy tone discouraging further questions.

  Adam didn’t let her off the hook. “Who is it? We’re hanging around these people night and day. I want to know who you think is so dangerous.”

  When Celeste spoke again, the breeze was gone from her words. “Trust me, Adam. This one is pretty ruthless. The less you know on that front, the safer you’ll be. If I could do the job alone, I would. But I can’t, so I’ll deal with it tomorrow and then get the hell out of Dodge.” She sounded perky again. “That’s what we do, right?”

  Jess watched as Adam’s eyes narrowed. He clearly wanted to argue the point further. But when he opened his mouth, Celeste cut him off before he could dig in deeper. “Anyway,” she chirped. “If something’s weird with my blood work, I’ll go back to the doctor. Preferably as myself, so I have health insurance. Cece Brink has nothing but a minor line of credit, a website and a hell of a lot of expensive shoes.”

  Jess almost wanted to smile. Such an odd bag of problems members of the thieving profession had to deal with.

  “Let’s have a do-over,” Celeste continued. “I hired a ridiculously expensive set of cleaners and my apartment is back to being habitable. Bring the redhead over tomorrow morning and we can talk old times.”

  Adam lifted an eyebrow at Jess. She shrugged.

  “C’mon,” Celeste teased. “Maybe I’ll even tell you how that amazing necklace is going to disappear from the Fielding property.”

  Adam’s lips tightened and Jess repressed a smile. He was dying to hear Celeste’s plan. Truth be told, she was pretty curious herself.

  * * *

  “Welcome, welcome!” Celeste opened the door to her apartment and swept them inside. “I promise it smells better in here than it did yesterday.”

  Jess looked around, noting the freshly cleaned carpet and smell of antiseptic in the air. On the kitchen table, a laptop was open next to a bunch of dirty coffee cups.

  “Wow! You look really different without your wig and all the other accoutrements.” Celeste’s bright blue eyes scanned her from head to toe. “You’re prettier as a brunette.”

  “Uh, thanks.” Jess resisted the urge to pat her ponytail. She didn’t need to be the “woman in red” until she and Adam established their alibis later in the day, so she’d pulled the wig off in the car on the way over. “I’m Jess.”

  “Good to meet you.” Celeste turned to Adam. “So, tell me everything about Tony!”

  Jess wandered a few feet away, allowing them an animated chat about mutual acquaintances. Adam filled her in on Tony’s post-prison hobbies, they wondered about the location of some guy named Carlos, and gushed about the safe-cracking abilities of a “Mikey” who was apparently in high demand. Jess watched Celeste out of the corner of her eye. Like Adam, she moved completely differently as herself. At the party on Thursday night, she’d sauntered around slowly, letting her swinging hips lead her body. This morning, in her own kitchen, she walked in quicker, sharper movements. Her hips didn’t move in the slightest.

  “So if Mikey isn’t getting the Scarlet out of Todd’s safe, who’ve you got?” Adam asked.

  Celeste just gave him a coy look.

  “Don’t tell me it’s you,” Adam said dryly. “You’re good at lots of stuff, C, but safes were never your thing.”

  She laughed. “Too true.” She walked over and patted her laptop. “Luckily for me then, that in this job, the safe is irrelevant.”

  Jess ignored her comment for a moment, fixated on Celeste’s clear fondness for the computer. “You—you have plans for your job on there?”

  “Of course! Down to the minute.” She turned the laptop so that Jess could see her project management software open. “Every task, every dependency. This is a complicated business, cookie. How else would you keep it all straight?”

  Jess’s mouth dropped open. Well, of course! Why hadn’t she thought of that? She used to run a department of a hundred people working on dozens of projects. And she managed to keep all of that straight—using the same kind of tools Celeste was using for jewel thieving.

  “Not smart,” Adam said. “If you get caught, it’s a damning piece of evidence.”

  “Listen, Mr. ‘I Keep Everything in My Head,’” Celeste fired back. “Not all of us are wired like you. Being able to document everything out here so I can see it mak
es it much less likely that I will get caught. Besides, I have everything encrypted up the wazoo. Batman couldn’t break through my cyber security.”

  She caught Jess’s eye. “You’re the new partner, hmm? Don’t let him walk all over you. He’s brilliant at what he does, of course. But there’s more than one way to be brilliant in this business.”

