Secrets in Death (In Death 45)

“There.” She turned Eve to the mirror. “Kick-ass, I-don’t-have-time-to-fuck-around cop.”

Prepared for the worst, Eve scowled. But … maybe her lips were a couple shades deeper—but it still looked like her mouth. Maybe her eyes read more intense, but basically, as with the hair, she couldn’t see a lot of difference.

“Okay. Get this thing off me, and tell me who and what else.”

“I didn’t do her that much. Look, mostly everybody knew she was banging Mitch L. He’s got his own stylist, and I’m not here that time of day, so I don’t know the guy. Mitch L., I mean. But I do know Mitch L. was previously banging one of his interns—Monicka Poole. That was on the serious down low, but then he started banging Larinda, and the intern got the axe, and she cried on her friend’s shoulder who happens to use my salon and she told me about it. Which means I told you and violated another C of S.”

“Not really,” Peabody said, rubbing Trina’s arm in sympathy. “You’re not violating a Cone of Silence when you have to tell the police.”

“It doesn’t feel right.”

“She bled out, Trina.”

Eve quashed her instinct to object to Peabody giving Trina too many details.

“Whoever she was, whatever she did, somebody killed her in a way that meant she bled to death trying to get help. Maybe it was only a few minutes, but it probably felt like hours to her.”

“She was a bitch,” Trina mumbled. “But … Crap, this is hard to say—it’s like Mega C of S. She’d had some real serious work done.”

“How do you know?” Eve demanded.

Trina rolled those purple, black-and-red-framed eyes. “Well, Jesus! I did her face, maybe a dozen times. You think I don’t know when I’ve got my hands on somebody’s face who’s had serious work? Just like I know you haven’t slapped that serum or moisturizer on yours more than maybe a dozen times in the last couple months.”

She gave Eve a dark look. “Keep that up, you’re going to need some serious work yourself. You got Mr. Frosty Extreme banging you, and you can’t be bothered with basic self-care? What’s your main damage?”

“Don’t start on me, and don’t worry about the Mega C of S. We already knew about the serious work.”

Relief all but breathed over Trina’s face. “Solid?”

“You think I don’t know my job?” Eve countered. Trina smirked.

“Kick ass. I gotta say something, get it off my chest. Once I started to screw up her look—easy to do, you just use the wrong foundation or colors. It was because she tried to hit me up about Mavis and the baby, and it pissed me off so hard. But I couldn’t do it, even then. Too much professional pride to fuck it up, even though I really wanted to. I could’ve made her look like a vampire under the lights. And now she’s dead.”

Eve saw Peabody about to speak, but shook her head. “You can’t have too much professional pride. If you could, I might walk away from this investigation now that I know she tried to get to Mavis and the baby, because it pisses me off hard. But I won’t. We do our jobs.”

Nadine rushed back in. “All right, they’re using filler to cover my scheduled spot, and hyping the upcoming one-on-one. A live one-on-one.”

“I didn’t agree to—”

“Live, my office. You look good,” she added. “Hey, Peabody. Let’s go. I’ve got a camera setting things up.”

“It’s going to be quick,” Eve warned. “I’ve got on my I-don’t-have-time-to-fuck-around face.”

At Trina’s cackle of laughter, Eve started out. “Peabody, ten minutes, Mars’s office. They damn well better be finished screwing around with the warrant.”

“You can do me in ten, right?” Eve heard Peabody say.

“Babycakes, I can make you a star in ten.”

“I need a jump on the media conference.” Nadine hustled past offices, down halls, through open areas, on her staggering black heels.

“I’m going to give you what I can give you. Exclusive and ahead of the rest, but you have to pool some of the info.”

The staggering black heels skidded to a stop. “Wait just a damn—”

“Kyung set the terms here,” Eve interrupted. “And it works. You control how much you share, and you get that edge. Which takes the time and edge off me for the media conference later today. You get the jump, Nadine, decide what you throw in the pool, and you can work out the fine lines with Kyung.”

“There are going to be some very fine lines.”