Remember When

violation of City Code 20613-A. Any tampering with, any vandalism of this vending unit can result in fine and/or imprisonment.
    Even as Eve reared back to kick, Peabody was popping up. "Dallas! Don't! I'll get it. I'll get the water. Go sit down."
    "A person ought to be able to get a damn drink of water without the lecture." She flopped down at the table beside Samantha. "Sorry."
    "No, that's okay. It's really irritating, isn't it, to get the whole list of ingredients, byproducts, caloric intake, whatever. Especially when you're ordering a candy bar or a cupcake."
    "Yes!" Finally, Eve thought, someone who got it.
    "She has issues with machines all over the city," Peabody commented. "Your water, Lieutenant."
    "You pander to them." Eve opened the bottle, drank long and deep. "I appreciate your coming in, Ms. Gannon. We were going to contact you and arrange to speak with you. You've saved us some time."
    "Call me Samantha, or Sam, if that's okay. I hoped you'd have something to tell me. Shouldn't I have been talking to the reporter?"
    "Free country. Free press." Eve shrugged. "She's okay. Are you planning on staying at the hotel for the time being?"
    "I-yes. I thought, as soon as you tell me I can-I'd have my house cleaned. There are specialists, I'm told, who deal with... with crime scenes. Cleaning up crime scenes. I don't want to go back until it's dealt with. That's cowardly."
    "It's not. It's sensible." That's what she looked like today, Eve thought. A very tired, sensible woman. "I can offer you continued police protection for the short term. You may want to consider hiring private security."
    "You don't think it was just a burglary. You think whoever killed Andrea will come after me."
    "I don't think there's any point in taking risks. Beyond that, reporters who aren't as polite as Nadine are going to scent you out and hassle you."
    "I guess you're right about that. All right, I'll look into it. My grandparents are very upset about all this. I played it down as much as I could, but... Hell, you don't pull anything over on them. If I can tell them I've hired a bodyguard and have the police looking out for me, too, it'll go a long way to keeping everyone settled. I'm letting them think it was about Andrea."
    Her eyes, very bright, very blue, settled levelly on Eve's. "But I've had time to play this all out in my head. A long night's worth of time, and I don't think that. You don't think that."
    "I don't. Ms. Gannon-Samantha-the woman who was assigned to clean your house has been murdered."
    "I don't understand. I haven't hired anyone to clean my house yet."
    "Your regular cleaning service. Maid In New York assigned Tina Cobb over the last several months to your house."
    "She's dead? Murdered? Like Andrea?"
    "Did you know her? Personally?"
    Without thinking, Samantha picked up Eve's bottle of water, drank. "I don't know what to think. I was just talking about her ten minutes ago, just talking about her with Nadine."
    "You told Nadine about Tina Cobb?"
    "I mentioned her. Not by name. Just the cleaning service and how I remembered-just when we were talking, I remembered-that I hadn't canceled the service for this week."
    No wonder Nadine had given up so easily. She'd already had another line to tug. "Did you know her?"
    "Not really. Oh God, I'm sorry," she said, staring at the bottle of water in her hand. She passed it back to Eve.
    "No problem. You didn't know Tina Cobb?"
    "I met her. I mean, she was in my house, cleaning my house," she added as she rubbed her forehead. "Can I have a minute?"
    "Sure."
    Samantha got up, walked around the room once, started around it again.
    "Pulling it together," Peabody murmured. "Calming herself down."
    "Yeah. She's got spine. Makes it easier from our end."
    After the second circuit, Samantha ordered her own bottle of water, stood patiently until the machine had finished its recital and spat the selection into the slot.
    She walked back, opening the bottle as she sat. After one long pull, she nodded at Eve. "Okay. I had to settle down."
    "You need more time, it's not a problem."
    "No. She always seemed like such a little thing to me. Tina. Young and little, though I guess she wasn't that much younger or smaller than me. I always wondered how she handled all that heavy cleaning. Usually, I'd hole up in my office when she was there, or schedule outside meetings or errands."
    She stopped, cleared her throat. "I sort of come from money. Not big mountains of it, but nice comfortable