About Face

by James Calder

  “I imagine she already had the evil eye on you because of Brendon,” I said. “Because he wanted you.”

  She nodded. “I dreaded both of them. I was caught in between: If I didn’t act nice to Brendon, he’d bad-mouth me to Trish. But if I was too nice, Trish would punish me. I had to get out of there. I mean, it was for Rod, that’s the real reason I left, but . . .”

  We looked at each other in the murky light. Finally I felt as though I was hearing the rock-bottom reality. “You needed something better than a simple disguise to pull this off. Someone at Plush came up with ways to change your face. They’ve been working on melanin, and they used that to modify your skin tone. I suppose they had compounds to make it rougher, too. Who was it—Ellen Quong?”

  “The rough skin is a nice touch, huh? Who’d ever deliberately do that to themselves? But please don’t ask who it was at Plush. I can’t give that away.”

  “You also had to concoct the fake clipping from Arizona. I suppose you know someone at a newspaper who could do that.”

  Kim seemed to settle back into herself. “It’s actually kind of a relief not having to fake it anymore, Bill. You can’t imagine, that first night I met you, how hard it was to pretend I hadn’t seen Rod for three years. It killed me, being in his house like that, the house where I’d spent time with him just two or three weeks before.”

  “I’m sorry, Kim. You went through all this to be with Rod, and then you come back and he’s gone.”

  Her hand went to her face. “Don’t get me started again. I cried so much the first day I was back. I can’t believe I have this many tears inside me.”

  She hid behind the towel. A new anger rose up in me at the fact of Rod’s death. I thought I was right about how he would have reacted to Kim. He would have been happy with her. They both would have been happy. In that alternate stream of events, Rod would have had to endure the news of Alissa’s death. How would he have handled it? How long would Kim have waited before coming back to relieve him of his grief?

  Then it came to me who was helping her. It was the person who insisted Alissa had met her demise in Arizona.

  “Connie Plush,” I said to Kim. “She’s your benefactor. She had full access to her company’s technology. She could order up the compounds for you. No wonder I pissed her off so much. She was afraid I’d blow your cover.”

  Kim let the towel fall to her lap but said nothing. For some reason I became aware of my sodden clothes. “Am I ruining your couch?” I asked.

  “Who cares? It belongs to SG.”

  We both laughed. A strange intimacy was growing between us, the intimacy of a shared secret. I said, “Who else knows who you really are, Kim? Does your mother know?”

  She held me with a steady gaze. “First of all, Kim is who I really am. She might be a work in progress, but there’s no other ‘real me,’ okay? Second, Connie would kill me if I admitted she helped me. Third, no, my mother knows nothing about this. You might think it’s weird not to tell my own mother, but—”

  “Not in this case,” I said. “Look, I’m not going to blab to anyone. You never admitted Connie helped you, I figured it out myself. I just need to know who else knows.”

  “You. You, Bill, and now you have a huge advantage over me. I have no idea if I can trust you, and to be honest, I don’t really care right now. So do whatever you want.”

  “I want to get who killed Rod. That’s it. Does Mike know about you?”

  She snorted again. “Mike the eager beaver. No, he doesn’t. He’s gentleman enough not to ask too many questions.”

  I couldn’t really blame Kim for her aggressive tone. She was right about the advantage I had. “Be careful with Mike. Sylvain’s trying to buy him out. He could switch sides any minute.”

  “I’m careful with everyone, Bill. Or did you forget what my previous job was?”

  I gave what I hoped was a soothing smile. “How did you get involved with SG, anyway?”

  “Rupert,” she said. “He lured me in. Made it sound like a great business opportunity. Working with executives, learning different tech sectors, eventually moving into SG’s investment department. I meant what I said, he did care for us, but he also neglected to make clear to me that my real job, at first, would be going out on dates.”

  “Is their investment department the link with Sylvain?”

  “I wish I could tell you. I asked lots of questions about it until Trisha told me to shut up.”

  Since Kim was in such a blunt mood, I asked, “Did you pass Algoplex information on to Rupert?”

