Imitation in Death

“But I didn’t get any of that fromLois. Not that she didn’t love her kids. She just knew how to keep it all balanced. She was fun, and smart, and had a life of her own. She loved her kids, she loved the grands, she loved me.”Leah had to take a long, calming breath. “Jeffand his sister, all of us really, are just flattened by this. She was young and healthy, vital and active. The sort of woman you expect to live forever, I guess. To lose her this way, it’s just cruel. But well…” She took another breath. “I guess you know that, in your line of work. And it’s not why you’re here.”

“I know this is hard,Mrs.Gregg, and I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.”

“I’ll do anything, absolutely anything, to help you find the bastard who did this toLois. I mean that.”

Evesaw that she did. “I take it you talked to her often.”

“Two, three times a week. We got together very often: Sunday di

She broke off, pushing off to grab some tissue. “I’m not going to lose it, it won’t help her orJeff or the kids for me to lose it. Just give me a second.”

“Take your time.”

“We’re having a memorial tomorrow. She didn’t want anything formal or depressing. She used to joke about it. ‘When my time comes,’ she’d say, ‘I want you to have a nice, tasteful memorial service and make it short. Then, break out the champagne and have a party. Celebrate my life.’ That’s what we want to do, we will do because she wanted it. But it wasn’t supposed to be now. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I don’t know how we’ll get through it. One minute at a time, I guess.”

She sat again, breathed again. “Okay. I know what was done to her.Jeff told me. He tried not to, but he fell apart and it all came pouring out, so I know what was done to her. You don’t have to be delicate with me.”

“She must’ve liked you a lot.” It was the first timePeabody had spoken, and the comment had Leah’s eyes tearing again.

“Thanks. Now what can I do?”

“She wore a ring, third finger, left hand.”

“Yes, she considered it her wedding ring though she andSam never made it formal.Sam was the love of her life. He died a few years ago in an accident, and she continued to wear his ring.”

“Can you describe it?”

“Sure. Gold band, cha

She paused a moment, andEve could see it sink in. “He took it? He took her ring? The bastard, the filthy son of a bitch. That ring mattered to her.”

“The fact that her killer took the ring may help us find and identify him. When we find it, and him, you’ll be able to positively identify it. That will help us build our case.”

“All right, all right. Thanks. I can think of it that way now, think of it as a way to lock him up. That helps.”

“Did she mention anything, however casually,”Eve began, “about meeting someone, seeing someone hanging around the neighborhood?”

“No.” Her kitchen ‘link beeped, and she ignored it.

“You can get that,”Eve told her. “We can wait.”

“No, it’s someone calling with condolences. Everyone who knew her is calling. This is more important now.”

Eveangled her head. “Officer Peabody’s right. She must’ve liked you very much.”

“She’d have expected me to handle this, the way she would’ve handled it. So I will.”

“Think carefully then. Any mention of anyone she might’ve met or seen in the last few weeks.”

“She was friendly, the sort who talks to strangers on line at the market or strikes up conversations in the subway. So she wouldn’t have mentioned anything like that unless it was out of the ordinary for her.”

“Take me through the places she’d go, the routes she’d take. Daily business sort of thing. I’m looking for repetition and habit, the kind of thing someone who was tracking her could use to determine she’d have been alone in the apartment Sunday morning.”

“Okay.”Leah began to outline Lois’ basic routines asEve took notes.

It was a simple life, if an active one. Fitness classes three times a week, bi-weekly sessions at a salon, market on Fridays, Thursday evenings out with friends for a meal and a vid or play, volunteer work Monday afternoons at a local day-care center, her part-time job at a lady’s boutique on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

“She dated once in a while,”Leah added. “But not so much recently, and nothing serious. As I said,Sam was it for her. If she’d been seeing anyone, even very casually, I’d have known about it.”

“Customers in the shop? Men?”

“Sure, she’d tell us about some of the guys who’d come in and throw themselves on her mercy, looking for something for a spouse or girlfriend. Nothing lately, not that she mentioned. Wait.”

Her back went steel-straight. “Wait. I remember her saying something about a man she ran into when she was shopping for produce. A couple of weeks ago. Said he looked sort of lost over the tomatoes or something.”

As if to nudge the memory clear, Leah rubbed her temples. “She helped him pick out some vegetables and fruit, that was just like her. She said he was a single father, just moved to New York with his little boy. He was worried about finding good day care, so she told him about Kid Time, that’s the place she volunteers, gave him all the information. Being Lois, she pumped him for personal information. She said he was a good-looking guy, concerned father, looked lonely, and she was hoping he checked out Kid Time so she could maybe fix him up with a woman she knew who worked there. God, what did she say his name was? Ed, Earl, no, no, Al. That’s it.”

“Al,” Eve repeated and felt it hit her gut.

“She said he walked her part of the way home, carried her bags. Said they talked kids for a few blocks. I didn’t pay much attention, it was the kind of thing she did all the time. And knowing Lois, if they talked kids, she talked about hers, about us. She probably said how we got together Sunday afternoons, and how she looked forward to it. About how she knew what it was like to raise kids alone.”

“Did she tell you what he looked like?”

“She just said he was a good-looking boy. That doesn’t mean anything. Damn it! She’d call any guy under forty a boy, so that’s no help.”

Yes, it was, Eve thought. It eliminated Elliot Hawthorne, as her own instincts already had.

“She was a born mother, so if she saw this guy puzzling over tomatoes, she’d have automatically stepped up to give him a hand and talk to him, try to help him out with his problems. Southern,” Leah said on a rise of excitement. “That’s what she said. A good-looking Southern boy.”

– -«»--«»--«»--

“She was a jewel. You know what I’m saying?”

Rico Vincenti, proprietor of the family-run market where Lois Gregg did her weekly shopping, unashamedly wiped his tears with a red banda

“That’s what I’m hearing,” Eve said. “She came in here regularly.”

“Every Friday. Sometimes she’d come by other times, pick up a couple things, but she was in every Friday morning. Ask me about my family, give me grief about prices-not bitchy,” he said quickly. “Friendly like. Some people they come in here, never say a word to you, but not Mrs. Gregg. I find the bastard…” He made an obscene gesture. “Finito.”

“You can leave that part to me. You ever notice anybody hanging around, look like he was watching her?”

“I see somebody bothering one of my customers, even if it ain’t a regular, I move ‘ em along.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder like an umpire calling out a base ru