The In Death Collection Books 6-10 - J. D. Robb [570]
“Whoopee. So we’ve got a serious thespian on our hands.”
“First performance at age two. Guy’s won a pot load of awards. Always live stage. No video. An artist, is my guess. Probably temperamental and emotional.”
“Won’t this be fun. Has he worked with Draco before?”
“Several times. A couple of times with Mansfield. Last time in London. He’s unmarried at the moment. Had two spouses and one formal cohabitation partner. All female.”
Eve scanned for a parking place, rejected the idea, and pulled up to the front of the post–Urban War building on Park. Before she’d climbed out, the uniformed doorman was at her side.
“I’m sorry, madam, this is a nonparking zone.”
“And this is a badge.” She held up her shield. “Kenneth Stiles?”
“Mr. Stiles occupies the apartment on the fiftieth floor. Five thousand. The deskman will clear you. Madam—”
“Does this say madam?” Eve asked and waited for the doorman’s eyes to skim down, read her badge.
“I beg your pardon, Lieutenant, might I arrange to have your vehicle garaged during your visit? A valet will return it when you’re ready to leave.”
“That’s a nice offer, but if I gave you the ignition code, I’d have to arrest myself. It stays right here.”
Eve kept her badge out and walked into the building, leaving the doorman staring sadly at her pea-green police issue.
It was hard to blame him. The lobby area was lush and elegant, with gleaming brass and spearing white flowers. Huge squares of polished black tiles covered the floor. Behind a long white counter, a tall, slim woman sat gracefully on a stool and beamed welcoming smiles.
“Good morning. How may I direct you?”
“Kenneth Stiles.” Eve laid her badge on the counter beside a brass pot teeming with flowers.
“Is Mr. Stiles expecting you, Lieutenant Dallas?”
“He’d better be.”
“Just one moment please.” She swiveled to a ’link, her smile never dimming, her voice maintaining that same smooth and pleasant tone of an expensive and well-programmed droid. “Good morning, Mr. Stiles. I have a Lieutenant Dallas and companion at the lobby desk. May I clear them?” She waited a beat. “Thank you. Have a lovely day.”
Turning from the ’link, she gestured toward the east bank of elevators. “The far right car is cleared for you, Lieutenant. Enjoy your day.”
“You bet. I used to wonder why Roarke didn’t use more droids,” she said to Peabody as they crossed the black tiles. “Then I run into one like that, and I understand. That much politeness is just fucking creepy.”
The ride up to the fiftieth floor was rapid enough to have Eve’s stomach jump and her ears pop. She’d never understand why people equated height with luxury.
Another droid was waiting for them when the doors slid open. One of Stiles’s serving units, Eve concluded, done up in such stark and formal attire he made the dreaded Summerset look like a sidewalk sleeper. His steel gray hair was slicked back and matched with a heavy mustache that dominated his thin, bony face. The black of his slacks and long jacket was offset with snow-white gloves.
He bowed, then spoke in a fruity voice with a rolling English accent. “Lieutenant Dallas and Officer, Mr. Stiles is expecting you. This way, please.”
He led them down the hall to double doors that opened into the corner apartment. The first thing Eve saw when she entered was the sweeping window wall that opened onto New York’s bustling sky traffic. She wished Stiles had drawn the privacy screen.
The room itself was wild with color, rubies and emeralds and sapphires tangled together in the pattern on the wide U-shaped conversation pit. Centered in it was a white marble pool where fat goldfish swam in bored circles among lily pads.
A strong scent of citrus spread out from the tidy forest of dwarf orange and lemon trees, heavy with fruit. The floor was a violent geometric pattern of color that on closer look shifted into an erotic orgy of naked bodies in inventive forms of copulation.
Eve strode across blue breasts and green cocks to where Stiles lounged—posed, she thought—in a saffron ankle-duster.
“Some place.”
He smiled,