Chapter Ten
“While they’re clearing out Dent’s vault, we’ll go talk to the sister. She’s in New York. She works for Roarke.”
“That’s interesting. Not that she works for Roarke,” Peabody qualified. “Lots and lots do. But that her brother worked at Banner-Wyst, and she didn’t go there.”
“We’ll ask her about that.” Eve looked back at the board. Someone else was on the list, and Redman wouldn’t wait long.
“I’m going to tag Roarke, see if he can expedite this.”
“Bet he can, bet he will.”
Rather than bet, Eve pulled out her ’link.
“Another?” he said when he came on-screen.
“No, not another body. Yet. But a strong lead. You have an Olivia Redman, biotech engineer, working for you.”
“Very possibly. Is she a suspect?”
“No, but she’s the sister of one—which she doesn’t need to know right at this moment.”
“You’d like me to arrange an interview.”
“Asap. We’ll go to her.”
“Give me a couple minutes. I’m about to get on the shuttle for home.”
“Great. Hey, Callendar hit Dent’s financials, pulled out buried files. So we’re good there.”
“A mild disappointment for me. Two minutes.”
Peabody smiled when he cut the call.
“With this interview, he’ll probably be home before you are.”
“Could be. We’ll need to talk to Redman’s parents, too. They’re his family, what he has left. Strong possibility he’s contacted them. Let’s head down to the garage.”
In the bullpen, all her detectives sat at their desks.
“Natural causes,” Jenkinson told her. “Poor bastard’d been dead two or three days before anybody checked. Santiago and Carmichael closed theirs.”
Both detectives held up both thumbs.
“Good work. Peabody and I are in the field.”
She risked the elevator, then got off again at the second stop when her ’link signaled.
“Olivia’s just arriving at home, and expects you. Do you need her address?”
“No, I got it, thanks. Safe flight, see you at home.”
“Looking forward to it. Best to Peabody.”
“Okay, she’s Lower East, and this is good. Good she’s at home. I want to see the place.”
“Do you think Redman’s there?”
“Family. Do a quick run.”
“Here she comes. We’re running into a lot of smart people on this one.
She’s worked for Roarke almost twelve years.
Married to Hector Prinz, a doctor, private practice.
Eleven years on that. Parental leave in the twelve with Roarke for twins—one of each, eight years old as of last Tuesday.
No criminal, so a lot of smart, clean people this round.
Moved to the current address eight months after the birth of the twins. ”
“Okay, that’ll do it for now.”
Together they jogged down the metal steps to the garage.
As they started to Eve’s slot, Peabody pulled out her signaling ’link.
Then let out a squeal that had Eve’s ears ringing.
“Jesus, what?”
“My sister just texted. They’ll be in New York inside a couple hours! They made really good time. I was hoping they’d make it by eight or nine tonight, but they made really good time.
“I have to text her back! I can’t wait!”
“Go home.”
“What? No, no, a couple hours. And I made a whole bunch of lasagna I just have to program up later. I was figuring on it for tomorrow night, but they’re early. Woo!
“I just have to text her back, let Mavis know. Wait! We should have a cookout, nice and easy, and the lasagna tomorrow. If Mavis and Leonardo are chill with that.”
“Peabody.”
“I’ll be totally focused when we do the interview. Swear it. But I need to be excited now.”
“You can go home and be excited.”
Peabody’s stubborn look fell over her face. “I can be excited, do my job, then be even more excited when I get home.”
“Okay, fine. But don’t squeal like that again.”
“I’m still squealing, but inside, where only I can hear.”
It surprised Eve that Peabody’s smile didn’t break her face.
“Keep it that way.”
Eve drove out of the garage and headed across town. “Roarke screens thoroughly, and she’s been one of his for a while. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t know where her brother is.”
“She may know where he is, but not what he’s doing.”
“Then it’s time for her to find out. He fits. Every angle points to him. Family, his loss, the specific targets, the timing of his loss with the big money layout. Shit, John Dearling might be another. I’ll put Roarke on his financials tonight.”
“You think he might be a target?”
“Maybe.” She paused at a light, considered. “And if he is, and he’s as smart as the rest, he knows it by now. We might convince him to talk.”
Two colleagues dead, Eve thought. Yeah, that might prime a man to babble some. They’d interview the sister, hopefully get a lead on Redman, then start a push on John Dearling.
She’d rather hold that until she’d done a thorough run, including those financials. But he might not live that long.
