The In Death Collection Books 16-20 - J. D. Robb [384]
“You ever meet his brother?” Peabody asked.
“Nope. Figured he was making it up till I saw this scrapbook deal Carter kept at his place. Full of media reports and some shit on his brother, the artist.”
“He kept a scrapbook on his brother.”
“Yeah, loaded with shit. Don’t know why ’cause the way he talked Carter hated the son of a bitch just for being.”
“Did he ever talk about going to New York to see him?”
“Shit. Carter, he talked about going everywhere to see everybody. Just talk.”
“Did you ever hear him mention Felicity Kade?”
“Mmm. Slick blonde.” Moore licked his lips. “She’s some number. She came around a couple of times.”
“No offense,” Peabody said pleasantly, “but this doesn’t look like the sort of place a woman like that would spend much time.”
“You never know what’s going on with a fancy piece like that. Why I steer clear of them. Come in one night and made a play for Carter. Didn’t have to play very hard. Didn’t get the nitty-gritty out of him. Usually, he’ll brag on the women he bags. Likes to think he’s king in the sack. But with this one, he buttoned up. Slylike.” Moore shrugged. “No big to me. I get my own action.”
“She spend much time with Carter?”
“How the hell do I know? She come in a couple of times. They went out together. Sometimes he’d take a couple of days. If you’re thinking he went off with that piece of work, your aim’s off. No way she’d take him for more than the quick ride.”
“Did he have any other business, any other women, something along those lines that he might’ve gone off with?”
“Been through all this with the locals. He banged women when he could get them. Didn’t shack with any for long. If he had any side jobs, he didn’t let me in. In or not, likely I’d’ve heard. It’s a small island.”
“Small island,” Peabody agreed after they’d finished with Moore. “Not many places to hide.”
“Not many ways to get off either. You got air, you got water.”
She stepped out, saw with pleasure the scooter was in place, and apparently untouched. “Pay those guys off.”
“Why do I have to pay them?”
“I lined them up.”
McNab grumbled, but he flipped them a ten before unchaining the scooter.
“You handled that business about the shakedown really smooth.” She wanted to pinch his butt in appreciation, but decided it wouldn’t look professional. So it would wait. Instead, she climbed on the scooter. “Just as glad we’re getting out of this sector before dark.”
“You and me both, She-Body.” Apparently he wasn’t as concerned with professional image as she was ’cause he pinched her butt as he slid on behind her. “Let’s ride.”
Carter Bissel lived in a two-room shack that was hardly more than a tent pitched on a mix of sand and crushed shells. It had what Peabody considered a very slight appeal due to its proximity to the beach, but that same proximity made it a handy target for tropical storms.
She could see where patches had been slapped on, just as she could see from the sagging rope hammock that Carter had preferred to spend his free time swinging rather than worrying overmuch about household maintenance.
Scraggly tufts of beach grass poked up through the shells. An ancient and thoroughly rusted scooter was chained to a dead palm.
“A long way from Queens,” McNab commented as he kicked a broken bottle aside. “He might have beat his brother out on the view, but the rest of the living conditions put him way back on the sib rivalry chart.”
“When you look at this, you can see that he might just walk away.” Peabody took out the key they’d picked up from the local PD. “Everything we’re seeing spells out loser.”
“It doesn’t spell out what Felicity Kade wanted down here.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. Maybe they wanted to use him for a setup. It’s not the kind of place you’d expect an HSO branch office or a terrorist cell. And that could’ve been just the point.”