‘I always have to be the good cop,’ he muttered as they stepped into a well-lighted hallway with more marble, more gilt.

Justin Young opened the opposing door with perfect timing. And, Eve thought, he’d dressed for the part of the well-to-do yet cooperative witness in casual, expensive, buff linen slacks and a drapey silk shirt of the same tone. On his feet were trendy sandals with thick soles and intricate beading over the instep.

‘Lieutenant Dallas, Captain Feeney.’ His beautifully sculpted face was in serious lines, the killer black eyes sober and a dramatic contrast to a wavy mane of hair the same color as the gilt in the hallway. He offered a hand adorned with a wide ring studded with onyx. ‘Please come in.’

‘Thank you for agreeing to see us so quickly, Mr. Young.’ Perhaps her eye had become jaded, but Eve’s initial scan of the room left her thinking, Overdone, overwrought, and over-expensive.

‘It’s such a tragedy, such a horror.’ He gestured them in toward a huge L-shaped sofa jammed with pillows in wild colors and slick fabrics. Across the room, a meditation screen was programmed to a tropical beach at sunset. ‘It’s almost impossible to believe she could be dead, much less that she died in such a sudden and violent way.’

‘We’re sorry to intrude,’ Feeney began, prepping for his good cop role while he struggled not to gape at all the tassels and stained glass. ‘This must be a difficult time for you.’

‘It is. Pandora and I were friends. Can I offer you something? ’ He sat, elegant and slim, in a wing chair that could have swallowed a small child.

‘No, thank you.’ Eve tried to wiggle her way back among the mountain of cushions.

‘I will, if you don’t mind. I’ve been living on little more than nerves since I heard the news.’ Leaning forward, he pressed a small button on the table between them. ‘Coffee, please. One.’ Settling back, he smiled a little. ‘You’ll want to know where I was when she died. I’ve done a number of police vehicles in my career. Played the cop, the suspect, even the victim in my early days. With my image, I’ve always been innocent.’

He flicked a glance up as a domestic droid, dressed, Eve noted with horrified amusement, in the classic French maid’s uniform, carried in a glass tray topped with a single cup and saucer. Justin took the cup from it, used both hands to bring it to his lips.

‘The media hasn’t stated exactly when Pandora was killed, but I believe I can give you my movements for the entire evening. I was with her, at a small party at her home until about midnight. Jerry and I - Jerry Fitzgerald - left together, and went to have a drink at a nearby private club. Ennui. It’s very in right now, and it pays for both of us to be seen. I imagine it was one or so when we left. We considered doing a bit of club hopping, but I confess, we’d both had enough to drink, and enough socializing. We came here, stayed here together until about ten the next morning. Jerry had an assignment. It wasn’t until she’d left and I was having my first cup of coffee that I turned on the news and heard about Pandora.’

‘That certainly covers the evening,’ Eve said. He’d recited it all, she thought, as though it was a well-staged play. ‘We’ll need to speak to Ms. Fitzgerald to verify.’

‘Certainly. Would you like to do so now? She’s in the relaxation room. Pandora’s death has left her a bit rattled.’

‘Let’s let her relax a bit longer,’ Eve suggested. ‘You said you and Pandora were friends. Were you lovers?’

‘Now and again, nothing serious. It was more that we ran in the same circles. And to be brutally honest at such a time, Pandora preferred men who were easily dominated, intimidated.’ He flashed a smile as if to show he was neither. ‘She preferred affairs with those who were striving rather than those who had attained success. She rarely enjoyed sharing the spotlight.’

Feeney picked up the rhythm. ‘Who was she involved with, romantically, at the time of her death?’

‘There were a few, I believe. Someone I think she’d met on Starlight Station - an entrepreneur, she called him, but with a sarcastic tone. This up-and-coming designer Jerry tells me is brilliant. Michelangelo, Puccini, Leonardo. Something of the kind. Paul Redford, the video producer who joined us that night.’

He took a sip of his coffee, then blinked. ‘Leonardo. Yes, it was Leonardo. There was some sort of tiff there. A woman came by the house while we were there. They fought over him. An old-fashioned catfight. It would have been amusing if it hadn’t been so embarrassing for everyone involved.’

He spread his elegant fingers, looked mildly amused despite his statement. Well done, Eve thought. Well rehearsed, good timing, lines professionally punched.

‘It took Paul and I both to separate them.’

‘The woman came to Pandora’s home and attacked her, physically?’ Eve asked in carefully neutral tones.

‘Oh no, not at all. The poor thing was devastated, pleading. Pandora called her a few vile names and hit her.’ Justin demonstrated by making a fist, jerking it. ‘Really socked her. The woman was small, but she was game. Scrambled right up and plowed in. After that it was wrestling and hair pulling, scratching. The woman was bleeding some when she left. Pandora had lethal nails.’

‘Pandora scratched the woman’s face?’

‘No. Though I’m sure she was going to have quite a bruise. It was her neck as I recall. Four long,

nasty scratches on the side of the neck where Pandora raked her. The woman, I’m afraid I don’t know her name. Pandora just called her bitch, and varieties of the same. She was trying not to cry when she left, and told Pandora, quite dramatically, that Pandora would be sorry for what she’d done. Then I’m afraid she ruined her exit by sniffling and claiming that love conquers all.’

It sounded just like Mavis, Eve thought. ‘And after she left, how did Pandora behave?’

‘She was furious, overexcitable. That’s why Jerry and I left early.’

‘And Paul Redford?’

‘He stayed; I can’t say how long.’ With a sigh that signaled regret, Justin set his coffee aside. ‘It’s unfair to say anything negative about Pandora when she can’t defend herself, but she was hard, very often abrasive. Cross her, and you paid.’

‘And did you ever cross her, Mr. Young?’

Tags: J.D. Robb In Death Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net