Abandoned in Death (In Death, #54)(7)

She saw the shadow pass over the peep.

Those locks snapped open quickly. Roy Mardsten stood about six-two in bare feet. He wore suit pants and a dress shirt still untucked, and held a mug that smelled like fake coffee.

He wore his gold-streaked black hair in short dreads that crowned his rawboned, dark-skinned face. His eyes, wide, deep, latched onto Eve’s.

He said, “Lauren.”

“Mr. Mardsten, I’m Lieutenant Dallas—”

“I know who you are. I’ve seen you in court. I saw the vid. I know who you are. Lauren. God, Lauren. Say it fast. Please, say it fast.”

She’d already broken his world, Eve thought, and said it fast.

“I regret to inform you Lauren Elder is dead.”

His hand went limp. Instinctively Eve reached out, grabbed the mug before the contents spilled. “Can we come in?”

“I knew. I knew, but I hoped. I kept thinking, she’s so strong and smart and … But I knew because she’d never just— I need to…”

He turned, walked to one of the two chairs in a compact living area. A ruthlessly clean one with a small sofa, a few tables, a lot of street art. A pair of windows, uncurtained but privacy screened, looked out over the street.

He sat, seemed to shrink into himself, then got up again to circle the room. “I can’t. Just can’t. I need…”

“Mr. Mardsten.” Peabody spoke gently. “Could I get you some water?”

“No. No. Nothing. Lauren. Lauren. She didn’t come home. She didn’t answer her ’link. Buddy said she left at two-thirty. Night shift, she had the night shift, so I was sleeping, and it was morning before I knew she didn’t come home. I went to bed and she didn’t come home.”

He turned back, those wide, deep eyes full of tears. “I was sleeping.”

Not shock, Eve thought, because some part of him had known. But grief, overwhelming.

“Can we sit down, Roy?”

“I should’ve waited up.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered.” Taking his arm, Eve led him back to the chair. She set his coffee on the table beside him, took the second chair. “I’m sorry for your loss, Roy, and we’re going to do everything we can to find who hurt Lauren. We need your help.”

“It’s only a few blocks to walk. We got this place because it’s only a few blocks.”

“How long have you lived here?” Peabody asked, though she’d already read the data.

“Six months. We—we started seeing each other a year ago, a year in March, and we got this place together. We…” He shut his eyes, ignored the tears that tracked down his cheeks. “Doesn’t matter. She matters. What happened? What happened to Lauren?”

“You’re a law student?” Eve asked.

“Yeah. Yeah. I’m working at Delroy, Gilby, and Associates this summer, and taking a couple of night classes so I can get my degree this fall.”

“What kind of law?”

“Criminal. I want to work for the PA, I want to prosecute criminals.” Heat burned through the tears. “Now more than ever. I know I have to pull myself together. I know I have to answer questions. I know how this part works, but please, please, tell me what happened to Lauren.”

“If you understand how this works, you know we’re in the very beginning stages of the investigation. We can surmise Lauren was abducted on the night of May twenty-eighth. You filed a missing persons report.”

“Detective Norman.”

“Yes, and we’ll coordinate with him.”

“He said she left the bar like Buddy said. They were the last ones, they closed. And they left, and he walked to the subway, and she started home. Buddy wouldn’t hurt her, okay? He’s a friend, and they checked, they checked the cams in the subway and everything. And he—the detective—couldn’t find anybody who saw her after.”

“He would’ve asked, but I’m asking, do you know of anyone who’d want to hurt her? An ex?”

“No. I mean she dated before me, but we’ve been together more than a year, and people move on. She wasn’t stressed about anything or anyone. She never said anything about somebody bothering her or watching her. There was nothing. She’d have told me.”

He picked up the coffee, set it down again. “Did he—they— Was she raped?”

“The medical examiner will determine that, but she was fully dressed. What was she wearing when she went to work?”

“Detective Norman asked that. They have kind of a uniform at Arnold’s. So black pants, a white shirt. She wore her black low-tops because she’s on her feet behind the bar.”

“Jewelry?”

“Ah … I gave her a ring when we moved in. Not like an engagement ring because we weren’t ready for that. But a silver band, a thumb ring, so that, and her wrist unit. Her parents gave her a nice one last Christmas. She isn’t much for a lot of it, but she usually wore these little ruby studs, shaped like hearts. Ruby’s her birthstone, and her grandparents gave them to her when she turned twenty-one.”

“One for each ear?”

“Yeah. She’s kind of conservative.”

“So, no other piercings, no tats?”

“Lauren?” A ghost of a smile came and went. “Oh no. Wait.” He jerked up. “Maybe it’s not her? You’re not sure it’s Lauren?”