by J. D. Robb
“Can we do this quickly? I really don’t want to be late for my meeting.”
“We’d like you to sit down.”
“This is ridiculous.” Blowing out a breath, she yanked out a chair, sat. Then came straight back to her feet again, with alarm in her eyes. “Oh, God. Has something happened to my mother? Was there an accident? Maman?”
“No.”
How did you tell someone the person she expected to be waiting for her at home wouldn’t be there tonight? Or any other night? Eve remembered. You told them fast, without flourishes.
“It’s regarding your husband, Mrs. Foster.”
“Craig? He’s still at school.”
“I’m sorry to tell you, your husband’s dead.”
“That’s a terrible thing to say to someone. That’s a vicious, terrible thing to say. I want you to leave, right now. I’m going to call the police—the real police—and have you arrested.”
“Mrs. Foster, my partner and I are the real police, and we’re the investigators on your husband’s death. He died today at approximately twelve-thirty.”
“Of course he didn’t. He didn’t. He was at school. That’s his lunch break, and he sent me an e-mail just after noon. I packed his lunch this morning. He’s at school, at the Monday faculty meeting right now. And he’s fine.”
Her breath began to come quick, choppy. Her color was fading even as she fumbled a hand behind to brace the table as her legs went out.
“You should sit down, Mrs. Foster,” Peabody said gently. “We’re very sorry for your loss.”
“No. No. Was there a bomb? Was there a bomb at school? Oh, my God. Is he hurt? Is Craig hurt?”
“He died,” Eve said flatly. “I’m very sorry.”
“But he…But he…You could make a mistake. You must have. I should call him. You’ll see. I should call him. But he’s in his Monday meeting. He’s not allowed to have the ’link on when he’s in his Monday meeting. We’ll go there.” She pushed away from the brace of the table, swayed. “We’ll go to the school and to Craig. I need my coat. I’ll just get my coat.”
She looked around, dazed. “Silly, so silly. I couldn’t remember where I was for a minute. I need…what is it?”
“Sit down, Mrs. Foster.”
“No, we have to go. To the school. We have to—” She jumped at the sound of a knock. A blonde in power red stepped in.
“I’d like to know what’s going on here. Lissette?”
“Elizabeth.” Lissette wore the dull look of sleepwalkers, and survivors. “Am I late for the meeting?”
“Peabody.” Eve nodded toward Lissette, then moved to the blonde. “Who are you?”
“I’m Elizabeth Blackburn, and who the hell are you?”
“Dallas, Lieutenant, NYPSD. I’ve just informed Mrs. Foster that her husband’s dead.”
“He’s…what? Craig. Oh, sweet Jesus. Lissy.”
Perhaps it was the pet name, or the tone of grief in it, but as Elizabeth started across the room, Lissette simply slid to the floor. Elizabeth went down on her knees, gathered Lissette up.
“Craig. My Craig.”
“I’m sorry. Lissy, Lissy, I’m so sorry. Was there an accident?” she demanded of Eve.
“We’ll need to speak with Ms. Foster about the circumstances.”
“All right, all right. My office is to the right, end of the corridor. I’ll bring her there to you as soon as she’s able. She needs a few minutes, for God’s sake. Just wait in my office.”
They left Lissette in the arms of her boss. There were a number of curious looks from offices and cubes, but no comment until they reached the corner office at the end of the hall. At that point a little brunette popped out like a jack-in-the-box.
“Excuse me! That’s Ms. Blackburn’s office.”
“Where she just asked us to wait.” Eve yanked out her badge. “Go back to work.”
Inside was a glossy workstation, a cushy sofa, and two pretty chairs. A fairly stunning flower arrangement stood on the table under the south-facing window.
“If she faked that reaction,” Peabody began, “she’s got major talent.”
“Not so hard to fake if you practice. But yeah, it seemed genuine. Go on out before they get here, have someone show you her cube. I want to know what she has in there.”
“On that one.”
