Authors: J. D. Robb
“It’s a heart. So much blood and bruising, I might’ve missed it. Morris would have caught it once the vic was on his table, but in this light, I didn’t see it.”
“I don’t see it now.”
“Just under the armpit.” Leaning closer, goggles in place, Eve bookended it with her fingers, top to bottom, then side to side. “About an inch high and wide. Precise as a high-dollar tattoo. Initials inside.
E
over
D
.”
“
D
for
Dorian
.”
“Could be.” And it sure as hell shifted some angles. “Maybe a pissed-off lover or wannabe or used-to-be lover after all. Ante- or postmortem?” she wondered. “A signature or a statement? This part’s precise. The killer took some time and care carving this in.”
“McQueen carved numbers in his vics,” Peabody remembered, “so the cops would know how many he’d done. Maybe this is
E
’s signature, and
E
picks the vic and develops some sick, delusional relationship. And since sick, delusional relationships never end well, the killer bashes, ties up, gags, tortures, kills, then carves in the heart – killer over vic inside it.”
Eve nodded – a good theory. Solid and logical. “It could play.”
“Maybe this isn’t E’s first sick, delusional relationship.”
“That could play, too.” Eve rose, pulled off the goggles. “We’ll run the elements through IRCCA, look for like crimes. Right now, let’s go check out the vic’s place. Maybe we’ll find out who he knew whose name starts with
E
.”
“His mother lives in the same building,” Peabody said as Eve signaled to one of the uniforms at the mouth of the alley.
“Well, that saves us time. We’ll go through his place, then do the notification.”
“She’s with the orchestra, too. She plays a baby cello.”
“They have babies?”
“It was, like, a joke. She’s first violin. So, ha ha, baby cello.”
“Assume I laughed. Lives in the same building, works the same job – basically. She probably knows anybody with the initial
E
he knew. And how he got along at work, with lovers.”
Eve turned away, had a short conversation with the uniform.
With the scene secured, and no witness – so far – to interview as the body had been discovered by beat droids, she climbed into her car. And with unspeakable relief, ordered the heat on full.
With even more unspeakable relief, she pulled off the snowflake hat.
“Aw. It looks cute on you.”
“If I wanted to look cute, I wouldn’t be a cop.” She forked her fingers through her short, shaggy brown hair. “Address, Peabody.”
“West Seventy-first between Amsterdam and Columbus.”
“A long way from where he ended up.” Needles pricked along her fingers as they thawed out.
One of the things she’d figured out how to operate in the fully loaded, purposely nondescript vehicle her husband had designed for her was coffee from the onboard AutoChef.
And right that minute, she thought she might kill for real coffee.
“Computer, engage AutoChef,” Eve began.
“Yippee!”
“Shut up, Peabody, or you won’t get any.”
AutoChef engaged. What would you like, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve?
“One coffee black, one coffee regular, both in go-cups.”
One moment, please. Is front-seat delivery desired?
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s desired.”
“I didn’t know it did that,” Peabody piped up. “I thought it was just backseat – Whoa!”
Order complete
, the computer announced as two go-cups slid out from under the dash.
“That is totally iced.”
“It better not be iced.” Eve snagged the go-cup with the black top, leaving the cream-colored top for Peabody.
It was hot and strong and perfect.
“I love this ride,” Peabody stated, cuddling her coffee.
“Don’t get used to the coffee service. Maybe the next time it’s shy of five a.m., minus three with a windchill of you don’t fucking want to know, we’ll do it again. Otherwise, forget it.”
Peabody only smiled, took the first glorious sip. “I love this ride,” she repeated.
Eve concluded playing a big, fat violin paid pretty well. Dorian Kuper had lived in a two-level apartment in a meticulously rehabbed building – one that had survived the Urban Wars. It stood, bright white brick and long sheets of glass gleaming, in a tony area of the Upper West Side.
When the doorman, wearing a classic black topcoat over his livery, greeted her by rank instead of snooty insults on the bland appearance of the DLE she drove, she knew Roarke owned the building. Obviously Doorman Frank had gotten the memo.
“How can I help you today, Lieutenant?”
“We need access to Dorian Kuper’s apartment.”