  “Please don’t give her any ideas,” Adam warned, but Jess’s mind was already spinning. She’d been wary about meeting Adam’s ex, but this was exactly what she needed to see! An alternative to Adam’s approach that was successful.

  “What did you mean that the safe was irrelevant?” she asked. After all, her main mission for this trip had been to locate the safe and get its specs to see if they could manage to open it themselves or if they’d need to bring in an outside safecracker.

  Celeste gave her a Cheshire grin. “Breaking into the safe does no good if it’s empty.”

  Huh? If the necklace wasn’t in the safe, then where would it—oh. “Do you mean that Helen is going to be wearing the Scarlet tonight?”

  “Ding ding ding!” She clicked on a link on her project plan and an image of a model wearing an emerald green Versace gown appeared. “Helen’s dress for tonight. She had her last fitting on Wednesday. The Scarlet will look great with it, don’t you think?”

  Jess wondered how in the world Celeste planned to get it off of Todd’s fiancée.

  “Look at Jess’s face!” Celeste clapped her hands together and laughed hard. “Right now you’re picturing some sort of scenario where I wrestle it off Helen’s wriggling body, aren’t you?”

  Maybe. Jess flushed. “How are you going to get it?”

  With a flourish, Celeste pulled a large flat jewelry box from under the table. “This will help.” She flipped open the lid.

  “Wow.” Adam whistled. “That is a nice replica.” Jess blinked down at a perfect copy of the Red Scarlet. Its red stones twinkled in the morning sunshine and she resisted the urge to pick it up and feel how heavy it was.

  “The quality is outstanding. How much did you pay for that?” Adam asked.

  Celeste winced. “Too much.” She snapped the lid closed. “But it won’t matter once I have the real one and get it to my buyer.”

  Adam touched the necklace with his index finger. “I hate to break it to you, C, but—”

  “I know, I know,” she snapped. “The clasp isn’t an exact match. But this necklace was a beast to replicate because it’s so heavy. This is all the designer had that would hold it up, and I was running out of time. As it is, it just got delivered this morning.” She jutted out her bottom lip. “Besides, with all that bling, who’s going to notice the clasp anyway?”

  “Todd might,” Adam answered, matter-of-factly. “I know he comes across as a buffoon, but he’s actually pretty observant. Obsessive about his large purchases. Helen’s pretty sharp too.”

  Celeste waved her hand impatiently. “Todd’ll be too busy at the party to notice a detail like that, and she won’t wear it again for weeks. By the time anyone notices—if anyone ever notices—I’ll be long gone with the real one and it’ll be too late.”

  “But how are you going to make the switch?” Jess thought of Helen and her immaculate perfection. She didn’t see any feasible reason why Helen would take off the necklace mid-party.

  “That’s up to my partner.” Celeste shrugged. “My responsibilities for the job included finding a buyer, getting a perfect replica and establishing a cover where I can attend all these events.” She referenced the timeline on her computer screen. “Tonight I’ll be in the Fielding kitchen at seven-fifteen sharp with the replica. My partner will be waiting in the pantry with the real one. We’ll make the switch and then I’ll hit the road.” She grinned. “I’ve got two crazy-interested fences waiting breathlessly for my call.”

  She looked down at the necklace again. “I’m confident the replica will fool everyone for a couple of days, minimum. By then, the necklace will be out of my hands and Cece Brink will have disappeared from the face of the earth.”

  Jess had a million questions but before they popped out of her mouth, Celeste nudged Adam. “Go grab us some coffee and breakfast from the bakery in the square.”

  Adam’s eyes widened and he looked between them. Jess bit back a smile. Interesting. He clearly didn’t want to leave the two women alone together. “Yeah,” she said. “I am a little hungry and in need of caffeine.” She gave him an angelic smile that he didn’t buy for a second.

  With another suspicious glance at each of them, he headed for the door. “I’ll be back in five minutes.”

  When the door shut, Celeste sat down in one of the chairs to the kitchen table and gestured for Jess to sit too. “I haven’t seen Adam all spun up about a girl before,” she mused. “Kind of fun to see him so flustered.”

  Jess agreed, even if it wasn’t the kindest sentiment toward the man she loved. “He told me you two used to date,” she said.

