The Look of Love Read online

  George listened silently. It was easy for Ben Dixon to say. You could tell, just by looking at him, that everything had always worked out for him. He didn’t know what it was like to watch the destruction of the life of somebody he loved.

  Chapter 67

  From the car Piper called Elysium and asked to be put through to the skin-care center. She was informed that the only appointment Kyle had left that day was at four o’clock. She booked it.

  Next she called Anastasia.

  “Hey, it’s Piper. I’m getting the facial.”

  “Perfect,” said Anastasia. “I was thinking that it would be great to have video of all this. It would give us evidence of how he proposes the treatments to his victims. How would you feel about bringing a camera?”

  “I don’t know,” Piper said, mindful that the driver could hear everything she said. “That might be more than I can handle.”

  “We’ll install it in your purse,” said Anastasia. “You can start it recording before you go into the treatment room. All you have to do is put your bag on the counter and point it toward the table.”

  It sounded easy enough.

  Chapter 68

  It was hard to be in the same room with Jillian. To spend the morning taking directions from someone young enough to be his daughter annoyed him. To take directions from the person who’d stolen his job made Hudson angry.

  He was beyond thrilled when Jillian told him she was leaving for lunch with her father and stepmother and was then going for a facial. She wouldn’t be back until midafternoon.

  “I hope you don’t mind, Hudson,” said Jillian. “I hope you don’t think I’m deserting you on your first day.”

  Hudson forced a smile. “Of course not, Jillian. I’ll be absolutely fine. Don’t forget, I’m not exactly a stranger to this place.”

  When she left for lunch, Hudson went to her desk. Jillian was a fastidious little thing. Except for the phone and appointment book, her desktop was clear. He flipped through the pages. Jillian and Ben were having dinner tonight. Tomorrow night was clear, and there were few notations for the rest of the week. Other than a couple of day appointments, Jillian hadn’t scheduled anything for the week leading up to her wedding.

  Hudson sat behind the desk. It had once been his desk. It would be his desk again.

  Chapter 69

  When the car dropped her off in Elysium’s courtyard, it was lunchtime. Piper decided not to return to her room. Instead she walked down to Wendy’s cottage and knocked.

  “Who is it?” Wendy asked from the other side of the door.

  “It’s Piper. I wanted to see if you were in the mood to have lunch.”

  The door opened a crack. “I’m sorry, Piper, I don’t really feel like seeing anybody right now.”

  “Are you all right, Wendy? I called you a couple of times, but nobody answered.”

  “I know. I was here, but I just couldn’t pick up the phone.”

  “Is there anything I can do to help?” Piper asked gently.

  “Yes, if you can make me a new nose.” Wendy opened the door wider. Piper could see she’d been crying.

  “Dr. Abernathy told me there’s nothing else he can do,” Wendy continued. “So that’s it.”

  “Oh, man, I’m so, so sorry,” said Piper. “I know that Dr. Abernathy is great and everything, but maybe another doctor could do something. Have you thought about getting a second opinion?”

  Wendy shook her head. “Maybe someday I will, but right now the thought of getting my hopes up just to have them shattered again is more than I can take. I don’t think my father can take any more either. He’s beside himself.”

  Chapter 70

  What a productive day it had been!

  This morning the actress had come for her second sleep treatment. Kyle was confident that the video he’d taken was going to be extremely exciting to watch. Almost as exciting as it had been to record. When she woke up, the actress had been so happy with the way her skin glowed that she was eager to schedule a third treatment.

  As long as women were obsessed with their appearance, he would have takers for his sleep treatments. It didn’t really matter if his clients actually looked better afterward or not. They wanted to look better, and therefore almost all of them believed they looked better after treatment.

  Of course, when Irene and Jillian Abernathy had come in for their facials, he hadn’t suggested the sleep treatment to them, even though they both met the “blond” criterion. Irene, though a little too old for his liking, still looked good. And Jillian . . . well, Jillian was gorgeous. But it would be stupid to take a chance with them.

  Still, it had been fun to massage the lotions into Jillian’s flawless skin, slowly stroking her face, working down her neck, and traveling down her long, slim arms. He’d rubbed and massaged her hands with cream, imagining what it would be like to have her hold him with them. He’d gotten into such a state that he almost hadn’t been able to shake himself back to reality.

  As far as Jillian was concerned, he was an employee, nothing more. As much as he wished it were otherwise, that’s the way it was. It wasn’t going to change. Ben Dixon was a lucky SOB.

  Kyle spread fresh linen on the massage table. He had one more appointment for the day. He hoped she was a blonde.

  Chapter 71

  Anastasia had asked Piper to come to her room to learn how to operate the small video camera.

  “It’s easy. You just push this and it will start recording,” she said, pointing to the RECORD button.

  “I think I can handle that,” said Piper. Her outward confidence belied the doubt she was beginning to feel. If Kyle Quigley really was doing what Anastasia thought he was, he could be dangerous if he felt threatened.

  “Just go in there and act as you would when going for any facial,” said Anastasia. “The camera will do all the work. When he brings up the sleep treatment, try to get him to talk about it as much as possible.”

