Naked in Death (6 page)

“It’s a long shot, but he’s got some backing for the next election.” Feeney moved his shoulders.

“Rockman’s alibied, anyway. By DeBlass. They were in East Washington. ”’ She sat. “Anything else?”

“Charles Monroe. He’s had an interesting life, nothing shady that shows. I’m working on the victim’s logs. You know, sometimes if you’re careless in altering files, you leave shadows floating. Seems to me somebody just kills a woman could get careless.”

“You find a shadow, Feeney, clear away the gray, and I’ll buy you a case of that lousy whiskey you like.”

“Deal. I’m still working on Roarke,” he added. “There’s a guy who isn’t careless. Every time I think I’ve gotten over one wall of security, I hit another. Whatever data there is on him is well guarded.”

“Keep scaling those walls. I’ll try digging under them.”

When Feeney left, Eve shifted to her terminal. She hadn’t wanted to check in front of Mavis, and preferred, in this case, using her office unit. The question was simple.

Eve entered the name and address of her apartment complex. Asked: Owner?

And so the answer was simple: Roarke.

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Lola Starr’s license for sex was only three months old. She’d applied for it on her eighteenth birthday, the earliest possible date. She liked to tell her friends she’d been an amateur until then.

It was the same day she’d left her home in Toledo, the same day she’d changed her name from Alice Williams. Both home and name had been far too boring for Lola.

She had a cute, pixie face. She’d nagged and begged and wept until her parents had agreed to buy her a more pointed chin and a tip-tilted nose for her sixteenth birthday.

Lola had wanted to look like a sexy elf and thought she’d succeeded. Her hair was coal black, cut in short, sassy spikes. Her skin was milk white and firm. She was saving for enough money to have her eyes changed from brown to emerald green, which she thought would suit her image better. But she’d been lucky enough to have been born with a lush little body that needed no more than basic maintenance.

She’d wanted to be a licensed companion all of her life. Other girls might have dreamed of careers in law or finance, studied their way into medicine or industry. But Lola had always known she was born for sex.

And why not make a living from what you did best?

She wanted to be rich and desired and pampered. The desire part she found easy. Men, particularly older men, were willing to pay well for someone with Lola’s attributes. But the expenses of her profession were more stringent than she’d anticipated when she’d dreamed away in her pretty room in Toledo.

The licensing fees, the mandatory health exams, the rent, and sin tax all ate into profits. Once she’d finished paying for her training, she’d only had enough left to afford a small, one-room apartment at the ragged edges of Prostitute Walk.

Still, it was better than working the streets as many still did. And Lola had plans for bigger and better things.

One day she’d live in a penthouse and take only the cream of clients. She’d be wined and dined in the best restaurants, jetted to exotic places to entertain royalty and wealth.

She was good enough, and she didn’t intend to stay at the bottom of the ladder for long.

The tips helped. A professional wasn’t supposed to accept cash or credit bonuses. Not technically. But everyone did. She was still girl enough to prefer the pretty little gifts some of her clients offered. But she banked the money religiously and dreamed of her penthouse.

Tonight, she was going to entertain a new client, one who had requested she call him Daddy. She’d agreed, and had waited until the arrangements were made before she allowed herself a smirk. The guy probably thought he was the first one to want her to be his little girl. The fact was, after only a few short months on the job, pedophilia was rapidly becoming her specialty.

So, she’d sit on his lap, let him spank her, while telling her solemnly that she needed to be punished. Really, it was like playing a game, and most of the men were kind of sweet.

With that in mind, she chose a flirty skirted dress with a scalloped white collar. Beneath she wore nothing but white stockings. She’d removed her pubic hair, and was as bare and smooth as a ten year old.

After studying the reflection, she added a bit more color to her cheeks and clear gloss on her pouty lips.

At the knock on the door she grinned, and her young and still guileless face grinned back in the mirror.

She couldn’t yet afford video security, and used the Judas hole to check her visitor.

He was handsome, which pleased her. And, she assumed, old enough to be her father, which would please him.

She opened the door, aimed a shy, coy smile. “Hi, Daddy.”

