In Death 23 - Born in Death

addy, employing about two hundred. Been around for over forty years. Oh, the vic was a senior account exec.”
    Eve chewed on it as she angled into the underground parking at Cop Central. “Guess she could get the skinny on some of those high-dollar clients. If somebody was running a second book, laundering. Taxevasion. Mobbed up. Another employee skimming. Blackmail, extortion, embezzlement.”
    “Firm’s got a good rep.”
    “Doesn’t mean all their clients or employees do. It’s an angle.”
    They parked, headed toward the elevators. “We need the name of the boyfriend—past or present. Do the knock-on-doors at her building. See what she may have mentioned to her sister about work, or personal troubles. Way it looks, the vic was expecting or prepared for a problem—and one she didn’t want to report, or hadn’t decided to report. To the cops, anyway.”
    “Maybe to a coworker, though, or a superior, if it was work-related.”
    “Or a pal.”
    The higher they rose in the elevator, the more people jammed on. Eve could smell minty soap from someone coming on tour, and old sweat from someone going off a long one. She muscled her way off on her level.
    “Let’s set up an interview room,” Eve began. “I don’t want to talk to her in the lounge. Too many distractions. She needs the grief counselor, she can have him with her.”
    Eve swung through the bull pen, and on into her office first. Ditched her coat, then did a check on the witness’s alibi. Palma Copperfield had worked the shuttle in from Las Vegas, and had been touching down in the downtown flight center just about the time her sister was strangled.
    “Dallas.”
    Eve glanced over at Baxter, one of the detectives in her squad. “I haven’t had coffee in two hours,” she warned. “Or maybe three.”
    “I heard you had a Palma Copperfield up in the crib.”
    “Yeah, witness. Sister was strangled early this morning.”
    “Ah, shit.” He scooped a hand back through his hair. “I was hoping I got it wrong.”
    “You know them?”
    “Palma, a little. Not the vic. Met Palma a few months back—friend of a friend of a friend—at a party. We went out a couple times.”
    “She’s twenty-three.”
    He scowled. “I’m not filing for frigging retirement any time soon. Anyway, it was nothing major. Nice woman. A real nice woman. Was she hurt?”
    “No. Found her sister dead in the sister’s apartment.”
    “Rough. Damn it. They were tight, I think. Palma said how she stayed with her sister when she came to New York. I dropped her off at the building—Jane Street—after we had dinner once.”
    “You still involved?”
    “No—we weren’t. Went out a couple of times, that’s all.” As if he didn’t know quite what to do with them, Baxter slid his hands into his pockets. “Listen, if a familiar face would help, I can talk to her.”
    “Maybe. Yeah, maybe. Peabody’s setting up an interview room. Lounge is too public for this. She was in bad shape when I took her initial statement. She mention if her sister was involved with anyone?”
    “Ah, yeah. Had a guy—money manager, broker, something like that. Serious, I think, maybe engaged. Can’t say that I paid much attention to that. I wasn’t after the sister, you know?”
    “You catch the wit, Baxter?”
    “Nah.” He smiled a little. “Like I said, she’s a nice woman.”
    Which translated to they hadn’t slept together, and made it less sticky to have him in on the interview. “Okay, let me get Peabody working the ’link. We’ll take the wit.”
    Eve let Baxter walk into Interview ahead of her, studied Palma’s tear-splotched face when the woman looked over. She blinked a few times as if trying to process new information, then a series of emotions streaked over her face. Recognition, relief, dismay, and finally the grief settled on it again.
    “Bax. Oh, God.” She held out both her hands, so when he crossed to the table, he took them in his.
    “Palma, I’m so sorry.”
    “I don’t know what to do. Nat. My sister, somebody killed her. I don’t know what to do.”
    “We’re going to help you.”
    “She never hurt anybody. Bax, she never hurt anybody in her whole life. Her face…”
    “This is hard. The hardest thing. But you can help us help her.”
    “Okay. Okay, but you can stay, right? He can stay?” she asked Eve.
    “Sure. What I’m going to do is turn the recorder on, and ask you some questions.”
    “You don’t think that I…You don’t think