Eve wandered to the windows, pausing long enough to note what Lissette’s boss kept on her desk. A framed photograph of a girl somewhere in her blossoming teens, a loaded disc file, a pile of memo cubes arranged in a pyramid, and a file that revealed artwork for what was likely a disc cover when Eve flipped it open.
Outside the windows, snow continued to fall on the city in thin, slick flakes. An airtram chugged through it holding a clutch of miserable passengers.
Personally, she thought, she’d stick with the vicious traffic on the slick streets below.
She turned as Peabody stepped back in.
“Nothing much, and not a lot of room for it. Files, memos, notes on current work. She’s got a wedding picture of her and the vic in a really nice frame. I’m betting wedding present. Some snaps of him, or them, pinned to the cube walls. Oh, and a little file of ads and pictures from decorating magazines. That’s about it.”
“All right. We’ll give her another minute, then we’ll take this back in the conference room. We’ll swing by the morgue next. I want to know exactly what killed Craig Foster.”
It didn’t take a minute. Seconds later Lissette came in, leaning heavily on Elizabeth Blackburn.
“You’re just going to sit,” Elizabeth told her. “And I’m going to sit with you. I gave her a soother,” she said to Eve, then jutted her chin pugnaciously before Eve could speak. “And don’t even think about starting on me about it. She needed something. It’s mild, and won’t keep her from talking to you.”
“You her boss or her legal rep?”
“I’m whatever she needs me to be right now.”
“Are you sure?” Lissette’s voice was cracked and raw, and carried the awful pain of fading hope. “Are you absolutely sure there’s no mistake? That it’s Craig?”
Knowing her strengths, Peabody took point. She moved to the couch where Lissette sat with Elizabeth. “I’m very sorry. There’s no mistake.”
“But…He wasn’t sick. We had full medicals before we got married. He was healthy. People don’t just…Did someone hurt him? Was there an accident at the school?”
“We need to find out why and how this happened. We have to ask you questions. You can help us find out.”
“I want to help. I want to know. I love him.”
“Let’s start with this morning. You said you packed his lunch.”
“I did. I always do.” Her eyes fluttered, widened as she shot a hand out to grip Peabody’s arm. “Was something wrong with the sandwich? He liked that awful processed poultry substitute. Did it make him sick? Oh, my God.”
“We don’t know that, Mrs. Foster. Did anyone come to your apartment today, before your husband left for work?”
“No. He leaves so early. He likes to use the fitness center at the school. He takes good care of himself. He does. We do. Elizabeth.”
“You’re doing fine. How much more of this?” Elizabeth demanded.
“Was your husband having problems with anyone at the school?” Eve asked.
“Craig? No. He loved it there.”
“How about prior relationships? Did either one of you have trouble with a former relationship?”
“We were together two years before we got married. You know how you meet someone, and it’s just it? Your whole life is there, that minute. That’s what it was like for us.”
Eve stepped forward, then sat so her eyes were level with Lissette’s. “If you want to help, you need to be straight with me. Absolutely straight. Did he gamble?”
“He wouldn’t even buy a lottery ticket. He was careful with money.”
“Did he use illegals?”
She bit her lip. �
�Um, we did a little zoner in college.” Her gaze slid toward Elizabeth’s.
“Who didn’t?” Elizabeth patted her arm.
“Recently?”
“No.” Lissette shook her head at Eve’s question. “Absolutely not. He could be dismissed for any illegals use. Plus, he really feels strongly about setting examples for his students.”
“Were you having financial problems?”
“Nothing serious. I mean, we had to juggle a little sometimes, especially since Craig wants to save. Sometimes I spend more than I should, but he’s so careful it balances out. He saves for things. Important things. He…he took tutoring work last year for extra money. Then he used it to bring my mother to New York for Christmas. He knew how much it would mean to me, so he worked extra and he bought my mother a shuttle ticket, and paid for her hotel because we don’t have room. He did that for me. No one’s ever going to love me like that again. No one could. Not ever in my life.”
Because the tears started again, Eve rose. “I’m sorry for your loss, and appreciate your cooperation at this difficult time.” Crappy words, she thought. And the only words. “Is there anyone you’d like us to contact for you?”
