Thankless in Death (In Death #37)(114)

“This is very serious, Jerry.”

“I know, right?” Trying for sincerity, he bobbed his head up and down. “He’s crazy, I guess. But he was ready to admit it. He told me some of it, but I didn’t have the recorder on yet. He said how my ma let him in, was going to fix him a sandwich—she did things like that—and he picked up the knife and stabbed her and stabbed her.”

He covered his face with his hands again. “My ma.”

“Golly. Where was your father? Did Joe say?”

“He said how he got the bat from my room, and he hid and waited till my dad got home. Then he bashed him, and bashed him. And he just left them there.”

“It’s funny,” Eve said, “how he walked in and out of the building without ever once showing up on security.”

Oops, she thought as Reinhold’s eyes shifted again. “Ah, sometimes those things don’t work right. The super’s supposed to get it fixed, but he doesn’t. He’s lazy.”

“So the security on the door magically shows you going in Thursday night—late, and not leaving again until Saturday night—suitcases in tow. And also magically never showed Joe entering or exiting the building.”

“It can happen.”

“Well, at least we can check with the super,” Peabody said doubtfully.

“He’ll just lie.”

“You know all about liars,” Eve said. “Just let me ask you one question. Just one that’s bugging me some. How’d you get the fake ID and the money to rent that swanky apartment?”

“I … won some money in Vegas I didn’t tell the guys about. And I paid this guy I met at a bar for the ID.”

“What guy, what bar, how much?”

Eve rapped the questions out.

“Some guy, I don’t know. Just a bar. Um, maybe a thousand dollars. About, um, five hundred dollars, I guess.”

“Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.” Eve pushed forward, into his space, so he jerked back.

“You lost your ass in Vegas. You didn’t just happen on an expert on fake IDs at some bar, and you sure as hell didn’t get one, with the accompanying database, for five hundred. You lying piece of shit. We’ve got the comps you stole from Ms. Farnsworth after you tortured her, after you killed her. The ones you had her droid take to a swap store. The data’s right on them.”

“They were wiped. Wiped clean!” Wound up, he leaned toward her, shoved his face toward hers. “You’re the liar.”

“How do you know they were wiped, Jerry?”

“I …” Jerking back, he ran his tongue around his lips. “Just figured. Joe’s not stupid. He’d’ve wiped them first.”

“You should’ve paid more attention to Ms. Farnsworth in Computer Science, Jerry. With the right techs, the right equipment—and believe me the NYPSD has both—you can retrieve damn near anything. Your ID was made on her comps.”

“Okay, okay. I didn’t want to get her in trouble.”

“She’s dead, Jerry.”

“Her … reputation. She made the ID and stuff for me. I went to her, explained things, and she helped me out. That’s why Joe killed her. After I left.”

“But she was dead when you left, Jerry, when you left carting your new duffel and her suitcase, and caught a cab to the clinic because she’d managed to break your foot.”

“That wasn’t me. That was Joe. It was all Joe.” He began to cry, tears of terror and self-pity. “I didn’t do anything. Get off my back. I didn’t do anything.”

“We’ve got witnesses. We tracked you, you stupid f**k. We know where you bought the hair color, the eye color, the bronzer.” She shoved to her feet again. “And these.” She began dropping sealed evidence on the table. “The tape, the rope, the knife. This saw you intended to use to cut Joe to pieces, these bags for disposal of body parts.”

“I did not! I did not! The droid bought that stuff.”

“Some of it, on your orders. Ms. Farnsworth’s droid. Then there’s this.”

Eve lifted out the evidence bag holding the hank of Lori Nuccio’s hair. “How’d you get Lori’s hair, Jerry?”

“She gave it to me. Like a love token thing.”

“Really? How did she manage to do that when the person who hacked it off her before killing her took it? Had her hair colored just that afternoon, Jerry. This color.”

“That’s … I got mixed up. You’re mixing me up. Joe had that with him. He brought it with him. He showed it to me to prove he killed Lori.”

“You killed Lori, and got off doing it. You left the boxers you had on in her bathroom, you f**khead.”

“Joe planted those. He told me.”

Eve sat back. “Not going to fly, Jerry. Not even going to get off the ground. On top of everything else, Ms. Farnsworth left a deathbed statement, too, right on her computer. Coded it in right under your idiot nose while you had her terrorized. Your name, Jerry, and everything we need to wrap you up.”

“That’s a lie! She did not.”

“She really did, Jerry.” Peabody spoke quietly, pushing what sympathy she could into her tone. “It’s all right there.”

“She did that to get back at me, that’s all. She always had it in for me.”