“Happens every day.”
“Lino planned it. He was one of the leaders, and he had the skills.”
“I guess you’ll never know, seeing as he’s dead.”
“Yeah, he’s dead. You’re not. And your legal counsel will tell you there’s no statute of limitations on murder.”
“You can’t hang it on me now any more than they could then.”
“What was Lino waiting for? When was payday, Penny?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her eyes skittered away. “He’s dead, so I guess we can’t ask him.”
“Where’s Steve Chávez?”
“Don’t know. Can’t say.” She yawned. “We done?”
“Lino was marking time, picking up some grease along the way so he could show off, live high, then duck back under the collar. A man doesn’t do that for five years so he can bang an old girlfriend.”
“He loved me. We used to talk about taking off, making a big score, and coming back riding high. Never worked out, but he came back.”
“Do you have an alibi for the day of his death?”
“I opened the bodega at six A.M., along with Rosita. We did the prep, and worked the breakfast counter for three hours straight. Around ten, Pep and I—stock boy—took our break together in the back room, then I was back on the counter when the first cops came in asking questions. And I heard he was dead.”
“What did you do then?”
“Worked my shift, went home. What was I supposed to do?”
“All right. You’re free to go.”
“About damn time.”
Eve waited until they’d left the room. She sat alone, in silence another full minute. “Record off,” she said.
When she was back in her office, standing, staring out the tiny window, Peabody came in.
“Any luck with Penny?”
“Yeah. A twisted mix of lies and truth. More lies than, but enough truth to get a picture. She claims she doesn’t know what happened to the real Flores—lie. That she doesn’t know what Lino was waiting for here—lie. She admits no knowledge of the bombing. Not a lie, more a ‘Prove it, bitch.’ Same with Chávez’s whereabouts. She said Lino loved her. I think that’s truth, or she believes it to be. She never said she loved him. If she had, it would’ve been a lie. But she had been banging him for the past few years.”
“If they’ve been having it on for that long, he told her what he was up to.”
“Yeah. I think he may have helped her kill the first time, earn her mark—maybe they earned them together as the timing jibes with Teresa’s statement. Her father. He’d been sexually abusing her. She had enough. They cut him up.”
“She admitted—”
“No. She admitted the abuse, and that was truth. She admitted she’d joined the gang at fourteen to escape it, to make family, for protection. Her father was found hacked to pieces in an abandoned building when she was fourteen. He was a known dealer, and the cops put it down to an illegals deal gone bad. Probably didn’t work it very hard. Why bother? She and Lino would’ve been covered for it anyway. Others in the gang would’ve alibied them, or threatened someone else into it.”
She heard Peabody close the office door, turned.
“Are you doing okay?” Peabody asked.
“Yes.” Eve walked to the AutoChef, programmed coffee. “Let’s keep going. We’re going to want to dig back into that case file. I’ve got the case files for the bombings, and we’ll need to reach out to the investigators. I need to put some pressure on Penny. More pressure than a couple months in over slapping at a cop.”
“Do you think she killed Lino?”
“We’ll check her alibi, but I bet it’s nice and tight. She had it ready for me, and on a platter. No, she’s the hothead. I don’t think she did the kill. But I think she’s connected. At the very least she knows who did.”