Celebrity in Death

unsealed the door, stepped in.
    Sitting or living area, she mused, with brightly colored sofas, an oversized swivel-style leather chair. A table held a bowl of fruit, not as fresh as it had been. In the small kitchen area, the Friggie was fully stocked—water, wine, soft drinks, a selection of cheeses, berries in a clear, unopened container. A bottle of vodka in the freezer.
    To get the feel of the place, she started back toward the sleeping area, glanced in the bathroom. Flowers, again not as fresh as they had been, on the counter, and a low-sided box holding soaps, shampoo, lotions.
    While the bedroom wasn’t spacious, it held a bed, neatly made, a fancy side chair, a wall screen. The closet was outfitted with rods and drawers.
    She started there. She found another bottle of vodka—opened and half empty—in a drawer, and a small bag of zoner tucked into the toe of a boot.
    She’d nearly finished the bedroom when she heard the trailer door open. Laying a hand lightly on her weapon, she stepped out—and Roarke came in.
    Jesus, would she ever get over how gorgeous he was?
    He smiled at her—only more gorgeous—and closed the distance to kiss her.
    “Hi,” she said. “How was Cleveland?”
    “Windy. And what are we looking for in the late, largely unlamented K.T. Harris’s trailer?”
    “Nothing I think we’ll find, but I’ve got to look. I’m about finished in the back. I’ll fill you in.”
    He skimmed a fingertip down the dent in her chin. “One of my favorite times of day.”
    “You’re in a good mood,” she observed as they walked back.
    “I am. It was a productive day.”
    “You didn’t buy Cleveland, did you?”
    “Just a small piece.” He lifted his eyebrows at the vodka bottle, the bag of zoner, and the box of herbals Eve suspected was laced with the illegal. “Are we having a party?”
    “It’s looking like the late and largely unlamented spent a lot of time at least partially drunk or stoned. And she’d been busy the last couple weeks.”
    While she finished the room, she caught him up to date, moved to the bathroom, found the tranqs—another prescription, a different doctor.
    “She sounds like a sad woman, one who found it more natural to make enemies than friends.”
    “And because of that I have a houseful of suspects she’d alienated, upset, pissed off, or threatened.”
    “I hate to ask, as he seemed a likable sort, but with her booking the transportation and vacation for both of them, could Matthew have been working with her to scam Marlo somehow? Get close to her, arrange for this blackmail, and then add the actual payoff in later.”
    “It’s a thought, and I’ve had it.” But she shook her head. “It’s not gelling well. Why the actual PI and payment? All they had to do was convince Marlo there’d been a PI, a break-in, a plant. Matthew could have planted the camera and saved them a bundle.”
    “True enough.”
    “I’m going to take a dip in his financials anyway, see if there’s anything hinky. I tagged him, asked for permission to look through his trailer. He gave me the go.” She shrugged. “There’s nothing here.” Eve shoved at her hair. “She wouldn’t risk it. The drugs, the drink, the illegals, they’re only here because she needed them.”
    He walked out with her, waiting while she sealed the door. “My money says she planted the cameras she bought in Times Square in Matthew’s trailer, then trashed it when she heard or saw something between him and Marlo.”
    “I figure, yeah. It’s the old ‘hell’s got nothing on a woman dumped.’”
    “Or words to that effect,” Roarke decided.
    “So, I’ve got his go-ahead, and can look through. If I’m right and we find them, I’m free to see what’s on them.”
    She led the way down the alley between trailers, turned, and walked to Matthew’s.
    While the layout in his was the same as K.T.’s, the feel was entirely different.
    Here was casual, lived-in, a little messy. Instead of a bowl of fruit, the table held a music pod and a basket of PowerBars, candy bars, gum. There was a bottle of wine in his Friggie, but it stacked heavily toward fizzies and soft drinks. His freezer held a trio of frozen dessert bars.
    Roarke found the first camera fixed to the top of the window trim in under two minutes.
    “The other will be in the bedroom,” Eve told him. “You might as well go get it while I finish in here. No point in not looking through his stuff since he gave permission.”
    They