He spent fully ten times the cost of the shell to turn it into his personal palace. In spending his millions, Betz proved, beyond a shadow, money couldn’t buy taste.
On the arching front door of glossy red lacquer, fat cherubs in what looked like G-strings cavorted with sly-eyed centaurs and winged horses. Three-headed dogs snarled; fierce-eyed dragons spat fire.
Some of the cherubs were armed with bow and arrow, and looked ready to use them.
Eve couldn’t decide if it was meant to be whimsical or obscene.
“It’s just creepy,” Peabody stated.
“Yeah, that’s the best word. Creepy.”
Eve glanced at the palm plate, noted it attached to the wall of the building with shiny gold fingers, and decided it took all kinds.
Of what, she’d never know. But it took all kinds.
She rang the bell, centered in a tangle of gold vines.
Good morning, the computer intoned in a rich and fruity British accent. Mr. and Mrs. Betz are not currently receiving guests. Please leave your name if you wish one of their staff to contact you.
“Scan this,” she ordered, and held out her badge. “Lieutenant Dallas, NYPSD. It’s imperative I speak with Mr. Betz immediately.”
One moment.
The red light beamed out, scanned the badge.
Your identification has been verified, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Regretfully, Mr. Betz is not in residence at this time. If you would like to contact his personal assistant or his administrative assistant—
“I’ll take Mrs. Betz,” Eve interrupted.
Regretfully, Mrs. Betz is not in residence at this time. If you would like—
“Screw this. Who is in residence? I’ll speak to any damn human being in the house.”
One moment.
“Contact his office,” Eve told Peabody, “see if you can talk to a human. I want to know where the hell he is.”
“One moment,” Peabody couldn’t resist saying, stepping out of range as she took out her ’link.
Before Eve decided whether to snicker or snarl, she heard locks disengaging.
“Lieutenant. Detective.”
“Sila. You work here?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The cleaning contractor bobbed her head, stepped back to let them in. “For about six months now. Mrs. Betz, she fired her other cleaning company, and she got our name from Senator Mira. Is something wrong?”
“There might be. I need to find Frederick Betz.”
“Oh, golly, I don’t know where he might be. I know Mrs. Betz said how she was going to their place in Bimini, I think it is, with the baby and the nanny, and the nanny’s helper.”
“The nanny has a helper?”
A little smirk escaped. “Oh, sure. And Mrs. Betz, I think she was taking her personal assistant, too, and maybe Mr. Betz was going—she didn’t say. But we started upstairs, and well, the master suite’s a mess—that’s just usual. But I can’t say if I noticed any of his things gone, like packed up for a trip.”
“Who’s we?”
“Oh, my mama and Dara—my daughter. It takes the three of us two full days to do this house, it’s got so many curlicues and fuss, even though they have a house droid who sees to it daily. We come in twice a month, go top to bottom.”
“Do me a favor, Sila. Stop the others from cleaning anything, for now.”
“I . . . All right.” She pulled a ’link out of her pocket, tapped out a quick text. “Can you tell me why?”
“There’s been another murder, a friend of the senator’s. I’m checking in with other friends.”
“Oh my goodness. Oh my. What should we do? We’ve been working on the bedroom floor for over an hour.”
“It’s all right. Don’t touch anything else. It would help if we could talk to the house droid.”
“Oh. It’s back in the kitchen, in the storage area. I don’t know how to turn it on. Mrs. Betz, she said Mr. Betz would shut it down while they were gone, and would program it by remote to come back on, freshen the house when they planned to come back.”
“If we can’t get it on, we’ll get someone from EDD. Peabody?”
“Working my way up to his admin. Lower assistants either don’t know or won’t say where he is.”
“Keep on it. Would you show us the droid, Sila?”
“I sure will.”
She started back, out of the entrance hall—with its central koi pond and massive gold chandelier with hundreds of . . .
“Curlicues,” Eve repeated and made Sila smile.
“And folderols and gimcracks. I swear they must’ve used two tons of gold paint and a couple acres of silks and velvets. If they could put a tassel on something, they put six.”
She shook her head as they walked past art—more cavorting cherubs, women in filmy, flowing white robes, men with swords or bows—and all framed in ornate gold frames.
“I took one walk through this place, and named my price as double what I usually charge. Mrs. Betz didn’t so much as blink, so that’s fine for both of us. Lieutenant Dallas, they got themselves his and hers bathrooms off the master. Not unusual, but he’s got a full bar in his. A bar, with stools and everything, and she’s got herself a long divan in pink silk, and a wine friggie. In the bathroom. I mean to say, I don’t know anybody who does much entertaining in the toilet, no matter how fancy it is.”
They passed archways leading to rooms packed with furniture, and with furniture so loaded with pillows (hundreds of tassels) no one could possibly fit their ass on a cushion.
She didn’t know what she’d expected in the kitchen, but bright, bloody red was the signature color.
A half mile of cabinets gleamed red, as did the appliances: the two massive refrigerators, the wall ovens, the cooktop. The counters were a sea of white and the floor a spread of midnight black.
“Horrible, isn’t it? I do for a lot of people, and everybody’s got their own taste and style. But this one? My mama says it takes the cake and two slices of pie with it.”
Sila moved around the center island, took a jog left to a door—red, of course—carved with people in various states of undress gorging themselves from bowls of fruit, from fruit hanging from trees or growing fat on bushes, from fruit clutched in other figures’ hands.
“They keep the droids in here. House droid, and its backup,” Sila said as she gestured. “The vac droid, the scrubber droid, and so on. But this one’s the, well, head droid, you’d say.”
Eve approached the dark-suited droid. Tall, slim, dignified, with some whiffs of Summerset to her eye. He’d been designed with dark hair winged with silver, thin lips, and edgy cheekbones.
Eve glanced back, saw Peabody nod, hold up a finger, continue the conversation on her ’link. So Eve stepped in, angled her head, and started searching for the manual power up.
It pleased her when she found it, under the left wing of hair.
The droid made a quiet hum, then the pale blue eyes jittered, blinked, focused.
“Good morning,” it said in the same fruity Brit as the intercom comp. “I am called Stevens. I’m afraid I’m not programmed to assist you today without the authorization of Mr. or Mrs. Betz.”
Eve took out her badge. “Scan and verify. I’m here on police business. I need information. You can give me that information or I’ll have you taken into Central where EDD will extract said information.”
“One moment.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Your identification is verified. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Is there a police emergency?”
“Let’s hope not.”
“Dallas.”
Eve pointed at the droid to signal wait, turned to Peabody.
“His admin says he’s expected in this morning. He plans to join his wife, but didn’t leave with her. She left yesterday morning, and as of now, his plans are to leave tomorrow or the day after.”
Eve turned back to the droid. “When did Mr. Betz leave the premises?”