Part 23 (2/2)
Replacement gripped the steering wheel as she sat up straighter. ”Stop doesn't mean end. I have my business going, but I still need to get established.”
”Whatever. Seriously. No more showers. No bathroom. No bed. No kissing. No flirting.”
”I don't flirt.”
”You always do.” Jack glared. Replacement scrunched up her lips and looked at the ceiling. ”No anything.”
”Fine.” She wrinkled up her nose. ”Okay. Stopped. That means you, too.”
”Me?”
”You kissed me in the shower.” She dipped her head down toward her chest.
”You got in and started was.h.i.+ng me. Come on.”
”If I was a nurse would you kiss me?”
”If you were a hot-looking nurse who got in the shower with me and started was.h.i.+ng me with the water running all over your...yeah. Yeah, I would. I'd do a lot more than just kiss you.”
”You thought I looked hot?”
”No...you're in my s.h.i.+rt, and it's all wet and clinging to your...and the water's on. You put your head back, and then you leaned in a little. Stop, just stop.”
”It's your fault. You always get naked.”
”What the h.e.l.l does that mean? In the shower, I get naked-that's right. What do you expect me to do, wear a scuba suit? Anyway, how's that my fault?”
”Well, don't ask me to come in when you're naked.” She cut the wheel too hard, which made Jack grab the dashboard.
”Ask you? I don't ask you to come in. You just do it.”
”Whatever.” She jammed the gas down so Jack was pushed back into the seat.
Yeah. Whatever.
”Let's just get back to the apartment and wait for Kiku,” Jack grumbled.
Replacement stared straight ahead.
Jack took his phones out. There were no messages on either one.
d.a.m.n.
Miss Manners Jack paced the floor in his apartment as he looked again at the clock: 2:15 a.m.
What's keeping her?
He stopped, dropped to the floor, and started doing push-ups. Replacement was typing away at the computer.
”Can you look up a translation for Orsacchiotto?” Jack asked from the floor.
”Orsa-what?”
”Orsacchiotto. It's Italian. Marisa called Paolo that.”
Replacement typed, clicked, and started to read. A moment later, her shoulders slumped. ”It means teddy bear.”
Jack got up, walked over to his jacket, and took out the photo again. He handed it to Replacement.
”The guy in the middle. His name's Paolo.”
”He looks like a teddy bear,” she remarked.
Jack remembered the old man's eyes. ”More like a Grizzly. That guy's scary.”
He walked back, dropped to the floor, and started doing sit-ups.
”This Arber de Lorme is a sc.u.mbag.” Replacement thrust one hand toward the monitor.
”I thought you said he was a supermodel.”
”He's a rich, supermodel, sc.u.mbag. The translation on these pages isn't the best, but look.” Replacement opened a few different windows on the computer. ”He went to three different universities in France, but I think he was booted out of them. His father is loaded. That's where he gets his money. He has a huge s.h.i.+pping business in Europe.”
”Why do you think he got kicked out of the universities?”
”I found him at two different schools he doesn't list on his biography.”
”Maybe he switched schools.”
Replacement shook her head. ”Two of the schools were right around Paris. I did a search and found him listed on a French site called Girl Beware. Girls post about guys they think other girls should watch out for. The site got closed down, but you should read the posts about him.”
”If the site was closed down, how can you still see the posts?” Jack hopped up.
”Nothing is ever removed once it goes on the Web. Nothing.” She clicked a few b.u.t.tons and a page appeared. ”There are plenty of sites that capture the data but the Internet Archive is the best. It's all about a free and open Internet. It allows anyone to upload and download anything digital to its data cl.u.s.ter, but the bulk of the data gets collected automatically by Web crawlers. The bots work to preserve as much of the public Web as possible. It's got a Web archive, the Wayback Machine, that has over one hundred fifty billion Web captures. Here it is.”
Jack viewed the screen.
”Like I said, the translation sucks but the bottom line is a few girls accused him of getting them drunk and having S&M s.e.x: tying them down, that kind of stuff.”
Jack read over the accounts. ”That's not s.e.x. It's rape. Nothing happened to him?”
”Not there, but he left the schools. He posted to his Facebook when he switched. Then something did happen.”
She clicked and a French newspaper article appeared. There was a picture of a huge house with crime scene tape across it.
”At a party at his father's summer house, a girl drowned in the pool. She was only seventeen. It was eventually ruled an accidental drowning. I guess the girl's family kept pus.h.i.+ng the police to reopen the case. They said he got off because he was rich. That was five years ago, and that's when he came to America.”
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