In Death 24 - Innocent in Death

had a cup of coffee while I was there. I didn’t have a meeting until eleven, and it was only a couple blocks away, so I hung. That’s it.”
    “Okay. She’ll verify that?”
    “She will, but listen, don’t ask her about it at the school, okay? Mosebly gets wind, she’ll come down on Laina.”
    “Are you and Laina involved?”
    Hallie relaxed enough to grin. “Not like that. I used to date her sister, a half a million years back. I helped her get the position at Sarah Child when they needed a new 85
    nutritionist. She’s got a two-year-old kid to feed, and another well on the way. She and her husband need the money I can toss her.”
    “We’re not looking to jam her up.” Something more here, just a little more, Eve thought.
    “Did you see anything or anyone out of the ordinary?”
    “I didn’t. Classes were just starting when I went down to the kitchen. Second period would have been going on when I left. I’d help if I could. Something bad like this happens around my kid, I want to know who, what, and why. I can’t protect her otherwise.”
    Maybe protection was an angle, Eve mused, as they traveled the block and a half to the next name on the list.
    “She goes after a guy with a bat because he calls her kid names.”
    “You’d have done the same,” Peabody pointed out.
    “Hard to say as I’m not a lesbian and don’t have a kid, but, yeah, the guy sounds like he earned his knocks. What might a parent do to protect? Maybe it wasn’t a parent or a teacher Foster had something on, if indeed he had something on anyone. Maybe it was a kid.”
    “What can you have on a six-to twelve-year-old?”
    “Naive Free-Ager. Kids do all sorts of sticky things. Maybe he caught one of them stealing, cheating on an exam, giving out bj’s in the bathroom, dealing illegals.”
    “Jeez.”
    Eve worked it through. “Calls the parent in for a little chat, warns that this will have to be reported. The kid will require disciplinary action, counseling, maybe expulsion. One of the top schools in the state, according to Straffo’s annoying kid. You don’t want your kid kicked out or something dicey going on the record. It can’t be reported if Foster’s dead.”
    “Talk about involved parenting. I’ve been checking on any parent conferences the vic had on his schedule for the week before the murder.”
    “Let’s look for repeat conferences. And when we get the warrant, we’ll see if any student name recurs with other instructors.”
    None of the others on the list were currently at home. They got a sullen teenage girl at one residence who reported that her parents and the little creep-who Eve assumed was her younger brother-were at a basketball game. At another the droid housekeeper informed them that the mother had takenyoung miss to karate practice, and that the father was tied up at a late meeting.
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    Back at Central, Eve campaigned for her warrant, and did a mental victory dance when she copped it without breaking a sweat. Her only disappointment was that it was too late in the day to catch anyone at school to access the records she wanted.
    She started to run her cross-references, stopped. She was already at the end of shift. She could work at home and lure Roarke into it. It would be a kind of peace offering for that morning, she supposed.
    They’d have some dinner, and she’d bring him up to date. Since they were his employee and client lists she’d be running, it seemed only fair he had a part of it.
    And she missed him, she admitted as she shut down for the day. She missedthem.
    Just as she pushed back from her desk, Peabody poked her head in. “There’s a Magdelana Percell out here, wants to see you.”
    The center of Eve’s belly sank, then tightened like a fist. “Did she give you the nature of her business?”
    “She said it was personal. I don’t remember her from any of the lists we’re working on, but-”
    “No, she’s not on any. Send her back, then go home.”
    “Home? But it’s only twenty minutes past end of shift. Whatever will I do with this unexpected largess?”
    “Report to my home office, oh-eight hundred. We’ll catch some of those names before they go wherever the hell they go all day. Then we’re at the school. Warrant came through.”
    “Score for our team. Dallas? I can hang if you’d rather.”
    “No, I don’t rather. Send her back.”
    It was no big, it was no deal, Eve reminded herself. She’d just see what Percell wanted, then go home. Forget