  Celeste rolled her eyes. “For five boring minutes. We both knew right away that it wasn’t going to be a thing.” She sighed. “It probably started because this business can get kind of lonely, you know? You lie to everyone all the time. Even if you’re having a night off to go on a first date, you need to have a cover ready for when they ask what you do for a living. It wears on you. I think Adam and I gave it our tiny try because we both thought it might be nice not to have to lie. Hell, why do you think I invited you guys over today? To get thirty minutes of being myself.”

  Jess felt a pang of sympathy. She hadn’t fully considered how isolating all the lying might be. But, now that she thought about it, she hadn’t spoken to her father or brothers in almost a month. She couldn’t honestly answer their questions about how she was spending her time or how she planned to make a living, and the thought of telling them so many lies really bothered her.

  “Let’s give Adam a heart attack.” Celeste giggled. “Get out your phone.” When Jess did, Celeste held it out in front of them to take a selfie. “I’m going to pretend to whisper in your ear. Look shocked.” Jess did as she was told, and widened her eyes, dropped open her mouth. Celeste snapped the picture and then texted it to Adam. “I bet he flies through the door in two minutes.”

  Celeste leaned back and gave her an evaluative stare. “You’re new to this, right? Brand-new.”

  Jess sighed. If she’d known Adam’s ex-girlfriend-the-experienced-thief would be calling her out on her amateur qualities, she would have thought it would have been vastly uncomfortable or that she’d feel defensive. Instead, it was kind of a relief to talk to someone who wasn’t Adam about it. There was literally no one else in her life she could talk about it with, no one to whom she could seek advice. But maybe Celeste... “That obvious, huh? How could you tell?”

  Celeste smiled. “You move the same as when you’re in your cover and when you’re you. Your posture, your walk, your gestures. All your body language is exactly the same. Which you’ve got to learn to change. You’re lucky because your physical appearance changes vastly with the wigs and the makeup and clothes. But body language can be more distinctive than any of that.”

  Jess slumped. “I know, I know.” Adam had only told her the same thing about a million times. “Maybe I just can’t do this. I can’t do what Adam does, what you do. Become a complete other character with mannerisms and a different way of crossing the room. I’m not an actor—”

  “Oh hush.” Celeste cut her off. “I can fix this with one piece of advice.”

  Jess blinked. Adam had been trying for a month to no avail. “Oh?”

  “It’s all about the shoes.” Celeste grinned. “Let me guess. Adam helped you with color and made suggestions, but you chose all the actual shoes for your cover outfits?”

  “Well, yeah.” She’d ordered brands and styles she was comfortable with. They spent a lot of time on their fe
et, after all.

  “Mistake,” Celeste said, simply. “The easiest way to feel like someone else is to wear a pair of shoes you’d never choose in a million years. For one disguise, pick a heel that’s a little higher than you normally wear. For another, pick one with ankle straps that pinch. You’ll have to adjust your way of moving to account for these factors. It’s an easy way to change your posture and walk.” She winked. “Or you could think of it more philosophically—doing a mile in someone else’s shoes and all that.”

  “Hmmph.” Jess was a little disappointed and doubtful. It didn’t seem like very deep advice.

  “Trust me,” Celeste said. “I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager.”

  “It’s not just my body language that sucks, though,” Jess said. “Overall, I just feel really uncomfortable with covers. I totally fumbled with Todd the other night. There’s no way he believes I know anything about art.”

  Celeste looked thoughtful. “Why’d you pick a cover as an art expert?” Jess explained how they thought it would help Todd show them the painting in his bedroom, giving them an opportunity to search for the safe.

  “What did you do before joining the exciting world of jewel theft?”

  “I worked in technology,” Jess explained. “IT programming, that kind of thing.” As always, she warmed quickly to the topic of computers. “That’s where I’m comfortable—research, developing algorithms, cyber security.”

  Celeste smiled. “Another easy fix then. You’ve only had Adam to observe, and Adam is a genius at the covers and disguises. As you said, it’s easy for him to practically become someone else. He never forgets anything and he makes up the most beautiful bullshit, right on the spot.” She leaned back and crossed her arms. “But us mere mortals can’t do that. We have to choose covers that feel natural to us.”