His round, almost cherubic face fell. “I was afraid of that. Please, come inside, out of the wind. I heard Mr. Kuper was missing. I guess you found him, and I guess it’s not good.”
She stepped inside, into warmth and white marble veined with gray, into the strangely spicy scent of whatever the masses of bold flowers cast off from their silver urn on the central table.
“We found him. It’s not good,” she confirmed.
“This will crush Ms. McKensie. His mother. They were really tight. He was a nice guy, Lieutenant, I just want to say. Always had a word, you know?”
“Do you know anyone who didn’t think he was such a nice guy?”
“Not right off, I’m sorry. He had a lot of friends. They’d come over for parties, for music.”
“Girlfriends, boyfriends?”
Frank shifted on his feet.
“Anything you can tell us,” Peabody said, adding a light touch to his arm. “Anything may help us find who killed him.”
“I get it, but it’s hard to talk about a resident’s personal life. I’d say Mr. Kuper had both, and nothing really serious.”
“All right. Has anyone been around in the past couple weeks, asking about him?” Eve asked. “Any former friend make any trouble?”
“Not that I know of. And when you’re on the door, you usually know.”
“Okay, Frank, thanks. I need you to clear us up to his place.”
“Sixth floor. Apartment six hundred. That’s the main entrance. I’ll clear the first elevator. I need to get clearance to get his pass key and code. It’ll take a minute.”
“I’ve got a master. We’ll get in.”
With a nod, Frank walked over to a blank granite counter, tapped and brought up a screen. “Lobby droid’s in the back. I don’t activate her this early. It’s usually quiet, so what’s the point? You’re clear, Lieutenant.”
He cleared his throat as Eve and Peabody stepped to the elevator. “Ah, does his mom know?”
“We’ll speak to her after we see his apartment. Like you said, it’s early. No reason to wake her up with this kind of news.”
“It’s going to crush her. They doted on each other, you know?”
Though she didn’t know what it was to have a mother dote on her, or to dote back, Eve nodded before she stepped into the elevator.
Ascending to sixth floor
, the computer announced as they started to rise, proving Frank as efficient as any droid.
“Nice guy, lots of friends, loved his mother, bisexual.” Eve considered. “Not a bad rundown from a doorman in a couple minutes.”
“He looked sad,” Peabody commented. “When the doorman looks sad, you know you’re going to be dealing with a lot of sad in an investigation.”
“If you want happy, don’t be a murder cop. Or a cop period,” Eve decided.
The elevator opened to a wide hallway carpeted in dignified gray with the classy touch of artwork arranged on the walls. Curved tables holding slim, clear vases of white flowers ranged between apartment doors.
Six hundred took the west corner farthest from the elevator. Prime real estate in a prime building. Yeah, Eve thought, playing the big, fat violin brought in the bucks.
“Full security,” she noted, engaging her recorder. “Cam, palm plate, double police locks.”
She bypassed all with her master, opened the right side of the double entrance doors. Lights that had been off went automatically to a soft ten percent illumination.
“Convenient,” she said, “but not enough. Lights on full,” she ordered.
“Wow.” Peabody’s eyes widened as the light strengthened. “It’s totally uptown.”
Classy old-world, was Eve’s sense. The sort of deal Roarke preferred. Rich, deep colors, sink-in sofas and chairs. High backs, graceful curves. Dark, gleaming wood, the glint of silver and crystal. Flowers in vases that looked old and precious, candles in slender holders.
Art ran to landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes.
“Let’s take this floor first, see if he kept an office down here. We’ll want a look at his computers, his house ’link.”
Eve moved left, Peabody right.
When Eve opened double pocket doors, she found the unrestricted space created one large L. Living area, dining area, kitchen.
A serious sort of kitchen, she concluded, with a massive cooktop and oven in addition to double AutoChefs, miles of counter done in pale gold with tiny glinting flecks. Like beach sand, she thought as she walked through, opened cabinet doors, drawers at random.
A lot of serious kitchen tools, precisely organized.
Tucked inside a large, fully stocked pantry, she found a house droid created to depict a pleasant-faced, middle-aged woman of short stature and sturdy build. The droid wore a gray uniform and white apron, and the dead-eyed expression of a droid at rest.
