Page 26 of Convincing Alex (Stanislaskis #4)

Rosalie considered herself an excellent judge of people, and she had already decided Bess was one strange lady. But she kept

coming back.

Sure, the money was good, Rosalie thought as she sat drinking a diet soda in Bess’s basement office. And for a woman with

a retirement plan, that had to be number one. Yet it was more than making an extra buck that kept her taking the trip up and

across town several days each week. More, too, that kept her hanging around after they finished what Bess liked to call ‘consulting

sessions.’

Rosalie was human enough to get a charge out of being connected, however remotely, to the entertainment world. She couldn’t

deny that she’d been excited, awed and impressed when she watched a couple of tapings.

But there was another factor, a much more basic one. Rosalie enjoyed Bess’s company.

Besides being a strange lady, Bess had class. Rosalie didn’t figure a person had to possess class to recognize it in another.

Class wasn’t just a matter of pedigree—though she’d discovered Bess had one. It was more than having an old lady in the DAR,

or an old man in Who’s Who. It was hazier than that. Though Rosalie couldn’t quite come up with the terms she wanted, she had recognized in Bess those

rare and often nebulous qualities, grace and compassion.

She was procrastinating over taking the trip back downtown by dawdling over her drink. Bess didn’t seem to mind if Rosalie

hung around while she worked. In the few weeks since they’d hooked up, Rosalie had noted that Bess worked hard and long. Harder,

in Rosalie’s opinion, than she herself, or any of the other ladies in her profession. Certainly Bess’s hours were longer.

It amused Rosalie to compare the two. In fact, she and Bess had gotten into a very interesting discussion on the similarities

and differences between Bess’s selling her mind and Rosalie her body.

What a kick that had been, Rosalie thought now, while Bess typed and mumbled. Philosophical discussions weren’t the norm in

Rosalie’s world.

The simple term she had not quite grasped for their relationship was friendship. They had become friends.

“How late you gonna work?” Rosalie asked, and Bess glanced up absently from the computer screen.

“Oh... not much longer.” Her eyes were still slightly unfocused when she blew her hair away from them. Brock was on the

verge of seducing Jessica. “I just had this idea for a little twist on a scene for tomorrow.” She smiled then. It was quick,

and a little wicked. “Of course, several members of the cast are going to want to murder me when I toss this at them in the

morning. But that’s show biz.”

Rosalie took a drag on her cigarette. “What time did you get in here this morning?”

“Today? About nine-thirty. I was...” She thought of Alex. “Running a little late.”

Lips pursed, Rosalie looked at the fake designer watch on her wrist. “And it’s after seven now.” Her grin flashed. “Girlfriend,

you’d only put in half that many hours in my line of work.”

“Yeah, but I get to sit down.” Bess rubbed at the dull ache in the back of her neck. She really was going to have to work

on her posture. “Hungry?” she asked. “Want to order something in?”

With a little tug of regret, Rosalie stabbed out the cigarette. “No. I gotta get to work, too.”

“You could take the night off.” Casually Bess ran a finger lightly over the keyboard. “Maybe we could catch a movie.”

Chuckling, Rosalie dug in her purse for a mirror to check her makeup. “You said you weren’t going to try to reform me.”

“I lied.” Bess sat back in her chair while Rosalie painted her mouth bloodred. She’d tried very hard not to pontificate, not

to pressure, not to preach. And thought she had succeeded. But she hadn’t tried not to care. That would have been useless.

“I really worry about you. Especially since the last murder.”

The odd twisting in Rosalie’s stomach had her shifting her eyes from her compact mirror to Bess. She couldn’t remember if

anyone had ever worried about her before. Certainly not in years. “Didn’t I tell you I could take care of myself?”

“Yes, but—”

“No buts about it, honey.” With a second dip into her purse, Rosalie pulled out a stiletto. One flick of the wrist, and the

long, razor-sharp blade zipped out. “What I can’t handle, this can.”

Bess managed to close her mouth, but her eyes stayed riveted to the knife. In the overhead lights, it gleamed silver, bright

as sudden death. She couldn’t say it was elegant. But it was fascinating, deathly fascinating. “Can I?”

With a shrug of her shoulders, Rosalie passed the weapon to her. “Don’t mess with the blade,” she warned. “It’s as sharp as

it looks.”

Bess took a good grip on the handle, twisting her wrist this way and that, like a fencer. She wondered if Jade/Josie might

carry one. She was already imagining a scene where the tormented Jade found the knife—maybe with the blade smeared with blood—in

one of her practical handbags. No, her briefcase. Better.

