"Hey, Crack." "Dallas. Good thing you came along when you did. Cops, they get nervous when a big, beautiful black man hangs around." Big he was. Black he was. But beautiful, not even close.
He had a face even a besotted mother would have a hard time loving and that was before the tattoos. He wore a skintight silver T-shirt under a long black leather vest. Snug black pants followed the acreage of his legs. Thick-soled black boots added another inch to his already impressive height.
He owned a sex club called the Down and Dirty where the drinks were next to lethal, the music was hot, and many of the patrons had spent as much time in a cage as out of one.
They called him Crack as he claimed that was the sound he made when he knocked people's heads together. And that summer, Eve had held him while he'd wept like a baby beside the body of his murdered sister.
"You just here to scare cops?" she asked.
"Nothing scares you, white girl. You got a minute? Maybe some place without so many ears." "Sure." She led the way into her office, shut the door.
"Cop shops," he said with a glimmer of a smile. "Don't know as I've ever been in one in what you might call a voluntary capacity." "Want coffee?" He shook his head, shifting his bulk to look out the window.
"Ain't much of a place here, hot stuff." "No, but it's mine. You going to sit?" Again, he shook his head. "Ain't see you in a while." "No." The silence hung a moment, as they both thought of the last time they'd seen each other.
"Last time I did was when you come by my place to tell me face-to-face that you got the bastard killed my sister. I didn't have much to say to you." "Wasn't much to say." His shoulders lifted, fell. "No. Too much to say." "I went by your place a couple weeks ago. Barman said you were out of town." "Couldn't stay here after what happened to my baby. Had to get away awhile. Did me some traveling. Big-ass world out there. Took a look at some of it. Never thanked you for what you did for me and my baby sister. Couldn't get the words out before."
"You don't have to get them out now." "She was beautiful." "Yes, she was. I've never lost anybody really close to me, but-" He turned back to her now. "You lose people every day.
Don't know how you get through one and into the next." He drew a deep breath. "I got the letter from your man saying how the two of you had a tree planted in the park for my girl. That was a fine thing to do. I went by to see it, and it's a fine thing. Want to thank you." "You're welcome." "You did right by her, I wanted to say that. Wanted to say I know you took care of her, and I won't forget it. The living's got to live, no matter what. So now I'm gonna try to do that, best I can. You come down to the D and D now, I'll be there.
Kicking ass and cracking heads, like always." "I'm glad you're back." "You need anything from me, you just ask. Now, I gotta tell you, hot lips, seen you look better." "Long couple of days." "Maybe it's time you got out of town awhile." "Maybe." She angled her head as she considered him.
"You're a big guy." "Sweetcheeks." He patted his crotch. "I got written testimony to that effect." "Bet. But just keep that big dog on the leash." She was thinking of geographies again. "Big, beautiful black man wants to maintain his big, beautiful build he goes to the gym regular." "I got me some equipment of my own." He winked lasciviously.
"But I use a place a couple times a week. Keeps mind and body disciplined." "You know Jim's Gym?" "Shithole."
"I hear that. What about Bodybuilders?" "Ain't no ladies there. Why I want to waste this body on a buncha men? "Sides, man with my attributes gets hit on in a place like that. Then I have to be busting somebody's face, and I use up my valuable time. Me, I use Zone to Zone. Man can get himself a full massage a full massage after his workout if he's inclined." "But you know the other places, and you could check them out from the inside, if you were so inclined?" His grin spread. "Could, if a skinny white girl cop asked me to." "I'm looking for a guy, between six four and six eight, around two-seventy. Light-skinned. Woman hater. Loner.
Seriously strong." "Maybe if I moseyed into those places, like I was maybe considering changing my fitness allegiance, I'd see somebody like that." "Maybe you would. Then you could tell me." "See what I can do."
CHAPTER 13
Eve banked an hour's sleep at her desk. When she woke, she was almost disappointed to find the lab reports holding in her incoming. There would be no way to justify trouncing the chief lab tech.
She read them over, listened to the interoffice memo from Peabody clearing the follow-ups, then scanned her voice and email.
A message from the commander's office informed her she was required at a media conference at sixteen hundred. She'd seen that one coming. And she was going to be both unprepared and late if she didn't get her butt in gear.
She scrubbed her hands over her face, and put through a call to Morris at the morgue.
He was at his desk, and answered himself.
"What can you tell me?" she asked him.
Tm about to send you the report, but I can tell you Lily Napier had a short life, that it was ended in the same manner as Elisa Maplewood's, and in my opinion by the same individual.
There was more violence to the face and body, which would lead me to believe his rage is increasing." He shifted, and she could see him bring up a file. "Your on-site was thorough, as always. To that I can add she consumed some pork-fried rice four hours prior to her death, and was mildly anemic. There was no semen. I found fibers inside the vagina. My guess would be they're from her panties, and were carried inside during the rape. There were other fibers that will likely be identified as textile, and almost certainly be from her own clothing. Grass and dirt under her nails, in accordance with your observation. She dug them into the ground. No hair, other than her own." "Hair from Maplewood turned out to be from the dog, and a squirrel," Eve told him. "Dog's obvious, and it's probable she picked up the squirrel hair on the grass in the park.
Dickhead's report IDs the fibers under Maplewood's nails as man-made, black. Ubiquitous black cloth. We'll match it when we get him, but for now we've got nothing from him." "Lunatics are, unfortunately, rarely stupid." "Yeah. Thanks, Morris." She was about to try Mira's office when she felt her blood sugar bottom out. Since her chocolate supply was tapped for the moment, vending was her only choice. She walked out to the hallway and stared at a snack machine with pure dislike.
"Problem?" She glanced over, saw Mira. "No. I was just going to grab something, then tag you." "I had a consult in this section. Thought I'd come to you." "Good, fine." After a brief hesitation, Eve pulled credits out of her pocket. "Do me a favor? Get me a Booster Bar." "All right." But she waved Eve's credits away. "My treat." "Thanks." Eve stuck them back in her pocket, jiggled them.
"I'm avoiding contact with machines unless absolutely necessary.
It's an experiment." "Hmm. Fake fruit or fake caramel?" "Fake caramel. Did you have time to read the report on Napier?" "Only to scan it, I'm afraid." Mira made the selection, and the machine in what Eve considered particularly snotty tones raved about the Booster Bar's delicious flavor, energy snap, and on-the-go convenience before reciting the ingredients and nutritional data.