a major ad campaign.”
“Word of mouth. There’s a guest on the tour who was recommending it to my grandmother. I think she must work for them.”
“There’s an Infinity employee on this tour?” He slapped his thighs in disgust. “Travel halfway around the world, and I still can’t escape their propaganda. Whatever she has to tell you, don’t listen. It’s all smoke and mirrors. And don’t point her out to me. I don’t want to know.” He made a gravelly sound in his throat. “I bet she’s planning to attend the conference in Melbourne. I wonder how many people she thinks she can deceive with her phony scientific results. Botany has devolved into a science catering to flimflam artists!”
“But she claimed to have a port wine birthmark on her face that Perfecta erased. If she’s telling the truth, this vanishing cream could be the best stuff to come along since—”
“A topical cream cannot perform at that level! The implication is that Infinity has found a way to restore a youthful appearance to aging skin. Not true. If you want imperfections removed and elasticity restored, you have only three options: cosmetic surgery, laser surgery, or”—he paused for effect—“GenerX Techologies nutritional drinks and herbal supplements. We attack aging from the inside. A strict diet of our product will not only slow the aging process, it will reverse it. We’ve perfected the nonsurgical face-lift, and I’m a living testimonial. Fifty-three years old and look at me.” He leaned toward me and tapped the corner of his eye. “No crow’s-feet. No laugh lines. No age spots. My face is flawless.”
And the size of a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon. “That’s really remarkable. Um…are there any side effects? Nausea? Insomnia?” I paused. “Unusual swelling in various parts of the body?”
“Nothing. Our shakes are as safe as mother’s milk. The important point is, you should introduce our products into your diet while you’re still young so you can maintain a youthful glow throughout your life. See that white-haired lady walking out of Clarke Brothers Grocer across the street? I met her last night. Nora Acres. She should have started popping our herbal supplements years ago.”
I glanced toward the grocer to find Nora scuttling gnomelike behind Heath while Lola Silverthorn walked hip to hip beside him, her arm entangled in his, her chest pressed to his sleeve as if held there by static cling. Unh-oh. If Jake found Lola cozying up to Heath, I didn’t want to be around to witness the fireworks. What was her game? Was she planning to hit on every man on the tour to make her husband jealous?
“Here’s the punch line,” Roger continued. “If Nora bought into our product, she’d look a hundred years younger in no time.”
Considering how wrinkled Nora was, I wasn’t sure a hundred years would even make a dent.
“Can you imagine the before and after photos?” His eyes brightened at the prospect. “You know something? This idea has teeth. Nora Acres could be the face of GenerX Technologies, selling our product to the world.” He stood up suddenly. “I should speak to them.”
He removed a phone from the holster at his waist, punched a couple of buttons, and studied the display screen.
“Is that a satellite phone?” I asked. “I thought they were a lot bigger.”
“Global Positioning System. I’m marking waypoints where interesting things happen to me on this trip. I press this click stick on the front and it assigns a three-digit number to the place where I’m standing. Then when I highlight the number, it gives me exact latitude, longitude, and elevation. I find an obscure specimen I’d like to investigate in an out-of-the-way place? I mark the waypoint and I can walk right back to it. Nothing ever gets lost. It’s an invaluable tool in my line of work.”
He fidgeted with the unit before showing me the display screen. The number zero-one-four appeared inside a rectangular flag. Below it was an array of digits signifying location, elevation, distance, and bearing.
“So where’s zero-one-four?” I asked.
“That’s—” He hesitated, his eyes flickering with sudden unease. “That’s one of the places we stopped yesterday.”
“Port Campbell?”
He clicked off the power button and returned the unit to its holster. “Yeah, probably. Look, I want to catch Nora before she heads farther up Main Street. Great talking to you.”
“Have you ever heard of a company called Global Botanicals?”
“Another competitor,” he said as he backpedaled into the street. “What of it?”
“Did you know that the woman who died yesterday was a research botanist who worked for