Touch & Go (Tessa Leoni, #2)(37)

Unfortunately for her, she had a feeling she was packing the wrong equipment to garner James’s attention. Yet another reason Sophie would remain an only child.

Also, James had taken one look at her and exclaimed that the real crime she should be investigating was the one that had been committed against her hair. Didn’t she realize that shade of brown—her real color, sadly—was too dull, totally washing out her complexion? Not to mention pulling her long hair back into a single hair clip was much too severe for her face. She needed softness, she needed warmth, she needed an immediate hair intervention. That was it, she must return for his next available appointment. Which turned out to be in six months.

Tessa dutifully made the appointment. In return, Farias agreed to answer her questions regarding Libby Denbe.

“The husband did it,” he declared now, leading her to a back room marked Experts Only. She took that to be a euphemism for Employees Only. “Trust me, honey. Justin will appear out of nowhere, sweet little Ashlyn will be found. But Libby will never be seen again. Don’t you read the papers? That’s always how these things work. Mango-pomegranate tea?”

“Um, no, thank you.”

“Wouldn’t hurt, you know. Rich in antioxidants for the investigator on the go.”

It seemed important to him, so she finally agreed. Maybe having been denied access to her under-tended hair, the man needed to at least provide vitamins and minerals.

“Did Libby love her husband?” Tessa asked, taking a seat at a black lacquer table while Farias fished out two bags from a beautifully decorated container.

“He wasn’t worth it,” James declared.

“How so?”

“Wasn’t even home most of the time. His job, his crew, his buildings. Puuullleeeze. Everyone was allowed to need him except Libby. She just had to maintain the perfect home, raise the perfect child and greet him each Friday night with a smile. I told her at the beginning she gave too much. And trust me, honey, men don’t appreciate what women give willingly. A thousand years of evolution later, it’s still about the chase.” James paused in the act of reaching for a row of mugs. “You know how many Libbys I see in a salon like this? Beautiful, talented women, each and every one. And they do everything their rich, self-centered hubbies ask of them, right up to the moment the rich, self-centered hubbies kick them to the curb in favor of the younger, fresher model. It’s like driving by an auto accident. No matter how many of them you see, you still think it’ll only happen to someone else.”

“Justin had a younger, fresher model?”

“Yep. Went on for months before Libby found out. She was blindsided by the discovery. Simply blindsided. File for divorce first, I advised her. Hire the power lawyer and go after him, big legal guns blazing. But no. They had a daughter, they had a marriage, they had a life. I’m telling you now, he didn’t stop seeing the bimbo just because his wife found out. I mean, maybe he told her he did, but a leopard never changes his spots.”

“Who was it?” Tessa asked, frowning.

James returned to the table with two mugs of fragrant tea. He set them down, then jabbed her in the forehead with his index finger. “Stop it. Didn’t your mother ever tell you your face will freeze like that? You don’t need to be developing any frown lines. Your face is stern enough as it is.”

“Well, I am an investigator.”

“That may gain you a suspect, honey, but it’ll never help you find your man.”

“So true. So did Libby know the bimbo?”

“Travel agent. His. Justin’s on the road all the time. Guess his firm uses a travel agency with offices in the same building to handle all their arrangements. Pretty soon, it became a full-service relationship.”

“Did Libby know the woman?”

“Please, girl is more like it.” James took a seat, leaning close. “Libby went in one afternoon. Wasn’t going to talk to her, wasn’t going to approach. Just wanted to size up the competition, you know. According to her, she walked through the doors of the agency, took one look and walked right back out. Said the girl couldn’t have been a day over twenty-one. Just some starry-eyed kid who no doubt hung on every word Justin ever said before catching up with her friends at a concert.”

“Name?”

“Kate. Christy. Katie. Something like that. Libby couldn’t take her seriously. If anything, she seemed to feel bad for her, just some young girl getting involved with a married man. In her mind, Justin had taken advantage.”

“Generous of her,” Tessa remarked.

“Oh, she’s that kind of woman. Not a catty bone in her body, which is more than I can say for most of the felines around here.”

“How long have you known Libby?”

“Oh, honey, I never give out that information. Next thing I know, you’ll guess my age.”

“Okay. A longtime client?”

“Certainly. Woman needed help in the beginning, too. She grew up in the projects. A regular Little Orphan Annie with a hard-knock life. I understand no one thinks of Back Bay as being the mean streets of Boston, but trust me, love, they’re tough in their own way.”

“Didn’t exactly fit in?”

“Her husband’s in construction. Wears work boots. Seriously?”

“Yeah, but a hundred-million-dollar company…”