Cut and Run (9 page)

“Yeah? If that's the case, why doesn't Marssai say something?”

“Timing,” said Tripp, taking a step forward. “See, she wanted to make sure she wouldn't get in trouble for breaking Florida State Ordinance 73-B. It restricts sexual behavior in public places, specifically bars and restaurants. If she was really having sex in that booth, she could be charged; if it wasn't her, she had a legal out. But you, my friend—you have no such protection. And neither does your partner.”

Delwyn's perfect smile dimmed a little. “But—but nobody ever told me it was
illegal
. Marssai and Gwen are both over eighteen—”

Natalia cut him off. “Ignorance of the law is no excuse, Delwyn. The only reason you haven't been charged until now is that Marssai has friends in high places—but they've had a sudden change of heart. See, Marssai knows how to cut a deal…and you've made it real easy for her to throw you to the wolves.”

“But—but—that
bitch
!”

“Maybe so,” said Tripp, “but she's a smarter breed than you are.”

“Look, I can give you more than she can,” said Delwyn. The slightest note of panic had crept into his voice as he saw Tripp pull out his handcuffs. “Oh, God. That's not necessary. Look, all I did was show up and
perform,
okay? The whole thing was Marssai's idea—she hired the cameraman, she got two of her friends to be in it. I didn't
know,
all right?”

“Names,” said Natalia.

“The cameraman was this guy named Jeremy Fontwell, some friend of Marssai's. Cherise Dameo doubled for Marssai—part of her, anyway.”

Natalia pulled a notebook and a pen out of her bag and handed them to Delwyn. “I need contact numbers and addresses. If what they say corresponds with what you just told me, I might be able to help you.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. I can't go to jail, all right?” He grabbed the pen and started writing. “I get fan mail from way too many convicts already.”

Natalia did her best to hide her grin until she and Tripp had left the hotel's pool area. “Nice job,” she said. “Florida State Ordinance 73-B?”

“It's my locker number at the gym,” said Tripp. “I took one look at our boy and figured he was about as streetwise as a pet hamster. Thought I'd rattle his cage a little.”

“Well, it didn't take long for him to give up his friends. What do you say we go have a talk with them, next?”

“Sounds good to me.”

 

“As you can see,” said Quinkley, “sunfish are an ecosystem unto themselves.”

Delko shook his head, staring down into the gigantic fish's guts. “I knew they were prone to parasites, but I had no idea…”

Quinkley lifted a long, squirming wormlike thing with a pair of forceps. “Over forty varieties—in fact, it holds the world record for the most infested being on the planet. See this? Tapeworm that ordinarily lives in sharks. The fact that it's here means the sunfish is part of the tapeworm's life cycle—in order for the worm to reproduce, at some point the sunfish has to be eaten by a shark.”

“That's fascinating—but I'm more interested in finding something that
doesn't
belong here.”

“So far, I don't see anything out of place. The body has been previously cut into, but it doesn't look like any of the organs have been removed.”

“Well, they must have had a reason to cut into it.”

“Her.” Quinkley pointed to a large, saclike organ. “That's her ovary, right there.” He leaned over, inspecting it more closely. “Hmmm. It looks like there might be an incision in the top.”

“Can you open it up?”

“I can.”

Quinkley slit the organ open and pulled the flesh to either side. The interior was dotted with black, pearlescent spheres the size of a BB. “Looks like she recently laid her eggs.”

“Isn't that what these are?”

Quinkley chuckled. “Yes, but these are only remnants. The mola mola has been known to carry as many as
three hundred million eggs
—another world record, by the way. By those standards, a few stragglers like these hardly count.”

Delko thought for a moment. “It's a pretty roomy organ. Something could have been put in there through the incision, right?”

“It's possible—but if so, I see no evidence of it now.”

Delko collected some samples from the inside of the ovary. “Maybe not, but I'm going to send this to our trace lab just the same—maybe they can find something on a chemical level.”

Quinkley darted in with his forceps and pulled out another small, wriggling creature. “Ah-ha—amazing, isn't it? Their world has died, and yet they live on—for a time, anyway.”

Delko put the samples he'd taken aside. “Wait a minute—how long?”

“It depends on the organism. Some of these parasites will survive as long as seventeen hours after the host has died.”

“And since some of its hitchhikers are still clearly alive, that means this fish was caught less than seventeen hours ago.”

Quinkley nodded. “I would agree.”

“Can we narrow it down further? By looking at which parasites are dead, and which are still”—he glanced down at the creature squirming in Quinkley's forceps—“twitching?”

Quinkley considered the question. “It should be possible, yes.”

“Great,” said Delko. “Then let's go on a bug hunt.”

 

“Thank you for coming in to talk with us, Ms. Dameo,” said Natalia. She studied the woman sitting across from her intently, making no attempt to hide what she was doing. Cherise Dameo stared back, but after a moment she shifted her eyes to the side. “Yeah, whatever,” she said. She tugged at a strand of her long blond hair nervously and said, “So, what's this all about?”

“Just trying to figure something out.”