  Her eyes flashed. “It was part of the job. We got bonuses. I had to play the game, I had to feed them something. I didn’t know I was going to feel about Rod the way I did. There was so much to him, Bill, so much more than people know. I kind of unlocked something in him. I sound like I’m bragging, but I’m not.”

  “Exactly how much information did you pass on to Rupert?”

  “You talk like it was easy for me, Bill. I hated it! But I couldn’t let them get suspicious. And I couldn’t tell Rod—I was afraid he’d dismiss me on the spot.” She twirled a strand of hair around her finger. “Did Rod talk about me? What did he say?”

  “He suspected you were spying. In fact, he pretty much knew. He loved you, anyway, Kim. He couldn’t help himself.”

  She massaged her brows. “He had such a hard time believing how I felt about him. He didn’t realize how great he was. I knew how to do the glamour thing, my mother made sure of that. Rod thought he was out of my league. I told him I was sick of it, sick of the veils, the come-ons, the string-alongs, the marketplace mentality about relationships. I was sick of feeling like a product. It worked in the other direction, too: Women looked at their potential mates like investment opportunities. The sad thing is, I didn’t know any different until I met Rod. Then I saw what could be with him. I still had my training and my old habits, and I had to use them in public. I admit, I even used them to reel him back in if I thought he was slipping.”

  “Slipping?”

  “Losing interest,” she said impatiently. “Don’t you understand? My big fear was he’d never want me if I dropped all the veils. I’m just me, I don’t have a good education or upbringing or anything. I didn’t know much, but I knew I wanted more from my life. I wanted the kind of thing I had with Rod.”

  “So turning into Kim was the last veil. The one that would put an end to all the others. I have to say, you’ve got a certain look down. I mean that as a compliment.”

  She made a face. “Yeah, who’d choose this persona?”

  “The change is kind of a jolt,” I admitted, thinking of the photograph of Alissa. “But Rod was all about substance. He would have been thrilled when he found out it was you. His wildest dream would have come true.”

  Kim was suddenly silent. I hadn’t meant to pose what they’d both lost so starkly. “I’m sorry—” I began.

  “Never mind. You forget that I grew up with the feeling we’d already lost everything. At least I’m still on the planet; I’ll have another chance someday. It’s Rod you should feel sorry for. I still can’t believe he’s gone. I keep going back to the house. Maybe it’s not right, but I can’t stop myself. I keep thinking he’ll come walking up the stairs from the basement office. You’re right, he programmed things like the door and the fireplace so they’d be activated by my voice. But there were other things, too, silly little messages he left in different rooms. If I went into a room singing, the furniture would talk to me. Funny things, like ‘Here comes Alissa, most beautiful woman on earth,’ or ‘At the sound of the beep, please remove your clothes.’ When I was in the house, that first night you found me, I’d been going around picking up those messages. I was in a state.”

  We sat in silence, thinking of Rod and his delight in gadgets. Rain gusted against the sliding glass door. After a while, I said, “Weren’t you worried about someone recognizing your voice?”

  “I planned to stay away from people who’d known me. But just to be ca
reful, Connie helped me alter it. I’ve been practicing to make it deeper. I’ve also been smoking, and drinking abrasives, to make it rougher.”

  “And you told Rod nothing about the plan, not even a hint?”

  Kim sighed. Her voice quivered. “He’s a lousy liar. I knew Rupert would grill him. I thought I was protecting him by making him think Alissa had disappeared.”

  I nodded. “If it makes you feel any better, I think you were right.”

  “Who do you think killed Rod?”

  “Right now, I’d say it was Trisha and Rupert. They have the most obvious motives. At first I thought it was because they believed Rod had kidnapped you. Now, with Trisha being the real power behind Sylvain, it looks like the motive was to take over Algoplex.”

  “Get her, Bill.” Kim’s tone was almost vicious. “I’ll bet Rupert wasn’t involved or didn’t know what was really going on. But I want you to get Trisha.”

  “I will, if she’s the one. Tell me more about her and Silicon Glamour. Wendy says she started as a showgirl in Vegas?”

