Golden in Death (In Death 50)

“No. It’s mostly droids and automation at my distribution center. They load my van, upload the schedule—overnights with A.M. deliveries or special deliveries first and so on. It was—had to be because it was this morning—an overnight A.M. I don’t get what this is about.”

“We believe the package contained an as-yet-unidentified toxic substance.”

Lydia’s blue eyes went momentarily blank, then filled with alarm. “You mean like poison or something? Like terrorism or something?”

“We have no reason to believe, at this time, we’re dealing with any kind of terrorist attack.” Not altogether true, Eve thought.

“How do you know there was toxic stuff? Did Dr. Abner get sick?”

“Dr. Abner’s dead. He died shortly after receiving and opening the package.”

“Dead? He’s dead!” Those blue eyes filled. “But … Oh my God. Oh my God, Teela!”

Teela immediately slid off the arm, into the chair with Lydia, wrapped her arms around her. “Lydia touched it. Is she—”

“We believe the substance was released upon opening.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Dr. Abner. He’s such a nice man. He and Dr. Rufty are so sweet together. You can tell when people are sweet together. I really liked them. I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know anything was wrong with the delivery. I never would have—”

“No one’s accusing you,” Peabody soothed. “Do you know of anyone, in their neighborhood, at your work, anywhere, who might have disliked Dr. Abner?”

“No. I know some of their neighbors because it’s my route. But nobody ever said anything mean, or much at all. Sometimes if a neighbor isn’t home and doesn’t have a delivery box, one of the others will take it for them—you have to have a waiver on file for that. Some of them do. The doctors will sometimes take deliveries for the people on either side of them, and they do that for the doctors, too. It’s a really nice, friendly street. But today, the only package on that block was for Dr. Abner.

“Oh God, is Dr. Rufty okay? I don’t think he was home. It looked like Dr. Abner was going out for a run. I sometimes see him running when I’m on my route, and see Dr. Rufty coming home if I have late-afternoon deliveries.”

“Dr. Rufty wasn’t home at the time.”

“I don’t know what to do. Is there something I should do? What should I do?” she asked Eve.

“If you think of anything, you can contact me or Detective Peabody.”

“You have to find out what happened. He was a really nice man. He looked so happy this morning. I remember that. He just looked happy, and said how it was going to be a beautiful day. You have to find out what happened.”

“We’re working on it.”

Out on the sidewalk, Eve considered the next steps. “The victim’s office is closed by this time. You head home, and on the way contact Abner’s office manager or whoever’s in charge.”

“Seldine Abbakar’s listed as office manager—I pulled up the website.”

“Good. Contact her, set up a meeting with the full office staff for the morning, as early as you can make it. Just text me the time, and I’ll meet you there. You can keep McNab on tap—we’re going to need to go through the electronics.”

“Medical records,” Peabody began.

“That’s why I’m going to start working on a warrant on the way home. Hell, they can cull out the patient records. If this is an angry patient, the office staff’s going to have an idea who. The spouse would have had an idea who.”

“Technically his patients are babies and kids up to the age of sixteen.”

“I’ve seen a lot of pissed-off babies,” Eve countered. “And don’t get me started on kids and teens. And they’d have a parent or parents. Anyway, set it up. I’ll get the board and book started at home, write it up.”

“I get the easy part.”

“This time. If you can’t get the interviews before eight, we meet at the morgue, seven A.M., go from there.”

“Always a fun way to start the day.”

“Get the interviews,” Eve repeated and, still ignoring the vehicles and drivers blasting and cursing, slid into her car.

She flipped down the On Duty light, zipped out in front of a guy who was already giving her the finger.