  Piper took the camera from Anastasia. “Okay, how do I install this in my purse?” she asked.

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” said Anastasia. “No point in putting a hole in your bag. Use mine. It’s camera-ready.”

  Piper pulled her wallet and room key card from her purse and transferred them to Anastasia’s black leather hobo bag. She wished she had the small spray can of mace that she’d promised her father she’d carry, but it had been confiscated by airline security in Newark.

  Her father. Piper tried to push him out of her mind. She didn’t even want to consider how he would react when he learned what she was doing. Jack either. But when she told them—if she told them—the meeting with Kyle Quigley would be in the past.

  After changing into a peach-colored smock given to her by one of the attendants in the skin-care center, Piper settled down in the waiting area outside Kyle’s treatment room. She picked up a magazine and paged through it, but she couldn’t concentrate.

  “Piper?”

  She looked up at the powerfully built man standing in the doorway. “Yes?”

  “Hi. I’m Kyle. Come on in.”

  As she rose from her chair, Piper suddenly realized she’d forgotten to turn on the video camera. She felt her pulse quicken and her face begin to grow hot. Idiot. What are you going to do now?

  She followed Kyle into the treatment room. Stay calm, she told herself. Stay calm.

  “Is everything all right, Piper?” asked Kyle. “You look worried. This isn’t going to hurt a bit, you know.”

  “Oh, no. I’m fine.” She managed to smile. “I was just thinking about something else.”

  Kyle gestured to the table. “Climb up and we’ll get started.”

  Think of something. Now.

  As she approached the table, she began to cough. “Hold on a sec,” she said. “Let me get something to suck on.”

  With her
back to Kyle, blocking his view of what she was doing, Piper put Anastasia’s bag on the counter, pointing the end of it, where the opening was, at the massage table. She reached into the bag and felt the camera. Now she had to hit the RECORD button.

  “Sorry. I can’t find a thing in this purse,” she said, stalling.

  “Not to worry,” said Kyle. “You’re my last appointment for the day. I don’t have any pressure about time.”

  Her fingers groped over the surface of the camera. She felt the button and pushed.

  “Okay, all set,” said Piper, turning around. She climbed up and lay on the table. Kyle switched on a bright light and positioned it over her face.

  “So what do you do, Piper?”

  “Well, on the good days, I act,” she said, pretending to be sucking on a lozenge.

  Kyle smiled. “As you probably know, we get a lot of actresses here.”

  “I know,” said Piper. She deliberately didn’t mention the name of the actress at the pool. “But I came here because I was asked to make Jillian Abernathy’s wedding cake.”

  “I’m confused,” said Kyle. “I thought you said you were an actress.”

  “I am,” said Piper. “But let’s just say there’s a lot of downtime between acting gigs.” She faked a cough.

  He finished studying her pores. “Your skin looks great, Piper,” he said. “There’s virtually no sun damage.”

  “Thanks. That’s because I hate to go out in it.”

  “I wish everyone felt that way,” said Kyle as he pushed aside the lamp. “So many people come in here after they’ve ruined their skin by baking in the sun. Then they want me to wave a magic wand and make it disappear.”

  “Well, I have heard you can perform miracles,” said Piper.

  Kyle smiled. “Oh, yeah? Where did you hear that?”

  “I was talking to someone at the pool. She was raving about some sort of sleep treatments you give.”

  Kyle reached for a container of cleansing cream. He scooped some out and smoothed it all over Piper’s face and neck.

  “That feels great,” she said, completely creeped out. “You have such a nice touch.”

  “We’ll just leave this on for a minute or two,” said Kyle. “To give it time to dissolve dirt and oils.” He returned the cap to its container.

  “Can you tell me about the sleep treatment?” asked Piper. “Would there be a benefit for me?”

  “You don’t really need one, Piper,” answered Kyle. “Your skin is flawless.”

  “Really?” asked Piper. “I’m only twenty-seven, but look at those lines at the corners of my eyes.”

  Kyle looked. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he said. “There’s nothing there. You don’t need a sleep treatment.”

  That wasn’t at all the answer Piper expected.

  She left the center with smooth, clear skin and a case of utter confusion. Was Anastasia wrong? Was Kyle just what he appeared to be? Was he a well-trained and talented medical aesthetician with nothing to hide?

  Anastasia was supposed to meet Piper for dinner. She was going to be disappointed when she heard that Kyle hadn’t suggested the sleep treatments. In fact, he’d adamantly said that Piper wasn’t a candidate. Maybe Anastasia’s friend had been wrong in her suspicions. Maybe the black-and-blue mark on the movie star’s leg had been the result of her bumping into something and she simply didn’t remember. Maybe Anastasia was chasing a story that didn’t exist.

  Chapter 72

  Jack couldn’t keep himself from checking Piper’s Facebook page.

  FUN AUDITION THIS MORNING!

  KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED FOR ME!

  Normally, if Jack read that post, he would have picked up the phone right away and called her. He loved sharing her happy news of any acting success. He also loved being there for her when the acting breaks weren’t coming her way. Bottom line? Good or bad, he loved her.

