Origin in Death (In Death #21)(76)

"I did."

"I'm betting he earned it. Got us a hell of a thing here. School president found dead as a split trout inside her private quarters."

"That would be Samuels, Evelyn?"

"It would."

"And would cause of death be stabbing? Single wound, medical scalpel, to the heart."

His eyes leveled, considered hers. "That would be one hundred percent correct. Gonna have to get you a stuffed ladybird as your prize this afternoon. We going to do some tit for tat here, New York City?"

"No problem for me. Peabody? My partner, Detective Peabody. I have with me the captain of our EDD sector and an EDD detective, two doctors, an APA, and an expert consultant, civilian. We'll be at your disposal on your homicide, Sheriff, and will share the data that will link yours to ours."

"Can't ask for better than that. You want to see the body, I expect."

"I do. If the rest of my team can be shown where to wait, my partner and I will take a look at your scene."

"Freddie, take care of these nice tourists. It's the damnedest thing." he continued as they walked toward the main building of the Academy. "Victim had an appointment with some rich woman from out of state. Witness statements-those we've taken so far-and security cameras show them doing a quick tour, then going into the victim's quarters. Refreshments were ordered prior and already in place. Eleven minutes later, the woman walks out, shuts the door, strolls out of the building and into the car she came with. Driver heads out, and they're gone."

He snapped a finger. "We got the vehicle, make, model, and its plates from the cameras. Duly registered in the name of the woman. We got her cold on the discs. Name of Desiree Frost."

"It'll be bogus," Eve told him.

"Is that a fact?"

Schools never failed to give Eve the jitters, but she walked with Hyer across the great hall. It was silent as a tomb.

"Where do you have the students, the staff?"

"Moved the whole kit and caboodle to the theater in another building. They're secure."

They walked up the wide steps, stopped at the doorway of the scene Eve saw, with some relief, that the body had not yet been moved. Inside were three people, two still wearing the protective suits of crime scene and the third examining the body.

"What we got here is Dr. Richards, our local ME, and Joe and Billy-they're forensics."

Eve nodded to them as she and Peabody sealed up. "Any problem if we record this?"

"Not for me," Hyer said.

"Record on. Let's get started."

Chapter Thirteen

WHEN EVE COMPLETED HER EXAMINATION OF the scene and the body, she stepped back out. "I'd like my EDD team to run the electronics. And I'd like my civilian consultant to take a look at the scene."

"You going to tell me why?"

"I have two victims, male, who were killed by the same method. Those victims have an association with this institution."

"You're talking about the Icoves."

Impatience rippled through her. "If you know, why are you wasting my time?"

"Just want to hear your angle. I see a body get that way by the same method used to kill two prominent doctors in New York, it gets me thinking. And I recall the picture flashed on of the suspect, and she's a pretty young thing. I got a pretty young thing as my prime, too. Don't look like the same pretty young thing, so maybe there's more than one. Or maybe if I run those two images through the computer for a match, they will. So why does some woman-or women-who wants two city doctors dead come all the way out here to kill the head of a girls' school?"

"We have reason to believe the killer or killers attended this institution."

Hyer glanced back inside. "Must've been damn unhappy with her grade point average."

"School's a bitch. You've been sheriff a number of years. How many times have you been called out here?"

He had a thin mouth, but there was considerable charm in it when it curved up slow. "This would make one. Been out off duty plenty of times. The theater puts on plays three, four times a year. Open to the public. My wife likes that kind of thing. And they have a garden tour every spring. She usually drags me to that."

"Does it seem odd to you that in all this time, you never got a call about some homesick kid climbing over the wall. Or a theft, an unattended death, vandalism."

"Maybe it has. But I can't come out and complain they're not making trouble."

"You ever know of one of the girls hooking up with a local boy, or going into town and getting into trouble?"

"Nope. They don't go in, and yeah, I figured it odd. Enough that when my wife dragged me out here, I poked around a little, asked some questions. Nothing to go on," he said with another glance around. "Nothing but a gut thing, you get me?"

"Yeah, I get you."

"But it's a snooty school and we're small change, so there's nothing I can pin that gut thing on. Now, there's been a few times some of the young boys tried to get in, over the wall, over the gate. That's natural enough. Security picks them up before they get on the grounds. I'm giving, New York," he added. "I don't feel like I'm getting."

"I'm sorry. I can't tell you much. I'm under Code Blue."