Thankless in Death (In Death #37)(22)

“The what?” Shock vibrant, Ravinski lowered the big black bottle. “His parents were murdered? Both of them. Sweet Jesus, when? How did …” He pulled himself in, let out a hard breath. “He killed them. You’re saying Jerry killed his own ma and pop?”

“We need to find him. We need to talk to him. I get the sense you don’t have any idea where he might be, where he might go?”

“He didn’t work here a full three months, and I can’t count the times he called in sick or with some bullshit excuse.” Ravinski scrubbed a hand over hair buzzed so straight and sharp Eve was surprised his palm didn’t go bloody from contact. “He had a couple of friends who came in a few times. Ah, damn it. Mal—one of them’s Mal. Seemed like a nice kid. The other was kind of a dick. I can’t remember his name.”

“We’ve already got that information. If you think of anything else, get in touch.”

“My ma said he’d hurt somebody.”

“Excuse me?”

“My ma. She likes to think she’s got some sensitive thing going.” He vibrated his hands in the air. “Her great-grandparents were Sicilian. Anyway, she said to me, ‘You mark my words, Fitz, that boy’s going to hurt somebody. He’s got the dark in him.’”

He shook his head. “I don’t know if she figured dark enough for this, but I can tell you once she finds out, there’ll be no living with her.”

Out on the street, Peabody gave Eve a pouty stare. “Some of us like pie.”

“Save it for Thanksgiving. We’ll make the rounds,” Eve decided. “Talk to former employers, coworkers. Maybe we’ll hit something.”

“He’s got to run. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“If he were going for sense, he’d’ve been running since Friday. We cover the ground. Then you go ahead and swing by the ex-girlfriend’s on the way home. I’m going to set up in my home office, look for another angle.”

“What about Mira?”

“I’ll arrange a consult for the morning. He’s gone under somewhere, and he’s feeling real flush, real f**king potent right now. So his hole’s probably flush, too. He’ll have himself a nice dinner tonight. He might even have pie.”

“Bastard.” Peabody gave one longing glance behind her—toward pie—as they hiked back to the car.

Long day, Peabody thought. And not as much to show for it as she’d figured when it started. Dallas had taught her never to think slam dunk on a case—not even when, as with this one, you knew who, you knew why, you knew how, you knew when, almost from the jump.

“He’s having a run of luck,” she complained.

EDD star Ian McNab gave her ass a light pat as they turned toward Lori Nuccio’s building. “Luck doesn’t last. Except ours, She-body.”

He made her grin. It was one of his high points, on her scale. That and his own sweet and bony ass, his smart green eyes, his busy brain, and his exceptional energy and creativity between the sheets.

“We have to take the stairs up,” she said.

“We do?”

“I can’t stop thinking about pie à la mode. Even thinking about it’s loading up my ass, and add the fact we’re going to stop at the market on the way home so I can buy what I need to make one, then—”

“You’re going to make us a pie?”

“My granny’s cherry-berry, if I can find what we need, and you split the cost.”

“Hey, if you bake that sucker, I’ll pay for the stuff.” He put on a little strut. “My best girl’s baking me a pie.”

With a smile on his narrow face, his long tail of blond hair bouncing, the garden of earrings on his left ear gleaming, he climbed the stairs beside her.

He reached over, dancing his fingers against hers. “I like it when we get off shift together.”

“Me, too. I’d like it better if we’d caught this jerk-off before end of shift.”

“You’ll get him. You can walk me through it when we get home, and we’ll put our heads together. And maybe some other body parts.”

She snorted out a laugh as they stopped on Lori’s floor.

“She’s over here.” Peabody walked to the door, knocked sharply.

“You said she had the day off, spent it with a girl pal? They’re probably making a day to night deal. Dinner, hit a club or two.”

“Yeah. I just wish—” Peabody turned as the door across the hall opened.

“Ms. Crabtree?”

“That’s right.”

Dutifully, Peabody held up her badge. “You spoke with my partner earlier today, Lieutenant Dallas. I’m Detective Peabody, with Detective McNab.”

“Lori’s not home yet. I’m starting to worry.”

“Is it unusual for her to be away this long?”

“No, but it’s pretty damn unusual for her ex-boyfriend to murder his parents. I heard the media report when I got home about an hour ago. I wasn’t out long, just ran a few errands, and I left a note on Lori’s door in case she came home while I was out. It was still there. I’m keeping an eye out now.”

“We appreciate that, and we’d appreciate it if Ms. Nuccio would contact us whenever she gets back.”