  While he had taken the bartender’s advice, hanging tough and not calling her, Jack didn’t feel all that triumphant. Instead he just felt disappointed and worried that she hadn’t called him either.

  One of them was going to have to be the bigger person and make the first move. Jack was almost ready to cave.

  Chapter 73

  After throwing the used sheets and towels into the laundry bin and making up the massage table for the next day, Kyle went to the cabinet. Concealed by lotion bottles, his camera sat on the shelf with its eye exposed. It was trained on the table. He took it down, picked out the disc, and inserted another before replacing the camera in its hiding spot.

  The moment Kyle had seen the bag Piper was carrying, he knew he’d seen it before. That Anastasia Wilcox who came in last week asking about the sleep treatment, the one with the short, dark hair whom he’d told she wasn’t a candidate, had the same bag—black leather with a purple drawstring. At first Kyle wrote it off to coincidence. Many women owned the same purse. Manufacturers made hundreds of them.

  But when Piper asked about the sleep treatment, he became alarmed. She had flawless skin. Even though Kyle knew from experience that many women asked for treatments they didn’t need, Piper’s request was ludicrous.

  Maybe he was wrong. But he had learned to trust his instincts. His gut told him that something wasn’t right. It had killed him not to encourage Piper to take the treatment. Young, blond, and beautiful, she was the perfect embodiment of his desires. But he couldn’t take the chance.

  What if Piper Donovan and the Wilcox woman were trying to trap him? What if they suspected what he’d been doing and were trying to catch him in the act? If he was found out, the professional reputation he’d worked so hard to establish would be ruined. Even worse, he’d face a stiff prison sentence.

  He had to find out what was going on.

  Chapter 74

  TUESDAY, JANUARY 11 . . . FOUR DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING

  Piper had a headache. She and Anastasia had ordered martinis, and afterward they’d shared a bottle of wine and finished with amaretto cordials. Even as she drank, Piper knew she would pay for it in the morning. And right on cue, the dull throb began as soon as she opened her eyes.

  She swallowed some ibuprofen along with a glass of water, then lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. Her mind went over what had happened—or not happened—in Kyle Quigley’s massage room.

  Anastasia had been disappointed when she heard Piper’s account of what Kyle had said and done when Piper lay on the massage table. But she wasn’t deterred in her belief that Kyle was doing something disgustingly wrong. She said she had another way she was going to try to go at him.

  Rolling over onto her stomach, Piper was glad to be out of the whole thing. She’d helped Anastasia as much as she could. Now she had to get in gear on the wedding cake. The layers could be made by the nuns on Thursday, and she would then decorate the cake the following day so all would be perfect for the Saturday wedding.

  Piper was thrilled that Jillian didn’t want peach-colored flowers. She preferred an all-white cake, on the outside at least. The couple had decided they wanted to go with the original dense pumpkin-bread recipe for their cake. One, it tasted delicious. Two, they were planning to put little cards at each place setting explaining the story of the cloistered convent and its dependence on the sale of its pumpkin bread for survival. They hoped to increase awareness that would spur sales after the wedding.

  Piper was sketching the flowers for the cake when her phone rang. She looked down at the lit-up BlackBerry. It was Gabe.

  “Hey, doll, good news. They loved you at the audition yesterday. They want you to come for a callback this afternoon. If you get it, they’re planning to shoot on Thursday or Friday.”

  “Thursday or Friday this week?” asked Piper, thinking about the wedding cake that had to be decorated on Friday.

  “Yeah, kid. Isn’t that great?” The agent didn’t wait for P
iper’s answer. “It looks like something could be breaking for you.”

  Chapter 75

  The phone call was sobering. Anastasia’s editor told her that she should be ready to pack up and leave Elysium at any time.

  “Vernon Abernathy is on the warpath, Anastasia. Our publisher is a golf buddy of his, and Abernathy has been demanding to know who Anastasia Fernands is.”

  “He didn’t tell him, did he?” she asked.

  “No, but Abernathy is in a rage about those pictures you took. He says his lawyers tell him he can sue us, because there’s a no-cameras policy at Elysium.”

  “Can he sue?” asked Anastasia.

  “Of course. This is America. I guess his lawyers can do anything they want. Whether they’d win or not is another story. The point is, you should know that your time at Elysium is almost over and act accordingly.”

  Lingering over her morning coffee, Anastasia kept her eyes trained on the entrance to the dining room. Finally she decided that it was stupid to wait any longer. The actress might not even be coming down to breakfast.

  Getting up from the table, she pondered the situation. If there was any chance to get what she needed to show that Kyle Quigley was a predator, the actress was it. Anastasia had to persuade her to go in with the hidden camera while she had a sleep treatment.

  That was a lot to ask. But she would make an emotional, moral, and professional appeal to the actress. This guy had to be stopped. The actress would be using her professional skills to catch him. And, as a bonus, she might even get some publicity out of it.

  Anastasia walked into the lobby, went to one of the house phones, and asked to be connected to the actress’s room.

  “We have no one registered under that name,” said the operator.

  Of course, thought Anastasia as she hung up. The actress hadn’t registered under her own name.