“Got a droid here!” Eve called out, and began to examine it for its manual operating switch.
“There’s a powder room, a totally mag music room,” Peabody began as she came in. “Piano, cello, double bass, three violins, flutes, piccolos. It’ll open up just like this area. High-class party central. Here.”
She moved around Eve, reached under the steel-gray bun at the base of the droid’s neck and did whatever needed to be done to activate.
The dead blue eyes became full of life and merriment. The slack mouth curved up in a cheerful smile.
“And what is it I can be doing for you this fine morning?”
The plank-thick Irish brogue would have made Roarke – whose own Irish was like a hint of music gliding through words – laugh or wince. Eve just lifted her eyebrows, and her badge.
The merry eyes scanned the badge, processed, confirmed. “And what, Lieutenant ma’am, would the local
gardi
be wanting with the likes of me?”
“Dallas. Lieutenant Dallas. Detective Peabody. At what time were you last activated?”
“I’ll be pleased to answer that, and any other questions you might have once I’ve cleared the matter with my Dorian. That scamp would still be abed at this hour if you hadn’t come ’round.”
“ ‘Scamp’?”
“He’s a lively one, he is. Works hard, plays the same. If he’s been waked so early, he’ll be wanting his coffee. I’m happy to serve you as well.”
“He won’t be wanting his coffee. Dorian Kuper is dead.”
Something resembling shock came and went in the droid’s eyes. “I can’t process that information. Please repeat.”
Once again Peabody moved in. “Could we have your name?”
“I’m Maeve.”
“Maeve, we regret to inform you Dorian was killed last night. We’re very sorry for your loss.”
“But, he’s young and healthy.” Grief, and anyone would have sworn sincere, clouded the voice, the eyes. “Killed? An accident?”
“He was murdered. Let’s move out here,” Eve demanded. “There’s no point standing in a closet.”
“No one would do him harm. I think there’s a mistake of some sort, begging your pardon.”
“There’s no mistake,” Eve began. “His identification’s been verified and confirmed.”
The droid moved to the counter, sat on one of the stools. “Why are humans so fragile?”
“It’s a mystery. When did you last interact with Dorian?”
“One moment, please.” The eyes went blank for a moment, then filled with apparent distress. “Ah God, ah God. My records show it’s been sixty-two hours and eighteen minutes since my Dorian deactivated me. Has he been dead so long?”
“No. No one has activated you until now?”
“No.”
Eve wondered why the officer on the missing persons hadn’t activated and questioned the house droid – then remembered the report had only just been filed.
“Was Dorian alone when he deactivated you?”
“He was, aye. He was going out to the rehearsal hall, he said, before the evening’s performance. It’s
Giselle
they’re doing right now. He said not to wait up for him – he liked to joke with me – and that he’d wake me himself in the morning as it might be late on both counts. He thought to have a late supper with friends. He often did so.”
“You could give us a full list of his friends, of people who’ve been on his guest list here for parties.”
“I could certainly. I could generate that for you, print it as well if that would help you. Or I can interface with any computer and create a disc.”
“Intimate friends, too,” Eve said.
“My Dorian had a large and lively group of friends, of all manner. He enjoyed having parties and musicales here, or quiet evenings with just a few, or the one of the moment.”
Like a doorman, Eve thought, a house droid could be informative. “Anyone get pissed when they were no longer the one of the moment?”
“I never heard of it, and sure I would have. He talked to me, my Dorian, and would have said if he’d been troubled by a difficult ending. For those intimate friendships, as you say, he tended toward those who wanted as he did, of the moment. He wasn’t ready to settle down. His music came first, always. When he worked, Lieutenant, he worked.”
The droid actually let out a little sigh.
“Many’s the hour I’ve passed doing my duties here and listening to him play. He was writing an opera himself, and worked on that as well when time allowed and the mood was on him.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll miss him.” When Eve raised her eyebrows again, the droid shook her head. “It’s not as you would understand, not a human emotion. But his mother had me made to resemble, in all possible ways, the Maeve who was nanny to him as a boy, and who loved him dearly. As he loved her.”