As Neil drove us to wherever we were going, I pondered what I knew thus far. He was an interesting mix of contradictions. He more or less admitted he was a player, but at the same time, he seemed to have a strong internal moral code. He had access to some of the wealthiest and most beautiful women on the planet, women who would take him to their bed without a moment’s hesitation, yet he didn’t take advantage of that.

He was clearly a flirt, but Harker relished the attention, and it did motivate her to work hard. I glanced at him. Hell, who wouldn’t? When he was working with Rob earlier, he did little more than set up the machines and spot. With Harker he was right there in the thick of it and had worked up a good sweat.

I didn’t understand a lot of what Harker was saying, except by context. Banjaxed. Tool. Gobshite. But the one thing I could easily understand was her attraction to him. Goddamn was he tasty with his sweat-soaked shirt sticking to him like a second skin. I might be a little cynical about people because of my job, but that didn’t mean I was blind.

What I had to be careful of was allowing myself to be influenced by his current actions. With me tagging along, he was likely on his best behavior. The problem was, I could understand his reluctance to give me his clients’ names. I almost didn’t get in to see Harker, and I was with him. If I showed up unannounced, I would get nowhere. These people were used to every crazy in the world showing up at their gate with a story, and asking to see them.

I was also impressed that he didn’t hover or coach. When I wanted to ask my questions, he disappeared. He certainly acted like a man who had nothing to hide. When I got back to my office, I’d transcribe my interviews. If something was amiss in Harker or Rob’s statements, that’s when I’d notice and get my first inkling that something was up.

“You’re quiet,” Neil said as we purred along.

“Thinking.” I could tell he wanted to ask but held his tongue, so I threw him a bone. “I’m trying to work out your reputation as a ladies’ man with what I’ve heard from Rob and Harker.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you think Harker’s pretty?”

We rolled to a stop at a light and he held my gaze. “I think she’s gorgeous. Don’t you?”

I nodded. “Yet, even though she would gladly take you to her bed, you don’t take advantage of that. Just like Rob said his granddaughter all but tried to rape you. That’s an easy score, and you said she was attractive enough. That doesn’t really follow with your reputation, does it?”

We rumbled slowly away as he shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t sleep with my clients. That’s potentially very bad for business.”

“Candice wasn’t a client.”

“The granddaughter of a client. Besides, I do have some morals. I don’t have to sleep with every woman I meet just to add a notch to my belt.”

I laughed to myself as I watched the world pass outside my side window so he wouldn’t see me smile. “That doesn’t sound like a player to me. I thought that was the whole point of it, how you keep score.”

“It’s not a game, Tanya,” he said, his voice firm with a hint of annoyance. “Have I slept around? Yeah. Probably more than I should have. Mom and Dad would be horrified if they knew how many different women I’ve been with. But I never thought of it as a game. I didn’t try to bed someone just so I could say I had. Every single woman I slept with I was attracted to in some way. Maybe it was her sense of humor. Maybe I thought she had a beautiful face or body. Maybe she was interesting to talk to. Maybe I liked her smile, but it was something. I never once picked up a woman with the sole purpose of bedding her so I could impress my friends. And contrary to popular belief, I didn’t sleep with every woman I talked to. If we didn’t click…” he shrugged.

I stared at him.

“What?”

I scratched my neck as I tried to put into words what I was thinking. “That’s interesting. You admit you slept around, but you deny being a player?” I asked, making quote marks in the air with my fingers on the last word.

“If by player, you mean a guy that sleeps with women to impress his friends, or maintain his reputation, then yeah, I deny that.”

“You’re not very picky if you are attracted to that many women.”

“There’s a big difference between finding a woman appealing enough for an evening of fun and wanting to make a lifetime commitment to her.”

“I see. So your standards are lower if all you want to do is get laid?”

He winced. “Ouch! That’s kind of harsh, don’t you think?”

“I’m just trying to find out who you really are. Once I know that, I’ll have better insight into who is doing this to you. Do my questions make you uncomfortable?”

“Yeah, a little. To answer your question, I guess the answer would have to be yes. But isn’t that true of everyone? Did you want to spend the rest of your life with every guy you went to bed with?”

