Replaced some things. It's not going to last more than a few days the way you use it. But I can get my hands on some parts. I've got connections. I can basically rebuild it for you.
Meanwhile, if you could try not to smack it around, it should hold." "Okay, thanks. I appreciate the quick work." "No prob. I'm a genius. See you tomorrow night, right?" "Tomorrow night?" "Dinner? Louise and Charles?" "Right. Right. Don't blow kisses in my bull pen," she called when he pranced out.
She sat, drank Pepsi, and stared at the machine. Dared it to give her trouble. Since Peabody was running Manhattan, Eve decided to expand to the Bronx for gyms.
The machine responded to her search request as if nothing had ever happened between them. It gave her enough confidence to turn her back on it while the search ensued, and study her board.
"Where'd he see you, Elisa?" she asked aloud. "Where did you come into his radar? He saw you, and something about you clicked in that sick mind of his. So he watched you and studied you and laid in wait for you." A domestic. A single parent. Liked to make things with her hands. Divorced. Abusive husband.
She didn't need the file to remember the details on Elisa Maplewood.
Early thirties, slightly less than average height, average build. Light brown hair, long. Pretty face.
Standard education, lower-middle-class upbringing. Native New Yorker.
Liked nice clothes in simple styles. Nothing too trendy, nothing too provocative. No current personal partner or romantic entanglement. Minimal social life.
Where did he see you? The park? Take the kids to the park. Walk the dog. The shops? Buy your craft supplies, window shop.
She grabbed the hard copy of the report McNab had left on her desk. "Link transmissions to her parents, to Deann's pocket unit, to Luther's office, to the craft store on Third to check on an order. Incomings ran along the same lines.
Her web activity ran to parenting sites, craft sites, and chat rooms. Downloads of magazines showed crafts again, parenting again, and some home decorating stuff, some online shopping. Downloads of a couple books tagged as current bestsellers.
Nothing popped from the search of the Vanderleas" equipment.
Chat room might be worth checking out, she thought, and made a note of it. But it was tough for her to see this big, muscular guy knitting… whatever people knit. More than that, Elisa struck her as being too sensible, too savvy to give personal information to anyone in a chat room. He hadn't tracked her through her discussions on making blankets or the like.
He's done it before.
She thought of Celina's words. And she agreed with them.
What he'd done to Elisa had been well planned and well executed under risky conditions. Quick and efficient, and to Eve that meant practice.
She hadn't hit all the elements with her search for similar crimes. Maybe he'd added or adjusted. Maybe one or more of those hits had been his work.
Pride. Celina had spoken of his pride. She wasn't sure she liked depending so heavily on the opinion of a psychic, but it was another point she agreed with. There'd been pride, arrogant pride, in the way he'd displayed his victim.
Look at what I've done, what I can do. In the city's great park, so close to the home of the wealthy and privileged.
Yeah, he was proud of his work. And what did a man with pride in his work do when that work didn't reach the standards he wanted? He buried the mistakes.
Her blood began to hum. It was the right track. She knew it. And she swung back to her machine. She saved and filed the results of her initial search, then brought up Missing Persons.
She started with a twelve-month search, stuck with Manhattan, and keyed in Elisa's basic description to narrow the parameters.
"Dallas-" "Wait." Attention focused on her screen, Eve shot up a hand to stop Peabody. "He had to practice. He had to. Guy builds his body up, stays strong and fit, it takes discipline. Takes practice. He lives and walks and exists day after day, holding in that kind of rage, it takes discipline, it takes willpower.
But you have to let it out some time, you have to let go. You have to kill. So you practice until you get it just right."
Search complete. Two results that match parameters given.
First image onscreen.
"What is it?" Peabody demanded.
"Potentially? His practice sessions. Look at her. Same physical type as Maplewood. Same age group, same coloring, same basic build." Peabody came in, mirroring Eve's earlier position by leaning over her shoulder. "No resemblance beyond surface I mean but yeah, same basic type." "Computer, split screen for second image, list date on each."
Working.. Task complete.
"Thumbs-up for McNab," Eve mumbled.
"Don't look like sisters," Peabody commented. "Cousins, maybe." "Marjorie Kates," Eve read. "Age thirty-two. Unmarried, no kids, midtown address. Employed as restaurant manager.
Reported missing by fiance, April second of this year. Didn't come home from work. Lansing and Jones caught this one.
Second is Breen Merriweather. Age thirty. Divorced, one child son, age five Upper East Side. Employed as a studio tech, Channel 75. Reported missing by childcare provider, June ten, this year. Didn't return home after her shift. Polinksi and Silk caught it.
"I need these files, Peabody. I need to talk to these detectives." "On it."
Since Lansing and Jones worked out of Central, it only took trips on three glides and one elevator to get to their division.
She found them both at desks, facing each other.
"Detectives Lansing and Jones? Lieutenant Dallas, Detective Peabody. Appreciate the time." "Lansing." The bull-chested, redheaded cop of about fifty stuck out a hand. "No problem, Lieutenant. You think one of yours is connected to one of ours." "I need to check it out." "Jones." The petite, thirtyish black woman shook Eve's hand, then Peabody's. "Fiance, Royce Cabel, came in to make the report. She was only missing overnight, but the guy was a mess." "Last seen when she left the restaurant -Appetito on East Fifty-eighth at closing, about midnight, April first." "She lived about three blocks away, usually walked back and forth. Guy's expecting her home by twelve-thirty, he says, but he falls asleep. When he wakes up, about two, she's not there. He flips, calls around to everybody he can think of. Then he's here, bright and early next morning to talk to the cops." "She poofs three weeks before the wedding," Lansing continued. "So you look at a couple things. Maybe her feet got cold and she took off. Maybe they had a fight and he offs her, comes in to report to cover it up." "But it doesn't play." Jones shook her head. "We got copies of the reports, our notes, witness statements, interviews for you. You can see everybody we talked to said Kates was hip-deep in wedding plans. She and Cabel had been cohabbing for about eighteen months. Got nothing on him that points to violence." "Took a Truth Test. Didn't even blink when we suggested it." "She got dead," Jones said. "That's my gut on it, Lieutenant." "And we got nothing, until you buzzed us up." "I don't know if we've got anything now. Any problem if I talk to some of the people on your list?"
"Nope." Lansing pulled his lip. "How about a clue?" "We're on the sexual homicide/mutilation in Central Park.
Our vic's the same physical type as your MR I'm pursuing the theory that he's done some practicing." "Well, shit," Jones said.
We can go by Polinski's and Silk's station on the way to see this Royce Cabel." "How about the gyms with sweaty guys with thick necks?" "We'll move on it." Because it was faster, they squeezed on an elevator to ride down to garage level. Eve did her best to ignore the elbow wedged in her ribs. "I want us to give Nadine an interview." "Because of the 75 connection?" "Not just. I'm thinking it might grate our big, strong man to see three women dissing him on-screen. To know two women are heading the investigation." There's a thought." Several people pushed their way off when the doors opened. Eve glanced up, noted she had three levels to go.