Vendetta in Death (In Death 49)

By the time she strapped on her weapon harness, Roarke buckled his belt—and managed to look elegant in black jeans and a thin, steel gray sweater.

“I’ll drive, and you can check who lives at 26 Vandam.”

She didn’t argue there, either. As she strode out of the room, Galahad gave them a glare with his bicolored eyes, yawned, then rolled over and went back to sleep.

Eve started the search while she jogged downstairs, grabbed her coat on the fly.

“I’ve got a Thaddeus Pettigrew and a Marcella Horowitz—singlefamily residence. Male DOB means that’s him if it’s the resident. He owns the house.”

As Roarke had already remoted her vehicle from the garage, it slowed to a stop as they walked outside in the dark, the chill.

He got behind the wheel, ordered two black coffees from the in-dash AC. Eve downed more coffee while he punched it toward the gates. Rather than wait for them to open, he hit vertical.

“I’m checking to see if I can find a connection—personal, business—with McEnroy. If this does connect, one way or the other, she’s killed two in two days. That’s fast work. Fast work.”

“A mutilated male body left at his residence? Odds are.”

“Yeah, well. I’ve got a Pettigrew in McEnroy’s London office, but that’s a Mirium, and no connection to a Thaddeus that shows. This guy was a lawyer, a partner in Moses, Berkshire, Logan, and Pettigrew. Looks like he specialized in financials, estate law, like that. Divorced, no kids. Ex lives Upper East.”

She kept searching. “Might not be Pettigrew.”

“Odds are,” Roarke said again.

“We wait and see. Vandam. Quiet neighborhood. Upper middle class. Pettigrew can afford the neighborhood, since he rakes in a good annual with the law firm. And since he came into a windfall … the same time he got the divorce. Settlement? Fifteen-point-six million isn’t chump change.”

She let it ride. Better to walk into the crime scene without theories or leans.

When Roarke pulled up behind the cruiser, Eve noted the cops on scene had put up the barricades. Even as she got out, she spotted Peabody, with McNab in tow, hoofing up from the corner.

She held up her badge, ducked under the tape.

“My partner and an EDD detective.” She gestured as she studied the body. “Report, Officer.”

“We got the nine-one-one at three-forty-three, Lieutenant, and arrived on scene at three-forty-five. My partner’s walking the nine-one-one caller down the block to his place so he can put his dog in the house. He was walking his dog, found the body. We secured the scene and the wit, rang the bell on the house here, knocked. No response. The wit said he thinks it could be the guy who lives here, but he couldn’t be a hundred percent. Wit’s Preston DiSilva.”

“Peabody,” she said as her partner approached. “Take the nine-one-one caller.”

“Officer Markey’s got the wit, Detective,” the uniform said to Peabody. “His pup was getting pretty agitated, so Markey escorted him back to 22 Vandam.”

“I’ve got it.” She looked down at the body, back at Eve. “Two for two.”

No mistaking it, Eve thought, and took the field kit Roarke handed her. Crouching, she opted to ID the victim first. No surprise there, she mused.

“Victim is identified as Pettigrew, Thaddeus, of 26 Vandam. McNab, Roarke, take the house, clear it. Check the security feed. There are outside cams. He lived with a female. Horowitz, Marcella. If she’s in there, keep her in there. Just let me know if she’s in there and breathing.”

As they moved past her, Eve settled into it.

“The body shows multiple and severe burns, welts, lacerations, contusions. Wounds on the wrists indicate restraints. It appears both arms are dislocated at the shoulders. ME to confirm. Possible COD, blood loss from the amputation of genitalia.

“Escalation of violence demonstrated with this victim from McEnroy though method appears to match. As with McEnroy, a sign is tacked to the body, a poem.”

He had it all but wanted more,

So he cheated whore by whore.

He lived through lust and lies and greed,

The quest for money, sex, and power his creed.