Devoted in Death (In Death #41)(83)

“Good work. Keep it moving. Tag me from the next stop.”

She’d barely clicked off when she got an incoming from Baxter.

“We got two hits, boss, bang-bang. Nothing, nothing, nothing, then two. Pawnshop and pizza joint, both on Hudson. Pawnshop between West Houston and King, pizzeria between Charlton and Vandam.”

Her attention went straight to the map. “Fucking A.”

“After some friendly persuasion, the pawnshop ID’d James. He was in twice last week. Pizza place nailed both of them. Takeout, two visits. We’re going to try this Chinese place, and there’s a souvenir shop one block over.”

“Do that. I’m sending some uniforms to canvass, try some of the residences, the other businesses. If they spent time walking around that area, we can narrow the field. This is good, Baxter. What did they pawn?”

“A wrist unit, sports model, and a second, dress type. Decent ones, both men’s styles. A tablet – wiped clean – a keyboard, musical type, an entertainment screen, an antique vase, a silver Saint Christopher’s medal. Nothing shows up on stolen.”

“Bring the tablet in. EDD will see how wiped is wiped. Send me pictures and descriptions of all. I’ll check them against the vics. Did James go into the pawnshop and the pizza joint the same days?”

“First time, yeah, but about six hours apart, from what we’re getting. Second time, different days.”

“Okay. Keep me in.”

“You bet. Ah, hey, I haven’t heard anything from Trueheart. Have you —”

“It’s too soon. Focus.”

She cut him off, went back to the map.

She recalculated, using the two hits. You go for takeaway, she thought, you go close to home. If you were driving, it didn’t matter so much, but…

Too much time between visits on the first hits. Six hours? No, he drove to the pawnshop, possibly, but then they went back to the same area to pick up food. And back again, same area twice more.

Because it was easy and quick.

She cut six blocks north and three blocks east off her map, let that stew while she pulled up the data Baxter sent and ran it with anything reported missing from the victims.

Tablet, she noted, wrist units – but nothing matching the pawned wrist units.

“You hit somebody in New York for this stuff.”

She shoved up, paced. None of it reported stolen – and that led her to whoever they stole it from was dead.

But not discovered. Not discovered because when the cops had a DB they checked out the DB’s place of residence.

And that’s where James and Parsens were living. That’s what played out.

She turned back to the map. “Getting closer, you f*ckers. Getting closer every minute.”

She went to the door, shouted, “Peabody,” then went back to the map as if she could pinpoint the location by will alone.

“Sir!”

“We’re narrowing the area. Baxter and Banner have a couple hits. I’m going to have some black-and-whites cruise the target area for the van. The baby is with Parsens’s mother.”

“Thank God. I had this image of her just, I don’t know, tossing it out of the truck window or something.”

“She had it for a reason,” Eve said, “and played the mother with the rehabilitating-myself-for-the-sake-of-my-tiny-baby routine, gave it a few days, stole what she could use or sell, walked out, leaving said tiny baby. That well may be dry now, but Carmichael and Santiago will pump it a little more before heading to the bar, then the prison.

“I’m heading out shortly.”

“I’ve got some angles for Baxter on the opens.”

“Work them,” Eve said. “Take one, you’re primary.”

“But —”

Eve cut off the protest with a look. “We’re short here, Peabody. I need you to take one, work it. Send me updates and notes, and I’ll work with you. If something else pops loose on this, I’ll pull you in, but right now it’s steps and stages, calculations and incoming data. I’ll be tagging the agent in charge soon.”

“You gotta?”

“I gotta. If I’m not here when Banner gets back, you haul him to my place. We can work there tonight if we don’t have this locked.”

“Okay.” Peabody let out a breath. “Okay, I’ll take one of the opens, pass the other to Baxter when he comes in. How do I know which one?”

“You can’t know, you just pick and do what you do. It’s not your first round as primary.”

“Yeah, but you’re always right there.”

“I’m still there, keep me in the loop, but do what you do. You’ve got a shield for a reason.”

Her ’link signaled. Eve glanced at it. “That’s Mira. I’m going to take this. Go, keep the balls in the air.”

“But I can tag you.”

“When you need to. Beat it.” She grabbed the ’link. “Dallas.”

“I’m just coming in to Central. I wanted you to know that we’ve concluded both the victims were tortured and murdered, and it’s our opinion they are two more victims of the spree killers.”

“Ella-Loo Parsens and Darryl Roy James.”

“You have them.”

“Not yet, but we have names, faces – and we have more data. I can come to you.”