Imitation in Death

“Yeah, which doesn’t make him a whacked-out psychopath, but it’s something to consider. Copy and file the data here and to my unit at Central.”

He smiled as he did so. “It appears I’ve selected a strong personality as well. What does that say about me, I wonder?”

“Please,” she added, and remembering the cookies walked over to take one. “I’ll have a face-to-face withJuliettaGates tomorrow. Meanwhile, let’s move on to Fortney,Leo.”

Fortney was thirty-eight, and had two marriages, two divorces, no offspring. With Roarke’s quick work, and his understanding of what she wanted, she read that his first wife had been a minor vid star, in the porn category. The marriage had lasted just over a year. The second was a successful theatrical agent.

“There’s some buzz here,” Roarke added. “The juicy gossip sort from media reports. You want them up, or do you want the highlights?”

“Start with the highlights.”

“It appearsLeo was a very bad boy.” Roarke sipped coffee as he read from his own screen. “Got caught with his pants down, literally, in a hotel suite in New L.A., entertaining a pair of well-endowed starlets. Besides the two naked nubile starlets-that’s a quote, by the way-there were rumors that considerable chemical enhancements and appliances of a sexual nature were also involved. Obviously, suspecting something of the sort, his wife had a P.I. on him. He was ski

“Sexually promiscuous, unable to maintain, and embarrassed publicly by a woman. Got a sheet with a couple of sexual assaults and an indecent exposure. I like it. And look at his financials. No way he can maintain the lifestyle he wants on what he pulls in. He needs a woman-currently Pepper Franklin-to keep him.”

“I don’t like him,” Roarke muttered, continuing to read. “She deserves better.”

“He hit onPeabody.”

He looked up now, a dark gleam in his eye. “I really don’t like him. Did he move on you?”

“Nah. He’s scared of me.”

“At least he isn’t completely brainless then.”

“What he is, is an ego-soaked liar who likes to take bimbos to bed-Peabody played up the bimbo angle on him-and use stronger women to take care of him, then cheat on them. He’s educated, knows how to put on a polished front. Likes the good life, including high-dollar writing paper, is theatrical enough to enjoy the imitation route, and has the necessary freedom to troll and hunt. What have we got on his parents, family background?”

“On-screen. You can see his mother’s an actress. Largely supporting roles, character parts. I actually know some of her work. She’s good, stays busy.”

“HadLeo with husband number two out of five. I’ll say she stays busy. So he’s got a number of step- and half-sibs. Father’s a theatrical broker. Same asLeo. Somebody who puts projects together, right?”

“Mmm. There you go. There are snippets of gossip here, too.” He was sca

“So add a violent childhood and potential parental neglect. Mom’s a public figure, which makes her powerful. They probably had household staff, right? Maids, gardeners, full-time childcare. You could see what you could dig up on who looked after littleLeo while you display the Renquists for me.”

“Then I’m having another cookie.”

She glanced back as he spoke, ready to make some sarcastic comment. But the look of him, just the look of him sitting there at her desk, his hair shining from the shower, his eyes vivid and focused on the screen, had her heart tripping.

Ridiculous, it was ridiculous. She knew what he looked like, and he could still turn her inside out without even trying.

He must have sensed her stare as he shifted his eyes, met hers. An absurdly handsome man with a cookie in his hand. “I think I deserve it.”

Her mind blanked. “What?”

“The cookie,” he said and took a bite. Then he cocked his head. “What?”

“Nothing.” Vaguely embarrassed, she turned around again and ordered her heart to settle back down. Time, she told herself, to move to the next.

Renquist,Niles, she thought. Self-important, snotty bastard. But that was just personal opinion. Time for facts.

He’d been born inLondon, to a society deb who was half Brit, half Yank. Fourth cousin to the king on her mother’s side and tons of money on her father’s. His father wasLordRenquist, a member of Parliament and a staunch conservative. One younger sister who’d settled inAustralia with husband number two.

Renquist had the full British educational package. TheStonebridgeSchool toEton,Eton toEdinburghUniversity. Served two years in the RAF, as commissioned officer, rank of captain. Fluent in Italian and French and joined the diplomatic corps at age thirty, the same year as his marriage toPamelaElizabethDysert.

She had a similar background and education. Well-placed parents, high-class education, which had included six years at a boarding school inSwitzerland. She was an only child, and had considerable money of her own.

They were,Eve supposed, what people of that class would call a good match.

Everemembered the little girl who’d come to the steps while she’d been questioningPamelaRenquist. The little pink-and-gold doll,Rose, who’d given the na

No, not na

Wouldn’t Renquist have had an au pair growing up?

His schedule, daytime, wasn’t as flexible as the others’. But would an assistant or admin question him if he told them to block out a couple of hours? She studied the ID image of Renquist on-screen, and doubted it.

No criminal on him or the wife. No little smudges as there had been with Breen and Fortney. Just a perfect picture, all polished and shiny.

She didn’t buy it.

He hadn’t married until thirty, she thought. A reasonable age, if you were going the “till death” route. Plus, a man with political ambitions did better in the field if he presented the package of wife and family. But unless he’d taken a vow of celibacy, there’d have been other relationships before the marriage.

And maybe after it.

It might be worth having a conversation with the current au pair. Who knew family dynamics better than live-in help?

She went back for more coffee. “You could shoot up the data onCarmichaelSmith.”

“Do you want that before the data on the Fortney na

“You’ve got that already?”

“What can I say? I earn my cookies.”

“Fortney first, smart guy. Let’s keep it ordered.”

“Difficult, as it appears there were several child-care providers used. It appears his mother chewed through them like gumdrops. Baby nurses, au pairs, whatever. Seven total over a period of just under ten years. None stayed on the job longer than two years, with an average stay of six months.”

“Doesn’t seem long enough to have any serious impact. So my thought would be the mother remained the authority figure.”

“And from this data, one assumes an incendiary one. Three of the former employees filed hardship suits against her. All were settled out of court.”

“I’m going to have to take a closer look at the mother.” She paced back and forth in front of the screen while she ran it through her head. “Leohas a mother who’s an actress, and his current lover is in the same profession. He goes into a profession where he’ll deal with actors, have some control over them-be controlled, I imagine, by them. That says something. The killer is acting. Assuming a role, and proving he can play the part better than the original, and with more finesse. When I run a probability with this data, it’s going to come out high onLeo.”