He didn’t want to waste time. It was the one asset he had little of at the moment. He smiled at her. For a whore, she was a pretty little thing. When the door was shut at his back, he reached under her skirt and was pleased to find her naked. It would speed matters along if he could become aroused quickly.

“Daddy!” Playing her part, Lola let out a shrieking giggle. “That’s naughty.”

“I’ve heard you’ve been naughty.” He removed his coat and set it neatly aside while she pouted at him. Though he’d taken the precaution of clear sealing his hands, he would touch nothing in the room but her.

“I’ve been good, Daddy. Very good. “

“You’ve been naughty, little girl.” From his pocket he took a small video camera, which he set up, aimed toward the narrow bed she’d piled with pillows and stuffed animals.

“Are you going to take pictures?”

“That’s right.”

She’d have to tell him that would cost him extra, but decided to wait until the deed was done. Clients didn’t care to have their fantasies broken with reality. She’d learned that in training.

“Go lie down on the bed.”

“Yes, Daddy.” She lay among the pillows and grinning animals.

“I’ve heard you’ve been touching yourself.”

“No, Daddy.”

“It isn’t good to tell lies to your Daddy. I have to punish you, but then I’ll kiss it and make it better.” When she smiled, he walked to the bed. “Lift your skirt, little girl, and show me how you touched yourself.”

Lola didn’t care for this part. She liked being touched, but the feel of her own hands brought her little excitement. Still, she lifted her skirt, stroked herself, keeping her movements shy and hesitant as she expected he wanted.

It excited him, the glide of her small fingers. After all, that was what a woman was made for. To use herself, to use the men who wanted her.

“How does it feel?”

“Soft,” she murmured. “You touch, Daddy. Feel how soft.”

He laid a hand over hers, felt himself harden satisfactorily as he slipped a finger inside her. It would be quick, for both of them.

“Unbutton your dress,” he ordered, and continued to manipulate her as she opened it from its prim collar down. “Turn over.”

When she did, he brought his hand down on her pert bottom in smart slaps that reddened the creamy flesh while she whimpered in programmed response.

It didn’t matter if he hurt her or not. She’d sold herself to him.

“That’s a good girl.” He was fully erect now, beginning to throb. Still, his movements were careful and precise as he undressed. Naked, he straddled her, slipped his hands beneath her so that he could squeeze her breasts. So young, he thought, and let himself shudder from the pleasure of flesh that had yet to need refining.

“Daddy’s going to show you how he rewards good girls.”

He wanted her to take him into her mouth, but couldn’t risk it. The birth control her file listed she used would eradicate his sperm vaginally, but not orally.

Instead, he vaulted up her hips, taking the time to stroke his hands over that firm, young flesh as he drove himself into her.

He was rougher than either of them expected. After that first violent thrust, he held himself back. He had no wish to hurt her to the point where she would cry out. Though in a place such as this, he doubted anyone would notice or care.

Still, she was rather charmingly unskilled and naive. He settled on a slower, more gentle rhythm, which he discovered drew out his own pleasure.

She moved well, meeting him, matching him. Unless he was very mistaken, not all her groans and cries were simulated. He felt her tense, shudder, and he smiled, pleased that he’d been able to bring a whore to a genuine climax.

He closed his eyes and let himself come.

She sighed and cuddled into one of the pillows. It had been good, much, much better than she’d expected. And she hoped she’d found another regular.

“Was I a good girl, Daddy?”

“A very, very good girl. But we’re not done. Roll over.”

As she shifted, he rose and moved out of camera range. “Are we going to watch the video, Daddy?”

He only shook his head.

Remembering her role, she pouted. “I like videos. We can watch, and then you can show me how to be a good girl again.” She smiled at him, hoping for a bonus. “I could touch you this time. I’d like to touch you.”

He smiled and took the SIG 210 with silencer out of his coat pocket. He watched her blink in curiosity as he aimed the gun.

“What’s that? Is it a toy for me to play with?”

He shot her in the head first, the weapon barely making more than a pop as she jerked back. Coolly, he shot again, between those young, firm breasts, and last, as the silencer eroded, into her smooth, bare pubis.

Switching the camera off, he arranged her carefully among blood-soaked pillows and soiled, smiling animals while she stared up at him in wide-eyed surprise.

