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“What about it?”
“You’re selling property up there. Big fancy houses, snazzy apartments, and like that.”
“Marketing describes them with a bit more panache, but yes. Ah.” He clicked in before she spoke. “Sylvester Yost might enjoy the advantages of a comfortable off planet home in a self-contained community.”
“You could check it out. His pace of contracts in the past two years is up twelve percent. Could very well be a push for a nice, fat retirement nest. Best guess would be his Roles alias. It’s not an answer but it’s another link. Enough links you make a chain. Now.”
She walked around the console, sat on the edge of it to face him. “You’ve got partners, multinational, in the Olympus thing. Investors. Anybody unhappy, annoyed because you get the big slice of the pie?”
“There are occasionally bumps, but no. The project’s moving smoothly and on schedule. I took the biggest financial risk, and therefore will reap the largest profits. But the consortium’s satisfied. Returns on investments are already exceeding initial projections.”
She nodded. “All right. Here’s how it seems to me. If this is a business hit, the business is likely in New York. I’m thinking if it was business in, say, Australia, the hits would be in Australia. To draw you down there.”
“Yes, I’ve considered that.”
“First hit’s at your hotel, when it’s public knowledge you’ll be on-site. Second hit is in one of your rentals, and you’re in town and working minutes away. Give me a connection between Darlene French and Jonah Talbot.”
“I don’t have one.”
“No, you do. You’re just not seeing it. Neither am I.” In her mind, she switched to interview mode, and Roarke to witness. “Darlene French was a maid at your hotel. You had no personal contact with her?”
“None.”
“Who hired her?”
“She’d have submitted an application through the human resources department, and ultimately hired by Hilo.”
“You don’t supervise the hiring and firing?”
“I’d spend all my time doing so.”
“But it’s your hotel. Your organization.”
“I have departments,” he said with some impatience. “And the departments have heads. Those heads operate with the required autonomy. My organization, Lieutenant, is designed to run smoothly, on its particular internal wheels, so that—”
“Did Talbot have any tasks that involved The Palace?”
“None.” Frustration slipped into his eyes. He knew what she was doing, sliding him into the witness slot so that he would answer instinctively. And she did it well. “He never even stayed there. I checked. Certainly he would have had authors who did, and certainly he’d have entertained authors or business associates there for dinner or for lunch. But that hardly makes one of your links.”
“Maybe he hosted parties there. You know, professional spreads. Maybe he had one planned.”
“No. He might have attended some. The publicity department at the publishing house generally arranges that sort of function. There’s nothing on the slate I’m aware of. Magda’s display and auction are the showcase through the month.”
“Okay. Did he have anything to do with that?”
“The publishing house isn’t involved in the auction. Jonah acquired, edited, and published manuscripts. The hotel and its functions are entirely separate from . . .”
She all but heard the click. “What?”
“I’m an idiot,” he murmured and got to his feet. “Manuscripts. We’ll publish a disc, a new biography of Magda next month. There will also be a publication detailing the auction—each piece, its history and significance. Jonah would have been involved in those projects. I think it’s one of his authors who wrote the bio. He’d have edited it.”
“Magda.” Connections, possibilities, began to run through her brain. “She’s a link. That’s a solid link. Maybe you’re not the target at all. Maybe she is.”
“Maybe we both are. The auction.”
She held up a hand, pushing off the console so she could think on her feet. “Magda Lane in residence at The Palace. Your hotel. Holding one of the biggest events of her professional life there. Not at one of her own homes, not at one of the auction houses, but your hotel. Whose idea was that?”
“Hers. At least she contacted me with it. It’s a media hook,” he added. “And it’s working.”
