Holiday in Death (In Death #7)(3)

There’d been no one else in her life to wrap gifts for.

And what the hell did she buy for a man who not only had everything, but owned most of the plants and factories that made it? For a woman who’d prefer a blow with a blunt instrument to shopping for an afternoon, it was a serious dilemma.

Christmas, she decided, as Santa began to tout the variety of stores and selections in the Big Apple Sky Mall, was a pain in the ass.

Still, her mood lifted as she hit the predictably snared traffic on Broadway. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, there was a party going on. The people glides were jammed with pedestrians, most of whom were drunk, stoned, or both. Glide-cart operators shivered in the cold while their grills smoked. If a vender had a spot on this street, he held it in a tight, ready fist.

She cracked her window a sliver, caught the scent of roasting chestnuts, soy dogs, smoke, and humanity. Someone was singing out in a strident monotone about the end of the world. A cabbie blasted his horn well over noise pollution laws as pedestrians flowed into the street on his light. Overhead the early airbuses farted cheerfully, and the first advertising blimps began to hawk the city’s wares.

She watched a fistfight break out between two women. Street LCs, Eve mused. Licensed companions had to guard their turf here as fiercely as the vendors of food and drink. She considered getting out and breaking it up, but the little blonde decked the big redhead, then darted off into the crowd like a rabbit.

Good thinking, Eve thought approvingly, as the redhead was already on her feet, shaking her head clear and shouting inventive obscenities.

This, Eve thought with affection, was her New York.

With some regret, she bumped over to the relative quiet of Seventh, then headed downtown. She needed to get back into action, she thought. The weeks of disability had made her feel edgy and useless. Weak. She’d ditched the recommended last week off, had insisted on taking the required physical.

And, she knew, had passed it by the skin of her teeth.

But she’d passed, and was back on the job. Now if she could just convince her commander to get her off desk duty, she’d be a happy woman.

When her radio sounded, she tuned in with half an ear. She wasn’t even on call for another three hours.

Any units in the vicinity, a 1222 reported at 6843 Seventh Avenue, apartment 18B. No confirmation available. See the man in apartment 2A. Any units in the vicinity…

Eve clicked on before Dispatch could repeat the signal. “Dispatch, this is Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. I’m two minutes from the Seventh Avenue location. Am responding.”

Received, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Please report status upon arrival.

“Affirmative. Dallas out.”

She glided to the curb, flicked a glance up at the steel-gray building. A few lights glimmered through windows, but she saw only darkness on the eighteenth floor. A 1222 meant there’d been an anonymous call reporting a domestic dispute.

Eve stepped out of her vehicle, and slid an absent hand over her side where her weapon sat snug. She didn’t mind starting out the day with trouble, but there wasn’t a cop alive or dead who didn’t dread a domestic.

There seemed to be nothing a husband, wife, or same sex spouse enjoyed more than turning on the poor bastard who tried to keep them from killing each other over the rent money.

The fact that she’d volunteered to take it was a reflection of her dissatisfaction with her current assignments.

Eve jogged up the short flight of stairs and looked up the man in 2A.

She flashed her badge when he spoke through the security peep, shoved it into his beady little eyes when he opened the door a stingy crack. “You got trouble here?”

“I dunno. Cops called me. I’m the manager. I don’t know anything.”

“I can see that.” He smelled of stale sheets and, inexplicably, of cheese. “You want to let me into 18B?”

“You got a master, don’t you?”

“Yeah, fine.” She sized him up quickly: short, skinny, smelly, and scared. “How about filling me in on the occupants before I go in?”

“Only one. Woman, single woman. Divorced or something. Keeps to herself.”

“Don’t they all,” Eve muttered. “You got a name on her?”

“Hawley. Marianna. About thirty, thirty-five. Nice looker. Been here about six years. No trouble. Look, I didn’t hear anything, I didn’t see anything. I don’t know anything. It’s five-f*cking-thirty in the morning. She’s done any damage to the unit, I want to know about it. Otherwise, it’s none of my never-mind.”

“Fine,” Eve said as the door clicked shut in her face. “Go back to your hole, you little weasel.” She rolled her shoulders once, then walked across the corridor to the elevator. As she stepped inside, she pulled out her communicator. “Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. I’m at the Seventh Avenue location. Building manager is a wash. I’ll report back after interviewing Hawley, Marianna, resident of 18B.”

Do you require backup?

“Not at this time. Dallas out.”

She slipped the communicator back into her pocket as she stepped out into the hallway on eighteen. A quick glimpse up showed her security cameras in place. The hall was church quiet. From the building’s location and style, she pegged most of the residents as white collar, middle income. Most wouldn’t stir from their beds until after seven. They’d grab their morning coffee, dash out to the airbus or subway stop. More fortunate ones would just plug into the office from their home station.