A Face to Die For (Forensic Instincts 6)

“Could you watch this for me?” she asked.

“Sure.”

“Great, thanks.” Lina turned and walked over to the counter.

Casey eyed the handbag. It was the real deal, not a fake. It cost almost two thousand dollars. And the casual way Lina handled it—this girl was used to money. Her family must be loaded. That explained how she could afford a one-bedroom apartment located at the university’s doorstep.

A few minutes later, Lina returned to the table carrying a replica of Casey’s order.

“I love their lattes,” she said, taking her seat. “And as for their croissants, I’d be an elephant if I ate here more often. I limit myself to once a month.”

“Smart move.” Casey took her first bite. “M-m-m, this is decadent.”

“Told you so.” Lina bit into her own pastry, then put it down, used a napkin to wipe her fingers, and picked up her latte. “I’m glad Brianna took my advice and came to you. Forensic Instincts has a great reputation. And Brianna is really losing it—not that I blame her. Even I’m getting more and more freaked out by this psycho-stalker, and I’m not his target.”

Casey set down her cup. She liked the fact that this girl seemed to cut straight to the chase, no bullshit. “Do you mind if I tape this conversation?” she asked. “It’ll make it easier to focus on what you’re saying, rather than my being distracted by note-taking.” Not to mention it will give me the ability to watch your face and read your body language.

“Sure,” Lina agreed at once. She waited while Casey scrolled to the right app on her iPhone, placed the phone on the table, and pressed the record icon.

“All set.” Casey continued to sip her latte, keeping her body relaxed and her actions casual. No point in freaking out the poor girl. To a novice, these recorded meetings could feel like a police interrogation. “Let’s start by keeping our voices low and not using any real names, not while we’re in public. Refer to the man in question as Joe. That name is used in here every five seconds, given where we are. So no one will be looking up to see who Joe is and why he’s being discussed. As for your friend…” Casey avoided using Brianna’s name again. “… she’ll be Anne.”

“Good point.” Lina nodded. “Okay. Tell me what you want to know. Anne is my best friend. Anything I can do to help her, I will.”

“Loyal friends are hard to come by,” Casey replied. “Anne is fortunate to have you. And, please remember, no matter how probing my questions might seem, we’re all on the same side. I just need your take on things, partly because it will be less biased than Anne’s and partly because I want to know what you saw firsthand rather than what Anne told you.”

“Shoot.”

First came establishing credibility. That’s where Casey’s behavioral analysis skills and gut instincts came in. The combination would tell her a lot about Brianna’s best friend. Was she as much of a straight shooter as she appeared to be? Or was she an exaggerator? A half-truth teller? An evader? How much could they call upon her during this investigation? Was she reliable? Shrewd? As loyal to Brianna as she appeared to be? And how much face-to-face knowledge did she have or could she acquire?

Time to start the process of finding out.

“You and Anne met in an economics class?” Casey asked.

“The first week of our first semester,” Lina replied. “We hit it off right away.”

Casey digested that and then went on to get a better insight into what made Lina tick. “I know that Anne went the corporate route in between her BS and her MBA. What about you?”

Lina’s grin was rueful. “When I graduated from FIT, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to apply my education. I’ve always had a business head. My mom owns a boutique in SoHo. She suggested I come on as her buyer. That really appealed to me. So I dived right in. Ultimately, I decided I wanted to go into product development and marketing at a luxury brand—you know, like LVMH—so I applied to Stern and got in. I’ll be getting my MBA in marketing with a specialization in luxury marketing.”

Casey’s brows rose. “That sounds impressive.”

“I doubt it’ll be impressive when I’m working sixteen-hour days,” Lina replied dryly. “But hopefully I’ll love it enough not to mind.”

“That’s how it is with me. My career is much more than a job. It’s a huge part of who I am. Sometimes it sucks me dry. But it’s worth every drop of lost sleep.” Casey took another bite of her croissant and a sip of her latte and then returned to the matter at hand. “So you and Anne became fast friends. That’s great. And clearly you built trust. Also great. When her problems with Joe began, did she immediately confide in you or did she keep it to herself for a while?”

“She didn’t wait a second. She ran straight to me from the first time that prick came on to her. She was totally freaked out. I was furious. If it had been up to me, I would have gone to the dean—after I kicked Joe in the balls. But I’m a hothead. Anne knew better. We had nothing concrete to report. And that bastard knew it.”

“Do you know him personally?”

“I wasn’t registered in any of his classes, if that’s what you mean. But he’s pretty brilliant when it comes to marketing. He sometimes gave extra workshops, which were open to the entire student body. I attended a bunch of those. And he showed up at school functions, so I’ve seen him outside the classroom, too. I hear that he’s teaching a digital marketing course this summer to the part-time MBA students. All in all, I certainly know who he is. Then again, most of the female grad students do.”

The disdainful note in Lina’s last sentence wasn’t lost on Casey. “Are you implying he has a reputation for this kind of behavior?”

“Let’s put it this way. His reputation is based only on rumors—but there are way too many of them to be bogus. No woman has actually come forward, probably for the same reasons Anne hasn’t. But hey, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

“How much fire? Has there ever been any talk about rape?”

“Not that I’ve heard. Besides, he’s too smart to flush his career down the toilet from an accusation like that.”