Devoted in Death (In Death 41)

He nodded, relaxed a bit. “Thanks, LT.”

As he walked away, she took another minute to sit, to study the board, to think of Dorian Kuper.

Then she pushed away from her desk and started out. Peabody turned into the bull pen as Eve turned out.

“Good timing. I just put Chamberlin in Interview A. He’s in pretty rough shape himself, Dallas.”

“I might get more out of him that way. Mira’s got the data now. You should write up a report for Whitney. And don’t say Me? in that stupid tone,” Eve warned. “You know how to write a damn report, and it’ll save me the time. Contact all the primaries you can manage, and we’ll go over that when I’m done with the interviews. If you need any help, tap Baxter and Trueheart. They’re clear, just reviewing some open and unsolveds.”

“Ellysa Tesh – violin – should be here in thirty.”

“I’ll take her after Chamberlin. Let’s keep it moving.”

She found Chamberlin sitting in Interview A, his hands folded on the scarred table. Exhausted eyes shifted from his hands to Eve’s face.

“I need to get back to Mina as soon as possible.”

“I won’t keep you long. I’m going to record this interview. Record on,” she ordered. “Dallas, Lieutenant Eve in interview with Chamberlin, Ethan. Mr. Chamberlin, I’m going to advise you of your rights. This is procedure.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Eve read off the Revised Miranda.

“I understand, and I don’t want some damn lawyer. Am I a suspect?”

“Right now we’re gathering information. I think you can help us with that. You worked with Dorian, and are, I believe, in a relationship with his mother.”

“Mina and I have been in a committed, monogamous relationship for a number of years.”

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“You don’t live together.”

“We both enjoy our separate spaces. Dorian… Dorian was the world to her. It’s a cliché, I’m aware, but it’s the truth that he was like a son to me. If we had disagreements they were always over the music. He has – had – such tremendous talent. With such talent comes opinions.”

He nearly smiled; it nearly reached his eyes. “Now and again those opinions proved better than mine. Not often, but now and again.”

“You’ve got a temper, Mr. Chamberlin.”

“That’s right. I’ve paid my share of fines, done the anger management bullshit. Screw it.” He flicked that away with a dramatic sweep of his hand. “It’s my passion and temper that make me great. It’s my passion and temper that make every musician I work with perform brilliantly. Because I demand it.”

“And if they’re not brilliant enough, you break their piccolo.”

“I’ve been known to.” He shrugged it off. “If someone doesn’t perform brilliantly, they don’t deserve to be in my orchestra.”

As she’d said essentially the same to Baxter about her cops, Eve could find no fault there. “Did you ever bust up Dorian’s cello?”

“Dorian was always brilliant. The world’s lesser for the loss of him. Lieutenant…”

He gripped his hands together again until the knuckles went white. “Please don’t allow Mina to see him until he’s… She told me he’d been tortured, and if there are physical signs —” He broke off, looked away for a moment. “Please don’t let her see him until he’s been made… I don’t want what was done to him to be her last memory of him. I know exceptional makeup artists.”

“You can trust Dr. Morris – the medical examiner – on this.”

“I don’t know this Morris.”

“I do. You can trust him.”

His gaze arrowed back, pinned hers. “If Dorian isn’t – if he doesn’t look as he should, I’ll hold this Morris, and you, responsible.”