“We’re pursuing that probability.”
“She was—”
Eve saw it in his eyes. Mutilated. But he stopped himself from saying the word, and drew his wife closer. “She was killed uptown.”
“Yes. Mrs. Steeple, did Lily do crafts?”
“Crafts? Lily?” A smile trembled onto her lips. “No. She didn’t like to play house, as she called it. It was part of the problem between her and Rip. He wanted a homebody, and Lily just wasn’t.”
“You have what look like handcrafted pieces in the other room.”
“Kiki’s room, too,” Peabody added. “It’s a lovely quilt on her bed.”
“That’s my work. When I got pregnant with Drew, our son, I decided—well, we decided,” she amended, linking her fingers with her husband’s, “that I’d try the professional mother route. I wanted to be able to stay home with the children. Then I realized, pretty quickly, I’d need something to do. I started quilting, then that expanded to needlepoint, macramé. I enjoy it.”
“Where do you get your supplies?”
“What does this have to do with Lily?”
“Mrs. Steeple, where do you get your craft supplies?”
“A number of places.” She named several on Eve’s list.
“Did Lily ever go with you, when you shopped for supplies?”
“Well, yes. We often shopped together, for a lot of things. She liked to shop, to spend time with me and the kids. We shopped together at least once a week.”
“Thank you for your help.”
“But . . . Isn’t there something else?” Carleen asked when Eve got to her feet. “Isn’t there something more we can do?”
“There may be. We’ll stay in touch, Mrs. Steeple. You can reach either Detective Peabody or myself through Central, any time. I’m very sorry for your loss.”
“I’ll show you out. Carleen, you should check on the kids.”
He walked them to the door, waited until he was sure his wife was out of earshot. “Look, I’m sorry I shot off like that.”
“No problem.”
“I want to know. Was she mutilated—like that other woman? I don’t want Carleen to see her if . . .”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
“How?”
“I’m not going to give you those details, not at this time. They’re confidential to the investigation.”
“I want to know when you find him. I want to know. I want—”
“I know what you want. But what you need to do is take care of your wife, of your family. You need to leave the rest of it to us.”
“You didn’t know her. You didn’t know Lily.”
“No. But I know her now.”
Chapter 11
It was after five A.M. when Eve walked into Homicide. The skeleton squad from the graveyard shift was handling the ’links, catching up on paperwork. Or sleep. She gestured a come-ahead to Peabody so her partner would follow her into her office.