“How long has Jade lived next door to you?” Chase asked. Bill rolled his eyes skyward and scratched his chin.Let Bill say one year and not three years, Chase thought.
“Carol,” Bill called as a woman with gray streaks in her short, brown hair and a calico cat in her arms walked around the side of their house. “This here is Chase, a friend of Jade’s. How long has she lived here?”
“Jade moved here from California a year ago,” Carol said, putting the cat down and looping her arm through Bill’s. The cat sniffed Chase and then rubbed against his leg. “The three of us love Jade,” the woman said with a nod including the cat. Smiling at Chase, she asked, “Isn’t Jade the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen?”
“She is.” Chase exchanged phone numbers with Bill. Careful not to step on the fluffy tail of Jade’s first friend, Chase hopped back in his truck.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
“I’m not tangling with Chase Cooper again,” Axel Bisbee told Franco. “I quit.”
Greta, the housemaid, had led the out-of-breath private investigator into the lavishly decorated living room. Franco was sipping bourbon from a crystal tumbler while lounging on a custom-made modern white sofa from Italy. Offering worldwide delivery, the Italian company had charged him as much for the sofa as a compact car. This elegant statement piece, taking up a good portion of the large room, was in the shape of anS.Thus, not only did it stand for Spatafore, but Franco could sit on it, and from any angle, he could stare at the full-length rendition of the perfection known as Jade Taylor. Centered over the marble fireplace, the painting—copied from a photograph—and the custom-made, gold leaf frame had cost him $50,000.
Jade had posed for the photo wearing a white bikini. She had adamantly refused to do the photo shoot, or any shoot for that matter, naked. He had lost his temper, but she hadn’t budged. She’d pointed out that their contract never called for nude pictures, nor would she have signed it if it had. It infuriated Franco to no end that he had yet to see her in the buff.
I’ll have you naked soon, Jade.
On the fireplace mantel, underneath the painting, was a photo of Jade in the white bikini. To the right of the hearth stood a life-sized marble replica of the Capitoline Venus. The home of the original Venus statue was Rome, Italy, in the Capitoline Museums. Located in Piazza del Campidoglio, this single museum contained a group of museums and was built on the architectural design of Michelangelo.Naked, after having emerged from her bath, Venus, the goddess of love, beauty, and desire, partially covers her left breast with her right hand as she hides her groin with her left hand. Jade had refused to pose that provocatively. Thus, Jade, in the white bikini, had placed her right hand on her ribs and her left hand on her left thigh.
Ahhh…but in the end, that, he tittered to himself, had worked in his favor.
Franco would give anything for the original Venus statue. But he had Jade, an original in her own right. To the left of the hearth loomed a majestic replica of Michelangelo’sDavid. The original masterpiece of the biblical hero resided in the Accademia Gallery in Florence, Italy. Franco fancied himself a rival to David. Therefore, on the fireplace mantel above the statue was a photograph of himself, albeit some thirty years prior, wearing nothing but a fig leaf.
“I said I quit!” Axel Bisbee repeated, moving into Franco’s line of sight. The squat investigator standing between the two glorious Italian sculptures looked ridiculous.
Franco sneered at Axel, “You’ll quit when I say you can.” Twirling his tumbler of bourbon, he added, “You owe me thousands from the tummy tuck I gave your wife after my brother hypnotized her to stop eating like a pig at a slop trough. Mateo’s services were covered by insurance. You know very well my cosmetic surgery was not.”
“Yes, I understand,” Axel said and rubbed his forehead. “But give me a different case to work off what I owe you. You obviously haven’t dealt with Chase Cooper.”
“You found Chase Cooper today?” Mateo asked, entering the living room.
“Where’s Jade?” Franco asked Mateo with a sudden anxious glance toward the foyer.
“Calm down, Franco. I worked with her, and she’s upstairs resting. Margo exchanged places with me and is watching her now,” Mateo replied.
“Yeah, I found Chase Cooper. Wish I hadn’t.” Axel looked from Mateo back to Franco.
“Ugly? Handsome?” Franco asked.
“What?” Axel replied.
“His looks.” Franco impatiently flipped his hand over and over in the air. Pretending indifference, he desperately hoped the report would be to his liking. “Average?”
“Good-looking, muscular, fit.”
“Whatever.” Franco sniffed indignantly. “Did you give Chase your card so that if he calls you can feed him more of the information I gave you?” Franco asked.
“My card?” Axel asked incredulously. “Chase Cooper is a badass! He wasn’t going to take my card. I hope I never lay eyes on him again.”
“You had your gun, didn’t you?” Franco asked.
“Yeah, and Chase had a branding iron straight outa hell.”
Franco flinched but covered it up with, “So?”
“So?” Axel snorted. “You ever been threatened to have a red-hot poker brand your forehead from the inside out? By a six foot three or four, damn big, and mean-as-hell cowboy?”
“What have you gotten us into, Franco?” Mateo asked.