“What's that?”

“Why you'd agree to be Marssai Guardon's stand-in—sorry, sit-in—in an X-rated video.”

Cherise tried to look defiant. “You can't prove that. And even if you could, it's not illegal.”

“I'm a crime scene investigator—you'd be amazed at what I can prove. But you're right, what you did isn't illegal. Not the filming part, anyway.”

Worry trumped her defiance. “What? What do you mean?”

“That video's been downloaded millions of times—somebody somewhere must be making money from it. If that's so, then your little prank becomes fraud. Maybe even a felony, depending on the amount of money involved.”

Her worry was rapidly becoming misery. “But—Marssai said there was no way we could get in trouble. No
way
.”

Natalia gave her a sympathetic smile. “Look, I'm just trying to understand. If all you did was appear in the video, you're probably fine—but I need to know the whole story.”

“It was Marssai's idea. She said it would be great—like being a porn star but not. I mean, everybody thinks it's
her,
but it isn't—and I know it's
me,
but nobody else does. Does that make sense?”

“Actually, it kind of does. Weren't you worried the truth would eventually come out, though?”

“Not really. The only people who knew were me, Marssai, Delwyn, Gwen, and Jeremy. I trust all of them.”

“How about Hiram Davey?”

“That writer guy? He was hanging around Marssai for a while, but she said he gave her the creeps. She's used to the press, though—she'd never tell him anything she didn't want him to know.”

“Did he ever talk to you?”

“No, I never met him. Why?”

“How about the others? Did he talk to any of them?”

She shrugged. “I don't know. If he did, nobody ever mentioned it to me.”

“Okay, Cherise, this next question is important: Who would stand to lose the most if the public found out the video was a fake?”

Cherise frowned. “I don't know. Me, I guess. I mean, my parents will freak
out
if they find out it was me.”

“How about Jeremy or Delwyn or Gwen?”

“Ummmmm…no, I don't think so.”

Natalia sighed. “All right. Thanks for your help, Cherise.”

“Are—are you gonna tell everyone?”

Natalia smiled. “Well, it is my job to uncover the truth…but honestly, I think you've had
enough
uncovered.”

Wolfe found Delko in the lab, studying a sample under the microscope. “Hey,” said Wolfe. “Just finished talking to the ladies from the boat—both Faustino and Dragoslav lawyered up, said they won't say another word without counsel present.”

Delko looked up. “Get anything useful?”

“Just that Dragoslav was celebrating some kind of business deal. How about you?”

“Don't think I'll be eating seafood for a while.” Delko told him about the necropsy and the parasites they'd found. “We listed all the specimens we discovered, living and dead. Quinkley is going to cross-reference the data with how long each species can survive once the host is dead and email me the results. Should give us a time line on how long ago the fish was taken out of the water.”

“So that's all you found? Dead or dying parasites?”

“More or less. A small chunk of flesh had been excised from one interior wall, and the ovary had been cut open—those seemed to be the signs the fish had been tampered with.” Delko didn't look happy. “I was just checking some samples from the inside of the ovary. So far, every test I've run tells me the same thing: negative for drugs or any other foreign substance. If there was something stashed inside the fish, it didn't leave any traces behind.”

“Maybe it's a dead end.”

“What, you don't have any clever fish-related joke to make?”

Wolfe shrugged and grinned. “Hey, you spent the afternoon up to your elbows in fish guts and tapeworms. I figure you deserve a break.”

“You're too kind.”

“I know. It's a weakness.”

 

“Okay, okay, you got me,” said Marssai Guardon. She smiled brightly at Frank and Natalia on the other side of the interview table. “I did it, all right?”

“You killed Hiram Davey?” asked Natalia.

“What? No, of course not.” Marssai rolled her eyes upward. “I mean I faked the video, okay? I was about to announce it, anyway.”

Tripp didn't look impressed. “So the whole thing was a publicity stunt?”

“Publicity stunts are
so
nineteen-nineties. This is
viral marketing,
okay?”

Natalia shook her head.
“Not
okay. Explain it to me.”

Marssai sighed. “These days,
everybody's
booty footage is being downloaded. Everybody I know is wiring their bedrooms with spycams and night vision. You want to get noticed, you have to give the public something different.”

Natalia nodded. “Like a porn video that isn't what it appears.”

“Sure. I mean, setting it in a pubic place like that got people's attention, but it's already old news. When people find out the whole thing was a hoax, it'll catch fire all over again—people will download it just to see if they can spot the mistakes.”

Tripp crossed his arms. “And when your website launches, you'll be first in line to provide said downloads.”

“Not just any downloads—the full DVD-with-extra-features version. People love a scandal, but they love a scam even more.”

“So,” said Natalia, “if Hiram Davey spilled the beans early, it would screw up your marketing plan.”

Marssai laughed. “Are you kidding? He had no reason to do that, and he wasn't going to. I told him about the idea because I thought he'd appreciate it—and he did. He thought it was hilarious. He was going to work it into his book, which wasn't due to come out until next year. I figured the site might need another boost around then.”