Immortal in Death (In Death #3)(19)

“Don’t ask.” He waved that away. “What do you need?”

“I need a run on her credit account. The first place she remembers going into is ZigZag. If we can place her there, or at one of the other joints at time of death, she’s clear.”

“I can handle that for you, but… We got somebody hanging around the murder scene, bopping Mavis on the head. Chances are there won’t be much of a time lag.”

“I know. I’ve got to cover all the bases. I’m going to track down the people Mavis recognized at the victim’s house, get statements. I’ve got to find a table dancer with a big dick and a tattoo.”

“The fun never ends.”

She nearly smiled. “I need to find people who can testify she was really ripped. Even with a dose of Sober Up, she couldn’t have been clean enough to have taken out Pandora if she’d been drinking her way downtown.”

“She claims Pandora was using.”

“Something else I have to check out. Then there’s the elusive Leonardo. Where the f**k was he? And where is he now?”

CHAPTER FIVE

Leonardo was sprawled in the middle of Mavis’s living room floor, where he had fallen hours before in a drunken stupor brought on by a full bottle of synthetic whiskey and a boatload of self-pity.

He was surfacing groggily and feared he’d lost half of his face sometime during the miserable night. When he lifted a cautious hand to it, he was relieved to find his entire face in the usual place, only numbed from being mashed into Mavis’s floor.

He couldn’t remember much. It was one of the reasons he rarely drank and never permitted himself to overindulge. He was prone to blackouts and blank spaces whenever he chugged down a few too many.

He thought he remembered staggering into Mavis’s apartment building, using the key code she’d given him when they realized they were not just lovers but in love.

But she hadn’t been there. He was almost sure of that. He had a vague picture of himself lurching across town, glugging from the bottle he’d bought — stolen? Hell. Blearily he tried to sit up and pry his pasty eyes open. All he knew for certain was that he’d had the damn bottle in his hand and the whiskey in his gut.

He must have passed out. Which disgusted him. How could he expect to make Mavis see reason if he came weaving into her apartment, babbling drunk?

He could only be grateful she hadn’t been there.

Now, of course, he had a raging hangover that made him want to curl into a ball and weep for mercy. But she might come back, and he didn’t want her to see him in such a mortifying state. He made himself get up, hunted down some painkillers before programming her AutoChef for coffee, strong and black.

Then he noticed the blood.

It was dried, streaking down his arm, onto his hand. There was a gash on his forearm, long, fairly deep, that had crusted over. Blood, he thought again, stomach jittery as he noted that it stained his shirt, his pants.

Breathing shallowly, he backed away from the counter, staring down at himself. Had he been in a fight? Had he hurt anyone?

Nausea rose in his throat as his mind skipped over huge voids and blurry memories.

Oh sweet Jesus, had he killed someone?

Eve was staring grimly at the medical examiner’s preliminary report as she heard a quick, sharp rap on the door of her office. It opened before she acknowledged it.

“Lieutenant Dallas?” The man had the look of a sun-bleached cowboy, from his shit-eating grin to his worn-heeled boots. “Goddamn, it’s good to see the legend in the flesh. Seen your picture, but you’re a long sight prettier.”

“I’m all a-flutter.” Eyes narrowing, she leaned back. He was plenty pretty himself, with wheat-colored hair curling around a tan, lived-in face that creased appealingly around bottle-green eyes. A long, straight nose, the quick wink of a sly dimple at the corner of a grinning mouth. And a body that, well, looked like it could ride the range just fine. “Who the hell are you?”

“Casto, Jake T.” He tugged a shield from the snug front pocket of his faded Levi’s. “Illegals. Heard you were tracking me.”

Eve scanned the badge. “Did you? Did you hear why I might have been tracking you, Lieutenant Casto, Jake T. ?”

“Our mutual weasel.” He stepped all the way in and planted a hip companionably on her desk. That brought him close enough for her to catch the scent of his skin. Soap and leather. “Goddamn shame about old Boomer. Harmless little prick.”

“If you knew Boomer was mine, what’s taken you so long to come see me?”

“I’ve been tied up on something else. And to tell the truth, I didn’t think there was much to say or do. Then I heard Feeney from HDD was poking around.” Those eyes smiled again, with just a touch of sarcasm. “Feeney’s pretty much yours, too, isn’t he?”

“Feeney’s his own. What were you working Boomer on?”

“Usual.” Casto picked up an amethyst egg from her desk, admired the inclusions, passed it from hand to hand. “Information on illegals. Small shit. Boomer liked to think he was big time, but it was always little bits and pieces.”

“Little bits and pieces can build the big picture.”

“That’s why I used him, honey. He was pretty reliable for a bust here and there. Couple of times I tagged a middle level dealer on his data.” He grinned again. “Somebody’s gotta do it.”