"Hard Times will always reveal True Friends."

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Amanda found Francine having breakfast by the pool. "Sleep well?" she enquired pleasantly.

"Not bad. I do love a bed in a five-star hotel. You?"

"Same here. Much better than the cots at Station One."

"Where's Lee got himself hidden? I know he doesn't eat breakfast but I thought he'd be visible."

"Up on the room balcony. He's keeping an eye out until I got out here. He'll be down soon to look for Simon, so I'll be your tail for the day. Is it too much to hope that all you have planned is lounging by the pool?"

Francine glanced up at the row of balconies until she spotted Lee looking for all the world like he was just sitting in the sunshine reading the paper. "Isn't that the balcony for your room? And is he still in last night's clothes?" She arched a brow at Amanda, sure she'd caught them out. Her late-night conversation with Lee had left her more curious than ever about what was going on between this unlikely pair.

"No line of sight from his room," answered Amanda without missing a beat. "And he's still in last night's clothes to keep up the cover. Don't tell the White House I left a strange man in my room – they'd be severely unimpressed with my lack of security precautions. Oooh, is that a danish?" She snagged a pastry from the basket on the table and busied herself pouring coffee. She allowed herself a smile at the small sound of annoyance from Francine at her ready answer.

Francine watched Lee stand and stretch before disappearing back into the room. He didn't reappear for another thirty minutes, showered, shaved and dressed much more appropriately for a morning at the pool. Stopping at the breakfast station, he wandered towards their table carrying a large mug of coffee. "Good morning lovely ladies, I see you're not too tired out by last night's activities?"

Amanda raised her hand to act as a sunshade as she studied him. "Why no, Mr. Something-or-other, but you look like you've been ridden hard and put away wet. Enjoyable night?"

"No rest for the wicked, Vicky darling, and I thought we decided you could call me Lee – you certainly had it down pat last night." He grinned as Amanda tried to control her laughter at the look on Francine's face. "Looking forward to a day by the pool, Mrs. Delahanty? Do let me know if you need any help with your sun lotion – I'm quite adept at applying it."

"You're hilarious," Francine hissed at him through a fake smile. "Now wander off and do your job, wormbrain."

"I'm going to regret suggesting that one to you, aren't I?" Lee grinned but dutifully turned and walked away to the far side of the pool to settle in a lounger in the shade. He didn't have to wait long for Simon to show up and flop down in the chair beside his.

"So how was the sport last night, Steadman?"

"Like shooting fish in a barrel. I do enjoy sorority sisters – they always like to do everything together." Lee made a mental note not to include any of his conversations with the dogs in his case notes. It would be a race as to which of the two women killed him first.

"But you didn't spend the whole night with both of them? Mrs. Delahanty didn't look nearly as pleased to see you as that Greenwich woman."

"No, Frannie's a bit of a lightweight with her liquor so we moved the party after she wanted to go to sleep. Vicky turned out to have much more stamina. I'll show you the bruises later."

"No thanks. So Francine can't hold her liquor? – that's good to know."

"Is it? Makes for a bit of a dull evening I thought. She was more fun the night before when she hadn't had so much champagne."

"Depends if you like 'em lively or not. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. Remember when I talked about a big score last night? Any interest in making a little more spending money than just free meals and gifts you can pawn later?"

"Hell yeah, who wouldn't be?"

"Well, some of us here have a little sideline going that you might be interested in, and you get all the lovely perks and your hands stay clean." Simon looked sideways at him as if trying to gauge his interest.

Lee tried to look intrigued. "Stay clean? Is it illegal?" he asked in a tone of uncertainty.

"Oh we just have fun and get paid. And then look the other way while someone else picks up the goods. Everyone has fun and nobody gets hurt." Simon's smug expression was growing.

"I'm not following you"

Simon leaned in and asked quietly, "Okay, simple question – have you ever gotten a girl drunk to get what you want?"

"Well, yeah, what guy hasn't?"

"So, how about if I told you I could get you some little pills that help that process along? Little pills that make them oh-so-amenable and you don't have to work nearly so hard to get your fun?"

"You've definitely got my interest, but where's the money making in all of this?"

"Ah, that's the clean hands part. You see, if you can get them back to their room, you can have all the fun you want with them as long as you leave them passed out for the boss."

"The boss? Who's that?"

"You don't need to know who, you just need to know why. See, once you leave them in their room, you leave a signal like a towel over the balcony railing and the boss comes in to do a little light housecleaning – tidying up loose jewellery, that sort of thing, and we get a cut of the profit of whatever he sells on."

