Imitation in Death (In Death #17)(74)

"We did good."

"Night or day, day or night. Hey, what do you think about Vignette or Vidal?"

"What are they?"

"My baby. Vignette for a girl, Vidal for a boy. They're French. We're experimenting with French names, and I ditched Fifi. I mean, who names a kid Fifi?"

Eve. didn't know who, might name a kid Vignette either, but made. a. noncommittal mouth noise.

"Somebody will call her Viggy," Peabody said. "Which rhymes with piggy, so she'll be Piggy Viggy in school."

Mavis looked horrified. "You think? Deep-six Vignette." She gave her belly a comforting rub. "Plenty of time to come up with something, else. Catch you later." She swung back into Julietta's office.

"Impressions, Peabody?" Eve asked as they rode down. "She looks, great, and she'll come up with something better than Vignette or Vidal."

"About Julietta Gates, you moron."

"I know, I just wanted to annoy you. Sir," she added when Eve looked at her. "Used to running the show, and likes it. Dresses for power even more than style. Ambitious. She'd have to be to have gotten where she is at her age. Strikes me as a little cold-blooded. There's no zing when she talks about her kid. -That was a good catch with the extramarital. Blew right by me. Then when -you said it, and I played it back, it was right there. The way her voice changed, the body language."

"And from the way her face flushed up, I'd say the voice on the other end was letting her know a few games they'd be playing at their one o'clock today. I'm going. to want to confirm the dish on the side, in case we need to push on her later."

"We going to surveil?"

"No, don't want to risk her spotting either one of us this close to our little interview. I'll see if Baxter can handle it. How much does a kid like hers talk?"

"At that age, they rarely shut up. Hardly anybody but immediate family can understand them, but it doesn't stop them from talking."

"She met her side piece on Sunday, you can take that to the vault. And she had the kid with her. Wouldn't he tattle to daddy?"

"She probably told him it was a secret."

"Huh." This was foreign territory, so she took Peabody at her word. "Kids keep secrets?"

"No, but she doesn't strike me as the type who knows. her own kid very well. And the boy seems pretty tight with his dad. My best guess is he kept the secret until she was out of hearing, then blabbed. Daddy, me and Mommy and Uncle Side Dish played on the swings, but it's a secret."

Eve let it play in her head, and nodded. "And I doubt it's the first time. Daddy knows what's going on and wouldn't that irritate him?

Wouldn't he be a bit put out? Here he is, staying at home watching the kid, taking care of the house,_ while she's running around town-and Europe-with some other guy. Playing with some other guy with his son in tow.

Yeah, that's a real pisser.

"Mother and whore," she said as they got back into the vehicle. "We keep coming back to that. No problem for him to get out of the house for either murder, and he might've picked up the writing paper-paying cash-on his spring trip to London. Hell, the paper could've been a gift from a fan for that matter. And he decided it fit the bill. He knows the prototype murders as well as the initial killers.

"Means, motive, opportunity."

"Yeah, Thomas A. just jumped to the top of our list."

Chapter 15

Eve had barely disconnected with Baxter when her communicator signaled. Whitney's face filled the screen.

"He'll see you at ten forty-five. Make it good."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

Peabody studied Eve's satisfied smile. "A person's fifteen minutes late, one time, and she's out of the loop?"

"Get me some data on Sophia DiCarlo, the Renquist's au par; and I'll fill you in on the way to the U.N."

'We're going back to the U.N., to Renquist, and not risking federal imprisonment?"

"We're going back to apologize, grovel, and eat massive portions of crow."

"You don't know how to do those things." Peabody looked mournful. "We're going to the pen."

"Just get the data. If I don't know how to apologize, grovel,_ and eat crow, it's because it's rarely appropriate for me to do so. You have to be wrong first."

When there was silence, Eve glanced over. "No smart-ass comment?"

"My grandmother always says, if you can't say something positive about someone, keep your trap shut."

"Yeah,'like you listen to her. Renquist is pissed, his wife is pissed, and they're in the position to crimp the investigation. Nobody knows how to tie up red tape like a politician. And since my impression of them is that they are pompous ass**les, I figured slathering on the 'I'm just a public servant, ergo a bonehead' line might get me in."

"You said ergo."

"It goes with pompous."

"Sophia DiCarlo, twenty-six and single. Citizen of Italy with green card and work permit. Parents, and two sibs reside in Rome. Aha, parents are domestics, employed by Angela Dysert. Bet it's a relation to Mrs. Pompous Asshole. Sophia's been employed by the Renquists as domestic, child-care position, for the past six years. No criminal on record."