In Death 21 - Origin in Death

think
    they’ll need me. Just me, for now. Me, and time. I have to go to my children."
    "I'll arrange to have you escorted back." Eve got to her feet. "I'm gong to need you to stay available, Mrs. Icove."
    "Of course. Of course I will. We'll stay in the Hamptons tonight. Away from the city. Away from this. The media, they won't leave us alone, but it'll be better there. I don't want the children exposed. Will
    would want me to shield the children."
    "Do you need anything from here?"
    "No. We have all we need."
    Eve watched her go, drive away in the sedan, this time with a police escort.
    When she was satisfied with her on-site, Eve gestured to Peabody. "My home office is closer. I'm going to write the report from there, and arrange for your transport home."
    ''You want me with you?"
    ''For the moment." She headed out to her car, handing Peabody the record of her interview with Avril Icove. "Listen to it, then give me your impressions."
    "Sure."
    Peabody settled into the car, switching the replay on as Eve drove.
    Eve drove through her own gates, listening to Avril's voice, her own questions.
    "Shaky," Peabody said. "Teary, but holding up."
    "What's missing?"
    "She never asked how he died."
    "Never asked how, never asked where or why or who. And never asked to see him."
    "Which is strange, I grant you. But shock can make for strange."
    "What's the number-one question a shocked family member asks when informed?"
    "Number one's probably: Are you sure?"
    "She never asks, never insists on proof. She starts off with the 'Was there an accident?' routine, fumbles around to find her balance. Okay on that. She was shaking when I took her in, that works, too. But she never asks how he died."
    "Because she knew? That's reaching, Dallas."
    "Maybe. She never asked how we got in-how we found him. Never said: 'Oh God, was there a break-in, a burglary?' Never asked it he went out and got himself mugged. I never told her he was killed in the house. But if you watch her face on the record, she looked through the doorway toward the stairs going up several times. She knew he was dead up there. I didn't have to tell her."
    "We can verify whether or not she was where she said she was during the time frame."
    "She'll have been there. She had that pat. She'll be alibied tight. But she's in this somewhere."
    They sat in front of the house, Eve frowning through the windshield.
    "Maybe he was catting around on her," Peabody suggested. "She uses what happened to his father as inspiration, and gets somebody to off him. Maybe she was doing the catting, and figured she could lap up more cream with him dead. Gets her lover the security code, clears his voice print prior. He sticks the husband, mimicking the MO from the first murder."
    "Where'd the tray of fruit and cheese come from?"
    "Shit, Dallas. Icove could've ordered himself a snack."
    "Came from the kitchen unit. I checked."
    “So.”
    "So why go downstairs, order a snack, haul it up. You want a snack, use the office AutoChef."
    "Lee-Lee Ten," Peabody reminded her. "Maybe it's like that. Maybe he likes to putter in the kitchen when he's got something on his mind."
    "He's no kitchen putterer. She might be, Avril, but not him. Not Dr. Will."
    "He could've been downstairs, decided to go up. Ordered it to take up with him. Gets up there, decides, I'm not hungry right now, stretches out, falls asleep. Wife's handsome yet sleazy lover slips into the house, goes up, goes in, shoves the scalpel into his heart, takes the disc, resets security, and walks away."
    Eve made a noncommittal sound. "We'll talk to friends and neighbors and associates, check her personal finances again, go through her routines."
    "But you don't like my handsome-yet-sleazy-lover angle."
    "I don't discount the handsome yet sleazy lover. But if so, they moved damn fast to have it this smooth. I'm betting this was planned as carefully, and as much in advance, as the old doc's. Same people, same motive behind both."
    "Maybe Dolores is her handsome yet sleazy lover."
    "Maybe. In any case, we look at Avril, and find the link."
    Eve pushed open her door. "Take the vehicle. Come back at seven hundred. We'll put in a couple hours here before we go into Central."
    Peabody checked her wrist unit. "Wow! Looks like I may get five hours' sleep."
    "You want sleep? Sell shoes."
    Eve wasn't surprised to find Summerset, still fully dressed, in the foyer. "Icove's son's now as dead as he is." She peeled off her coat, tossed it over the newel