Jen said, “If you change your look, you could be as successful as the women investigators I met when I worked in the top forensic unit in the country.”
“You were a corpse on CSI,” Eve said. “I have shocking news for you. You weren’t really dead and that wasn’t a real forensic unit.”
“There’s nothing wrong with using your natural gifts to your advantage. Natalia Boa Vista did.”
“Who is that?”
“I’m surprised you don’t know,” Jen said. “She’s a top investigator with Miami-Dade Police Department’s CSI unit. She has terrific cleavage and an amazing arrest rate.”
“In other words, she’s a fictional character.”
Jen ignored the statement and pressed on. “Catherine Willows was a stripper before she was a Vegas CSI. She’s hot and everyone takes her very seriously.”
“Again, because she’s fictional.”
Eve felt her shoulder muscles tightening up the way they always did when she argued with her mom.
Jen sighed. “You’ve heard of the CSI effect, haven’t you?”
“It’s the unrealistic expectation, particularly among juries, that forensics results will be as quickly obtained and as irrefutable as they are on TV.”
“Well, Hardnose, the same goes for how they want their detectives to look. Don’t you want to win the confidence and the admiration of the public and your colleagues?”
Hardnose was what Vince called her when she was a child, supposedly because of her stubbornness and her “cute little nose,” though she often wondered if the real reason was that he saw her so rarely that he had trouble remembering her name. It was a low blow for her mom to call her that.
“And you think I can do that by showing a little cleavage,” Eve said.
“It couldn’t hurt. But that’s definitely how your character on the series should dress.”
That was Eve’s nightmare of what the TV series would be, if it ever happened. It was a big reason why she wanted Duncan to become the show’s technical adviser when he retired from the LASD.
“Hell no,” Eve said.
“Why not? She’s fictional.”
“She’s me.”
“People know the difference between fiction and reality.”
Eve felt the tightness in her shoulders rise up her neck to the base of her skull. “You just argued that they don’t.”
“No I didn’t. Where did you get that idea? If you want to look drab and sexless and never get laid, fine. But why shouldn’t your character be a knockout?”
Eve kept her voice even so her reply wouldn’t come across as patronizing. She really, really wanted her mom to understand her reasons.
“Because if the TV show happens, I have to live with how I am portrayed, and it’s not going to be as a detective with terrific cleavage and a great arrest rate.”
“Why not? That should be your real-life goal. Why wouldn’t you want to be a great-looking, successful cop? Are you striving to be a drab failure? I don’t understand you at all.”
Eve felt the spike of pain jamming into her head, so she massaged the back of her neck with her free hand. It was like trying to massage granite. “I can’t have this conversation now.”
“Why not? What else do you have to do?”
“You just saw the news,” Eve said, gesturing to her TV, even though it was off and she was the only one in the room. “I have that to do.”
“You want to close your case fast? Use your undercover wardrobe and the boob tape. You’ll thank me later. Sweet dreams, honeybunch.”
Jen hung up and Eve thought her head might explode.
Eve took a scorching-hot shower to loosen her muscles, dried herself off, put on her bathrobe, then got on the bed again and opened her laptop. She checked her emails and found links to download all the video footage she’d asked for that day from both the supermarket and the Vista Grande guard gate.
She started by watching the video from the supermarket again, from the moment that Paul Colter burst in, holding the gun, and headed for the liquor aisle. Panicked customers and employees fled or took cover behind checkout counters or food displays. Grayson Mumford headed straight for Colter, ducking into an aisle at the last moment to avoid being seen by the gunman, who was only a few feet away.
Eve saw and heard Colter demand that she show herself, and when she did, he turned to her, his gun not quite raised but not quite loose at his side, either. Grayson stepped out of hiding and shot him. It was a brave thing for Grayson to do, she had to give him that.