Immortal in Death

"It was before. Earlier tonight. I went to her house."

Eve took a careful breath to counteract the twisting in her stomach. "You went to her house tonight. When?"

"I don't know exactly. About eleven maybe. I wanted to tell her I'd stay away from Leonardo, to make her promise not to ruin everything for him."

"You fought with her?"

"She was jazzed up on something. There were some people there, like a small party. She was nasty, said things. I said things back. We got into it a little. She smacked me, scratched me." Mavis tugged back her hair to reveal other wounds along her neck. "A couple of the people there broke it up, and I left."

"Where did you go?"

"A couple of bars." She smiled weakly. "A lot of bars, I think. Feeling sorry for myself. Just hanging. Then I got the idea to talk to Leonardo."

"When did you get here? Do you know what time?"

"No, late, real late. Three, four o'clock."

"Do you know where Leonardo is?"

"No. He wasn't here. I wanted him to be here, but she… What's going to happen?"

"I'm going to take care of it. I have to call this in, Mavis. If I don't do it soon, it's going to look bad. I'm going to have to put all of this on record, and I'm going to have to take you into Interview."

"Into – into… You don't think I – "

"Of course I don't." It was important to keep her voice brisk, to disguise her own fears. "But we're going to clear it all up as quick as we can, as clean as we can. Let me do the worrying right now. Okay?"

"I can't feel much of anything."

"You just sit here while I start things rolling. I want you to try to remember details. Who you talked to tonight, where you were, what you saw. Everything you can remember. We'll go over it all again in a little while."

" Dallas." With a little shudder, Mavis sat back. "Leonardo. He'd never do that to anyone."

"Let me do the worrying," Eve repeated. She glanced at Roarke, and understanding the signal, he moved over to sit with Mavis. Eve pulled out her communicator and turned away.

" Dallas. I have a homicide."

Eve's life had never been easy. In her career as a cop she had seen and done too many nightmarish things to count them all. But nothing had ever been more difficult for her than taking Mavis into Interview.

"Are you feeling okay? You don't have to do this now."

"No, the MTs gave me a local." Mavis reached up, touched the lump on the back of her head. "Numbed it good. They fiddled around with some other stuff, kind of snapped me back into focus."

Eve took a long study of Mavis's eyes, her color. Everything looked normal, but it didn't ease her dread. "Listen, it wouldn't hurt for you to check in to health center for a day or two."

"You're just putting it off. I'd rather get it over with. Leonardo." She swallowed hard. "Has anyone found Leonardo?"

"Not yet. Mavis, you can have an attorney or representative here."

"I don't have anything to hide. I didn't kill her, Dallas."

Eve flicked a glance at the recorder. It could wait just another minute. "Mavis, I have to do this by the ropes. Exactly. They can bump me off the case if I don't. If I'm not primary, I can't be as much help to you."

Mavis licked her lips, her tongue quick and thirsty. "It's going to be hard."

"It could be really, really hard. You're going to have to handle it."

Mavis tried for a smile, nearly managed it. "Hey, nothing can be worse than walking in and finding Pandora. Nothing."

Oh, yes, it could, Eve thought, but she nodded. She engaged the recorder, recited her name, ID, and officially gave Mavis her rights. Carefully, she took Mavis over the same ground she had covered on the scene, pi

"When you went to the victim's home to talk to her, other people were present."

"A few. It looked like a small party. Justin Young was there. You know, the actor. Jerry Fitzgerald, the model. And another guy I didn't recognize. Looked like a suit. You know, an exec."

"The victim attacked you?"

"She popped me one," Mavis said ruefully, fingering the bruise on her cheek. "She started out just being bitchy. The way her eyes were wheeling around in her head, I figured she was pumped."

"You believe she was using illegals."

"Big time. I mean her eyes were like crystal wheels, and that punch. I tangled with her before, you saw it," Mavis went on while Eve winced. "She didn't have that kind of power before."

"You hit her back?"

"I think I got one in, at least one. She scratched me – those damn nails of hers. I went for her hair. I think it was Justin Young and the suit that pulled us apart."

"And then?"

"I guess we spit at each other for a couple of minutes, then I left. Went bar crawling."

"Where did you go? How long did you stay?"

"I went a couple of places. I think I hit the ZigZag first, the joint over on Sixty-first and Lex."

"Did you speak to anyone?"

"I didn't want to talk to anyone. My face hurt, and I was feeling lousy. I ordered a Triple Zombie and sulked."

"How'd you pay for it?"

"I think… Yeah, I think I just entered my credit account on screen."

Good. There'd be a record, time, place. "From there, where did you go?"

"I walked around, bumped into another couple of dives. I was pretty blitzed."

"Were you still ordering drinks?"

"I must have been. I was pretty drunk when I thought about going over to Leonardo's."

"How'd you get downtown?"

"I walked. I needed to sober up a little, so I walked. Took a glide a couple of times, but mostly hoofed."

Hoping to spark some memory, Eve repeated all the information Mavis had just given. "When you left the ZigZag, which direction did you walk?"

"I'd just had two Triple Zombies. I wasn't walking, I was stumbling. I don't know which way. Dallas, I don't know the name of the other joints I went into, what else I drank. It's all a blur. Music, people laughing… a table dancer."

"Male or female?"

"A guy. Hung, with a tattoo, I think. Could have been paint. Pretty sure it was a snake, maybe a lizard."

"What did he look like, the table dancer?"

"Shit, Dallas, I never looked above the waist."

"Did you talk to him?"

Mavis put her head in her hands and struggled to bring it back. Holding onto the memory was like trying to hold a fistful of water. "I just don't know. I was seriously impaired. I remember walking and walking. Getting to Leonardo's, thinking it was the last time I was going to see him. I didn't want to be drunk when I did, so I took some Sober Up before I went in. Then I found her, and it was a lot worse than being drunk."

"What was the first thing you saw when you walked in?"

"Blood. Lots of blood. Things knocked over, ripped, more blood. I was so afraid that Leonardo had hurt himself, and I ran back to his work area, and saw her." This was a memory she could bring back with perfect clarity. "I saw her. I recognized her because of the hair, and because she was wearing the same outfit as she'd had on earlier. But her face… it really wasn't even there at all. I couldn't scream. I knelt down beside her. I don't know what I thought I could do, but I had to do something. Then something hit me, and when I woke up, I called you."

"Did you see anyone as you were going into the building, on the street outside?"

"No. It was late."

"Tell me about the security camera."

"It was broken. Sometimes street punks get a charge out of bashing them. I didn't think anything of it."

"How did you get into the apartment?"

"The door wasn't locked. I just walked in."

"And Pandora was dead when you got there? You didn't speak with her, argue?"

"No, I told you. She was lying there."