I thought about it a moment before my lips thinned and my head twitch involuntarily. He had me there. “No. You’re right. Sometimes you just want an itch scratched, and the person you’re talking to fills the need.”

“See? I’m no different. Look, I’ll freely admit I enjoy the company of women. A lot. They smell good, they’re pleasant to look at, they’re a delight to touch and a joy to listen to. What’s not to like?”

I couldn’t help but giggle. “Now I know why you get laid all the time.”

“Why?”

“You’re smooth as hell.”

“Nah. I’m just answering your questions. Take you for example. I really like your no-nonsense attitude. I also like the fact you don’t mind asking the hard, uncomfortable questions. I’ll be honest with you, I was a little unsure about hiring you, but I can see now I’m in good hands.”

“Already?”

He shrugged with a grin. “The fact you’re willing to call me out and question me, the guy that’s paying you, makes me believe you’re not afraid to dig for the truth, no matter where it may be. I have nothing to hide, Tanya. You dig as deep as you want, and I’ll be right behind you, helping you move the dirt out of the way so you can keep digging.”

“Okay, that answers that, but why were you hesitant to hire me in the first place? Because I’m a woman?” I watched as he flushed slightly. I couldn’t be mad at him. He was no different than anyone else, and it was a problem I’d been fighting since the beginning.

“Not so much that, but I went in expecting to see a guy. I’ve never met a private detective before. I had this mental image of Humphry Bogart, you know? But there wasn’t a bottle of bourbon or a fedora in sight.”

“Investigations are more about asking people questions than gun fights, car chases, and femme fatales.”

He winked at me as he turned into a small, open air, restaurant. “I don’t know. I think you could lure a lot of men into all kinds of compromising positions.”

I giggled again and said nothing, but I found his gentle teasing fun. He was smooth indeed.

“This is lunch?” I asked, mainly to change the subject.

“This is it. EatRite Delight. Everything on their menu is relatively healthy.”

“Swell,” I muttered in a stage whisper, making him grin.

He led me to an outside table and we sat down in chairs that wouldn’t look out of place on the beach, the brightly colored umbrella providing shade. A few minutes later an attractive young woman appeared.

“Hey, Neil! Haven’t seen you around in a while. Been busy?”

“Always. Up for any parts?”

The woman beamed. “Yeah! I’m up for some mo-cap work on the next Planet of the Apes! I need to get with you and do some strength training. I hear those ape rigs are heavy.”

“Stop by one of the fitness centers sometime. We’ve got people to help you with that. Tell them I sent you and they’ll take extra good care of you.”

She smiled at him with an exaggerated bedroom pout. “What if I want some personal attention, like when you took care of me before?” she breathed, her voice all sex and promises.

He grinned at her teasing but didn’t back down. “Maybe we can work something out, but I’m tied up at the moment.”

She sighed dramatically. “Ain’t that always the way? You want your usual?”

“Yeah.”

She turned to me. “What can I get you?”

I hadn’t even glanced at the menu. There was history between these two and I had been listening. “I’ll have what he’s having.”

“Two marinated chicken breasts on a pita, coming up.”

“One of yours?” I asked as soon as she was out of hearing.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on, Neil. Don’t play dumb with me.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I’ve slept with her. So?”

“You two seem to be on pretty good terms.”

“Why wouldn’t we be?”

“I think she wants another taste of the Gibber,” I teased.

He frowned at me. “Like I told you in your office, you’re not my mother. Who I’ve slept with isn’t really any of your business.”

“You made it my business when you hired me. As I said then, strangers don’t accuse each other of sexual harassment. Whoever is doing this is someone you’ve had contact with. What’s her name?”

“Julie.”

“I’ll be right back,” I said as I slid back from the table.

I entered the small indoor seating area and glanced around. It was a typical mid-level restaurant with booths and tables arrayed around the room, a tile floor, and generic photos of landscapes on the wall. I saw Julie working at the register.

“Julie, can I have a word with you?”

“Something wrong?”

“No, nothing. I just need to talk to you for five minutes. Can you spare the time?”