“It was no life for a young girl,” he told her gently, then went back to the camera to record the last scene.

 CHAPTER FIVE

All Eve wanted was a candy bar. She’d spent most of the day testifying in court, and her lunch break had been eaten up by a call from a snitch that had cost her fifty dollars and gained her a slim lead on a smuggling case that had resulted in two homicides, which she’d been beating her head against for two months.

All she wanted was a quick hit of sugar substitute before she headed home to prep for her seven o’clock meeting with Roarke.

She could have zipped through any number of drive-through InstaStores, but she preferred the little deli on the corner of West Seventy-eighth — despite, or perhaps because of the fact that it was owned and run by Francois, a rude, snake-eyed refugee who’d fled to America after the Social Reform Army had overthrown the French government some forty years before.

He hated America and Americans, and the SRA had been dispatched within six months of the coup, but Francois remained, bitching and complaining behind the counter of the Seventy-eighth Street deli where he enjoyed dispensing insults and political absurdities.

Eve called him Frank to annoy him, and dropped in at least once a week to see what scheme he’d devised to try to short credit her.

Her mind on the candy bar, she stepped through the automatic door. It had no more than begun to whisper shut behind her when instinct kicked in.

The man standing at the counter had his back to her, his heavy, hooded jacket masking all but his size, and that was impressive.

Six-five, she estimated, easily two-fifty. She didn’t need to see Francois’s thin, terrified face to know there was trouble. She could smell it, as ripe and sour as the vegetable hash that was today’s special.

In the seconds it took the door to clink shut, she’d considered and rejected the idea of drawing her weapon.

“Over here, bitch. Now.”

The man turned. Eve saw he had the pale gold complexion of a multiracial heritage and the eyes of a very desperate man. Even as she filed the description, she looked at the small round object he held in his hand.

The homemade explosive device was worry enough. The fact that it shook as the hand that held it trembled with nerves was a great deal worse.

Homemade boomers were notoriously unstable. The idiot was likely to kill all of them by sweating too freely.

She shot Francois a quick, warning look. If he called her lieutenant, they were all going to be meat very quickly. Keeping her hands in plain sight, she crossed to the counter.

“I don’t want any trouble,” she said, letting her voice tremble as nervously as the thief’s hand. “Please, I got kids at home.”

“Shut up. Just shut up. Down on the floor. Down on the fucking floor.”

Eve knelt, slipping a hand under her jacket where the weapon waited.

“All of it,” the man ordered, gesturing with the deadly little ball. “I want all of it. Cash, credit tokens. Make it fast.”

“It’s been a slow day,” Francois whined. “You must understand business is not what it was. You Americans — “

“You want to eat this?” the man invited, shoving the explosive in Francois’s face.

“No, no.” Panicked, Francois punched in the security code with his shaking fingers. As the till opened, Eve saw the thief glance at the money inside, then up at the camera that was busily recording the entire transaction.

She saw it in his face. He knew his image was locked there, and that all the money in New York wouldn’t erase it. The explosive would, tossed carelessly over his shoulder as he raced out to the street to be swallowed in traffic.

She sucked in a breath, like a diver going under. She came up hard, under his arm. The solid jolt had the device flying free. Screams, curses, prayers. She caught it in her fingertips, a high fly, shagged with two men out and the bases loaded. Even as she closed her hand around it, the thief swung out.

It was the back of his hand rather than a fist, and Eve considered herself lucky. She saw stars as she hit a stand of soy chips, but she held on to the homemade boomer.

Wrong hand, goddamn it, wrong hand, she had time to think as the stand collapsed under her. She tried to use her left to free her weapon, but the two hundred and fifty pounds of fury and desperation fell on her.

“Hit the alarm, you asshole,” she shouted as Francois stood like a statue with his mouth opening and closing. “Hit the fucking alarm.” Then she grunted as the blow to her ribs stole her breath. This time he’d used his fist.

He was weeping now, scratching and clawing up her arm in an attempt to reach the explosive. “I need the money. I got to have it. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you all.”

She managed to bring her knee up. The age old defense bought her a few seconds, but lacked the power to debilitate.

She saw stars again as her head smacked sharply into the side of a counter. Dozens of the candy bars she’d craved rained down on her.

