Midnight in Death (In Death #7.5)(22)

WOE UNTO YOU ALSO, YE LAWYERS!

The woman’s screaming had turned to wailing now. Eve tuned it out. With her eyes on the body, she pulled out her communicator. “This is Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. I have a homicide.”

She gave Dispatch the necessary information, then turned to the male witness. “You live around here?”

“Yes, yes, this building on the corner. We were just coming home from a party when—”

“My aide is going to take your companion inside, away from this. Out of the cold. We’ll need her statement. I’d appreciate it if you’d stay out here with me for a few minutes.”

“Yes, of course. Yes. Honey.” He tried to pry his wife’s hands from around his neck. “Honey, you go with the policewoman. Go inside now.”

“Peabody,” Eve said under her breath, “take honey out of here, get what you can out of her.”

“Yes, sir. Ma’am, come with me.” With a couple of firm tugs Peabody had the woman.

“It was such a shock,” he continued. “She’s very delicate, my wife. It’s such a shock.”

“Yes, sir, I’m sure it is. Can I have your names, please?”

“What? Oh. Fitzgerald. George and Maria.”

Eve got the names and the address on record. In a few minutes she would have a crowd to deal with, she knew. Even jaded New Yorkers would gather around a dead, naked body on Madison Avenue.

“Can you—sir, look at me,” she added when he continued to stare at the body. He was going faintly green. “Look at me,” she repeated, “and try to tell me exactly what happened.”

“It was all so fast, so shocking.” Reaction began to set in, showing in the way his hand trembled as he pressed it to his face. “We’d just come from the Andersons’. They had a holiday party tonight. It’s only a block over, so we walked. We’d just crossed the street when there was a squeal of brakes. I barely paid attention to it—you know how it is.”

“Yes, sir. What did you see?”

“I glanced back, just out of reflex, I suppose. I saw a dark car—black, I think. No, no, not a car—one of those utility vehicles. The sporty ones. It stopped right here. Right here. You can still see the skid marks in the snow. And then the door opened. He pushed—he all but flung this poor man out, right at our feet.”

“You saw the driver?”

“Yes, yes, quite clearly. This corner is very well lit. He was a young man, handsome. Light hair. He smiled… he smiled at me just as the door opened. Why, I think I smiled back. He had the kind of face that makes you smile. I’m sure I could identify him. I’m sure of it.”

“Yeah.” Eve let out a breath, watched the wind snatch it away as the first black-and-whites arrived on the scene. You wanted to be seen, didn’t you, Dave? she thought. And you wanted me to be close, very close, when you gave me Carl.

“You can go inside with your wife, Mr. Fitzgerald. I’ll be in touch.”

“Yes, of course. Thank you. I—it’s Christmas week,” he said with honest puzzlement in his eyes. “You live in the city, you know terrible things can and do happen. But it’s Christmas week.”

“Joy to the world,” Eve murmured as he walked away. She turned around and ordered the uniforms to secure the scene and prepare for the crime-scene team. Then she crouched beside Carl and got to work.

Chapter Nine

Eve spent most of the next thirty hours backtracking, searching for the step she was sure she had missed. With Peabody off-planet, she did the work herself, rerunning searches and scans, compiling data, studying reports.

She did personal drop-bys at both the safe house where Justine and her family were being kept and Mira’s home. She ran checks on their security bracelets to confirm that they were in perfect working order.

He couldn’t get to them, she assured herself as she paced her office. With them out of reach, he would have no choice but to come for her.

Jesus, she wanted him to come for her.

It was a mistake, she knew it was a mistake, to make it a personal battle. But she could see his face too clearly, hear his soft prep-school voice so perfectly.

“But you see, Lieutenant Dallas, the work you do is nothing more than a stopgap. You don’t change anything. However many criminals you lock up today, there’ll be that many and more tomorrow. What I’m doing changes everything. The answers to questions every human being asks. How much is too much, how much will the mind accept, tolerate, bear, if you will, before it shuts down? And before it does, what thoughts, what impulses go through the mind as the body dies?”

“Death, Lieutenant, is the focus of your work and of mine. And while we both enjoy the brutality that goes with it, in the end I’ll have my answers. You’ll only have more questions.”

She only had one question now, Eve thought. Where are you, Dave?

She turned back to her computer. “Engage, open file Palmer, H3492-G. Cross-reference all files and data pertaining to David Palmer. Run probability scan. What is the probability that Palmer, David, is now residing in New York City?”

Working…. Using current data the probability is ninety-seven point six that subject Palmer now resides in New York City.

“What is the probability that subject Palmer resides in a private home?”