In Death 21 - Origin in Death

stress. I-"
    "Shut up, Charlie." The voice from the bed was hoarse and hissy, but the lawyer thinned his lips and shut up.
    "Take a good look," she invited Eve. "The son of a bitch did a number on me. On my face!"
    "Ms. Ten-"
    "I know you. Don't I know you?" The voice, Eve realized, was hissy and hoarse because Lee-Lee was speaking through clamped teeth. Broken jaw-had to hurt like a mother. "Faces are my business, and yours... Roarke. Roarke's cop. Ain't that a kick in the ass."
    "Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Detective Peabody, my partner."
    "Bumped hips with him four-no five years ago. Rainy weekend in Rome. Holy God, that man's got stamina." The green eye sparked a moment with bawdy humor. "That bother you?"
    "You bump hips with him in the last couple years?"
    "Regretfully, no. Just that one memorable weekend in Rome."
    "Then no, it doesn't. Why don't we talk about what happened between you and Bryhern Speegal in your apartment night before last?"
    "Cocksucking bastard."
    "Lee-Lee." This gentle admonishment came from her doctor.
    "Sorry, sorry. Will doesn't approve of strong language. He hurt me." She closed her eyes, breathed slowly in and out. "God, he really hurt me. Can I have some water?"
    Her lawyer grabbed the silver cup with its silver straw and held it to her lips.
    She sucked, breathed, sucked again, then patted his hand. "Sorry, Charlie. Sorry I told you to shut up. Not at my best here."
    "You don't have to talk to the police now, Lee-Lee."
    "You've got my screen blocked so I can't hear what they're saying about me. I don't need a screen to know what the media monkeys and gossip hyenas are saying about all this. I want to clear it up. I want to have my goddamn say."
    Her eye watered, and she blinked furiously to stem a tide of tears. And in doing so earned points of respect from Eve.
    "You and Mr. Speegal had a relationship. An intimate relationship."
    "We fucked like rabbits all summer."
    "Lee-Lee," Charlie began, and she pushed her hand at him. A quick, impatient gesture Eve understood perfectly.
    "I told you what happened, Charlie. Do you believe me?"
    "Of course I do."
    "Then let me tell it to Roarke's cop. I met Bry when I got a part in a vid he was shooting here in New York last May. We were in the sack about twelve hours after the how-do-you-dos. He's-he was," she corrected, "gorgeous. Toss-your-skirt-over-your-head gorgeous. Dumb as a toad, and-as I found out night before last-vicious as a ... I can't think of anything that vicious."
    She sucked on the straw again, took three slow breaths. "We had some laughs, we had great sex, we got a lot of play on the gossip circuit. He started to get a little too full of himself. I want this, you're not doing that, we're going here, where have you been, and so on. I decided to break it off. Which I did, last week. Just let's chill this awhile, it's been fun, but let's not push it. Pissed him off some, I could tell, but he handled it. I thought he handled it. We're not kids, for God's sake, and we weren't starry-eyed."
    "Did he make any threats at that time, was he physical in any way?"
    "No." She lifted a hand to her face, and though her voice was steady, Eve saw her fingers trembled lightly. "He played it like, 'Oh yeah, I was trying to figure out how to say the same thing-we've about wrung this dry.' He was flying out to New L.A. to do some promos for the vid. So when he called, said he was back in New York, wanted to come up and talk, I said sure."
    "He contacted you just before eleven P.M."
    "Can't say for sure." Lee-Lee managed a crooked smile. "I'd had dinner out, at The Meadow, with friends. Carly Jo, Presty Bing, Apple Grand."
    "We spoke with them," Peabody told her. "They confirm your dinner engagement, and stated that you left the restaurant about ten that evening."
    "Yeah, they were going on to a club, but I wasn't in the mood. Bad call on my part, as it turns out." She touched her face again, then let her hand fall to the bed.
    "I went home, started reading this script for a new vid my agent sent me. Bored the shit-sorry, Will-out of me, so when Bry called, I was up for some company. We had some wine, talked the talk, and he made a couple moves. He has some good ones," she said with a hint of a smile. "So we took it upstairs, had ourselves an intense round of sex. After, he says something like, 'Women don't tell me when to chill,' and he'll let me know when he's finished with me. Son of a bitch."
    Eve watched Lee-Lee's face. "Pissed you