Kindred In Death

“Shit. It could be anybody. It could be female.”

Yancy lifted a finger as a point. “Yeah, and the second part might be an advantage. It was a male, she’s sure of that, but she used terms like cute, and once, pretty. It may be he’s got androgenous features. Young girls feel safe, and are often attracted to boys with androgenous features. They’re not as threatening.”

“So, we may or may not have a pretty boy who may or may not be nineteen.”

“I’ve got your second wit coming in. She’s due in about a half hour. I did a quick ’link warm-up with her. She’s more decisive than Marta, brisker, comes off more confident. I may do better with her. And what I get from her I can use with what I’ve got here. I’ll show the finished to both wits, and see if it rings.”

“Tell me about the airboard.”

“Black, silver racing stripes. Metallic silver, she thinks, because it glinted, and it was raining so no sun. That’s pretty simple for an airboard design. So I did a search. Two manufacturers make one that basic design. Go-Scoot and Anders Street Sport.”

“Anders.”

“Yeah, how about that? Wasn’t that long ago you were investigating his murder.”

“Small world, even for the dead, I guess. But it’s interesting as the second wit ID’d his shoes as an Anders brand. Could be brand loyalty. Get me what you can get me as soon as you get it.”

“You got it,” he said and gri

Back in her office she did a run on Nattie Simpson, the husband, the kid. As MacMasters had told her, Nattie was doing her time at Rikers. The husband-now ex-had relocated to East Washington, with the kid. He was thirty-five, and couldn’t pass for a teenager. The kid was ten, and couldn’t pass either.

Still, she followed through with a call to Rikers for an overview of Nattie before she crossed that angle off her list.

No co

Dead end.

She checked the search results on like crimes, and found nothing to co

She considered adding in victims and witnesses, then decided her office unit would probably implode from that much activity. She’d do it at home.

Earmarking that for later, she began cross-referencing Deena’s box of souvenirs with the list from Lapkoff.

There, she hit fast.

“Spring musical, Shake It Up, May 15- 18.”

She skimmed through it, sca

Though she found none, she logged the playbill into evidence, bagged it.

She continued through, making ordered piles-plays, concerts, dance theater, performance art. And frowned when she came on a second playbill for Shake It Up, same dates.

“Did you take his, too, Deena? Shit, shit.” She grabbed Seal-It from her desk, coated her hands. She paged through the second book, and found a small notation inside a heart above the summary.

D &D

5/16/60

“One’s his, one’s got to be.” She logged and bagged the second playbill, then placed a ’link call to Jo Je

Her mother answered. Not frazzled this time, Eve thought. Weary.

“Ms. Je

“Lieutenant, my girl’s wrecked. Just… devastated. Do you know she’s blaming herself? Blaming herself for not telling anyone Deena was seeing a boy? All she did was keep her word to her best friend, but she’s crushed with guilt for it now.”

“It may help her if she can do something to help. I just want confirmation on something, if she can give it to me. And it could be extremely important to the investigation.”

“All right. All right.” Ms. Je

The ’link cut to holding blue. Eve used her comp to e-mail a priority message to Berenski at the lab.

Have a possibility for prints re the MacMasters homicide. Will hand-deliver asap. This is priority. Don’t give me any shit.

“Lieutenant. Jo’s here. I’m going to stay with her.”

“That’s fine. Jo, I need to know if Deena went with the boy she was seeing secretly to a musical production at Columbia University. On May sixteenth.”

“I du

“Would she have told you? I know she enjoyed theater, got excited about theater. She saved playbills. She had a large collection of them.”

“He was supposed to take her that night and he killed her.” Tears sprang and spilled.

“But it wasn’t the first time they were supposed to go see a play together, was it?”

“She said he really liked theater, too. He’s just a liar.”

She said it fiercely, bitterly. “Just a liar.”

“Lieutenant, that’s enough.”

“Hold on. May sixteenth, Jo. They’d been seeing each other for about four weeks then. It was a musical about college students performed by college students. I bet she enjoyed it.”

“Shake It Up.”

“That’s right. Did she go with him?”

“It was like an a

Eve remembered the collection of animals. “What kind of dog?”

“A little brown and white one. If you rub its ears it says I love you. Mom.”

“Okay, baby, okay. That’s all, Lieutenant.”

“Jo, you helped me a lot. You helped Deena by talking to me, by remembering.”

“I did?”

“Yes, you did. Thank you.”

Jo turned her face into her mother’s breast. Ms. Je

Eve grabbed the evidence bag, strode out, swung by Peabody’s desk. “I may have something. Two playbills for a Columbia performance, one the best friend confirms Deena attended with the UNSUB, on May sixteen.”

“Two? She kept his.”

“Seems logical. I’m taking them to the lab now, personally. I’ve got more I want to input in the searches, but this unit won’t deal with it. I’m working from home after the lab.”

“Roarke’s up in EDD.”

“Shit. Well, I’ll see him at home later. I also need to go by the scene. He gave Deena one of the stuffed toys. Could get lucky there, too. I’ll run it, get that to the lab first thing in the morning.”

“If I hit anything in the meantime, you’ll be the first.”

“Right, do a secondary, adding in an Anders airboard. Black with silver racing stripes. Street Sport. He may have purchased that along with the shoes.”

“Got it.”

Eve dragged out her ’link as she headed down to the garage.

“Lieutenant,” Roarke said.

“I’ve got some field work, then I’m going to work from home. I’m heading out now. Just, ah, fyi.”

His eyebrow raised. “Then I suppose I’ll have to get myself home.”

“Sorry. When you do… we’ll talk about that then.”

“If you say so. I’ll be there… eventually. Eat something, and don’t wait for me,” he ordered and broke transmission.

She frowned at the blank screen. She knew a

She stewed about it all the way to the lab, and was primed to chew out Dickhead’s heart if he gave her any grief.

“What is it?” he barked at her. “It’s frigging end of shift for me since you got me in here…” He trailed off, paling a little as he scooted to a safe distance on his rolly stool. “Jesus, Dallas, did you just growl?”

“I’ll do more than growl. I’ll rip out your liver with my bare hands and eat it.” She slapped the two sealed playbills down. “One of these is going to have his prints. I want his goddamn prints and fuck your end of shift.”

“Hey, hey, hey. You used to at least offer me a decent bribe. Not that I’d take one, under the circumstances,” he added hurriedly. “Just saying.”