“No. No. Oh, God, Craig’s parents. I have to tell them. How do I tell them?”
“We can take care of that for you.”
“No, I have to. I’m Craig’s wife. I have to do this.” She got shakily to her feet. “I have to see him. I don’t know where he is.”
“He’s with the medical examiner now. I’ll contact you as soon as you’re cleared for that. Do you have someone who can go with you?”
“I’ll go with her. No, Lissy, I’ll go with you,” Elizabeth insisted when Lissette teared up again and shook her head. “You just sit for a minute while I walk Lieutenant Dallas and Detective Peabody out. Sit right here, I’ll just be a minute.”
She moved quickly, and purposefully, not stopping until they’d reached an intersection in the maze. “How was Craig murdered?”
“I didn’t say he was.”
Elizabeth turned, looked dead into Eve’s eyes. “I know who you are. I keep up with who’s who in New York. Lieutenant Eve Dallas, Homicide.”
“I don’t have any information to give you at this time. Mr. Foster’s death is under investigation.”
“That’s bullshit. Just bullshit. That girl just lost the love of her life. Like that!” Elizabeth snapped her fingers. “She needs answers.”
“She’ll have them, as soon as I do. How well did you know him?”
“I met him a number of times. He’d come in every now and then, and Lissy would bring him to company parties and events. Sweet boy. Dopey in love. Bright. He struck me as bright, like Lissy is. Two bright young people getting started with their life, their careers. You’re bright, too, from everything I’ve read, heard, or seen of you. You get those answers for Lissy. You get her that much to hold on to.”
“That’s the idea.”
3
EVE LOOKED TO FIND THE FIRST OF THOSE ANSWERS at the morgue. The air always smelled just a little too sweet there, like a careless whore who’d used perfume instead of soap to disguise some unpleasant personal odor. Tiles—floor and walls—were an unrelieved white, pristine and sterile.
There was a vending alcove where staff or visitors could order their choice of refreshment, though Eve imagined many who passed by would prefer something stronger than the muddy soy coffee or sparkling soft drinks.
She strode down the white-tiled corridor where, behind thick doors, death lay in sealed drawers or on slabs waiting for the right questions to be asked.
She pushed through the doors of an autopsy room to see Chief Medical Examiner Morris already at work to the wicked rhythm of what she thought might be Dixieland jazz. His sealed hands were bloody to the wrists as he lifted Craig Foster’s liver from his body to the scale.
“Ah, why don’t I go score you a Pepsi.” Peabody was already taking a step back. “Thirsty work. Be right back.”
Ignoring her, Eve continued into the room. Morris glanced up, his eyes behind his microgoggles canny and faintly amused. “She still queezes when I’m cutting.”
“Some never get past it.” When had she? Eve wondered. Too long ago to remember. “You’re getting to him quickly. Appreciate it.”
“I always enjoy working on your dead, and feel you enjoy me having my hands in them. What’s wrong with us?”
“It’s a sick old world. How about the tox?”
“Music off,” he ordered. “I assumed you’d want that straight away, and put a red flag on it. Still snowing?”
“Yeah, it’s crap out there.”
“Personally, I enjoy the snow.” He worked smoothly, weighing the liver, taking a small sample of it. He wore a sleek black suit under his protective smock, with a silver shirt that shimmered as he moved. His dark hair was in one tightly coiled braid, looped at the neck and twined with silver cord.
Eve had often wondered how he managed it.
“Want a look?” He put the sample on a slide under his scope, gestured to the screen. “The tox confirms poisoning. Ricin, very concentrated, very lethal. Very quick in this case.”
“Ricin? That’s from beans or something, right?”
“And you win the trip for two to Puerto Vallarta. Castor beans, to be precise. Ricin’s made from the mash after processing. It was used as a laxative once upon a time.”
She thought of the state of the body, the crime scene. “It sure as hell worked.”
“Superbly. His liver and kidneys failed, and there was internal bleeding. He’d have had severe cramping, rapid heartbeat, nausea, very likely seizures.” Morris studied the screen as Eve did. “Ricin dust was used—and is still used on occasion—in bioterrorism. Injection of ricin was a favored assassination method before we discovered handier ways.”