“Dearling’s assistant says he’s out of the country—in the Sudan on a project. Not due back until next week.”
“Buys him some time.”
“Unless Redman takes this global.”
“No, no. New York. He’s in New York and hasn’t finished with it.”
She glanced at the rosy brick townhouse, nicely placed near a park. And started hunting for parking.
“Exceptional public trans, but half of everybody wants a vehicle.”
“I think about getting one, especially since we could actually keep one at the house. Then I could say: ‘Hey, McNab, how about we zip upstate to a romantic B and B next weekend?’ Except one of us ends up working part of a weekend about half the time. But still, it could happen.”
“So you take a train.”
“That’s not as impulsive or romantic.”
Eve grabbed a slot in the next block. “It’s also faster, and cheaper than maintenance and vehicular insurance.”
“All true, and I remain vehicle-free.” She said it cheerfully, which told Eve she was still squealing inside. “But there’s something to be said for cruising along in your own ride.”
“There’s a lot to be said about parking in New York. None of it good.”
“Can’t argue there. You know, Dallas, even if the sister knows where he is, she might not believe he’s killed two people.”
“Then we’ll convince her.”
She stopped to take another look at the townhouse. Good security. Roarke’s again, no surprise for an employee. Not top-of-the-line, but a good middle ground. The door painted a deep navy stood up a short three steps with a small landing.
It held a wreath of autumn leaves.
Eve walked up, pressed the buzzer.
A woman with a long tail of pale blond hair, blue eyes hinting of gray, a black shirt and pants over a slender build answered.
Behind her a couple of kid voices rang.
“You did it.”
“No, you.”
“Nuh-uh, you!”
“One second,” the woman said, and turned. “Knock it off, or I’ll be the one who does it. And you won’t like it. Sorry, Lieutenant Dallas, Detective Peabody. Come in. Kids just home from school. If you’ll give me a minute to settle things down?”
“Sure.”
It was one of those homes where furniture served as dividers rather than walls. Eve could see straight through the living area, past arrow-straight stairs, to the dining area, the kitchen with a more casual dining section, and a second living space.
A pair of kids, hair as dark as their mother’s was light, sat at an island munching crackers and what looked like apple slices.
They swiveled around on their stools to stare. Not identical, she noted—something that always struck her as seriously spooky. But certainly sharing enough in the coloring, facial structure, and size to be easily identified as siblings.
“I need to talk to these ladies, so you two can get a quick start on your homework.”
“We’re having our snack,” the girl said.
“You can take it with you.”
“We’re not allowed to have snacks on our desks.”
“I’m making an exception.” She kissed them each on the top of the head. “Scram.”
They scrammed with their snacks, including little juice tubes into an area Eve saw as a kind of playroom with two matching desks. And glass pocket doors their mother closed behind them.
“Behave,” she added.
She turned back, smiled. “It takes about twenty minutes, on average, for them to work off the school day. My husband and I juggle the after-school madness, and it’s my day for it. Can I get you anything? Coffee, tea, water, juice tubes?”
“We’re good, thanks. We appreciate you making time for us.”
“Roarke wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. Hector and I read both books, and saw the vid on one of our precious date nights.”
She moved back to the front room as she spoke. “Please sit. Since I know who you are, I assume this has something to do with a homicide investigation. And assuming that, I’m baffled.”
“Did you know Lawrence Chu, Ezra Dent?”
“Those murders. I heard about them. No, not really. I must have met them at Ariana and Luke’s memorial.
I’d been working in eastern Europe for nearly a year.
When that horrible thing happened, I came back.
I must have met them, but it’s a blur. I know they worked for Banner-Wyst, and there were so many people there from Steve’s workplace. ”
“What do you know about your brother’s work?”
“Not much of anything, really. Both of us worked—I still do—in sensitive areas. We talked, of course. But in generalities.”
She smiled a little. “He kept trying to convince me to come back to the States, work for Banner-Wyst. I was actually leaning that way before the accident. I missed him, my parents, Ari, Luke, and she and Steve were going to have a daughter. I’d travel back for that, my plan was to travel back for that, and discuss joining Banner-Wyst.
“He had a breakdown.”
Sorrow still lived there, Eve saw. Lived inside, showed in the eyes.
“He died that day. It’s how I think of it. Everything in him died with his family. His heart kept beating, but he was gone.” She lifted her hands. “I don’t understand what you’re looking for.”
“He left the hospital six years ago.”