  “I heard that once at SG, too. I could believe it. But I don’t have much else to tell you—she knew everything about us, and we knew nothing about her. That was how it worked. And you already understand how SG operates. You said something earlier today about Erika—do you know her?”

  “Yes.” I recounted my date with Erika and the liquid that had been thrown in her face.

  “Oh, no,” Kim gasped. “Oh, no! That was because of me, too, wasn’t it?”

  “No, it was because of me. She took a risk for me. We just have to hope the damage isn’t permanent.”

  “I feel awful about that.”

  “Connie should, too. She refused to help Erika.”

  Kim sighed. “She probably had to, in order not to arouse Trisha’s suspicion. Well, when this is all over, I’ll call Erika. Is she still in the building?”

  “No. Call her on her mobile. Listen, at SG, did you meet a couple of thuggish guys named Larsen and Terry?”

  Kim shook her head. “No. I don’t think I ever heard those names.”

  “What about Gary? Tell me about him. And Brendon.”

  “Gary’s just—well, he’s Rupert’s boyfriend for one thing, but he’s like the bodyguard. So he has to act tough. He’s actually very sweet. He’d hurt somebody if they were attacking one of us, but I can’t picture him killing Rod. And Brendon, all I know about him is he had that crush on me. I don’t know why he picked me for his obsession; maybe because I was the one woman who didn’t swoon over him. Brendon was so used to getting what he wanted. The more I said no, the harder he tried. He made fun of Rod all the time.”

  “Do you know he left SG and has teamed up with your mother?”

  Kim’s hand went to her mouth. “Oh my God, you’re kidding! That’s ridiculous! To do what?”

  “To get to you—or Alissa. He thinks Wendy can deliver you. As for Wendy, she seems to think he—and I—can procure Eternaderm. She’s desperate for it. Apparently she’s got this guy in Reno, and he’s—”

  “Like most men,” Kim interjected. “I’m sure Brendon wouldn’t give me a second look now. But I hope Reno works out for Mom.”

  “Sounds like you’re keeping a safe distance.”

  “Rod was right. I need to take a break from her. I mean, she’s my mother, and I want to be there for her—eventually. But I want to start my new life first. Whatever that means. A widow who never was married.”

  “Why won’t Connie let her test the treatment?”

  “I don’t know. Mom and I did some photo shoots with Plush once. It was a little, um, tricky. It seems like Connie should be nice to her, but . . . somehow Mom always screws up. Connie agreed with Rod. She wanted me to get away from Mom.”

  “That would explain why Wendy hates both of them. She was afraid they were stealing you from her, shutting her out. Trisha, too, I imagine.”

  “Rupert always said that SG was my family now, not Wendy.”

  “What else should I know about your mother, Kim?”

  “She’s not such a bad person,” Kim said. “She just wants a break in life, that’s all. I mean, a big break, bigger than most schlumps get. That’s what she called them, the people we were supposedly better than. She said we were destined for great things. She would take me on these real-estate tours, you know, tours of expensive mansions, and promise that one day we’d live in one. We deserved them, she said, for—I don’t know, for just being us. It’s kind of pathetic. Rod and Connie were right, her values are in the wrong place. But I can’t hate her. I hope Brendon isn’t taking advantage of her.”

  I chuckled. “She’ll be fine. He’ll do anything for her. I think it’s because she creates a very passable likeness of Alissa when she wants to.” Kim grimaced, and I said, “Yeah, it’s weird all right. Anyway, it’d be a big help if Connie would at least pretend to put her on the Eternaderm list. Wendy and Brendon know things about Trisha that I need to know.”

  “I’ll talk to Connie.”

  The rain had let up. The sound of car wheels squished in the alley. Kim got to her feet. “I don’t want to stay here much longer, Bill. I just came to get a few things. You said something about a knife.”

  “Yeah, the knife. Well, it seems to be the one that was used on Rod. And it was found under your mattress, covered with blood.”

  “What? That’s horrible! You can’t think—”

  “I think that Trisha or Rupert planted it here. But we’ll hear from the police tomorrow about what prints and whose blood are on the knife.”

  She shivered and looked around. “How did they get in?”

