The In Death Collection Books 16-20 - J. D. Robb [229]
She glanced over her shoulder just to look at him. Cynical or not, she reflected, they were a pair. “He never talked about her as a partner, or as one of the points of the family triangle. You saw his stuff and the boy’s lying around. Toys, shoes, and so on, but nothing of hers. Interesting, that’s all. Interesting that they’re not a unit. Bring up the parental data.”
She scanned it, filling in the blanks from the bare essentials she’d studied earlier. “See, the mother’s the alpha dog here, too. Important career, the main wage earner. Father retired from his job to take over as professional parent. And look here, Mom served as an officer, including president, of the International Women’s Coalition, and is a contributing editor to The Feminist Voice. An NYU alum, while Dad went to Kent State. Yeah, that’s interesting.”
“Scenario being, Breen grew up in a female-dominant household, controlled by a woman with strong ideas and a political bent while his father changed the nappies and so forth. The mother pushed him to study at her alma mater, or he did so to gain her approval. And when choosing a mate, he selected another strong personality who would control his world while he took the more historically typical female role of nurturer.”
“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 with Julietta Gates 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 appears Leo 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 skinned to the bone in the divorce, and endured considerable snickering publicity as several other women were happy to talk to the media about their experiences with the hapless Leo. One is quoted as saying: ‘He’s a walking hard-on, always coming on and usually petering out at the sticking point.’ Ouch.”
“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 on Peabody.”
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.