Forgotten in Death(16)

Eve could tell the woman wanted to remain standing in a show of defiance and personal power, but she finally sat.

“I manage his security codes, seeing that they rotate, that he has them. I don’t use them unless he specifically requests that I do.”

“Has he ever specifically requested that you access the gates at the project in question?”

“No, he has not, and I have not.”

“When’s the last time you were at that location?”

“I accompanied Mr. Singer to that particular site in March.”

Zelda turned her wrist, tapped at her wrist unit. “March fourteenth, from nine to nine-forty-five A.M. While I do occasionally accompany Mr. Singer to sites if he has need of me, it’s more usual for me to work out of this building or from my own home.”

“You haven’t been at that location since March fourteenth?”

“I have not. Now, is that all?”

Eve glanced over at Peabody, spoke pleasantly. “Hey, Peabody, do you think that’s all?”

“No, sir, I don’t. We’re just going to have to interfere with today’s schedule a little bit longer.” Peabody held out her PPC, and the ID shot of Alva Quirk.

“Do you know this woman?”

“No.” Something changed in her eyes. “No,” she repeated.

“Difficulties,” Eve said. “Lots of them.”

“I don’t know her. But…” Shifting, she looked closer at the photo. “I saw her. I think … She gave me an origami flower.”

“When and where?”

“On that day, on March fourteenth. Bolton—Mr. Singer—wanted to see that the security around the buildings to be demoed went up properly. He’d delayed that until as close as he could to warmer weather. The buildings weren’t safe, but there were squatters, and he worried they’d have nowhere to go over the winter. He’s a good man. He delayed locking that area down as long as he could.”

“She was at the site. You and Mr. Singer saw her, spoke to her?”

“No, she was down on the sidewalk. I don’t think he saw her. It was cold, and had started to sleet. He insisted I go down, wait in the car while he finished up. He gave me some busywork to do to override my objections. I saw her when I went back down, and yes, used his access code to unlock the security gate we had in place until the area, the unstable buildings were fully secured.”

“You spoke to her.”

“She was by the gate, and she said we were locking people out, and some people lived up there. I started to just go by her, but she got in front of me. She had this book and a pencil. She said she would have to report me for locking people out because some of them had nowhere else to go.”

Back ruler straight, Zelda folded her hands.

“Frankly, I didn’t want Mr. Singer to come down and have to deal with her. He already felt considerable guilt about displacing the squatters. I just told her the buildings weren’t safe, they were dangerous, and my boss needed to fix them, to make them safe so no one got hurt. He’d feel responsible if someone got hurt. And, again frankly, if that didn’t work, I intended to call the police and have her moved along.”

“Did it work?”

“She smiled at me, as I recall, and said that was different. That was being a good citizen. She gave me the paper flower, thanked me, and walked away. She’s the one who was killed?”

“Yes.”

“I never saw her again. I haven’t been back to the site since then.”

“What did her book look like?”

“I don’t really recall.”

“Like a diary? A kid’s diary—the paper kind?”

“No.” Zelda narrowed her eyes, frowned. “No, not like that. It was more … ah, like an autograph book. Like books celebrity watchers carry around to get signatures. Like that, I think.”

“Okay. Can you give us your whereabouts from midnight to two A.M. this morning?”

“God, this is absurd. It’s intrusive.”

“It’s routine. Somebody killed her and tossed her in a dumpster like she was garbage. You can deal with some intrusion.”

“I had a date,” Zelda snapped. “I’m divorced, which if you’re even marginally efficient you’d know by this time. I’ve been divorced for three years, I have no children. I had a date with a man I’ve seen twice before. We went to dinner, to a club to hear some music. And … we’re unencumbered adults.”

“What time did he leave your place, or you his?”

The faintest, the very faintest of a flush rose up on Zelda’s cheeks. “He left just after seven this morning.”

“Okay, we’ll need the details. Where you had dinner, what club, his name.”

Zelda stared straight ahead as she reeled off the data.

“Just to wrap this up, we are marginally efficient, so we know you’ve worked for this company for thirty years.”

“I came on as an entry-level secretarial assistant right out of business school in 2031.”

“How did you work up to your current position with the top boss?”

She aimed a withering look at Eve. “I’m good at what I do, and received regular promotions. I was assistant to Ms. Elinor Singer’s admin for four years before she formally retired, then I served as Mr. J. B. Singer’s admin’s assistant for five years before Mr. Bolton Singer, who was at that time vice president, operations, asked me to serve as his admin. I remained in that position when Mr. Bolton Singer took over as CEO.”