I quickly got to Alejandro's place. Carl had assured us that the fake guitar would pass their authentication tests, but I still worried. At least if it failed, I could plead ignorance. After all, my mother had found the instrument in her attic and had no idea where it came from. Still, this was one of those moments that I hated about conning.
I buzzed at the gate, and Karen let me in. Thankfully, Vance had driven past the gate and parked out of range of the cameras. At the mansion, I gripped the fake Stratocaster a little too tightly as I stepped up to the front door. Today I wore a dark gray V-neck sweater over a knee-length pleated black skirt. I didn't need to cover my hair anymore: Alejandro had seen it yesterday, so he knew exactly what he was getting.
Karen answered the door in a little black dress with long sleeves, a high neck, and a very short skirt. Her heels looked uncomfortably high, too. With a brusque, "Come on in," she led the way.
My curiosity got the best of me, and I stopped her. "Does Alejandro make you dress like that?" The way he'd leered at me yesterday made it seem that the horny musician chased every woman he could find.
Karen turned to face me with a look of shock. "Don't be ridiculous. There are no dress codes here. But I know he enjoys looking at me-we hooked-up once, you know. And since I'm his personal assistant, I like to look the part."
This introduced a whole new possibility into her story. She wasn't being forced to dress this way by her employer, and she wasn't competing with everyone who came to visit. Instead, she was doing it all for Alejandro, vying for his attention and hoping to win him back. "Did you hook-up before or after you became his personal assistant?"
She sniffed, obviously annoyed by my question. "I've been his assistant for the past three years, but we got together nine years ago, when he first became famous. Didn't last long, but none of the others do, either." She eyed me carefully. "You wouldn't last two days."
I couldn't stop a laugh from bursting out. "You're right. I have no intention of lasting for even one day." I cocked my head. "Do you think that every woman who comes here wants to seduce him?"
She propped her hands on her hips. "I don't think it. I know it. In all the time I've been his assistant, I have never met a woman who didn't want to have sex with him." She squinted at me. "You do, too, so stop lying about it."