Immortal in Death by J. D. Robb Page A

didn’t use. My body’s a temple.” She smiled as Eve’s glance focused on her glass. “Protein drink, Lieutenant. Pure protein. And this?” She waved her slim cigarette. “Veggie, with a lace of perfectly legal calmer, for my nerves. I’ve watched a lot of the mighty fall, taking a short, fast trip. I’m in for the long haul. I allow myself three herbal smokes a day, an occasional glass of wine. No chemical stimulants, no happy pills. On the other hand…” She set her drink aside. “Pandora was a champion user. She’d gulp down anything.”
    “Do you know the name of her supplier?”
    “Never thought to ask her. Just wasn’t interested. But at a guess, I’d say this was something new. I’ve never seen her so powered up, and though it pains me to say it, she looked better, younger. Skin tone and texture. She had, well, a glow on. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she’d had a full treatment, but we both use Paradise. I know she wasn’t in the salon that day, because I was. Anyway, I asked her, and she just smiled and said she’d found a new beauty secret, and she was going to make a pile on it.”
    “Interesting,” Feeney commented when he plopped back down in Eve’s car. “We talked to two of the three people who last socialized with the victim. Neither of them could stand her.”
    “They could have done it together,” Eve mused. “Fitzgerald knew Leonardo, wanted to work with him. Simplest thing in the world to alibi each other.”
    Feeney tapped his pocket where he’d slipped the security discs from the building. “We’ll run these, see what we find. Still seems to me we’re missing motive. Whoever took her out didn’t just want to kill her, they wanted to erase her. We’ve got a powerful kind of rage here. Didn’t seem to me either one of those two would work up a sweat.”
    “Push the right buttons, everybody sweats. I want to swing by ZigZag, see if we can start pinning down Mavis’s moves. And we need to contact the producer, set up an interview. Can you put one of your drones on the car companies, Feeney? I can’t see our heroine taking the subway or a bus downtown to Leonardo’s.”
    “Sure.” He took out his communicator. “If she took a cab or a private transpo service, we should be able to nail it down in a couple hours.”
    “Good. And let’s see if she made the trip alone, or if she had company.”
    ZigZag didn’t do much hopping in the middle of the day. It lived for night. The sunlight crowd were mostly tourists or the harried urban professionals who didn’t much care if the decor looked tawdry and the service was surly. The club was like a carnival that glittered at night, and showed its age and its flaws in the harsh light of day. Still, it maintained that underlying mystique that drew crowds of dreamers.
    There was a steady drone of music, which would be cranked up to ear-splitting once the sun set. The open, two-level structure was dominated by five bars and twin revolving dance floors that would begin their circuit at nine P. M. Now they were still, stacked one over the other, the clear floors scarred from the beatings of nightly feet.
    The lunch offerings ran to sandwiches and salads, all named after dead rockers. Today’s special was peanut butter and banana on white, with a side of vidalia onions and jalapenos. The Elvis and Joplin combo.
    Eve settled with Feeney at the first bar, ordered black coffee, and sized up the bartender. She was human rather than the usual droid. In fact, Eve hadn’t noticed any droids employed in the club.
    “You ever work the night shift?” Eve asked her.
    “Nope. I’m a day worker.” The bartender set Eve’s coffee on the bar. She was the perky kind, one who looked more like the front woman for a health food chain than a drink swiller at a club.
    “Who’s on the ten to three who notices people, remembers them?”
    “Nobody around here notices people, if they can help it.”
    Eve took out her badge, laid it on the