“Have you ever—”

“Not yet.” Rosalie held out a hand to take it back. “But there’s always a first time.” She pressed the button, and the blade

whisked away again. “So don’t lose any sleep over me.” After dropping the weapon back into her bag, she took out an atomizer

and sprayed scent generously on her skin. The air bloomed with roses. “Couple more months, I’ll have enough put away. I’m

going to be spending the winter in the Florida sunshine while you slog through dirty snow.” She rose, tugging her tight off-the-shoulder

top provocatively down, so that the rise of her breasts swelled invitingly over it. “See you around.”

“Wait.” Bess scrambled through her own purse and came up with her mini recorder. “If it won’t bother your ethics, I thought

you might use this.” At Rosalie’s wry glance, Bess’s cheeks heated. “I don’t mean to record that part. Just the streets, conversations

with the other women, maybe a couple of, ah... transactions.”

“You’re the boss.” Taking the recorder, Rosalie slipped it away.

“Be careful,” Bess added, though she knew Rosalie would laugh.

She did, sending a last cocky look over her bare shoulder. “Girlfriend, I’m always careful.”

Still chuckling, Rosalie headed down the narrow corridor toward the freight elevator. She was already picturing the way Bess’s

eyes would pop out when she listened to the tape and discovered that her “consultant” had recorded everything. The prospect of pulling such a fine joke had her grinning as the doors slid open. Her amusement died a quick death when Alex

walked off.

While they eyed each other with mutual suspicion, Alex pressed two fingers to the Door Open button. “How’s the moonlighting

going, Rosalie?”

“It passes the time.”

When she started past him, he raised an arm to block the elevator opening. “What do you know about Crystal LaRue?”

“I know she’s dead.” Rosalie fisted a hand on her hip, cocked it. “Something else you want?”

Alex let her see that her snide invitation only amused him. “What do you know about her before she was dead?”

“Nothing.” She would have given him the same answer if she’d been Crystal’s most intimate friend, but as it was, she was telling

the simple truth. “I never met her. Heard she was new, didn’t have a man yet.”

“Now, I heard that, too,” Alex said conversationally. “And I heard that Bobby wanted to make her one of his wives.”

“Maybe. Bobby likes to start them young.”

Alex struggled with his disgust. She’d been seventeen, he thought. A runaway who hadn’t known the rules and would never have

a chance to learn them. “Did Bobby roust her, put on the pressure?”

“Can’t say.”

“Can’t say? Or won’t?”

Rosalie opened the hand on her hip and began to drum her fingers there. “Listen, I don’t know what Bobby did. I’ve been keeping

out of his way lately.”

Saying nothing, Alex studied her face. The bruising had faded. “Seems to me Bess is paying you enough that you could stay

out of his way altogether.”

“That’s my business.”

“And hers,” Alex said evenly. “I don’t want him finding out about this sideline of yours and going after her.” His eyes were

cold and passionless. “Then I’d have to kill him.”

“You think I’d turn Bobby on to her?” Arrogance was sidelined as fury snapped into Rosalie’s voice. “I owe her.”

“What?”

“Respect,” she said, with an innate and graceful dignity that had Alex softening. “She had me eat at her table. She even said

I could stay in her extra bedroom. Like a guest.” Her lips thinned at Alex’s expression. “Don’t sweat it, honey. I didn’t

take her up on it. Sure, she’s paying me, and maybe you don’t think that’s any different than me taking money from some slob

off the street. But she treats me like somebody. Not some thing , some body. ” Embarrassed by her own vehemence, she shrugged. “She doesn’t have the sense not to.”

“She’s got sense, all right. Not all good.” Alex’s lips twitched, even as Rosalie’s did. “Maybe she hasn’t gone so wrong here.

I just don’t want her hurt.”

“Neither do I.” Rosalie tapped a scarlet nail on his chest. “You got a bad case, cop. Stars in your eyes.” The little wisp

of envy came and went, almost unnoticed. “Make sure you keep them in hers, or you’ll answer to me.”

His grin flashed before he could prevent it. The charm of it nearly had Rosalie changing her mind about cops. “Yes, ma’am.”

Like Bess, he wanted to say something that would stop her from going back on the streets. Unlike Bess, he accepted that there

was nothing that would do it.

“Maybe I see why she’s so stuck on you.” When he moved his blocking arm, she stepped into the elevator, turned. “You be good

to her, Stanislaski. She deserves good.”

The elevator doors clunked shut. Alex stood studying them a moment before he turned and wandered down the corridor to find

Bess.

She was bent over the keys, rapping out a machine-gun fire of words onto the monitor. Her fingers moved like lightning, but

her eyes were far away. In Millbrook, he thought, smiling to himself.