Derek stood, and immediately the boyfriend did also.
“Did we do okay?” Benjamin asked Derek.
Derek nodded and said, “We did.” He stopped, turned, and looked at Richard. “Detective, do you think this has anything to do with Naomi going missing? I wasn’t too worried to begin with but now …”
“I don’t know. But it’s very possible that, when we find Kenneth, we’ll find Naomi.”
“She’s not a very nice person sometimes,” Derek said. His voice dropped to a quiet tone. “But she doesn’t deserve what happened to Elena.”
“None of them deserved that,” Richard said, and he bolted from the interrogation room.
*
Look at all the people standing in line just to get inside. Look at the accolades she was getting. He sighed with joy and happiness. She was such a success. A success that should have been his and would be again.
He almost had it perfected. He was doing so, so well. He smiled, accepted a glass of champagne—the servers doing their best to keep the patrons waiting outside a little mollified. Putting on airs, he gently walked around, speaking to others, as if he were the artist. Because, of course, he could do this. He’d done things like this many times. He was perfectly capable of it.
He sighed a happy sigh, reached up, and gently patted his hair, making sure that it was as good as it could be.
It was not the way he wanted to leave his apartment, but one had to make do. At the showing, he stood in awe at the turnout. Cayce had done phenomenally well for herself. He could hardly contain his excitement.
When one of the guards walked over to him and asked if he was okay, he gave him a frightened look, realizing he’d shown too much eagerness. “Of course I’m fine,” he said. Then he took his flute of champagne and turned his back to the guard.
He wasn’t sure what could possibly have attracted the guard’s attention, but he wanted to get closer to see the models and to see the large picture. He also wanted to take photos, and certainly a lot of photos were being taken. He stood in line and took several selfies, acting the same as everybody else.
Then he went inside and hummed with joy. When he looked at the two models, he sighed happily. They were both perfect. Then he contemplated which one. Which one?
Just then, Cayce walked over and talked to one of the models. He saw her, as silver slice against the ice, against the blue ice, and against the white, the light shining and playing across her perfect form, and he sighed as recognition hit him.
He didn’t need to choose a model. It was Cayce’s turn. He was finally here. She was finally it. Cayce had her grand finale, and that’s exactly what this was, her finale. Now it would all be turned over to him. And he was more than happy to pick up the gauntlet.
Chapter 24
The warm, fuzzy feeling continued throughout the evening. Cayce was really, really proud of this. Proud that she was helping in some way to bring global awareness to help save the animals. She hadn’t told anyone she had donated all her time to this. Anita would have a fit. Cayce had told her assistant that she had donated all the materials but not her labor, but she had to do the work that brought her joy. Otherwise there was no point in doing this at all.
So much ugliness was in her life right now that she wanted desperately to have something that made her feel good. It was hard to be upset when such a warm glow of love and acceptance was all around her. She took in the admiration, realizing that the glow would only last for tonight. At the same time, she was sad that Richard had gone. But apparently he had a good reason for it, since Frankie was staying at her side.
“So, are you hanging around me because you want to,” she said in a low tone toward him, “or did Richard order you to?”
Frankie looked immediately guilty.
She nodded. “You need to remember it’s the models who were kidnapped.”
He nodded. “And I’m terrified that something’ll happen to one or the other, and I want to bring them both over here and keep them beside you, but you all deserve whatever moments you have tonight.”
She said, “We’ll be just fine. It’s a public place. Nothing’ll happen here.”
He looked at her, scanned the area, and said, “Please don’t say that. That’s like poking the devil and daring him to try it.”
She laughed.
As the waiter went by, he held out a tray with a single flute. She immediately switched her old glass for the full one and thanked him. She turned to Frankie and said, “It’ll be fine. The show was perfect tonight, wasn’t it?”
“It is great,” he said. “You are great.”
“And you will get your painting mojo back,” she said to him.
“I was wondering …” and he hesitated.
“Wondering what?” she asked.
“I started doing something very different. I wondered if you would take a look and let me know if it’s any good,” he said, his words came out in a rush.
“Absolutely,” she said. “Is it different than your other stuff?”
“Yes, very. Very different, but it’s kind of dark.”
“Dark isn’t necessarily bad,” she said.
He looked at her in surprise.
“When I’ve hit some difficult rock-bottom times in my life,” she said, “it was painting the dark that got me back out of it to the light again.”
“You know what? I was wondering about that too because lately I’ve been reaching for lighter colors.” He frowned and shook his head. “That never occurred to me.”
She reached down, squeezed his wrist. “Be gentle on yourself. You had a brain injury. There can be all kinds of repercussions from that.”
“Not
