In Death 16 - Portrait in Death

for the three models you mentioned?"
     
     
Nella snapped her gum. "You think that sick fuck bought something here?"
     
     
"Gotta start somewhere."
     
     
"We'll run the three brands," Eve told Peabody when they walked out. "Start city wide, see if anyone pops. I'll do a probability on them, but I'm betting top-of-the-line. We cross the cameras with the enhancements, and maybe we'll get lucky."
     
     
"What if he rented the equipment?"
     
     
"Don't burst my bubble." But she leaned on the car before opening the door. "Yeah, I thought of that, but we go with purchase first. How many professional photographers do you figure are in the city?"
     
     
"Can this be a multiple choice question?"
     
     
"We're going to find out. We'll start with four sectors. Crime scene, victim's residence, college, data club. He had to see her to want her. She had to know him, at least by sight, to go with him. Once we get that, we go back to interviews. People who knew her, taught her, worked with her. Area photographers, imaging artists."
     
     
Her dash 'link beeped as she merged with traffic, and McNab's pretty face popped on.
     
     
He had his long blond hair pulled back to show off the trio of silver hoops in his earlobe.
     
     
"Lieutenant... Officer. I've pegged your unit. If you want to swing by and-haha-make the scene, I'm-"
     
     
"Get it to Central," Eve told him. "The transmission to Nadine was sent at one-twenty with a hold. Run the security disc. I want to see who was using that station at that time. I want that individual ID'd asap. I'm on my way in."
     
     
"Yes, sir. But it might take me a little while to-"
     
     
"Status meeting at eleven hundred. I'm booking a conference room now." She shot a look at Peabody who obediently pulled out her communicator to do so. "Be there, with the data." She waited a beat. "Fast work, Detective."
     
     
His face brightened again before she cut him off.
     
     
"Conference room A, Lieutenant," Peabody told her.
     
     
"Fine. Contact Feeney and ask him to join us."
     
     
***
     
     
She had time to organize her own data, to run probabilities, to study both the lab and ME reports before updating her own. Then guilt had her contacting Nadine.
     
     
"I wanted to bring you up to speed, but there isn't a hell of a lot I can tell you."
     
     
"Will tell me," Nadine corrected.
     
     
"Can or will. I've got angles I'm working, and a lead I'm about to look at more closely."
     
     
"What lead?"
     
     
"If anything breaks out of it, I'll tell you. You have my word. I'm not cutting you out, I just don't have anything to give you."
     
     
"There's always something. Give me something."
     
     
Eve hesitated, then blew out a breath. "You can say that a source at Cop Central confirmed that there was no sexual assault, and investigators believe that the victim knew her killer. The primary is unavailable for comment at this time."
     
     
"Slick. See, there's always something. Has the body been released to the family?"
     
     
"The Medical Examiner will release the body to the victim's family tomorrow. I've got to go, Nadine. I've got a meeting."
     
     
"One more thing. Will you confirm that the primary, and the investigative team, believe Rachel Howard's killer will kill again?"
     
     
"No, I will not. Don't play that card, Nadine. Don't play that card until it falls."
     
     
She broke transmission, rubbed her hands over her face. Because, she thought, it was going to fall soon enough.
     
     
***
     
     
She was the first to arrive in the conference room, so she settled down, took out her notebook, and began to write and review.
     
     
Images, youth, pure, portrait, light.
     
     
Her light was pure.
     
     
Virginity?
     
     
How the hell would the killer know her sexual status?
     
     
Had the killer been a confidant? A potential lover? Counselor, authority figure?
     
     
Who did Rachel trust? Eve wondered and brought the pretty, smiling face back into her mind.
     
     
Every damn body.
     
     
Had she herself ever trusted people so completely, so simply? Hardly, Eve thought. But then again, she hadn't come from a nice, stable home, with nice, stable parents and a perky kid sister. Everything had been almost preternaturally normal in Rachel's life. Up until the last hours of it. Family, friends, school, a shitty part-time job, a settled neighborhood.
     
     
At Rachel's age Eve had already graduated from the Academy, had already donned a cop's uniform. Had already seen