Vendetta in Death (In Death #49)(23)

“Take the lead.”

“Really?”

“Jesus, Peabody, it’s an interview, not an ice-cream cone for being a good girl. Take the fricking lead.” She shoved the file at her partner, opened the door.

“Mr. Printz.” Peabody started off with a sober nod. “Thank you for coming in so quickly.”

“Don’t know what it’s about. Can’t remember seeing anything like a crime.”

Peabody nodded again, took a seat.

He had a good look for a limo driver, Eve thought. Clean-cut, well-dressed, mid-forties. He kept his hands folded on the table, and his quiet face impassive.

“I’m Detective Peabody and this is Lieutenant Dallas. We’re going to record this interview.”

“Inter— Record?”

“Yes.” Peabody pushed on, clipped, all business. “Record on. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, and Peabody, Detective Delia, in Interview with Printz, Oliver. Are you aware of the death of one of your regular clients?”

“What?” That impassive face registered shock. “Who?”

“You don’t watch or listen to media reports, Mr. Printz?”

“I do, of course. But I’ve been running clients all day. Or lord, was it Ms. Kinder? She’s been looking awfully frail lately.”

“No. Nigel McEnroy.”

Now he went sheet white. “Mr. McEnroy died?”

“Was murdered in the early hours of the morning,” Peabody corrected in that same clipped tone. “That would be sometime after you, off the books, picked him up at his residence.”

“I—I— Oh my God.”

“Can you account for your whereabouts between nine P.M. and four A.M., Mr. Printz?”

“I—I—” He held up a hand as if to stop traffic. “Did it happen in the club? He texted me that he didn’t need me. He usually …”

“Usually what?” Peabody demanded, and now her voice lashed. “If you even contemplate considering to think about lying, I’m tossing you in a cage with charges of accessory, before and after, to multiple rapes.”

“To what?” His eyes bulged in shock. “To rape! This is crazy.”

“Whereabouts, Printz, or I’m reading you your rights, and we’re going to get real serious real fast.”

“I picked Mr. McEnroy up at nine-fifteen, or very close to that, at his building, his residence. I took him to This Place—that’s the name of the club. I took him there, dropped him off, and I went home. He said he’d tag me when he was ready, but he texted he didn’t need me. I was home with my wife, my two kids. I was home the rest of the night. I never raped anyone in my life! I’m a family man. I have a daughter.”

“Then you just stood by when McEnroy drugged and raped women?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He lifted a shaking hand to loosen the knot of his tie. “I swear to God, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“How many times did you pick up Mr. McEnroy and a woman at a club, deliver them to his residence or the Blake Hotel?”

“I couldn’t tell you.” Printz took a couple of wheezing breaths. “Often. Often, but he didn’t rape them. I wouldn’t have stood for it! They were maybe a little drunk, but that’s not my business. He was cheating on his wife, and I don’t approve, but that’s not my business.”

“Is cheating your employer your business?”

He flushed, even cringed a little. “It’s not right, working off the books. Plenty of us do it, but that doesn’t make it right. Mr. McEnroy’s a good customer, a good tipper, and … he was persuasive. My girl’s going to college in two years, and the tuition …”

Face hard, Peabody brushed the excuses off like gnats. “How much did he pay you to look the other way when he assaulted women?”

“I’d never do that. Never! He’d bring a woman out, different women, different clubs. But they were willing. He didn’t make them get in the car, make them get out and go with him. Usually they were, well, all over him.”

Peabody kept cold eyes on his face. “Did you subsequently drive the willing women home or to another location after McEnroy had finished with them?”

“No. Never. Look, when he went to a club, he gave me five hundred a night. It’s a lot of money for a couple quick runs. But ten times that wouldn’t have been enough for me to look the other way if he’d been hurting anybody. Any of the women he brought into my car, you could ask. They’d get in. I’d keep the privacy screen up, because that’s what he wanted. But they’d get in on their own, and get out where he took them on their own.”

Eve finally spoke. “Did you pick him up or take him to anywhere other than a club where he had a woman other than his wife with him?”

“Sure, sure, at a restaurant or at his office. But those would be on the books, and it’s the same deal.

She’d get in and out on her own. I never, I swear on my life, I never saw him force anyone. He was always so polite.”

“And she was always a little drunk?”

“I … I guess you could say. Driving people’s my job. A lot of them might be a little drunk, or even a lot. It’s my job to take them where they want to go safely. I’ve been driving professionally for twelve years. You can look at my record. Not one complaint. Mr. McEnroy asked me to do this, and keep it between us. It was wrong, and I could lose my job over it, but that’s all I did.”