Abandoned in Death (In Death, #54)(48)

But she gestured to chairs in a small, very tidy, very female living area. “I’m sick,” she went on, “because I didn’t know. I thought she was … I have to pull it together.”

“Why don’t you start at the top,” Eve suggested. “From the beginning.”

She clasped her hands with their long, slender fingers and short, unpainted nails. “Mary Kate was supposed to take a trip to the beach for a few days. With Teegan Stone. They’ve been seeing each other for a few months. She was kind of … okay, she was dazzled. He’s gorgeous, right? He owns Stoner’s, a bar over on Seventh. I didn’t see when she left because I was at work. I work most nights. I know she planned to take her rolly—her suitcase—with her, go down to the bar, spend the night with Teeg, and leave first thing the next morning.”

“When was this?”

“Um. Um. June third. I mean that’s the night she went to the bar. I didn’t think anything when she didn’t tag me, because dazzled. I just figured she was having fun, all into him.”

“But she wasn’t?” Eve prompted.

“They didn’t go, and she didn’t stay there that night. According to that shithead Teeg. See, she was supposed to be home last night—work night for me. I saw she wasn’t here when I got home, and figured she’d stayed at his place. I was tired, and I just went to bed. But I tried to tag her this morning, and I got nothing. No connection, so I tried Teeg. He was pissed at me because I woke him up, and he said he hadn’t seen Mary Kate since she left the bar the night before they were supposed to go, how she’d gotten too pushy and clingy, and he cut her loose. And he said her stupid suitcase was still at his place, and tell her to come get it, and, if she didn’t get it, he was just going to set it out on the street.”

Her eyes filled. “Shithead.”

“Sounds like,” Peabody agreed.

“I told him how she hadn’t been home, and he’s all that’s not his problem. I told him to get fucked, and I called the condo she’d booked at the beach. That’s when I found out they hadn’t shown, and she hadn’t canceled, either. She’d’ve canceled, and she’d have come home so we could bitch about the shithead, so I could let her cry on my shoulder.”

“You’re good friends.”

Cleo managed a smile for Peabody. “Really tight, yes. Lucky. I wanted this apartment, but I needed a roommate so I could afford it. It’s really close to work, it’s a nice place, good neighborhood. She answered the ad, and we clicked. We really clicked. Like I said, I work most nights, but when we have a day off, or I have a night off, we’d hit the vids, or a club. Stoner’s for a drink. Then he wound her in—he’s got a way. She’d go down there four nights a week, sometimes five. She’d bus tables or serve drinks—for free.”

“And stay the night?” Eve asked.

“Nope. Never. He’d take her up—he lives over the bar—for a quickie sometimes, but no sleepovers. His rule, right? She’d head over there about eight and be home about midnight.”

“Four or five nights a week.”

“Yeah. I’m going to say I didn’t like it. He was using her, but all that dazzle.” To illustrate, she did jazz hands by the sides of her face. “The trip was her idea, and she made all the arrangements. She was really excited about it, then he dumps her like that? Shithead.”

“Was the night he dumped her one of her usual nights?”

“Sure, yeah.”

“Did he ever walk back here with her?”

Cleo snorted. “No.” After pressing her fingers to her eyes, she rubbed her face, hard. “I’m going to say we came the closest we ever have to a serious fight when I said he treated her like crap, and started pointing out how.”

She dropped her hands. “I backed off because things were going to blow. You don’t want to blow up with a friend over some asshole guy. She just had to get through it and over it.”

Now she smiled, just a little. “She’s the most sensible person I know, but she had it stuck that she was going to be the one to change him. Things were going to be different with her. Do you know what I mean?”

Peabody nodded. “Yeah. Most of us have been there.”

“Maybe he did something to her. I mean, I don’t see how, but—”

“We’ll talk to him,” Eve said. “Did she ever mention being uneasy about the walk home? About anyone bothering her?”

“No. And she’s careful. A lot tougher than she looks. Teeg found some weak spot, because it wasn’t really like her to get walked over like that. She wouldn’t take off, either. She wouldn’t. I had to tag her mom, just to be sure she didn’t go home. To be sure. Now her family’s half crazy, too. They haven’t seen or heard from her. She’d never do that. I called her boss, too, and nobody’s heard from her.”

“Okay. Can we see her room?”

“Oh, sure.”

The two bedrooms faced each other down the short hallway that ended with the shared bathroom. Cleo gestured to the room on the right.

Eve saw neat, organized, and again female in the quiet pastels, the mountain range of fluffy and fancy pillows on a bed covered with a pale blue spread. Thin curtains in a peachy tone framed the single window—for decor, Eve decided. The table, painted the same blue as the spread, stood in front of the window and held a mini data and communication unit, what Eve took to be a family photo—all smiling faces and a tree loaded with lights and ornaments—and a small, slender vase swirling with pastel tones.