Even if you hadn't just come from having identified a deceased acquaintance, the place could be unnerving. And on top of all this, Parks had kept the lights dim, which maximized the terror factor.
Juhle flicked the switch and the room lit up. It helped.
And here was Mary Mahoney, sitting with her arms crossed tight over her chest, her eyes reddened from recent tears. Juhle moved a wooden chair over beside her and sat down. Parks, he noticed, had gone to sit in Strout's chair.
On his own footstool, Shiu broke the ice. "I want to thank you for coming in tonight. It's not something everyone would have done."
"I didn't know what else I should do," Ms. Mahoney said.
"Well, you did the right thing," Shiu said. "Every minute we save early on in the investigation increases the odds that we'll find who did this."
"I kind of thought that." Ms. Mahoney had short, spiky black hair, wide-set liquid brown eyes-her best feature-lips that had been collagened, a nose she hadn't been born with. The effect wasn't negative.
"So how did you come to think it might have been…your friend?" Shiu asked.
"Staci. Staci Rosalier." In her small voice, she continued, "Well, when I came in about four, everybody at the restaurant was talking about the judge, about what happened. He ate there, you know, just about every day. Nobody could believe it. And then, I don't know when exactly, but after the rush started, I heard something about a woman being with him. A young woman. Not his wife." She looked from Shiu to Juhle, who nodded, encouraging her to go on. "And so-we were jamming all night-but it got me worried. So when I got a minute-by now it's, like, ten thirty?-I went and asked one of the managers if she could check and see if Staci was in today. She worked lunch, which I did, too, when I first met her. Which is how we became friends, you know?"
"So," Juhle said, "you asked the manager if Staci had come in?"
"Right. But she hadn't even called in. And Staci never missed. She was like the rock at lunch." Mahoney closed her eyes, drew a deep breath. "So, anyway, when I found that out, now I'm really worried."
Shiu stepped in. "So what's the connection between Staci and Judge Palmer? That you were so concerned about?"
But suddenly Mahoney was shaking her head from side to side. Tears appeared in her eyes. "I just can't believe that's all that's left of her in there. I mean, she was the sweetest person. Who would do that to her?"
"That's what we're trying to find out," Shiu said.
Mahoney went silent. Shiu gave her a handkerchief, and she dabbed at her eyes. "I might be the only one who knew about it, but Staci and the judge had a thing."
"You mean an affair?" Juhle asked.
"Well, not exactly. Maybe more than that. He put her up, you know. Paid her rent."
Juhle saying, "Do you know how long this had been going on, Mary?"
"Him and her? I don't know exactly, but at least since last fall. Although the new place, she just moved in there only a couple of months or so ago."
The two inspectors exchanged a glance. Juhle came forward. "The new place?"
"Just across from the store. MoMo's. In those lofts, the new ones."
Juhle knew them. Prices on the one-room studios started at around four hundred thousand dollars and topped out at well over a million for the penthouses. If Judge Palmer had put Staci Rosalier in one of these places, he'd made a serious commitment to her.
"Have you ever been up to her place?" Shiu asked.
"A couple of times, although she was pretty private about it. She couldn't let anybody find out about them, which you can understand."
"But she let you," Shiu said.
"We were real friends. Plus, it was so cool, she just had to show somebody." The tears spilled over. "I just…" she began, then lowered her head and fell silent.
Juhle gave her a moment. Then gently, "You're talking the new condos on Second, right directly across from MoMo's?"
She looked up at him and nodded. "Why did this have to happen?" she asked.
Juhle had no answer.
The building supervisor, Jim Franks, wasn't thrilled to get woken up at 1:50 A.M. It took the sallow, potbellied, middle-aged man nearly ten minutes to get to the door, another very long minute to find the one key on his twelve-key ring that would open it. Juhle and Shiu stood outside all the while in the now fully gathered cold-impatient, unspeaking, unamused.
Franks had thrown himself into a wrinkled pair of brown slacks and a stained Corona beer T-shirt. When he opened the door, he backed away a few steps. "This couldn't wait till the morning?"
Juhle held his warrant up for Franks to see, dredged a tolerant expression from somewhere. "Mr. Franks," he said in a conversational tone, "you have my word we'd rather be doing this in the morning, too. But a woman who lived in this building was shot dead the night before last and we don't feel like we've earned any rest until we've got some kind of jump on who might have killed her, which we don't have yet. We thought we might find something in her apartment that might help us. Can you understand that?"
The little speech hit its mark. Suddenly Franks was less hostile. "You said Staci Rosalier? She dead?"
Juhle nodded. "She just got identified an hour ago by a friend of hers who told us she lived here. That's why we're bothering you."
"You want to see her apartment?" But then a thought struck him. "Don't you need to have some kind of warrant for that?"
Juhle sighed and produced it again.
"Okay," Franks finally said. They walked down a dark hallway on the first floor to the office of the building, where Franks went to a cabinet, unlocked it on the third try, and pulled a key off a hook. "There you go," he said, handing it over to Juhle, "now if that's all…"
Shiu, unable to fake equanimity, hung back by the door, his arms crossed over his chest. Juhle looked at his partner, came back to Franks. "Just one or two questions."
Sighing extravagantly, Franks lowered a haunch onto the corner of his desk. He brought a hand up to his eyes and rubbed them. "Okay, what?"
"Would you notice when she had visitors?"
"No, I don't think I ever did. She could have anybody come anytime they wanted."
"But you didn't notice anyone special?"
"People are coming and going all the time. I don't pay much attention." Franks checked the wall clock. "You said only a couple of questions…"
"Yes, I did." Juhle's humor actually seemed to be improving-in spite of the hour, in spite of his broken bones. "Here's another one: Do you remember if anyone came to see her in the past few days? Anyone unusual?"
"I'm sorry," Franks said, "I just never pay attention to that. We've got almost a thousand tenants, and all of them have friends and families, most of 'em unusual one way or another. People are coming and going all the time." He straightened up off the desk. "Now if you don't need me anymore, I'm going back to bed. You can drop the key in the box when you're done."
"Thank you, sir," Juhle said, "we appreciate your cooperation."
Franks shrugged. "No problem."
In the elevator, Juhle shot a glance at Shiu. "Personable guy."
"If that was no problem," Shiu said, "I'd like to see him when he thinks he's got one."