Page 33 of The Body in the Backyard

“That’s a statue of me,” Griffin said, sounding cheerier. “Isn’t it amazing?”

Riley joined Nick at the window and shuddered. Under a large wooden lean-to, there was indeed a twelve-foot stone statue of a buck-naked, erect Griffin Gentry in the yard. It had up lights shining from the ground, so even in the dark, the thick veined erection could be seen.

“How’s the scale on that?” Nick asked Riley.

“You know how all of Griffin’s ‘life-size’ cardboard cutouts are six inches taller than he is?”

“Yeah?”

“The sculptor could have saved himself a foot and a half of cement on that.”

She turned away from the eye-searing view.

The bedroom hadn’t changed too much since Riley had called it home. The four-poster bed was the same. The carpet was the same mint-green pattern because Griffin wanted to feel like he was walking on money every morning. The art on the walls was the same boring abstract slashes of beige and khaki chosen by Griffin’s boring beige mother. And there was still a huge black-and-white portrait of Griffin hanging on the wall in a frame worthy of some European royal dynasty.

But there were a few notable differences. Riley’s former nightstand was now cluttered with nail polishes, a laser facial device, a phone tripod, and clumps of jewelry. The stately lamp had been changed out for one with a bedazzled body and pink shade with fur trim. Above the lamp was an oversize photo of Bella blowing a kiss to the camera.

It was autographed to Bella from Bella.

Riley shook her head. “I’ll get you a glass of water,” she offered Griffin.

“Okay,” he said morosely.

She plucked the pink crystal tumbler off Bella’s nightstand and headed into the bathroom to fill it. It was a spacious room with marble walls and high-end fixtures, and it looked like an active war zone. His and hers cosmetics crowded the counters. Not one but two makeup vanities were crammed up against the glass-block wall of the shower, both buried under more beauty products.

Five robes of varying lengths and materials hung on hooks next to dueling towel warmers. A doorway opened into a walk-in closet that was twice the size it had been when Riley had hung her clothes in it.

Reaching around skin creams, lip masks, and bottles of perfume, she filled the glass out of the tap and sighed. It looked like it took a lot of work to be high-maintenance.

She returned to the bedroom to find Nick standing over Griffin and clutching a pillow in both hands. Griffin was obliviously rambling on about the importance of a nighttime skin-care routine.

“Put the pillow down, Nick,” she ordered, rounding the bed and setting the glass down on Griffin’s nightstand.

Grumbling, he tossed the pillow back on the fainting couch by the windows.

“Think of the money,” she reminded him.

He grunted. “Fine. I’ll go check the rest of the windows on this floor. Don’t let him try to drag you into bed with him.”

“I think I can take him,” Riley said, giving him a shove toward the door.

“Is this tap water? From thebathroom?” Griffin’s face was contorted.

“It’s water from the plumbing in your home.”

“I didn’t know you could drink water from the tap,” he said, sniffing the glass with suspicion.

“Seriously? Don’t you use tap water to brush your teeth?”

“I keep San Pellegrino in the bathroom refrigerator for that. I could drink that.”

“You’re all out,” she lied.

He grumbled and held up his phone to his face. “Staff, it’s an emergency. I need you to come over right now to restock the bathroom refrigerator with San Pellegrino.”

Riley snatched the phone away from him and deleted the voice message. “Someone just pushed you down a flight of stairs. No one is coming over after we leave.”

He flashed her that cagey look that had taken her way too long to learn to mistrust.