Connections in Death (In Death #48)(46)

“You look like a big, hard-bodied black man gone soft over a woman to me.”

Without turning his head, he shifted that scowl to Eve.

“If they’re insured you have the exact description,” she continued, unfazed, “the carat weight on the rubies and diamonds.”

“Diamonds. Rubies.” Peabody hunched her shoulders at the twin looks from her companions. “Sorry. Just wow.”

“Just little ones,” Crack responded. “I liked the look of them, that’s all.”

“What are they insured for?”

“Ten.”

“Th—thousand?” Peabody hunched again. “Sorry!”

“I’ll need that information. They’ll probably try to pawn them. Taking easily identified items from the crime scene’s a stupid mistake. I have to lean toward taking the jewelry’s something they might think gets blamed on Lyle—if they figure cops are stupid enough to buy the OD. But the purse tells me something else. Peabody’s magpie theory.”

“Bright, shiny things.” Crack’s brew finally eased out of the serve slot. “Might be they aren’t looking to pawn. Gonna keep it for their nest, or give it to some skank.”

“And when the beat cops see some gang skank sporting diamonds and rubies, we’ll have them. We have one more lead. The woman across the hall remembered something else. One of the three couldn’t stand still. Like maybe he had music in his head. Makes me think of the geeks in EDD—always moving. And this one had his arms down by his side, snapping his fingers.

“You have a lot of the shady come in here, and you’re not far out of Banger territory. Maybe you’ve seen someone like that in here.”

“I’d tell you if I had, and I’ll be asking my people to watch. I leave the customers be, unless they get out of line. Then?” He mimed cracking heads together. “We get some Bangers in here now and then.” He shrugged. “They know they cause trouble in my place, I give them more and worse.”

He took a long, slow pull of his brew. “I know you do the job, both of you. And you’re about to say something to me about not doing something I think should be done if I see some Banger snapping his fingers, or some skank wearing my Ro’s earrings. You don’t have to. You took care of the fucker who took my Alicia from me. You’ll take care of those who took Ro’s baby brother from her. Anyway, she wouldn’t like if I did what I maybe think I should do.

“If I did something it would piss you off, and disappoint her. I ain’t aiming to piss off skinny-assed or fine-assed cops, or disappoint my woman. Especially when I’m going to ask her to cohab with me.”

“Cohab,” Eve echoed, as stunned as Peabody had been about diamonds and rubies.

“I’ve had my share of fine women.” He kicked back in the chair, looking up at the top of the dome as if seeing the parade of those fine women.

“I’m gonna tell you not one of them would say I didn’t treat her good, treat her right. The first time I sat down talking to Rochelle, I knew, right then, she wasn’t a fine woman. No, she wasn’t. She was the fine woman. Not much puts a scare into a head-cracker like me, but knowing that gave me—you call it a pause. Yeah, I had a pause.”

Peabody all but swooned. “That’s so romantic.”

He shot her a grin. “Ain’t it just? After the pause, I thought, well, that’s gonna be that. I’ve been taking it slow because the fine woman, she’s worth the time. I wanted to ask her to live with me awhile now, but I knew she had to give Lyle all she could. I was thinking I could look into getting a bigger place, and they could both move in, but now . . . Anyway, she ain’t going back to that apartment.”

He slapped a finger on the table, ran it across the surface. “That’s a line right there. We’ll have a talk about that line, but I won’t be taking no on it. Right now she needs her grieving time, and you need your cop time.”

He took another pull. “I’ll get you that insurance stuff.”

“Okay. One last thing. Did Lyle say anything to you about cutting Duff off? Telling her he’d call the cops if she kept hassling him?”

“No. We got along fine, me and Lyle, but I’m not the one he’d talk to about that. Did he?”

“It looks that way.”

“Now he’s dead, and if that’s the why of it, I’m gonna be more pissed, and I’m running out of pissed room. And still, goddamn it, I’m glad he laid that line. A man’s gotta lay his line. Women, too,” he said with a glittery look. “So don’t get bitchy.”

“Getting bitchy is one of my lines. We’ll be in touch.” Eve gestured at the dome.

When he lifted it, Peabody rose, then hesitated. “I know you’re feeling like there’s nothing much you can do to help. You are helping by being there for Rochelle. If you want something, I don’t know, more tangible . . . People bring food for death. You could have food sent over to where her family lives so they don’t have to think about it. It would just be there.”

“That’s a fine idea, Peabody. I thank you for it.” They left him brooding into his brew while the holo band banged and the dancers gyrated.

“That was a good thought, Peabody,” Eve said when they walked back to the car. “It gives him something to do.”