Concealed in Death (In Death #38)(55)

“What church?”

“Ah . . .” She swiped the notebook to the next entry. “Different churches, according to the sister. She didn’t want to draw any attention so she spread it around. The foster family she was with had a good rep, no violations. They reported she was doing well, and with some encouragement had joined the school band. Was learning to play the flute. She went to practice, left at about five-fifteen, went to the school library to study in this after-hours group, also approved.”

Lowering the notebook, Peabody looked back at Eve. “Basically, Carlie was doing everything she could to have the normal, to keep it steady until she could move in permanently with her sister. She contacted the sister the night she went missing, asked if she could come over, got that cleared. She left the library just after seven on the evening of September eighteenth, according to the log-outs and wits at the time. And that was it.”

“Just two days after Lupa didn’t come home. This Carlie, she’d have walked by here on the way to the sister’s?”

“It’s the most logical route, yeah.”

Eve nodded, absently pulled out the sub, took a bite. “I’ll fill you in on Frester later. The guy who runs the market next door put Shelby and Linh together.”

“He did? After fifteen years?”

“Shelby was a regular troublemaker over there. He remembered her. Linh came in with her—was a contrast. Polite, spoke to him in Korean. It puts them together here, and shortly after The Sanctuary closed.”

She took another bite, enjoyed the heat, then washed it down with Pepsi. “Shelby brought Linh here, that’s the way it plays. Ran into her on the street, hooked up. Picked up some stuff at the market. Linh paid, so maybe Shelby was after the soft touch there, but she brought her over here.”

She wandered as she thought it through.

“It’s empty. That’s a thrill. Shelby knows the place, can show her around, tell her stories. It’s echoey, dark. She’d have a flashlight or a light stick. No point in stumbling around in the dark. She’s probably staying here, flopped here after she took off from the new place. It’s a decent shelter, especially since nobody’s here, since it’s empty. It’s all hers now, until she shares it. She probably likes having the company, this new girl who doesn’t know shit about crap. Probably has some blankets, some bedding. She knows how to steal, how to take care of herself.”

“It’d be kind of frosty at first,” Peabody considered. “Like camping out.”

“Everything’s at first, everything’s now. Tomorrow’s for grownups. Linh didn’t act out in the market. Could be she was starting to miss home. It feels good to have a friend right now, and a place off the street. Maybe she’ll go home tomorrow. They’d come get her, take her home. They’d cry and they’d yell, but they’d come. But she doesn’t want to look lame in front of her new friend. She’ll just hang awhile in the spooky old building.”

Eve started up the steps. “He could already be here. Shelby knows him. She’s not afraid of him. Maybe she barters sex for drugs with him. Maybe they get high. It’s a way to pass the time, have some fun, show off for the new girl.”

“It’s a way to tranq them.”

“A little something in the zoner or whatever he gives them. Just a little something extra. Then they’re compliant. Not unconscious, what’s the point in that? Where’s the thrill in that? But just stoned, limp, stupid. Undress them—one at a time—do what he wants to do. Fill the tub. Warm water, cold might shock them straight enough to put up a fight. Under they go. They might struggle a little, it’s instinct, but not enough.

“Sit down over there like the tub was still there.”

“Huh?” Peabody’s eyes widened, then blinked twice. “What?”

“In the pretend tub, I want to try something.”

“I don’t wanna get in the pretend tub.”

“In,” Eve ordered, dropped her sandwich back in the bag, set it and the tube aside.

“Oh, man. I’m not stripping. Even if you hurt me.”

“I don’t want you naked, I just want you in the damn tub.”

Grumbling, Peabody sat between the old rough-in pipes.

“I think he tied their hands and feet, but not tight. Just enough to keep them from kicking around. Then all he has to do is—”

She took Peabody’s wrists in one hand, pressed the other on her head.

“You’d go right under, without any real traction to pull up again. Holding your arms up like this, you slide down. Too woozy to push hard enough with your bound feet to surface. From here he can watch your face as the panic cuts through. You can scream, but from here it’s sort of soft, almost musical. Then your eyes fix, and that’s the moment, the moment he knows it’s done.”

She released Peabody’s arms, picked up her sandwich bag again.

“It’s creepy. Seriously creepy.” With some rush, Peabody pushed to her feet.

“Carlie went to churches. Lupa went to church. This was sort of a faith-based place, right? Frester all about turning it over to a higher power and all that. Bad girls.”

“Who, the vics?”

“That’s what Pak—the market guy—called them. Bad girls, bad boys. Isn’t there that whole thing about washing sins away?”