Forgotten in Death(35)

She looked at Roarke. “That fine dining and bottle of red has to wait.”

“I may not be a trained investigator, but I deduced that.”

“Sorry. I need to talk to Dell, then I have to go notify the victim’s wife. She’s still next of kin. And a drop by Bolton Singer’s is still on the plate. I can pull Peabody in for all that.”

“Why? I’m here, and you don’t need either of us for those tasks in any case.”

“Partners sometimes hear or see something you don’t, or think of a fresh angle.”

“Then I’ll do my best to be a good partner.”

“You already are.”

When the sweepers arrived, she and Roarke went down to the lobby. Dell paced the tiny space, literally wringing his hands, while another man, not quite as skinny and clearly a blood relation, sat behind the counter.

“Officer!”

“Lieutenant,” Eve corrected.

“Sorry. So sorry. I’m so twisted around. I don’t know what to do. We decided we should close to new bookings until … We have some week-to-week and month-to-month tenants, but we closed down for now for the rest.”

“You don’t need to do that, Mr. Dell.”

“Told ya,” said the man behind the counter.

“My brother, Koby, we’re partners—with our cousins. I called Koby. I hope that’s okay.”

“It’s fine. We’ll need to seal off 2B. It’s a crime scene. We’ll clear it as soon as possible. I have a couple officers coming in to canvass—to check and see if anyone saw anything.”

“I don’t know how I can go in there again. Carmine effing killed himself. I had to get the rent, but I wouldn’t have pushed at him so hard if I’d known he’d—”

“Mr. Dell—Jamal—this isn’t your fault.”

“Told him that, too. Jamal takes everything to heart. He’s a GD softie.”

“Okay, I’m going to ask. What’s with the language censoring? I’m a cop. I’ve heard it all. I’ve said it all.”

Koby snickered. “Bone-deep habit. Our mama, she won’t allow hard language. We said something off when we were kids, we got all heck to pay. No screen time, or no ice cream if that was coming. We got older and slipped? A dollar for every word. You’re working and saving your money, you learn. Besides, no telling if she’d hear us where we stand now, even though she lives clear across town.”

“Mama’s got her ways,” Jamal agreed. “I was dogging him on the rent, I can’t forget that. I can’t forget how I walked right in there and saw him that way. How he got so down he hung himself.”

“We haven’t determined if he self-terminated.”

“But—”

“We’re investigating.”

“You think it was murder!” Now Koby got up. “That’s what you do. Murder.”

“She doesn’t kill people. She’s a police officer!”

“Jamal, you dumb-A. She’s the one from the vid, the one who solves murders and stuff. From that vid, The Icove Agenda.”

“The one with the clones and the murders and that scary business? I didn’t watch it,” Jamal told Eve. “I watch stuff like that, I don’t sleep right.”

“No problem.”

“He’s in it, too.” Koby grinned at Roarke. “The rich dude. I saw it twice. It’s a solid vid. You guys kick butt. So maybe somebody killed him and made it look like he did it himself?”

“We’re investigating,” Eve said again. She took out her PPC. “Have you seen this man around? Have you seen him with Mr. Delgato?”

Jamal shook his head. “I can’t say I have. But I’m not on the desk twenty-four/seven. We rotate, but even then. We got repairs and such, and we try to get to that right away. And you gotta turn the quick rooms. That’s why we have the bell. It’ll ping on the ’link of whoever’s on the shift. It’s mostly me, but not twenty-four/seven.”

“He looks mean,” Koby added as he studied Tovinski. “A mean white dude, but I don’t think I’ve seen him around.”

“I’d like to check with your cousins. You said you rotate.”

“Sure. Meesha and Leelo. I can tag them now. Meesha, she’s a nurse and works nights right now. Leelo, he’s an accountant. He keeps the books.”

“Let’s do that. And can you tell me when the hook in the ceiling of 2B was installed.”

“We never put that in there. I didn’t see it. Was there … I guess there was. I didn’t see, but we never did that to any of the rooms. Carmine must’ve.”

“Or the killer did,” Koby said. Darkly.

“Knock that off sideways,” his brother ordered. “I won’t sleep easy for a month.”

“Did Mr. Delgato ever have visitors?”

“He never came in with anybody. Nobody ever came in and asked for him. He was a sad story, miss, ma’am, officer.”

“Lieutenant,” Eve and Koby said together.

“Sorry. He was sad. His wife gave him the boot, and he said his kids were pissed at him. He worked hard, he said, and he liked to ah, de-stress—by playing the horses. His wife didn’t understand. He was a plumber, and he was a good one. I know because I had a toilet break, just bust, and he said he could get me a new one at cost and put it in and all. He did, and it’s a fine-looking john, too. Best we got. He said maybe I could take the cost of it off the rent, and the cost of the install, at a discount, off, too. That’s what we did.”