Dark in Death (In Death 46)

She made her way up to Homicide, and as she swung in noted Santiago sat at his desk. He wore a cowboy hat and a sulky expression.

She said, “You’re wearing the hat.”

“I know, boss. It’s on my head.”

“Why are you wearing the hat?”

He shifted to aim his sulky look at his partner. Detective Carmichael smiled her most serene smile. “A little bet,” she said, “on the Knicks game. Chicago wins, I spring for lunch for a week. Knicks win, he wears the hat for a week.”

“You bet against the Knicks? You deserve the hat.”

“I grew up in Chicago,” Santiago protested. “That’s gotta count.”

“The people of New York pay your freight, Santiago. That’s what counts.”

The sulk deepened. “Don’t you own the Celtics?”

“Roarke owns the Celtics,” she corrected. “And when they play the Knicks, they’re the enemy. We have standards in this division. Mets, Knicks, Giants, Rollers, Rangers. Get on board, Detective, or you may wear that hat permanently.”

“What about the Yankees, the Jets?”

Eve stared coldly. “Don’t make me write you up.”

She turned to Peabody as her partner clicked off her ’link.

“Got some of it lined up,” Peabody told her.

“My office.”

Eve walked straight to it, dumped the outdoor gear as Peabody followed.

“The DeLanos are coming in as soon as the girls leave for school. On the skank list … It’s heavy in skank, Dallas,” she said when Eve aimed a fresh stare. “On that I’m mostly getting machines. Your average skank’s not an early riser. I did tag one who hadn’t been to bed yet. She told me to fuck off, but since she’s currently on parole—jumped another skank in a club, attempted to shove second skank off the balcony. Both were intoxicated at the time. Also stoned. And as one Loxie Flash—legal name change from Marianna Beliski—is on parole, and in court-ordered rehab—which ingesting illegals and/or alcohol would break—and since she appeared to be under the influence of both, my suggestion that she come in or have her parole officer advised of this violation was met with a ‘Fuck you, I’ll be there.’ ”

Peabody’s rundown gave Eve a fairly clear picture. However. “I think we’ll refrain from referring to potential targets of a murderer as skanks.”

“Let’s see what you say after you deal with her, and the others once I run them down. I predict a skank parade. Anyway, I read your report. This Strongbow looks like a viable suspect. Obsessed.” Peabody ticked them off a list with her finger. “Pissed off. Threatening. Irrational.”

“Now we have to find her. I didn’t find a single Strongbow in Delaware after casting the net over the last five years. And the ones I’ve found in New York don’t fit.”

“It’s her nom de plume.”

“It’s her nom de bullshit, but we need to keep pushing on it. There’s probably some sort of connection. Going with the odds again, she’s in Brooklyn, low-rent digs, low-level job. We can start running females who relocated to Brooklyn around the date Strongbow wrote DeLano she’d taken the risk—so May ’58. Females living alone, no spouse, no cohab. No criminal,” Eve considered. “She never took a risk before, stayed in the background. We can flag any seamstresses, tailors—though that might just be hobby.”

“You really think she made that coat? If she did, that takes real talent.”

“I’ve exhausted the search, and that sort of reversible wouldn’t be hard to pin down if it’s retail. You’re going to run that down. You’ve got to get the material, right, whether she made it or had it made? If we continue with the living-on-a-budget line, having it made is less likely. If she made it, that dopey penguin material came from somewhere. Let’s find out where.”

“I’ve got some sources there that might be able to help. If she’s a serious craftsman, she wouldn’t order material online. You want to see it, feel it. And I’d guess she’d need a professional machine.”

“Tap the sources.”

“Will do. I want to study the security feed again, get a good zoom of the material. I bet my eyes would be sharper if I had coffee.”

Eve just jerked a thumb at the AC. “If you tap out with local sources, try Delaware. Maybe she brought it with her, the material. If she’s that good, she must’ve had specific venues for buying her supplies.”

“If she actually made it, she might be in the business. If she’s in the business, she probably gets her supplies wholesale.”

Frowning, Eve took the coffee Peabody handed her. “That’s a point. If you wash out with your suppliers, tag Leonardo.”