She glanced into the kitchen. “Yeah, five minutes. Let me finish putting your order in.” She poked at the register for a moment more then looked at me. “What can I help you with?”

I jerked my head and led her to a table tucked in the corner. “It’s about Neil. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“What about him?”

“You’re relationship with him.”

She began shaking her head. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

“You heard about the rumors?”

“What rumors?”

“Someone is accusing him of sexual harassment. He hired me to try to get to the bottom of it. You haven’t heard?”

“No. Who would accuse him of that?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. Right now, I’m trying to get a handle on him as a person, so I can get an idea of where to start looking. You can help me do that by answering a few questions.”

“I don’t know if I should.”

“If he says it’s okay, then will you talk to me?”

She hesitated for a moment, clearly thinking it over. “Yeah, I guess,” she said slowly.

“Let’s go ask him.” I led her to our table. “Julie is hesitant to talk to me to protect your privacy.”

He smiled at her. “You’d be doing me a huge favor, Julie, if you’d honestly answer anything she asks.”

“You’re sure?”

“Do me this favor, please?” He smiled at her and gave her a nod of encouragement.

She watched him a moment, nodded, and looked at me. “What do you want to know?”

I led her back inside to the table. It was almost two and most of the lunch crowd was gone, so we had a bit of privacy. “Tell me about Neil.”

“Nothing to tell. He’s a regular here. Comes in a couple times a month, usually.”

“You and he dated?”

She sighed. “I’d be so lucky. Not dated, no.”

“But you were intimate with him?”

Her mouth twisted to the side in some memory. “You could say that.”

“What do you mean?”

Her smile spread slightly. “If you call him taking me back to my place and fucking me stupid, then yeah, we were intimate.”

“Whose idea was that?”

“What? To fuck? Both of ours, I guess. I mean, he asked me out, but I invited him back to my place.”

“No regrets?”

She spluttered. “Only that I haven’t been able to talk him into doing it again.”

“That good, huh?”

She giggled. “You don’t know?”

“No. Our relationship is strictly professional.”

“Then you don’t know what you’re missing.” She smiled at me wistfully. “Yeah, it was that good. Sure, it was a one-night stand, but he was sweet about it, you know? He didn’t act like just because we were having dinner, he expected anything else. When I invited him in, he didn’t pressure me, and then he didn’t fuck me and just leave me lying there in a sweaty bed. We cuddled and talked a little. He stayed the night and made me breakfast the next morning. He asked me if I was okay, like he actually cared about my feelings.” Her smile became slightly sad. “So yeah, it was that good. He treated me better after one night than some of my boyfriends do after months.”

“When was this?”

Julie shrugged. “I don’t remember exactly. A year ago, maybe a little more.”

“What do you think of the rumors?”

She shrugged again. “Like I said, I haven’t heard them, but I don’t believe them. I’m nobody special, so why would he treat me that way unless that was how he treated everyone? He still comes here. He doesn’t try to avoid me or pretend it didn’t happen. He doesn’t make me feel like a cheap whore for sleeping with him. He’s a really good guy.”

“So you’d go out with him again?”

“In a heartbeat. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s super-hot, but he’s not full of himself, and like I said, he didn’t make me feel like a whore for sleeping with him on the first date. So yeah, I’d date the shit out of him, and not just because he can curl my toes.”

“Julie! Order up!” a voice called.

“I’ve got to go. But I’ll tell you this, I don’t believe a word of the rumors. If someone said something like that to me, they’d better have proof, or I’d call them a damned liar to their face.”

She rose, went to the counter, and followed me out to our table with our food.

“Thanks for talking with me,” I said as I took my chair.

“No problem,” she said, her voice hard, as she set out our meal.

“Julie? Everything okay?” Neil asked.

“Yeah. She told me someone was spreading rumors about you, and it pisses me off, that’s all.” She turned and stomped away.

“What did you say to her?” he asked, his tone firm and his eyes hard.

“Nothing. I asked her what she thought about you, and she told me.”

“Why is she upset then?”

“Don’t know. Maybe it’s just what she said. I didn’t say anything to upset her, and she was very defensive of you. You made quite an impression.”