  I didn’t want to tell her it hadn’t been so hard. “This is an SG apartment. I’m sure Rupert had access to a key.”

  “You’re right. Okay, now I really want to get out of here. You’ve got my number. It’s better if you don’t know where I’m staying.”

  I stood up. “I’ll walk out with you.”

  “No, you go on ahead. I just, you know—I want a minute alone. Here, you can take this towel to stay dry.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’ll call you in the morning.”

  “Thanks,” Kim said. She wandered into the kitchen, preoccupied with her own thoughts. I slipped the door open, checked the hall, and made my way down the stairs.

  I turned up my collar as I went down the walk. A light rain was still falling. Absorbed in thoughts of my own, I never saw the guy lurking outside the gate. As I came through it, he slammed me up against the iron fence.

  I reacted instinctively and threw my elbow into his nose. He let out a yelp and swung at my head. I ducked, but he caught the top of it. I hit him in the chest. He staggered backward. We circled each other in the dark.

  “Who are you?” I said.

  “Who are you?” he said.

  I faked a couple of punches at him. He flinched, then announced, “I don’t want to hurt you. Just leave Kim alone.”

  I straightened. “You’re with Kim?”

  “I’m watching out for her. It’s dangerous around here. Maybe you didn’t know that.”

  I shook my head. “Okay, calm down.” I backed my way toward the Scout, keeping an eye on him. He stayed by the gate.

  I had a little too much to think about as I drove back up 101 to San Francisco. Alissa. Rod. Connie. Kim. She’d been so convincing. I’d been ready to believe her story, hook, line, and sinker. Now I remembered how she’d claimed to be at my mercy, knowing all the while a guy was waiting outside to jump me.

  21

  Thursday morning dawned cold. Long red fingers reached across the icy waters of the bay. I’d woken before light, brewed some coffee, and then walked down to the water-front. I think best when I walk. Rod once told me that the mathematician al-Khwarizmi, in his calculation of reduction and restoration, called the unknown for which he was solving shai, “the thing.” For me, the thing was who killed Rod. I tried to devise an algorithm of motives and opportunities, means and inferences, to solve for that unknow
n.

  Motives to kill Rod were plentiful. The clearest belonged to Rupert and Trisha—especially Trisha, if she was the real power behind Sylvain. Rupert’s talents leaned more to the daily operation of SG. My theory was that Sylvain provided a secret outlet for SG’s profits. Trisha had used Alissa and Sylvain to lure Rod into the alliance with Plush. Eliminating Rod had opened the way for her to get her hands on Algoplex and Rod’s brilliant software at a cheap price. Trisha used the SG associates for espionage and Larsen and Terry for muscle.

  I’d crossed the 20th Street bridge. Now I turned left down Illinois, toward China Basin. The rain had stopped sometime during the night and the high pressure that usually followed a storm had moved in. The air was chilly enough that I needed to wear a hat and gloves.

  Wendy and Brendon also had motives, less calculated but still strong. Both, for their own reasons, felt Rod had stolen Alissa from them—perhaps literally, or perhaps by winning her heart. Wendy also blamed Rod for conspiring to keep Eternaderm from her. The only problem was, she and Brendon didn’t strike me as competent enough to carry off a murder. Not only that, killing Rod would deprive them of what they presumed was their lead to Alissa.

  I couldn’t rule out Mike Riley, either. A new picture of him was coming into focus. The story arc of this picture was that he would throw up his arms on Algoplex, cash out while the cashing was good, waltz off with Kim, and move on to the next target. His heartfelt words about Rod were window dressing. Or, even if he felt them at the time, they wouldn’t get in the way of his doing what today’s executive needed to do. Nor was it impossible that he and Kim had planned the whole thing from the start. Mike’s competitive streak might have given him delight in stealing his boss’s girlfriend, even if it was a setup all along.

  After the way last night ended, I didn’t know what to think of Kim. I’d believed her up until then; her emotions seemed so genuine. But I’d witnessed enough spells cast over the past week to doubt my own perceptions. Mike’s allegedly new infatuation with her could be a ruse. The fact that Connie Plush was helping both of them meant she could be in on it, too.