Genuine Lies

justice, wasn’t it? That and a healthy dose of revenge.
    She was sorry that Victor was still upset. He would have to accept that she was doing what she had to do. Perhaps he would before too much longer.
    Feeling the huge, lonely bed around her, she wished with all her heart that he could have stayed with her tonight. Loving him would have capped off the evening, then they could have cuddled together and talked sleepily until sunrise.
    There was still time for that. Eve closed her eyes tight and hung on to that one simple wish.
    As she drifted off, she heard Nina come down the hall, move into her room to pace restlessly before shutting the door.
    Poor girl, Eve thought. She worried too much.
    By nine o’clock Monday morning, Julia had stretched, curled, crunched, pumped, sweated, and steamed. Her body had been twisted, kneaded, pummeled, and rubbed. She left the main house carting her gym bag that contained her sweaty leotard and towel.
    She was covered in less than attractive sweats, and tugged down the shirt as she passed Lyle lazily waxing the car outside the garage.
    She didn’t like the way he looked at her, or the fact that he always seemed to be doing something along the route themornings of her workouts. As always, she greeted him with cool civility.
    “Good morning, Lyle.”
    “Miss.” He touched the brim of his cap in a move that seemed more suggestive than servile. “Hope you’re not working too hard.” He liked to imagine her in the gym, wearing something skimpy and spandex and sweating like a bitch in heat. “I sure wouldn’t say you needed all that exercise.”
    “I enjoy it,” she lied, and kept walking, knowing he watched her. She shook off the itch between her shoulder blades and reminded herself to keep the shades drawn in her bedroom.
    Paul was waiting on the terrace, his feet propped on a chair. One quick glance had him grinning. “You look like you could use a tall cold one.”
    “Fritz,” she said, and dug into the pocket of the gym bag for her keys. “He’s working on my deltoids. My arms feel like two stretched-out rubber bands.” After opening the door and tossing bag and keys on the kitchen table, she headed for the fridge. “He’d have been a star in the Spanish Inquisition. Today, while I was suffering on the slant board, he made me confess I like Devil Dogs and Ho-Hos.”
    “You could have lied.”
    She snorted, pouring a glass of juice. “Nobody can look into those big, sincere blue eyes and lie. You’d go straight to hell. Want some?”
    “No, thanks.”
    By the time she’d drained the glass she felt nearly human. “I’ve got a little more than an hour before I have to change for my appointment.” Refreshed and ready for business, she set the empty glass on the counter. “What did you need to talk to me about?”
    “A number of things.” Idly, he ran his hand down the length of her ponytail. “The tapes, for one.”
    “You don’t have to worry about them.”
    “Locking the house is a good precaution, Jules, but it isn’t enough.”
    “I’ve done more. Come on.” She led the way through the house to the office. On the journey he noted that she had vases and pots of flowers everywhere. A good many of the milky-white blooms from the party had found a home. “Go ahead,” she invited him, pointing toward the desk drawer. “Take a look.”
    Paul opened the drawer to find it empty. “Where?”
    It grated a little that he hadn’t seemed surprised. “They’re in a safe place. The only time I have any of them out is when I’m working. So …” She shut the drawer. “If anyone tried to poke around again, he or she would come up empty.”
    “If it’s as harmless as that.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean someone might feel a bigger stake in all this.” Watching her, he sat on the edge of the desk. “Take Gloria DuBarry’s behavior the other night.”
    Julia shrugged. “She was drunk.”
    “Exactly—that itself is an anomaly. I’ve never seen Gloria so much as tipsy, much less sloppy drunk.” He picked up a paperweight, a faceted globe of crystal that exploded with lights as he turned it. He wondered if Julia would do that—turn from cool and quiet to hot and explosive at the proper touch. “She was warning you off. Why?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t,” she insisted when he only continued to stare. “Her name hasn’t come up in my sessions with Eve, except in passing. And today we talked about other things.” Eve’s