“You son of a bitch. You son of a bitch.” She heard herself saying it, over and over as she landed three hard short arm blows to his face. Blood spurting from his nose, he grabbed her arm.

And she knew it was going to break. Knew she would feel that sharp, sweet pain, hear the thin crack as bone fractured.

But just as she drew in breath to scream, as her vision began to gray with agony, his weight was off her.

The ball still cupped in her hand, she rolled over onto her haunches, struggling to breathe and fighting the need to retch. From that position she saw the shiny black shoes that always said beat cop.

“Book him.” She coughed once, painfully. “Attempted robbery, armed, carrying an explosive, assault.” She’d have liked to have added assaulting an officer and resisting arrest, but as she hadn’t identified herself, she’d be skirting the line.

“You all right, ma’am? Want the MTs?”

She didn’t want the medi-techs. She wanted a fucking candy bar. “Lieutenant,” she corrected, pushing herself up and reaching for her ID. She noted that the perp was in restraints and that one of the two cops had been wise enough to use his stunner to take the fight out of him.

“We need a safe box — quick.” She watched both cops pale as they saw what she held in her hand. “This little boomer’s had quite a ride. Let’s get it neutralized.”

“Sir.” The first cop was out of the store in a flash. In the ninety seconds it took him to return with the black box used for transporting and deactivating explosives, no one spoke.

They hardly breathed.

“Book him,” Eve repeated. The moment the explosive was contained, her stomach muscles began to tremble. “I’ll transmit my report. You guys with the Hundred and twenty-third?”

“You bet, lieutenant.”

“Good job.” She reached down, favoring her injured arm and chose a Galaxy bar that hadn’t been flattened by the wrestling match. “I’m going home.”

“You didn’t pay for that,” Francois shouted after her.

“Fuck you, Frank,” she shouted back and kept going.

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The incident put her behind schedule. By the time she reached Roarke’s mansion, it was 7:10. She’d used over the counter medication to ease the pain in her arm and shoulder. If it wasn’t better in a couple of days, she knew she’d have to go in for an exam. She hated doctors.

She parked the car and spent a moment studying Roarke’s house. Fortress, more like, she thought. Its four stories towered over the frosted trees of Central Park. It was one of the old buildings, close to two hundred years old, built of actual stone, if her eyes didn’t deceive her.

There was lots of glass, and lights burning gold behind the windows. There was also a security gate, behind which evergreen shrubs and elegant trees were artistically arranged.

Even more impressive than the magnificence of architecture and landscaping was the quiet. She heard no city noises here. No traffic snarls, no pedestrian chaos. Even the sky overhead was subtly different than the one she was accustomed to farther downtown. Here, you could actually see stars rather than the glint and gleam of transports.

Nice life if you can get it, she mused, and started her car again. She approached the gate, prepared to identify herself. She saw the tiny red eye of a scanner blink, then hold steady. The gates opened soundlessly.

So, he’d programmed her in, she thought, unsure if she was amused or uneasy. She went through the gate, up the short drive, and left her car at the base of granite steps.

A butler opened the door for her. She’d never actually seen a butler outside of old videos, but this one didn’t disappoint the fantasy. He was silver haired, implacably eyed and dressed in a dark suit and ruthlessly knotted old-fashioned tie.

“Lieutenant Dallas.”

There was an accent, a faint one that sounded British and Slavic at once. “I have an appointment with Roarke.”

“He’s expecting you.” He ushered her into a wide, towering hallway that looked more like the entrance to a museum than a home.

There was a chandelier of star-shaped glass dripping light onto a glossy wood floor that was graced by a boldly patterned rug in shades of red and teal. A stairway curved away to the left with a carved griffin for its newel post.

There were paintings on the walls — the kind she had once seen on a school field trip to the Met. French Impressionists from what century she couldn’t quite recall. The Revisited Period that had come into being in the early twenty-first century complimented them with their pastoral scenes and gloriously muted colors.

No holograms or living sculpture. Just paint and canvas.

“May I take your coat?”

She brought herself back and thought she caught a flicker of smug condescension in those inscrutable eyes. Eve shrugged out of her jacket, watched him take the leather somewhat gingerly between his manicured fingers.

