In Death 29 - Kindred in Death

word to her best friend, but she’s crushed with guilt for it now.”
    “It may help her if she can do something to help. I just want confirmation on something, if she can give it to me. And it could be extremely important to the investigation.”
    “All right. All right.” Ms. Jennings rubbed her forehead. “She’s in her room. She’s barely come out since you came and . . . She may be sleeping. I’m not going to wake her if she’s sleeping.”
    The ’link cut to holding blue. Eve used her comp to e-mail a priority message to Berenski at the lab.
    Have a possibility for prints re the MacMasters homicide. Will hand-deliver asap. This is priority. Don’t give me any shit.
    “Lieutenant. Jo’s here. I’m going to stay with her.”
    “That’s fine. Jo, I need to know if Deena went with the boy she was seeing secretly to a musical production at Columbia University. On May sixteenth.”
    “I dunno.”
    “Would she have told you? I know she enjoyed theater, got excited about theater. She saved playbills. She had a large collection of them.”
    “He was supposed to take her that night and he killed her.” Tears sprang and spilled.
    “But it wasn’t the first time they were supposed to go see a play together, was it?”
    “She said he really liked theater, too. He’s just a liar.”
    She said it fiercely, bitterly. “Just a liar.”
    “Lieutenant, that’s enough.”
    “Hold on. May sixteenth, Jo. They’d been seeing each other for about four weeks then. It was a musical about college students performed by college students. I bet she enjoyed it.”
    “Shake It Up.”
    “That’s right. Did she go with him?”
    “It was like an anniversary. A month. She met him for dinner, then they went to the play. He gave her a little stuffed dog.”
    Eve remembered the collection of animals. “What kind of dog?”
    “A little brown and white one. If you rub its ears it says I love you. Mom.”
    “Okay, baby, okay. That’s all, Lieutenant.”
    “Jo, you helped me a lot. You helped Deena by talking to me, by remembering.”
    “I did?”
    “Yes, you did. Thank you.”
    Jo turned her face into her mother’s breast. Ms. Jennings nodded at Eve, then clicked off.
    Eve grabbed the evidence bag, strode out, swung by Peabody’s desk. “I may have something. Two playbills for a Columbia performance, one the best friend confirms Deena attended with the UNSUB, on May sixteen.”
    “Two? She kept his.”
    “Seems logical. I’m taking them to the lab now, personally. I’ve got more I want to input in the searches, but this unit won’t deal with it. I’m working from home after the lab.”
    “Roarke’s up in EDD.”
    “Shit. Well, I’ll see him at home later. I also need to go by the scene. He gave Deena one of the stuffed toys. Could get lucky there, too. I’ll run it, get that to the lab first thing in the morning.”
    “If I hit anything in the meantime, you’ll be the first.”
    “Right, do a secondary, adding in an Anders airboard. Black with silver racing stripes. Street Sport. He may have purchased that along with the shoes.”
    “Got it.”
    Eve dragged out her ’link as she headed down to the garage.
    “Lieutenant,” Roarke said.
    “I’ve got some field work, then I’m going to work from home. I’m heading out now. Just, ah, fyi.”
    His eyebrow raised. “Then I suppose I’ll have to get myself home.”
    “Sorry. When you do . . . we’ll talk about that then.”
    “If you say so. I’ll be there . . . eventually. Eat something, and don’t wait for me,” he ordered and broke transmission.
    She frowned at the blank screen. She knew annoyed when she heard it. He shouldn’t have poked into the cop work if he was going to get annoyed she couldn’t hang around to give him a damn ride home.
    She stewed about it all the way to the lab, and was primed to chew out Dickhead’s heart if he gave her any grief.
    “What is it?” he barked at her. “It’s frigging end of shift for me since you got me in here . . .” He trailed off, paling a little as he scooted to a safe distance on his rolly stool. “Jesus, Dallas, did you just growl?”
    “I’ll do more than growl. I’ll rip out your liver with my bare hands and eat it.” She slapped the two sealed playbills down. “One of these is going to have his prints. I want his goddamn prints and fuck your end of shift.”
    “Hey, hey, hey. You used to at least offer me a decent bribe. Not that I’d take one, under the