“Your all-purpose poison.”
“Very versatile. The lab will process, but I can tell you it appears he drank it—in his hot chocolate.”
“His wife made the chocolate.”
“Ah. I love domestically inclined females.”
“I don’t see her for it. Married a handful of months, no obvious motive. And she copped to making it without a blink.”
“Marriages, even new ones, can be a terrorist camp.”
“Damn right, but she’s not popping for me. Yet anyway.”
“Good-looking young man,” Morris commented. “Athletic build and, I’d say, a harmonic homogeny of races.”
“Harmonic homogeny.” Eve shook her head. “You kill me. He was a teacher—history, private school, Upper West Side. Left his lunch in his classroom, habitually. Ate at his desk Mondays, habitually. No security cameras in the classrooms or corridors. Private schools aren’t required to have them. Wouldn’t have been hard for anybody to doctor his drink. What we’re missing at this point is why anyone would. Guy’s coming off as a nice, harmless mensch.”
“Someone, I’d say, didn’t like your mensch. This kind of poisoning isn’t just lethal, it’s extremely painful.” Hands deft as a violinist’s, Morris removed the heart. “He didn’t live long after he ingested it, but while he did, he suffered a great deal.”
She looked back at the body. What did you do, Craig, to piss somebody off this much? “His wife wants to see him. She’s notifying his parents, and I assume they will, too.”
“After nine this evening. I’ll have him prepared for viewing.”
“I’ll let them know.” She frowned back at Morris. “Where the hell do you get castor beans?”
He only smiled. “I’m sure you’ll find out.”
Peabody, slightly shamefaced, loitered by Vending. “Before you say anything, here’s a nice cold tube of Pepsi. And I put my time to good use. I’ve started runs on the staff members at Sarah Child and verified life insurance policies on both the vic and his wife. Vic gets his through work bennies. Fifty thousand, with the wife as beneficiary.”
“Pretty piddly motive.” Eve took the tube, pleased tha
t it was, indeed, nice and cold. “We’ll hit their financials, see if she had any major debts. Maybe she’s the gambler, or the one with an illegals habit.”
“But you don’t think so.”
“No, I don’t think so.” Eve cracked the tube, swigged as they walked. “Unless there’s more money somewhere, the fifty doesn’t do it for me. And if there was marital discord, let’s say, a spouse generally goes for contact, for the personal. This was nasty, but remote. He pissed somebody off.”
Peabody rewound her scarf, replaced her gloves as they hit the doors and the cold exploded like an ice boomer. “Rejected lover, colleagues in competition.”
“We’ll want to look closer at Mirri Hallywell.”
“Parents of a student who he disciplined, or who wasn’t doing well in his class.”
“Jesus.” Eve jammed her hands in her pockets, and discovered she’d lost yet another pair of gloves. “Who kills because their kid gets a big doughnut in a history class?”
“Parents are weird and dangerous creatures. And I worked up another theory. Maybe it was a mistake.”
“It was ricin poisoning, and Morris’s take is that the dose was intense and quickly lethal.”
“See, what I mean is, maybe one of his students was upset with him.” Peabody mimed a sulky face. “I’ll fix that meanie Mr. Foster. Doctors his drink thinking he’ll maybe get sick. Oops.”
“Not entirely stupid.” They climbed into the vehicle, where both hissed out the breath the blustery cold had them holding.
“Jesus, Jesus, why is there February?” Eve demanded. “February should be eliminated altogether for the good of mankind.”
“It is the shortest month, so that’s something.” Peabody actually moaned as the heat came on. “I think my corneas are frozen. Can that happen?”
“They can in fucking February. Let’s stick with Foster’s nearest and dearest first. We’ll go by their building, talk to a few neighbors. Most particularly the retired cop.”
“Once a cop,” Peabody nodded, and began to blink cautiously to help her potentially frozen corneas thaw out. “If there was anything off going on, he’d probably have noticed.”