Devoted in Death (In Death #41)(109)

Peabody bared her teeth; her eyes glittered. “Let’s go.”

When Eve started to rise, Ella-Loo tried to hunch into a ball. “You can’t, you can’t. He attacked me, that’s what happened. Darryl was just protecting me. That guy there, that guy he was trying to rape me, so Darryl protected me. It was self-defense.”

“And somehow in this self-defense, Samuel Zed lost all his fingers.”

“We… we were afraid. We were afraid we’d get in trouble, so we dropped him in the water.”

She kept herself hunched, shot hate-filled looks at Peabody.

“We needed a place to stay, so we went to where he lived. That’s all we did. He was raping me, and Darryl stopped him. Darryl’s a hero.”

“Clearly. Where were you when this alleged attempted rape occurred?” Eve asked.

“I don’t know. We just got to New York City. It was dark. We were having a drink somewhere, and I just went outside for a minute, and this guy grabbed me and started tearing my clothes, and Darryl came out and stopped him.”

“Outside some bar, at night, in single-digit temperatures, some guy grabs you and tears at your clothes.”

“That’s what happened. Self-defense.”

“Nobody noticed the attempted rape, the self-defense that resulted in a dead body. And somehow you still had time to dig out the dead man’s identification, had time to transport said dead body – in the van you stole.”

Confusion flickered over her face. “I – we – nobody wanted to help us. Nobody. We didn’t steal nothing.”

“The van you stole,” Eve continued, “from long-term parking at Newark Transportation. In your worry and distress – attempted rape, killing the alleged attacker, you devised a plan – not to run and leave the body, or contact the authorities, but to haul him up, bash in his face, cut off his fingers, stuff him in a bag with bricks and dump him in the Hudson.”

“We didn’t want any trouble. We just borrowed that van. We were going to put it back.”

“Like you were going to put Robert Jansen’s vehicle back?” Still snarling, Peabody shoved a new photo in Ella-Loo’s face. “After you beat him to death with a tire iron and dragged him into the brush off Highway 12 in Arkansas? Or did he try to rape you, too?”

“I don’t —”

“Say you don’t know what we’re talking about.” Eve said it coldly, and had Ella-Loo’s eyes shifting to hers. “Just try it. Were they all self-defense and partying? I won’t bother with names – you didn’t know or care about names. “From Highway 12 to Silby’s Pond.”

As Eve ran through locations, Peabody grabbed each photo, pushed it in front of Ella-Loo’s face.

“You’re going away, and nothing’s going to change that. Digest that for a while. Where you go, how long? You’ve maybe got a little wiggle room there. Are there more than this? That’s one. And two, chapter and verse, Ella-Loo. You tell us everything you did, you and Darryl, and maybe we can make you a deal where you won’t get eaten alive, where you’ve got some chance of getting out again. Keep up the bullshit, you’re gone until you die.”

“I’ve got a kid!”

Now Eve rose, walked around, leaned down behind Ella-Loo. “I know. I know you dumped her on your mother, just dumped her and walked away and haven’t seen her since. Use her, Ella-Loo? Use her and I’ll find new ways to hurt you, ways that’ll make what you and Darryl did to everyone on this table look like a picnic in a springtime meadow. That’s a promise.”

Eve straightened. “One chance, and one only. You tell us about everyone on this table. Details. And you tell us if there are any more. We have live witnesses, we have physical and forensic evidence, we have your trail, we’ve got everything we need to put you away. Keep lying, and we’re done. You’re in an off-planet hole for the rest of your life. And Darryl’s in another. You’ll never see each other again. Dallas and Peabody exiting Interview. Record off.”

Outside the room where Ella-Loo wept hysterically, Eve turned to Peabody. “  ‘Twisted twat’? ‘Sick, psychopathic sluts’?”

“I liked the alliteration. It just came to me.”

Eve punched her shoulder, a sign of high marks. “Scary Peabody did good.”

“I liked it. Scared myself a little, too, but I don’t get the deal, Dallas. We don’t need to deal on this.”

“If it plays out, you’ll get it.” She went with Peabody to Observation. “Banner, you’re up. Agent Zweck, I’m going to set them up for you.”

“They both believed they could and would continue,” Mira told her. “That they were entitled to as what they did brought them together, fulfilled their needs, enhanced what they see as their love. I don’t believe she’ll turn on him. She may, as she has done, insist he only protected her. But she’s as devoted as he, on the basic level.”

“I don’t need her to turn. It’s going to be saving each other as much as themselves that locks it. Let’s finish off Darryl. These two aren’t going to take as long as I thought.”

With Banner she went back into the room, resumed recording, sat.

“Okay, Darryl, thinking time’s up. Here’s how it’s going to go. Two choices now, the same two I just gave to Ella-Loo.”