Chapter 45

"She doesn't have any security," Eva said around a Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar.

"Who would want to hurt a model?" Wolfgang shrugged. He was drinking coffee.

"I don't know," Eva replied. "A crazy person? Who would want to hurt John Lennon?"

"Hmph." Wolfgang nodded at that as he watched the woman eating lunch in a restaurant across the street.

Cindy was seated with another woman, a petite blonde girl who seemed to spend most of her time on her celphone, and a man. He was tall and older, in his fifties perhaps, with a short gray ponytail and dark silk suit that must have cost a fortune. He looked very serious and would frown every time Cindy laughed, which was often. She was incredibly attractive and a number of people had stopped on the sidewalk to stare at her through the plate glass windows.

"She's beautiful, yeah?" Eva sighed and Wolfgang nodded.

"What did you find out about her?"

"She's American, from New York. Twenty-one years old and her name is Cindy. No last name apparently," Eva smiled at Wolfgang. "She started modeling about six months ago, after attending an academy for fashion models ... Did you know they had such a thing?"

"It's a school?"

"An academy in Paris," Eva said with soft laugh. "Whatever that means. Cindy makes about ten thousand US dollars a day, perhaps more. She's very popular, works very hard, and according to the tabloids, Cindy is dating a Brazilian racecar driver named Enrique Palomas."

"I don't know him," Wolfgang chuckled.

"He's a famous womanizer," Eva smiled. "There's no reason you should."

"Anything else?"

"There wasn't very much," she sighed. "We should have done a background on her before we..."

"Yes," Wolfgang agreed, knowing she meant before killing Mozart.

They would have had access to virtually any database in Germany, as well as Interpol and even the American FBI, who had a significant presence in their support of the international law enforcement community. They were always eager to help, but not anymore. Eva had been forced to spend an hour at an internet café running searches on Cindy and wading through the results.

"The other woman is her secretary, uh ... Sofia Preston, also American," Eva said. "They are rarely apart."

"Are they romantic?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "The man is Cindy's agent, her manager. I found very little on..."

"They're moving," Wolfgang interrupted.

"She'll be returning to her hotel," Eva suggested as she glanced at her watch. "My appointment is at two. Should I cancel?"

"No," he answered. "We know where she'll be. We've seen enough."

"I want to meet her," Eva said, watching as the woman stood up, moving like any other person. Cindy picked up her jacket and slipped it on. She picked up her purse. Laughed. Combed her fingers through her ridiculously thick, black hair. Cindy was perfect. Everything she did was attractive and Eva swallowed hard and looked down.

"What's wrong?" Wolfgang asked his sister.

"I don't know what I would say to her," Eva laughed softly and looked up with a sad smile. "She'll wave us away like insects, Wolfgang."

"That woman?" he asked, nodding towards the restaurant.

Cindy seemed to be posing with several waiters for a photograph, smiling brightly and looking completely at ease with all the attention. She waved at someone and then laughed, pulling a waitress into the picture as well. Cindy wrapped her arms around the woman's neck as if they were children.

"She doesn't shoo people away," he decided. "Look at her. She doesn't even know how beautiful she is."

"Kurt told me once that beauty is boring." Eva was chewing the stick now that her ice cream was finished.

"And you believed him?" Wolfgang laughed gently.

"Maybe," she said with a self-conscious smile. "I liked it when he said it."

"And that's why he said it."

"I wonder what he's going to do now."

"Maybe he should drive racecars," Wolfgang suggested seriously, but then spoiled it with a grin.

"Shut-up!" Eva laughed. "Take me shopping now. I want to look nice tonight."

"Wait."

They watched as Cindy and her two friends emerged from the restaurant and started walking up Tauentzienstrasse. They would probably window shop on their way back to the Westin Hotel where the young model was staying.

"Do you think she likes girls?" Eva wondered, staring at the woman with pursed lips.

"I don't know," Wolfgang shrugged. "Do you?"

"I could," Eva sighed. "For her, yeah. I could like girls."

"Hmmm..." Wolfgang gave his sister an appraising look and Eva surprised him with a small blush.