Shallow Graves

saw that Sinead Fagan’s door was half-open. Ooch hurried past me and down the
    staircase.
    At her entrance, he stopped and said, “What’s going on?“
    Somebody turned down the stereo. I could hear Sinead’s voice before I could see her. “I’m moving the fuck out, Ooch.“
    Over the super’s shoulder I took in the living room. Fagan in designer sweatshirt and blue jeans, her red hair in that cocklebur cut. She was dumping audiocassettes into a shopping bag. Behind her, Oz Puriefoy separated two cardboard boxes on the kitchen counter. He stopped what he was doing, but stayed by the boxes and out of the conversation.
    Ooch said, “Where you gonna go, Sinead?“
    “I’m moving in with Oz for a while, get my head on straight.“
    Ooch glanced at Puriefoy and muttered something. Then, “You mean, I’m gonna be all alone here?“
    “Aw, Ooch.“ Sinead came toward the super, towering over him at close range as she put her hands on his shoulders, consoling a Little Leaguer who made last out. “I’m sorry, you know? But I just can’t stay here after what happened to Mau.“
    “Tina,“ said Ooch, wrenching away from her without using his hands and bumping by me. “Her name was Tina.“
    As Ooch headed toward and down the stairs to the basement, Fagan worried her lower lip with her upper teeth. Then she remembered I was there, too. “The fuck you want?“
    “Ooch was taking me on a tour of the building. Part of the investigation.“
    “Well, the tour’s over.“
    “Not quite. Mind if I come in?“
    “What if I do?“
    I looked to Puriefoy, whose expression said he was still staying out of it.
    “Your bosses at Lindqvist/Yulin need for me to finish what I started.“
    Fagan stopped, the way she had at the photo shoot when a question threw her. “They’re not my bosses. They’re my agents.“
    “You’re moving out, what difference does it make if I take a look at your place?“
    Fagan wasn’t buying it. I didn’t think she was so much thinking as being stubborn.
    Puriefoy said, “Sinead, the man wants to look, let him look. We leave, he can just get Ooch to let him in anyways, right?“
    Fagan finally stepped away from the door, stiffly motioning me into the living room. “You can’t stay long. We just got started here, and we still have quite a lot to do.“
    Quite a lot. I shook my head.
    In size, the first-floor place was between Ooch’s little cave and the second-floor guest suite. The living room shared an open space with the breakfast-countered kitchen, the doorways to bedroom and bathroom on one wall.
    I walked past Puriefoy to the kitchen, going around the counter to stand between refrigerator and stove. I could see the railing of the fire escape through the window. Above me, pipes crooked out of the ceiling and into the wall, painted to blend in with the surrounding planes.
    “These the water pipes?“
    Fagan said, “Yeah.“
    “Had anybody been staying on the second floor recently?“
    Fagan looked at me. “The fuck would I know?“
    “Footsteps overhead.“
    Puriefoy said, “We couldn’t hardly hear you and Ooch up there just now.“
    “But you could hear us.“
    Puriefoy shrugged. “A little.“
    I turned back to Fagan. “So, anybody up there recently?“
    “Not that I heard. Go ask the family, you want to.“
    “Sinead, where did Mau Tim keep the key to the second-floor unit?“
    “Didn’t know she had one.“
    “All right. You’re both here. Shinkawa, too, would be nice, but let me play him. Walk me through what happened that
    night.“
    “Fuck you,“ said Fagan, Puriefoy keeping his own counsel.
    “You can walk through it with me now, when you’re already here and blowing off the morning, or the cops can pull both of you from shoots somewhere when it pleases them to do it. Your choice.“
    Puriefoy moved his tongue around his mouth before saying, “You running a game on us, man?“
    “No game. Just a simple reenactment.“
    They looked at each other.
    I said, “We’re spending more time arguing about it than it’s going to take to actually do it.“
    Fagan said, “Awright, awright. Let’s get the fucking thing over with. Where do you want me?“
    “Where you were when Puriefoy rang you from outside the building.“
    “When he came back with the wine?“
    “No. Before that, when he first arrived that day.“
    Fagan looked around, dosed her eyes. “I was standing by the sink there, washing celery.“
    I stepped out of the kitchen. “Go