When Liana showed up at Work Land at ten a.m., Aaron had her check ready.

She made a show of tucking the paper slowly between her cleavage.

“I'm jealous,” he said.

Laughing, she removed it, dropped it daintily into her Kate Spade. Resumed sipping from the demitasse of espresso Aaron had brewed in that cute, copper Italian machine he kept in the kitchenette next to his office.

“Yum, Mr. Fox. You are one class act.”

Aaron fooled with a piece of lemon rind.

“Nice shirt,” said Liana. “New?”

“Nope.”

“Never seen it before.”

“Never got around to wearing it before.” Been hanging in the home haberdashery for eleven months. “Tell me about this RAND guy.”

“Don't worry, he's for real, Aaron. First thing I did when I got home last night was look him up on their website. He's there, picture and all. Does exactly what he said he did.”

“Chasing terrorists.”

“Playing with numbers,” she said. “Government contracts.”

Aaron said, “Doesn't mean he's not whack.”

“He's not, don't be paranoid.”

“Talking to strangers, Lee.” Aaron tsk-tsked.

“I thought that was the point of last night.”

“The point was soaking up ambience, getting a feel for the place.”

“It's not the décor you care about, it's the clientele. Kind of hard to tease that out without talking to strangers,” said Liana.

“And no doubt, Dr. Rau doesn't look like a leprous summer squash.”

Liana stared at him. “You're not serious.”

“I care about you, Lee. Just because you meet a cute guy-”

“Stop right there, Mr. Fox.” Graceful, slim fingers tightened around the demitasse handle. “Though, if I had to rely on you for nur-turance, where would I be, Aaron?”

Aaron slapped his chest. “I am mortally wounded.” Doing it with levity. Unlike Steve, whose chest-pound last night had been an outward jest but laced with serious regret.

Liana leaned across the glass slab that formed the top of Aaron's desk. “What we have, mon amour, is a form of aerobics. Healthy, strenuous, satisfying for what it is, and altogether transitory.”

“As opposed to Mr. RAND, who's a deeply spiritual guy, just brimming with empathy and sensitivity. All of which you know from a one-hour bar schmooze.”

“This is ridiculous,” she said. “You gave me an assignment, I did it A-plus.”

“Exactly, Lee. You're valuable, I want you around for a long time.”

“Oh, for God's sake, it's not like I'm dating him.”

“But you've considered it.”

Liana smiled. “You're jealous.”

“No, I'm protective.”

“Thank you, but I'm quite capable of taking care of myself.” Liana put her cup down. “What's gotten into you?”

“I just don't like the notion of mixing business with pleasure.”

Liana's eyes slitted. “I'll remember that the next time someone booty-calls me at three a.m.”

She sprang up, tossed her hair, turned heel.

“Wait,” said Aaron. “Sorry, yeah, I'm being stupid. You mean a lot to me-as a friend, as a freelance.” Grin. “As the sexiest, firmest-”

“Stop.”

“Okay, okay. Sit down. Please.”

Liana exhaled a couple of times.

“Please, Lee.”

She returned to her chair, crossed her legs, let the jersey skirt ride up all the way to sleek white thigh. Commandment One: Make 'em suffer.

Aaron said, “I was out of line. My excuse is this case, I can't put my finger on it but there's a certain… I don't know, a dark aura circulating around it. I know that sounds hokey and I can't give you a rational reason, but there's something beneath the surface-something psychy going on.”

“As in paranormal?”

“No, no, none of that crap. As in creepy and sleazy and warped. If you tell me there's nothing weird about Mr. RAND, I'll go with that. But don't you think it's strange that he mentioned Caitlin right off the bat.”

“Dr. RAND,” said Liana. “He's got a Ph.D. And it wasn't off the bat, there was context-talking about the bar's celeb days, the irony of something happening when there were bodyguards all over the place. And he didn't mention Caitlin by name, just by incident. Plus, he told me about the Rensselaers and they turned out to be a dead end. So it's not like he's fixated.”

“The Rensselaers,” said Aaron. Glancing at the Internet printout Liana had brought. She'd used couple vanishes riptide santa monica as the search heading, reproduced an article from the Rensselaers’ hometown of Buckeye Bridge, Pennsylvania.

Ivan and Bettina, formerly owners of an antiques store, had cut town to escape a big-time eBay bad-check mess, used their ill-gotten gain to finance a West Coast vacation. The FBI had traced the couple to L.A., then lost the scent and gotten sneaky: filing a false missing persons report with several SoCal police agencies and convincing local stations to give the disappearance airplay.

Two days after the broadcast, an alert West Hollywood sheriff had spotted Ivan and Bettina leaving Dan Tana after a huge Italian dinner. The Buckeye Bridge Beacon reported “tomato sauce stains on Ivan Rensselaer's brand-new white silk shirt purchased on Rodeo Drive.”

Aaron said, “So Doctor Rau knew about their disappearance but not their being found.”

“As I said, he's not fixated.”

“Gets paid to think, huh?”

“Aaron, what is it about him that's wedging itself in your butt-crack?”

“Bringing Caitlin up the first time he meets you. To me that's just off, Lee. Dude's out to pick up a beautiful girl, why set the mood with creepy crime-especially a crime against a female. It just doesn't fit.”

“It doesn't fit because he's not a player, Aaron.” Unlike someone else we know. “He's kind of a nerd, actually. Not physically-oh, what's the diff, I'll never see him again. Never intended to. Happy?”

“If you mean it… one thing that does come out of it are those bodyguards and limos. Be harder for a whack to abduct Caitlin right outside the bar… though she left after her shift, so maybe that means nothing… still, her car was never found, so it's likely she drove somewhere and got snagged, could be anywhere from Santa Monica to Venice.”

“Or beyond,” said Liana, “if she got jacked. Meaning, focusing on Riptide could be a waste.”

“Rau mention any celebs by name?”

Liana shook her head. “Only names were the ones I showed you from the Times.”

“A name not on that list just came up, Lee. Lem Dement.”

“That asshole,” Liana hissed. “Be nice if he did have something to do with it.”

Her intensity surprised Aaron. “You don't approve of his religious views?”

“I don't approve of him. Because I once caught an up-close look at him and his psyche.”

“Where and when?”

“Shortly after that biblical splatter flick of his opened. San Marino, someone's gigantic house near Caltech, not the usual Industry types. Church folk, captains of industry, grace before the canapés, crucifixes on every table. Back then, I didn't know you, used to pass trays for a caterer to pay bills. It was summer, the party was outdoors, everyone was dressed for the heat, except Mrs. Dement-Gemma. She's wearing a long-sleeved black sweater over a Chanel frock and way too much makeup. What caught my eye was the look in her eyes-something I recognized right away because my older sister hooked up with a guy who beat the crap out of her. It was years before that bastard had the courtesy to die, I could never convince Sybil to leave him.”

“Gemma looked like an abused woman,” said Aaron.

“Not just looked, Aaron. Was,” said Liana. Fury had deepened the blue of her eyes. “Hollow, haunted, there's no mistaking it when you see it. Because of my experience with Sybil, I'm primed. So while I served shrimp on toast, I kept sneaking glances at the two of them. Didn't take long for me to catch it: squeezing her arm just a little too tight as he propelled her around the room. Treating her like a prop, never talking to her. Once, when he thought no one was looking, he flicked the back of her neck with his fingernail, had to sting.”