Kindred in Death (In Death #29)(44)

“Anything else? His clothes, the airboard? Was he wearing any jewelry?”

“I don’t know. It was a minute.”

“Would you work with a police artist? You might remember more.”

Alarm flashed on her face, and the women around them began to murmur. “I didn’t hardly see him, and my boss . . . Plus, I don’t want to get her in any trouble. She really helped me out. She’s a nice girl.”

Eve weighed the options. The media would have the story by the afternoon, if they didn’t already. Lid would come off anyway. “You’d be helping her out. She was murdered early Sunday morning.”

“Oh come on. No, don’t tell me that.” As her voice pitched, the kids in the tandem went into dueling wails. “Oh my God.”

Immediately the other women closed in, touching her, gathering their children or charges just a little closer.

“The man you saw her with may have information. It’s important I find him.”

“I hardly saw him, and it was raining. I don’t know. She was a nice girl. She was just a kid.”

“What’s your name?”

“Marta. Marta Delroy.”

“Marta, her name is Deena. Deena helped you out. Now you can help her. I’ll fix it with your employer.”

“Okay.” She pulled a tissue out of one of a dozen pockets. “What do I have to do?”

After Eve made the arrangements, took Marta’s employer’s information, one of the other women spoke up.

“You said she jogged here in the mornings, about this time? You might want to talk to Lola Merrill. She jogs almost every day now that her daughter started preschool. She usually comes over to talk after she finishes. Tall blonde, great build. She’s probably already on her run this morning.”

“Thanks.”

She left the women, pulled out her ’link to make arrangements for her favored artist to take Marta, then switched to tag Peabody.

“I was about to tag you,” Peabody told her. “I think I have something. A woman who thinks she saw the initial meet.”

“Tall blonde, great build?”

“Jesus, do you have super-vision?”

“No, but I got a confirmation and one wit of my own. Get Lola’s statement, then I want her to work with Yancy asap. I’ll arrange with Yancy. Hold her there a few minutes. I’m heading your way.”

She contacted Central, added a second witness for Yancy as she walked toward Peabody’s zone. She spotted the blonde, and had to agree the build inside the black running suit with bright blue piping was exceptional.

“Lola Merrill?”

“That’s right.”

“Lieutenant Dallas, Detective Peabody’s partner. We appreciate your help. Tell me what you saw, and when you saw it.”

“Some weeks ago, the middle of April, I think, because it was still pretty brisk this time of the morning, and the daffs were just popping. I’d see the girl a couple times a week. She had good form, good stamina. We’d wave or nod, the way you do.”

Lola bent into a hamstring stretch. “I never talked to her. That day I saw her with this boy. Nice-looking boy. Off the path, sitting on the grass. He had his shoe off, rubbing his ankle. I didn’t stop because it looked like she had it, and they were laughing.”

She straightened up, pulled her leg up behind her to stretch the quads. “I kept going, and they were gone when I finished up. First time I’d seen him around, and haven’t seen him since. I was telling your partner I haven’t seen her around lately either.”

“Did you get a good look at him?”

Lola shrugged. “I wasn’t paying that much attention. I was just hitting my endorphins. Brown, shaggy hair. Nice looking. Good shoes. I noticed the shoes. It’s something I do.”

“What kind of shoes.”

“Anders Cheetahs—that’s top line. White with the navy logo.”

“Eye color?”

“Shades. Lots of joggers wear goggles or shades. And a cap. A ball cap. I noticed that. Oh, and he had on a Columbia sweatshirt. I went there myself, so I recognized it.”

Eve’s gaze shifted to Peabody, saw the same sense of satisfaction there she felt. “Ms. Merrill’s happy to work with the police artist,” Peabody said.

“It’s kind of exciting, but I don’t know how much help I’m going to be. I barely glanced at him.”

Enough, Eve thought as they finished their circuit of the park, enough to notice his hair, his shoes, his cap, his shirt. Yancy would get the rest, whatever else was buried in the subconscious.

We got lucky,” Eve said as they drove away. “Fucking lucky.”

“Seriously f**king lucky. Two wits with one sweep, and both willing to work with Yancy.”

“Cap, shades—harder to get a solid on his face. He’s smart there, but not smart to go with up-end shoes. Probably tried to impress her there. The sweatshirt’s his opening, his connection. He can’t expect somebody to spot them over on the East Side, like my wit did. And the meet’s more than two months before the murder. He’s going to figure we’d never put one with the other.

“Sure maybe she’ll mention meeting this guy in the park, and helping him out. But after he goes to work on her, it’s all secret. He doesn’t know girls her age, how she’d have to talk about it with her friend. Now we’ve got a shadow instead of a ghost.”