Lee allowed the surprise he felt to show on his face. Whatever he thought Simon was going to tell him, it wasn't about a gang of cat burglars stealing jewellery. "That's it? That's all you do?"

"Yes, it's a flawless system. The women probably never report any of the thefts because they don't want their husbands to find out what they've been up to and they can't remember where they might have lost stuff. The pills he supplies are great – the ladies stay with it enough to do anything you ask but not enough to bother you with talking or fighting back. Sometimes I wait for the boss to be done and go back later for more." The merest flicker of cruelty passed over Simon's face at the thought.

Lee felt the bile rising in his throat. Whatever this 'boss' had organized, he'd certainly recruited a sociopath to help him carry it out. He forced himself to continue looking interested as Simon went on to outline how they could carry out a similar plan that night. When he was done, Lee couldn't get away from him fast enough to call Billy.

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SMK**SMK**SMK**SMK

"Do you think that really what's going on? Simple robbery with rape thrown in as a perk?" asked Francine when Lee found them on the beach later and filled them in, out of earshot of the hotel crowd.

"It could be, but Billy confirmed none of the women Elisa talked to mentioned losing anything valuable. I think whoever this boss is, he's not telling his accomplices what's really going on. If they think it's just simple jewellery theft, he can probably pay them less and he runs less of a risk that they'll demand better money. Blackmail and secrets pay a hell of a lot better than burglary. Most of them probably just think it's a victimless crime since the insurance companies would pay out, and they think the women are getting what they want anyway. Except Simon – that guy is psycho."

"Great – I've managed to pick out the most dangerous one to target me."

"I think the picking was mutual. This boss will have wanted his best worker on your case – the Defense Committee is the golden goose of secrets to sell. But you'll need to be hyper aware around him if he's chosen to target you." He took in the expression on her face and reached out to tap her on the knee. "Don't look so worried – now there's three of us watching every move you make."

Francine shot him an annoyed glance. "Stop trying to sound like you're my own personal cavalry, Lee. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

Lee and Amanda both looked down to hide their smiles; everything in Francine's tone told them she was well on her way to channeling her nerves about this case into her own special brand of pissiness.

"Don't I know it," he answered cheerfully. "Okay, gang, who do we think the boss is? He has to be associated with the hotel, that's a given, right?"

"Yes," answered Francine. "It's got to be someone with the run of the place but we're not looking at bar or catering staff because they wouldn't have easy access to the women's rooms after the Simons of the world are done with them. How about housekeeping? Or bellboys? Maintenance staff? They'd have keys to every room and no one would notice if they were upstairs on the guest floors."

"But how would they know who to target?" Lee responded. "It needs to be someone who knows who these women are and how useful they could be."

"So it has to be more senior staff like the concierge or the night manager," agreed Francine.

"Halliwell," said Amanda, thoughtfully.

"Halliwell?" Lee couldn't place the name for a moment.

"The hotel manager. He'd have access to all of that, he's probably got background on everyone since it's such a VIP hotel, and he's got a terrible handshake." Amanda shuddered slightly as she finished her description.

Lee couldn't help laughing. "I've known lots of master criminals and never been able to arrest them because they had terrible handshakes."

Amanda shrugged. "It's like shaking hands with a snake, if a snake had hands. He's all smiles and compliments and loose grip, but he has dead eyes. He makes my skin crawl."

Lee met Francine's look and shrugged. "Sometimes it's literally touchy-feely," he grinned. "Isn't that why you got her down here?"

"Who says I got her down here? I just told Billy we needed help." Francine answered, defensively. "Anyway, we're getting off track here. Much as it pains me to admit it, you're right about Halliwell, Amanda, he talks differently to women than most men."

"How do most men talk to women?" asked Lee.

"Well, they don't look you in the eye for starters, but he's an overly close talker." she snorted. "And Halliwell sounds smooth but now that I think of it, he asks kind of intrusive questions."

"Exactly," agreed Amanda. "And he's only like that with the women, like he's always assessing your answers. He probably has all the background on female guests but doesn't decide who to target until they get here and he can see if his dog squad are going to get anywhere. I mean, not every woman who comes here is on the prowl or wouldn't notice a blackout incident."

"So you're both willing to bet on him just because he gives you the creeps?"

"Yes," answered Amanda and Francine in unison.

"Okay, so what the plan for tonight then?" he looked back at the two women who were staring at him in surprise. "What? Woman's intuition times two is not something I'm willing to dispute. If you think it's him, you're probably right. And besides, it doesn't matter who it is if we can come up with a plan to catch them red-handed."

Francine sighed. "All good traps begin with good bait, right? Let's start from there."

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