Innocent in Death (In Death #24)(49)

“You know,” Reo began, “you’d think things would slow down in this kind of weather. But despite the cold, the ice, the wind, people are still raping and robbing and ripping at each other.” Reo took an appreciative sip of coffee. “Kind of makes me proud to be a New Yorker.”

“We don’t let winter get in the way of our mayhem. So, about my dead teacher.” Eve brought her up to date, made the pitch for a search warrant.

“Will Sanchez file a complaint?”

“Can’t say. Right now she’s worried if her husband clues in he’ll perform mayhem on Williams. But she came in, and she told it straight. This guy’s hunting on school grounds.”

“Do you suspect he’s hunting students?”

“I’ve got nothing that points that way, but it’s not out of the question. It looks to me like the vic had a come-to-Jesus talk with him. No reason for Williams to back off on Sanchez otherwise. Other statements indicate Craig saw him in a compromising position with someone he shouldn’t have been compromising with. The school’s not only a good gig—pays well, nice bennies, clean and shiny, but it’s an all-you-can-screw buffet for someone like Williams.”

“Gee.” Reo downed coffee. “Why can’t I ever get a nice guy like that?”

“Maybe you’ll prosecute and convict him, then you could be penpals.”

“Oh, if only.”

“So. If the vic threatened Williams’s standing, he may have decided to eliminate the threat.”

“No history of violence, no criminal record, no civil suits?”

“No, but you’ve got to start somewhere. It’s enough for a warrant, Reo.”

“Maybe. I can work it,” she decided. “But the fact that the guy’s a pig doesn’t make him a murdering pig. Find me something that says he is.”

As Reo headed out, she glanced back. “By the way, looking forward to seeing you and Nadine tonight.”

Eve only sighed and rested her head in her hands. Then she shook it, and contacted Feeney, her friend and the captain of the Electronic Detectives Division.

His face came on screen—comfortably lived in, baggy at the eyes, topped with wiry ginger and gray hair that went in any direction it chose.

“Yo,” he said.

“Need a man in the field. Since Peabody hasn’t irritated me today, I’d like McNab if you can spare him. On-scene e-work. Warrant’s coming through.”

“Who’s dead? Anybody I know?”

“Teacher. Private school. Ricin poisoning.”

“Yeah, yeah, got wind of that. Education’s a risky business. You can have my boy.”

“Thanks. Ah…Hey, Feeney, did your wife ever give you any grief about…other women.”

“What other women?”

“Yeah, there’s that. But like, when you were training me, and we partnered up, we worked pretty tight.”

“Wait a minute. You’re a woman?”

It made her laugh and call herself a fool. “Turns out. McNab can meet us in fifteen, in the garage. Appreciate it.”

McNab was a fashion plate from the tips of his long, shiny hair to the stacked soles of his purple airboots. His calf-length parka was in eye-watering orange, and his watch cap had zigzags of both colors. His earlobes were studded with a multitude of tiny silver balls.

Despite what Eve considered his questionable wardrobe choices, he was a solid EDD man. His fingers were nimble, his green eyes sharp.

He stretched out on the backseat on the drive, and from the movements Eve caught in the rearview, and Peabody’s muffled giggles, he was snaking his hand between the front seat and the passenger door to tickle his cohab.

“You want to retain use of that hand, Detective, you’ll keep it off my partner until your personal time.”

“Sorry. Your partner shatters the power of my will.”

“Keep it up, and I’ll shatter all your fingers.” She swung to the curb.

Williams’s building couldn’t boast a doorman, but she noted there was solid security. All three badges had to be scanned and cleared before the outside doors clicked open to the small lobby. She spotted security cams in the lobby along with a couple of chairs and a fake palm tree.

“Five-E,” Peabody told her.

They stepped into one of the two elevators where Eve asked for the fifth floor. “A couple of steps up from the vic’s living space.”

“Williams has been certified and teaching for nearly fifteen years. He also has his master’s. He’d make easily four times what the vic did. Not counting any private tutoring he might pull in on the side and not report.” Peabody linked pinkies with McNab, then unhooked as they reached five.

“Record on,” Eve announced, then drew out her master. “Dallas, Lieutenant Eve; Peabody, Detective Delia; McNab, Detective Ian, entering the apartment of Willaims, Reed, by duly authorized warrant.”

She dealt with the locks. “McNab, I want you to check out any D-and-C’s, correspondence, conversations, what he’s been looking at, what he’s been buying. The whole shot.”

She frowned at the apartment. The living area wasn’t spacious, but it was as large as the victim’s entire place. It boasted no particularly exciting view, but there was a wide gel couch in gleaming black, lots of shiny chrome. She noted a mood screen, a snazzy entertainment system.