Hell, she’d gotten most of the blood off it.

“This way, Lieutenant Dallas. If you wouldn’t mind waiting in the parlor, Roarke is detained on a transpacific call.”

“No problem.”

The museum quality continued there. A fire was burning sedately. A fire out of genuine logs in a hearth carved from lapis and malachite. Two lamps burned with light like colored gems. The twin sofas had curved backs and lush upholstery that echoed the jewel tones of the room in sapphire. The furniture was wood, polished to an almost painful gloss. Here and there objets d’art were arranged. Sculptures, bowls, faceted glass.

Her boots clicked over wood, then muffled over carpet.

“Would you like a refreshment, lieutenant?”

She glanced back, saw with amusement that he continued to hold her jacket between his fingers like a soiled rag. “Sure. What have you got, Mr. — ?”

“Summerset, lieutenant. Simply Summerset, and I’m sure we can provide you with whatever suits your taste.”

“She’s fond of coffee,” Roarke said from the doorway, “but I think she’d like to try the Montcart forty-nine.”

Summerset’s eyes flickered again, with horror, Eve thought. “The forty-nine, sir?”

“That’s right. Thank you, Summerset.”

“Yes, sir.” Dangling the jacket, he exited, stiff-spined.

“Sorry I kept you waiting,” Roarke began, then his eyes narrowed, darkened.

“No problem,” Eve said as he crossed to her. “I was just… Hey — “

She jerked her chin as his hand cupped it, but his fingers held firm, turning her left cheek to the light. “Your face is bruised.” His voice was cool on the statement, icily so. His eyes as they flicked over the injury betrayed nothing.

But his fingers were warm, tensed, and jolted something in her gut. “A scuffle over a candy bar,” she said with a shrug.

His eyes met hers, held just an instant longer than comfortable. “Who won?”

“I did. It’s a mistake to come between me and food.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He released her, dipped the hand that had touched her into his pocket. Because he wanted to touch her again. It worried him that he wanted, very much, to stroke away the bruise that marred her cheek. “I think you’ll approve of tonight’s menu.”

“Menu? I didn’t come here to eat, Roarke. I came here to look over your collection.”

“You’ll do both.” He turned when Summerset brought in a tray that held an uncorked bottle of wine the color of ripened wheat and two crystal glasses.

“The forty-nine, sir.”

“Thank you. I’ll pour out.” He spoke to Eve as he did so. “I thought this vintage would suit you. What it lacks in subtlety…” He turned back, offering her a glass. “It makes up for in sensuality.” He tapped his glass against hers so the crystal sang, then watched as she sipped.

God, what a face, he thought. All those angles and expressions, all that emotion and control. Just now she was fighting off showing both surprise and pleasure as the taste of the wine settled on her tongue. He was looking forward to the moment when the taste of her settled on his.

“You approve?” he asked.

“It’s good.” It was the equivalent of sipping gold.

“I’m glad. The Montcart was my first venture into wineries. Shall we sit and enjoy the fire?”

It was tempting. She could almost see herself sitting there, legs angled toward the fragrant heat, sipping wine as the jeweled light danced.

“This isn’t a social call, Roarke. It’s a murder investigation.”

“Then you can investigate me over dinner.” He took her arm, lifting a brow as she stiffened. “I’d think a woman who’d fight for a candy bar would appreciate a two-inch fillet, medium rare.”

“Steak?” She struggled not to drool. “Real steak, from a cow?”

A smile curved his lips. “Just flown in from Montana. The steak, not the cow.” When she continued to hesitate, he tilted his head. “Come now, lieutenant, I doubt if a little red meat will clog your considerable investigative skills.”

“Someone tried to bribe me the other day,” she muttered, thinking of Charles Monroe and his black silk robe.

“With?”

“Nothing as interesting as steak.” She aimed one long, level look. “If the evidence points in your direction, Roarke, I’m still bringing you down.”

“I’d expect nothing less. Let’s eat.”

He led her into the dining room. More crystal, more gleaming wood, yet another shimmering fire, this time cupped in rose-veined marble. A woman in a black suit served them appetizers of shrimp swimming in creamy sauce. The wine was brought in, their glasses topped off.