Echoes in Death (In Death #44)(77)

“No, more likely the male vic. Female was pregnant.”

“Oh hell. Goddamn it.” Peabody hissed out a breath. “The paint. Probably going to make that the nursery, the room right across from the master.”

Peabody shook it off, but her jaw stayed hard. “McNab and Feeney just got here. They’re on the door.”

“Stick with the witness.”

She walked out, found McNab and Feeney running a diagnostic on the alarms. “Didn’t expect the boss.”

Feeney, his magic coat open to reveal his rumpled shit-brown suit, scrubbed a hand over his wiry silver-threaded ginger hair. “I was going stir-crazy.” EDD’s captain and Eve’s former partner turned his basset-hound eyes to her. “Took out both of them this time?”

“Both, and did a lot more damage first. Did he jam the system?”

“He did that.” McNab jiggled his skinny, plaid-covered hips while he worked. “Slick job, too. It’s a solid system, not the best, but solid. One of the troubles is, for convenience, the owner or tenant can set or turn off the system remotely. From in or out of the house. That’s the kind of gap, unless it’s extreme top line, a good B and E man juices over.”

“How many times do we tell people that?” Feeney said to McNab.

“Infinity, boss. Infinity.”

“Well, let’s see the setup. Where is it?”

“I haven’t gotten there,” Eve told Feeney. “Kitchen area has a utility room off it from my quick glance. Maybe there. Peabody’s in there with the housekeeper. She found them.”

“Tough luck all around.”

He nodded when Eve opened the door for the morgue team, directed them upstairs.

“Yeah, tough luck all around. Here come your sweepers.”

In minutes, cops and techs were spread over the crime scene. The uniforms completed the canvass of the neighbors, reported no one—who was now home—had seen anyone or anything.

Hardly surprising, Eve thought as she watched the morgue team bring down the bagged bodies. People hunkered down in a snowstorm, drank, had sex, watched vids, read books, whatever.

Then again, some couldn’t resist heading out in it, playing around in a city gone white and still. Maybe, just maybe, they’d still find some of those. Just one witness who’d seen someone around this house.

Once the morgue team left, Eve went back to the dining area, sat again.

“Nina’s just given me her brother’s contact information.” Peabody nudged the glass of water closer to Nina’s hand. “I’m going to have him come and pick her up, or stay with her until she can go.”

“Good. You can go pretty soon. I have something I need to ask you to do. A hard thing for you to do, but it will help us.”

“It’ll help you find the son of a bitch who hurt my kids?”

“I think so.”

“Nothing’s too hard, not for that. I’ll do anything.”

“I need you to come upstairs with me.” Eve kept her gaze steady as the color drained out of Nina’s face. “I need you to look at Nina’s clothes. Her closet. Her cocktail dresses and outfits especially. Would you know if one of them is missing?”

“I know her clothes. I’d know. I’d know. Is she—are they still up there?”

“No. They’re not upstairs now. They’re going to someone who’s going to take care of them. He’s the best.”

“Can I go where they are and see them? After? Miko’s mom, especially, Miko’s mom, she’ll need me with her.”

“Yes. We’ll let you know when you can do that.”

“Okay. Okay.” She squeezed her eyes shut, then rose. “I can go up with you and look.”

They started up the back stairs.

“I want you to do what I tell you. I want you to look down, keep looking down when we go in. I don’t want you to look at the room. There’s no need for that.”

“I’ll see it in my head until the day I die.”

“Just look down,” Eve repeated, taking Nina’s arm to steer her inside and into the closet. “Okay, now take your time, take a good look through.”

“I don’t have to. Her new red cocktail dress is gone. She hasn’t even worn it yet. She bought it special for a Valentine’s Day party, and it was right here—you see? She said I should take this other red one for my girl. They’re near the same size. And the one that was on the other side of it, the dark pink one? It’s crooked on the hanger, like somebody hit it, knocked it some when they pulled the new one out.”

“Red cocktail dress. Short?”

“Short—she has beautiful legs. With a sweetheart neckline.” Nina drew the top of a heart in the air. “Three layers of flounces on the skirt, and a little silver bow in the back at the waist. Shoes are missing, too. Silver evening shoes with tiny red metallic bows on the backs.”

She moved deeper into the closet, a woman on a mission now. “He took her jewelry, from the safe back here. That evil bastard took their things from the safe. She had her great-grandmother’s ruby pendant in there. She was going to wear it with the dress, and the earrings Xavier gave her for Christmas, just this past Christmas. Diamond drops with ruby hearts. Xavier’s grandfather’s watch. Xavier’s grandfather gave it to Xavier’s father when he turned twenty-one, and he passed it to Xavier. Xavier prized that watch.”