Celebrity in Death

death.”
    “That sounds about right.”
    “But it wasn’t an accident.”
    “Because?”
    “She was asking for an ass-whooping, and too many people who were there had reason to give her one. Blood on the pool skirt, which, yeah, could mean, she fell, got up, fell again—didn’t get up. Dinged-up shoe heels—the one in the pool had dings, too, and a broken strap. Could’ve maybe happened in a fall. And traces of a burned rag in the fireplace.
    “The vic pisses everybody off, causes a potentially ugly scene at dinner in front of what I’d call civilians—us.”
    “It’s nice to have company in my civilian status for a change,” Roarke commented and carried her straight up onto the platform, dumped her on the lake-sized bed.
    “Then
she goes up to the roof and conveniently drowns.”
    “Convenient would be relative.” He picked up her feet, set them in his lap. “Drowning with the cleverest of murder cops on the premises wouldn’t be convenient for the killer.”
    “Sure it would. It …” She trailed off to a low, happy groan as he began massaging her foot. “Oh, that’s good, really good.” She nearly purred when his knuckles pressed on her arches. “And you’re getting so much sex.”
    “Always my plan. Consider this foreplay.”
    “Who wouldn’t? Anyway, it has that clever murder cop looking at everyone in the same place, at the same time—while everybody who didn’t kill her is trying to think straight enough to remember where they were, what they were doing when. And what everybody but the vic and killer was doing was sitting in a dark theater for a good forty minutes.”
    “Focused on themselves.”
    “Exactly. Nadine gets tagged, but she takes herself and her ’link off to a private area, and is too distracted to notice if anybody left or camein. Nobody mentioned seeing her go out, not even Andrea, and Nadine had been sitting beside her. We’re in the front, so we wouldn’t see any traffic behind us.”
    “And it’s very likely none of them believe any of the others are capable. Everyone who didn’t kill her believes, or wants to believe, it was an accident.”
    “Add in they’re united in their dislike of her, and their commitment to the project. It’s always smart to kill in a crowd if you can blend in.”
    As he started the same treatment on her other foot, she sighed. “You know that almost—almost—makes it worth wearing those ankle breakers.”
    “I figure I owe you as I had the pleasure of enjoying your legs and ass while you did.”
    “Business question.”
    “All right.”
    “When this breaks, which with Nadine leading the charge it already has, how will it affect the project?”
    Interesting, he thought, to be discussing murder with his cop while she lay on the bed in her finery. Their life was nothing if not interesting.
    “Spun right—and it will be—it’ll power up interest and anticipation. They’ve just been handed a lorry-load of free publicity. An actual murder while producing a major vid about murder? The real-life cop the vid centers on investigating same. It’s a bloody bonanza.”
    “That’s what I thought.”
    “I see your motive angle, Lieutenant, but it seems a bit extreme to do murder for some media buzz, especially when they’ve already been buzzing.”
    “But it’s a nice side benefit. I’m going to think about it. But now I think you should get me out of this dress.”
    “I’ve been considering my method on that.”
    “I’m pretty sure you just yank the zipper down.”
    He smiled, gave her calves a series of squeezes that made their muscles sing. “Over you go then.”
    She flopped onto her belly. “Roundtree knew the timing, just how long he could be out of the room. But I feel like I would’ve noticed him leaving. He was up front. Connie knew the timing, and did leave the room by her own admission. I bet Preston had not only seen the reel before, but probably helped edit it together. If this was planned—” She lost her train of thought for a moment when his lips replaced his hands on her calves, and felt even better.
    “They’re top candidates. Steinburger and Valerie—they may very well have had that time down, too—and any one of them would know the value of murder and spin.”
    He worked his way up to her thighs, warm lips, a tease of tongue.
    “And any of the actors could have slipped out,” she murmured as part of her mind began a lovely, lazy drift.
    “How would they know she’d be on the