We ate, and I had to admit, the food was surprisingly delicious, especially considering it was supposed to be good for me. Julie refilled our glasses, and it appeared she’d mellowed in the ten minutes since she’d brought our food.

We finished eating, and Neil paid for our lunch, even though I offered to pay for my own. I didn’t expense meals to clients unless I spent more than ten continuous hours on their case. He also left Julie a one-hundred-percent tip. No wonder she liked him.

We walked to his car and settled into it. “Tell me something. Why just one night?”

“What?”

“Julie. Why just one night with her? Wasn’t she good in bed?”

“None of your business.”

“She said you rocked her world. That’s why I wonder. She’s the kind of woman most men drool over. Blonde. Big tits. Pretty face. Tight ass. Bubbly personality. She told me straight up she’d love to date you. So why don’t you? Not good enough for you?”

“No! What difference does it make?”

“Maybe none. Maybe a lot.”

He sighed. “I don’t know. Just not the right person, I guess. I was just starting to settle down when I asked her out. I can’t remember for sure, but she might have been the last of my one-night stands. If she wasn’t my last, she was one of my last.”

“What changed?”

“You mean why’d I stop sleeping around?”

“Yeah.”

He sighed again. “I don’t know. I really don’t. I guess I got tired of it and was looking for something more.” He grinned at me. “What is it that women say? They can hear their biological clock ticking?”

“Yeah, something like that. Have you thought about asking her out again?”

He bobbed his head side to side as he scrunched his nose. “No, not really. I can’t even say why. I like her, but I can’t see me spending the rest of my life with her. She’s too committed to breaking into the movies. I’d always be second to that. That’s fine when it’s just about sex, but I’m starting to look for something more than just sex.”

He was a much more complex guy than I’d given him credit for. “You’re looking for a relationship?”

“Yeah, you can say that.”

“What does mo-cap mean?”

“Slang for motion capture. They dress you up in a suit with markers on it, then you act out whatever it is you’re supposed to do. Using a bunch of cameras, a computer tracks the markers, then they replace you with some CGI character. In Julie’s case, if she gets the gig, she’ll be one of the apes.”

“You’ve been on television or in movies?”

“No movies. I had a couple of parts on television. In one I was the pool guy in the background. In another, I played an Olympic athlete accused of raping a girl. Go figure.” He smirked at me. “That’s when I knew acting wasn’t for me.”

“Why?”

“Someone once wrote, ‘Neil Gibson has never acted on television before, and after his appearance on LA Crime Scene, he still hasn’t.’”

I grimaced in sympathetic, if teasing, pain. “That’s brutal!”

“Yeah, but it’s true. I decided to leave the acting to someone else and do what I know.”

We chatted about this and that until we rolled to a stop in front of a brightly lit space tucked into a strip mall, Neil Gibson Fitness Center displayed across the top in big, bold, letters. It appeared the space it occupied may have once been a grocery store or some other large retail outlet.

“You have three of these?”

“Yeah. I’m trying to franchise them.”

“Any luck?”

“Not yet, but I’m still working on it.”

He led me inside. The place was large, bright, and full of gleaming machines. Televisions were everywhere, and there were a couple of good looking instructors walking around, offering tips and wiping down machines. It appeared to be a well-oiled operation.

He spent thirty minutes or so walking around and saying hello to people, laughing and talking with the members while offering a word of encouragement here, a suggestion there. He had a way with people, that much was clear.

We returned to his car, and he dropped me off at my office.

“What’s the plan?” he asked through the passenger window as his car burbled beside me.

“I need to talk to the rest of your personal training clients.”

“Same time tomorrow, then? I have three appointments. That’ll leave you only one more.”

“Plus the one that dropped you.”

“Yeah, I’ll call her tonight and see if she is willing to talk to you.”

“Okay. Thanks, Neil.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

When I nodded, he zipped away, his Porsche howling like a banshee. I sighed and unlocked my door. I needed to transcribe my interviews and hated working at home. This was the third worst part of the job. Like Dad had told me once, ‘Investigations are like taking a shit…the job isn’t finished until the paperwork is done.’ With a sigh I sat down at my desk and set to work, listening to my interviews as my fingers danced over the keyboard.