In Death 19 - Visions in Death

spirits and had been looking forward to an upcoming vacation she'd planned to take her son to DisneyWorld East.
    Eve took copies of files and notes.
    "Tag Nadine," Eve told Peabody. "Let's do this setup at the castle. In an hour. Make it ninety minutes."
    They met Royce Cabel at his apartment. He opened the door before they knocked, and looked at them with what Eve recognized as terrified hope.
    "You found out something about Marjie." "Mr Cabel, as I told you when I contacted you, we're conducting a follow-up. I'm Lieutenant Dallas. This is my partner, Detective Peabody. Can we come in?" "Yeah, sure. Yeah." He dragged a hand through his long, wavy brown hair. "I just thought -1 wanted to meet you here instead of at work because I thought maybe you'd found something. Found her. And didn't want to tell me over the "link." He glanced around the room, blankly, then shook his head.
    "Sorry. I guess we should sit down. Ah, aren't Detectives Lansing and Jones still working?" "They are. We're pursuing another angle. It would help us if you'd tell us what you know."
    "What I know." He sat on a deep green sofa heaped with pretty pillows.
    The apartment was painted a dull gold, and struck Eve as being female the pillows, the soft, fancy throws, the sudden splashes of reds and dark blues.
    "I feel like I don't know anything," he said after a moment.
    "She was working nights. That was going to change in June, when she took over as day manager. We'd be on the same schedule again." "How long had she been working nights?" "For about eight months." He rubbed his hands on his thighs as if he didn't know what else to do with them. "It was okay.
    She liked the work, and the restaurant's only a couple blocks away. I'd go in and have dinner at least once a week. And having her days free gave her lots of time to handle the wedding stuff. She was doing almost everything herself.
    Marjie loves planning." "Did the two of you have any problems?" "We didn't. I mean we did everybody does but we were in a real up phase. The wedding. Hell, I didn't have to do anything but show up because she had everything organized.
    We talked about starting a family." His voice shook, and he cleared his throat, stared hard at the wall.
    "Did she ever mention anyone coming into the restaurant who disturbed her? Anyone coming by here, or anywhere else?" "No. I told the other detectives. If somebody'd been bothering Marjie, she'd have told me. If somebody'd pissed her off at work, she'd have told me. We talked all the time. I always waited up for her, and we'd hash out the day. She just didn't come home." "Mr Cabel--" "I wish she'd just walked off." Emotions pitched into his voice. Traces of anger now, anger circling around the fear.
    "I wish she'd gotten freaked or fallen out of love with me or found somebody else or just got a goddamn wild hair.
    But she didn't. It's not Marjie. Something happened to her, something terrible. And I don't know what I'm going to do." "Mr Cabel, do you or Marjie belong to a health club or gym?" "Huh?" He blinked, sucked in a breath. "Yeah, who doesn't? We, ah, we go to Able Bodies. We try to make it two, three times a week. Sundays for sure since we're both off. We'd do a couple hours, maybe, then have brunch in their juice bar." Brunch in the juice bar didn't fit, Eve thought, and decided on another tack. Before she could speak, Peabody lifted one of the couch pillows.
    "These are really beautiful. Unique. They look handrafted." "Marjie made them. She was always making something." He ran his hand over one of the pillows. "Used to call herself a craft addict." Pop, Eve thought. "Would you know where she bought her supplies?" "Her supplies? I don't get it." "It's details, Mr Cabel," Peabody told him. "Details help." "It was one of the things we didn't do together." He mustered up a smile. "She'd dragged me along a few times, on her hunts, but I made her feel rushed, she said, because I was so obviously bored. She's got a little studio set up in the second bedroom. There's probably some record of where some of the stuff came from." Eve rose. "Can we take a look?" "Sure." He got up quickly, the enthusiasm for the new angle clear on his face. "It's right in here." He led them into a small room, full of material and threads and ribbons. Fringes and framing and objects Eve couldn't begin to identify. It all appeared to be meticulously organized into groups. There were a couple of small machines, and a mini data and communication