In Death 27 - Salvation in Death

viewing would be enough. Eve realized she’d set it up that way for the same reason Morris had removed the toe tag. To spare the mother. “Is that what you want?”
    “No, no, it’s not. But it’s what I need.”
    Eve moved back to the com. “I’m bringing Mrs. Franco in.”
    Eve led the way out, down the corridor, and through double doors. Morris came in from the back. He wore a suit, the color of polished bronze, without any protective cape.
    “Mrs. Franco, I’m Dr. Morris. Is there anything I can do to help you?”
    “I don’t know.” Clinging to her husband’s hand, Teresa stepped closer to the body. “So tall,” she murmured. “His father was tall. Lino, he had big feet as a boy. I used to tell him he’d grow into them, like a puppy does. And he did. He was nearly six feet when he left. And very thin. No matter what he ate, so thin. He was like a whip, and when he played ball, fast as one.”
    Eve glanced at Peabody. “Basketball.”
    “Yes. His favorite.” She reached out a hand, drew it back. “Can I, or can you . . . the sheet. If I could see.”
    “Let me do that.” Morris stepped forward. “There’s an incision,” he began.
    “I know. Yes, I know about that. It’s all right.”
    Gently, Morris lowered the sheet to the victim’s waist.
    Teresa took another step. This time when she reached out, she touched fingertips to the body’s left side, high on the ribs. And the sound she made was caught between sob and sigh.
    “When he was a little boy, and would still let me, I would tickle him here. This way.” She traced her finger in a quick Z pattern. “The freckles, you see. Four little freckles, and you can make a Z.”
    Eve studied the pattern—so faint, so light, so vague. Something, she supposed, only a mother would notice.
    “See how long his eyelashes are? So long and thick, like a girl’s. It embarrassed him when he was little. Then he was proud and vain about them, when he noticed the girls noticed.”
    “Do you know your son’s blood type, Mrs. Franco?” Morris asked.
    “A-negative. He broke his arm when he was ten. His right arm. He slipped while he tried to sneak out the window. Only ten, and already sneaking out. You can tell if his arm had been broken when he was a boy?”
    “Yes.” Morris touched a hand to hers. “Yes.”
    “This is my son. This is Lino.” Leaning down she pressed her lips to his cheek. “Siento tanto, mi bebé.”
    “Let me take you out, Mrs. Franco.” Peabody put an arm around Teresa’s waist. “Let me take you out now.”
    Eve watched her go, Peabody on one side, her husband on the other.
    “It’s a hard thing,” Morris said quietly. “A hard thing for a mother. No matter how many years between.”
    “Yeah. Very hard for her.” She turned back to the body. “He had someone who loved him, all the way, every day. And still, it looks like every choice he made brought him here.”
    “People are messed up.”
    “Yeah.” It lightened her mood, just enough, made her smile into Morris’s understanding face. “They really are.”

16
     
    TO GIVE TERESA A LITTLE TIME TO COMPOSE herself, and Penny more time to stew, Eve asked Tony Franco to bring his wife to Central. She booked the smallest conference room.
    “I’ll handle the mother,” Eve told Peabody. “I started a run on a partial list of John Does, in the area and at the time of Flores’s disappearance. Start following up. If I’m not done in thirty, check on Spitting Penny. She’ll be crying lawyer by then. Let her contact one.”
    “Check. What about the case file access?”
    “I’m hitting that between the mother and the bitch. Tag Baxter, see if he got anywhere with his part of the John Doe list you’re on. And check my incoming. I’m expecting lists of names from Officer Ortiz and from López on former members of the Soldados still in the neighborhood. Soto’s the key,” Eve added, “but we’ll cover the bases.”
    “On that. It’s coming together. It feels like it’s coming together.”
    “Parts of it.” Eve peeled off, set up her conference room. At her go, one of her men brought in the Francos.
    Teresa’s eyes were swollen and red, but she appeared to have the weeping under control.
    “I want to thank you for your help. I know that wasn’t easy.”
    “It was never easy with Lino. I made mistakes. I can’t unmake them. Now I’ll bury my son. You’ll let me do that.”
    “As soon as I’m able. I need to ask you questions now.”
    “All