Remember When

of the crew came in a variety of accents. Brooklyn and Queens, Hispanic and street jive. She filtered it out, along with the music each section selected as background tunes. Trash rock, tinny country, salsa, rap.
    Because he was giving her time and no hassle, she listened to Hinkey's running commentary on the job progress and details with half an ear.
    He droned on about climate controls, inspections, electrical and filter systems, walls, trims, labor, plumbing. Her brain was jammed with it by the time they hit the second floor.
    He nattered on about windows, framing, stopped off to chew out a laborer and to consult with another crew member on specs. It gave Eve hope she'd shake him off, but he caught up with her before she made it to the third level.
    "Apartments up here. Give people a decent place to live. Fact is, my daughter's getting married next spring. She and the guy, they've already put in for this unit right here."
    Eve glanced over in time to see him look a bit baffled and sentimental. "Be nice for them, I guess.
    And I know the place is built good. Solid." He rapped a hand on the wall. "None of that toothpick-and-glue shit some of these places use when they slap one of these old buildings back together. Steve, he takes pride."
    "You worked for him long?"
    "Seventeen years this October. He ain't no fly-by-night. Knows his buildings, too. Works side by side with you in a crunch."
    She found a few drops of blood, discounted it as she had in other areas. Not enough. And you put a bunch of people together with a bunch of tools, a little blood was going to spill.
    "He spend much time on this job?"
    "Oh yeah. Biggest we've had. Worked his ass off to get this bid, and he's by here every day."
    He walked with her out of the unit, down the hall formed by studded walls.
    "How about his son?"
    "What about him?"
    "He put in time?"
    Hinkey snorted derisively, then caught himself. "Works in the office."
    Eve paused. "You don't like him much."
    "Not for me to say, one way or the other." Hinkey lifted a beefy shoulder. "I'll just say he don't take after his old man, not that I see."
    "So he doesn't come around."
    "Been here once or twice, maybe. Doesn't take much interest. Suit-and-tie type, you know?"
    "Yeah, I know." She stepped over a stack of some sort of lumber product. "Would he have the access codes?"
    "Don't see why he would."
    "Boss's son."
    Hinkey's shrug was his response.
    Her ears were ringing, her head pounding by the time they hit the fourth floor. She decided she'd have asked for ear protectors if she'd known how bad it would get. It seemed to her that the tools had gone to scream level here. She eyed, with some respect, a large, toothy saw run by a man who looked to weigh in at a hundred pounds flat.
    She gave it a wide berth, flipped on the scanner.
    And hit the mother lode.
    "What the fuck is that-beg pardon."
    "It's a hell of a lot of blood, Hinkey." She ran the scanner over the floor, revealing a bright blue pattern along the floor, splattered on the wall. "One of your men cut off an appendage with that saw up here?"
    "Jesus Christ, no. Lieutenant, I don't see how that could be blood."
    But she could. Just as she could see the smear of it running down the hall. Where Tina Cobb had tried to crawl.
    He'd walked through it, she noted, squatting down for a better look. He'd left some prints, and wasn't that handy?
    So had Cobb, she saw. Handprints, bloodied. Tried to pull herself up the wall, used it for support and pressed her hand there, there.
    He'd taken his time with her, Eve was sure of it. He'd let her crawl, limp, stumble the entire length of the fourth-floor corridor before he delivered the death blow.
    "Can't be blood." Hinkey stared at the blue, shaking his head slowly from side to side. "We'd've seen it. Jeezopetes, you couldn'ta missed it."
    "I need this area cleared. I've got to ask you to get your crew out of this building. This is a crime scene." She took out her communicator. "Peabody? I've found her. Fourth floor."
    "I've gotta... I gotta call the boss."
    "You do that, Hinkey. Tell him to be available, at his home, in an hour." Eve turned to him, felt a pang of sympathy as she saw the horror in his eyes. "Get your crew out of this building and call Whittier. I want to talk to him."
    ***
    In under an hour, the construction noise had been replaced by cop noise. Though she didn't have much hope of picking up more evidential trace, she had a team of sweepers spread throughout the building. A