Abandoned in Death (In Death, #54)(65)

Since that’s exactly what she planned to do, she didn’t argue.

He pulled on a black leather jacket; she did the same.

“At least you can’t ding me for wearing black, since you are.” She shoved what she needed in her pockets. “Damn it, Roarke, he didn’t give her the ten days.”

The cat jogged down the stairs with them, then made a beeline for Summerset’s quarters as they went out the door where her DLE sat waiting.

“Twenty-one Leonard.”

“Yes, I heard.”

She hit the lights and sirens.

He punched it.

As she brought up a map on the dash screen, she tagged Peabody.

“Peabody.” Her partner answered with video blocked. “Oh hell, Dallas.”

“Twenty-one Leonard, female DB. Looks like he went just a little outside the area we’d blocked for the body dump. Get up, get dressed, get there.”

“Got it. On my way.”

She tagged Morris next.

He didn’t bother to block video, so in the dim light she saw him sit up in bed. The sheet, snowy white, covered—barely—anatomical parts she had no business seeing.

His sleepy eyes blinked once before he shook back his long, loose hair. “Who started off the day dead?”

“Not sure yet, on my way to find out. But the DB’s female, and the area indicates she’s going to connect to Elder. It’s him, Morris. I need you to take her.”

“I’ll be waiting for her. Give me the address, and I’ll arrange for her transportation when you’ve finished your on-scene.”

“Appreciate it. Sorry to call you in so early.”

“Dead cops, dead docs. Time means nothing to us.”

Since he started to toss the sheet back, she signed off quickly. “Dallas out.”

She programmed coffee for both of them as Roarke sped through the city.

“I saw Jake Kincade’s bare ass.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Not on purpose. When Nadine was on tour, I tagged her—and it was that earth-rotation deal wherever she was, so she’s in bed. With him. It was when I wanted her to dig on that asshole from Oklahoma—Quirk’s battering bastard of an ex. So she doesn’t block video, and Jake just gets out of bed, and there’s his bare ass as he walks off-screen.”

“All right.”

“It’s a damn good ass, okay, but … And here’s Morris. Doesn’t block video and he’s clearly naked in bed. And his works are under the sheet he’s about to toss off. It’s not like he’s a flasher perv, he—like Jake—just doesn’t think a thing of the naked parts.”

Roarke reached over to give her hand a squeeze. “I love the things you find to be a prude over.”

“I’m not pruding. I mean, Morris has a tat of the Grim Reaper guy on his upper thigh. Should I have that information? Never mind.”

She saw from the map they’d be on scene in minutes. She decided to continue her streak, and ordered up the sweepers.

Roarke pulled up behind the police cruiser.

The uniforms had taped off about six feet on either side of the body. One stood with the body, and another sat on a stoop outside the barricade with a male. A teenage male, Eve noted.

Eve held up her badge.

“Lieutenant. Officer Kotter.” He rose, a hard-packed, mixed-race cop in his middle fifties. And kept one hand on the shoulder of the very pale kid who got shakily to his feet. “This is Kylo Grishom. He discovered the body, and called it in.”

Kylo gripped a tube of water in both hands. “Am I going to be in trouble?”

“Did you kill that woman?”

His eyes went to bugged-out saucers. “No. Me? No. Holy shit!”

“Then why would you be in trouble?” Eve asked.

“Well, because I … Well, okay, I snuck out. See, I live right down there, and I snuck out to, you know, with my girlfriend. Her parents aren’t home, right? So, well … um. You know.”

“Did you walk by here on the way to your girlfriend’s?”

“Yeah.”

“What time?”

“Um, about midnight, I guess.”

“What time did you leave your girlfriend’s?”

“Right around four. See, my mom gets up around five, and she gets my older brother up because they work the early shift. And she, for sure, gives me a quick shake before they leave because school’s out and I watch my little brother and all. So I wanted to get back before she got up.”

“Where’s your girlfriend live?”

“On Duane, right off Broadway. She’s not supposed to have anybody over when her parents aren’t home, but we, well … um.”

“I follow, Kylo.”

“See, I don’t want to get her in trouble. I don’t want to get in trouble, either, right? But when I saw the lady…”

His eyes had stopped bugging out, but he continued to vibrate like a plucked string.

“You were walking home from your girlfriend’s and saw the body?”

“Yeah, yeah, see, I was walking, and I thought, at first I thought she was just a, you know, a sidewalk sleeper. But she didn’t look like it in the clothes she has on. And I thought maybe she was just passed-out drunk or stoned. But she didn’t look right. She was just staring and staring, and I thought, oh shit, she’s, like, dead.”