Survivor in Death (In Death 20)

“Okay. Rescind the request for a detective. I’ll contact Central after I’ve talked to the wit. I’d like you to wait downstairs. I’ve got your unit boxed in anyway. I’ll want your report when I’m done up here.”

“Yes, sir.”

As he went down, Eve glanced at Peabody, noted the beads of sweat on her partner’s face. Should’ve risked the elevator, she thought. “You holding, Peabody?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She dug out a tissue, wiped her face. “Still get a little winded, but the exercise is good for me. I’m good.”

“You’re otherwise, I want to know. Don’t pussy around.” Eve stepped up to the door, knocked. She could already hear the shouts, the crying, the voices. A trio of voices, if she wasn’t mistaken. And two of them kids.

It seemed to be her week for kids.

“Police, Ms. Cable.”

“I just talked to the police.” A woman, looking harassed—and who wouldn’t with one kid on the hip and the other pulling at your leg?—opened the door. Her hair was a short, spiky blonde, her build going toward bottom heavy. And her eyes had the rabbit pink hue of a funky-junkie.

“Lieutenant Dallas, Detective Peabody. We’d like to come in.”

“I told the other guy the works. Jeez, Lo-Lo would ya stop for two seconds. Sorry, the kids’re riled up.”

“This Lo-Lo?” Peabody smiled. “Hi, Lo-Lo, why don’t you come on over here with me.”

Kids responded to Peabody, Eve noted. And this one, a pint-size with hair as blonde and spiky as her mother’s, peeled off her mother’s leg, put her hand in Peabody’s, and walked off babbling.

There wasn’t far to go. The room was a little L, with a kitchen forming the jag. But there were a few toys scattered around, and the kid arrowed toward the pile to share them with her new pal.

“I saw from the window, there.” Minnie pointed, shifting the smaller child on her hip. This one had eyes as big and unblinking as an owl’s, and a crop of smokey brown curls. “I was watching for her, for Ms. Newman. She don’t—didn’t think I’d clean up, she didn’t think I’d kick the funk. But I did. Been off it six months now.”

“Good.” And if she hadn’t been on it too much longer than she’d been off, her eyes might one day lose the red rims and pinkish whites.

“They were going to take my kids. I had to clean up for my kids, so I did. Not their fault I got screwed up. I’m off the funk, and I go to meetings. I get spot checked, and I’m clean. I need Ms. Newman to say I can keep my temp professional mother status. I gotta have the money, gotta pay the rent and the food, and—”

“I’ll contact CPS and tell them I was here, saw you were clean, and your children cared for. Your place is clean,” she added.

“I made sure. It gets messy, with the kids, but I don’t let it get dirty. I get some more money together, I’m going to move us to a better neighborhood. But this is the best I can do now. I don’t want to screw up my kids.”

“I can see that. CPS will send another rep out. You won’t lose your status due to these circumstances.”

“Okay.” She turned her face into the little one’s neck. “Sorry. I know I shouldn’t be so into what’s going on with me when that lady got herself grabbed like that. But I don’t want to lose my kids.”

“Tell me what you saw.”

“I was standing there, at the window. I was nervous, because she didn’t like me. That’s not right,” she corrected. “She didn’t care. Didn’t give a dried-up turd.” She winced, looked over at her older girl. “I try not to use bad language in front of the kids, but I forget.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Eve stepped to the window. There was a clear view of the street. She could see the black-and-white, and her own vehicle. And the shaking fists of drivers who were fighting the logjam the double-parking caused. “Here?”

“Yeah. I’m standing there, with Bits on my hip, like now. I’m telling her and Lo-Lo they have to be good. My eyes.” She touched a finger just below her left. “You’ve been on the funk, even when you’re off awhile, they get worse when you’re nervous or upset, or just tired. Guess I was all. I saw her coming, walking from that way.”

Stepping closer, Minnie pointed. “Had her head down, so I didn’t see her face at first. But I knew it was her. I was going to get back—so in case she looked up she wouldn’t see me watching—but I saw the van. It just flew up, you know? Real fast. Squealing when it stopped. These two guys jumped out the back, and they were on her so fast. Pow! Grabbed her up, right off her feet. I saw her face then, just for a second. She hardly looked surprised, but it was—” She snapped a finger. “Tossed her through the open doors, jumped in after her, and were gone.

“I called right away. It might’ve taken me just a minute, because I was so surprised. I mean it was so fast, then it was like it never happened. But it did. I called nine-one-one and I said what I saw. They won’t think I had anything to do with it, will they? Because she was coming here, and I’m a junkie?”

“You don’t sound like a junkie to me, Minnie.”

A smile lit up in her red-rimmed eyes.

“Cute kids,” Peabody commented on the way down. “Looks like that woman’s pushing against the odds. Good chance she’ll make it.”

Eve nodded. The junkies she knew—including vague memories of her own mother—cared more about the next fix than any child. Minnie had a shot.