“Sir, the package was addressed specifically to your husband. I’m asking you now if Dr. Abner spoke of anyone in the last few weeks that concerned him, that he’d had an altercation with, or words with.”
“No one. I swear to you. I’d tell you. Why wouldn’t I tell you?”
As his voice rose, shook, tears blurred his eyes, his daughter, trembling, held him tighter. “Daddy, don’t be upset. We want to know who hurt Dad. We have to know.”
“But she said how everyone loved him.” He pointed at Peabody. “She understands that. And now someone…” He squeezed his eyes shut as Landa rose and slipped from the room. “All right, all right. Someone … this took planning and resources and knowledge and—and terrible cruelty. We don’t know anyone who could do this.”
He leaned toward Eve now, his eyes full of grief and pleas. “Understand, please understand, Kent and I lived a good life together, tried to do good work, to be good people. We raised our children to be good people, to do good work. To care. Please understand.”
“I do, Dr. Rufty. I do understand. Nothing your husband did caused this.”
Landa came back with a glass. “You drink this now, you take this soother. No argument. I’m a doctor, too, and, my darling, you drink the soother, or I get my medical bag.”
“He was so proud of you. He loved you like a daughter.”
“I know.” Landa pressed the soother on Rufty, kissed his cheek. “You drink this now, then you come upstairs with me and lie down awhile. I’ll stay with you.”
“But they have questions.”
“No, that’s all for now.” Eve rose. “Again, we’re sorry for your loss. Those are cop words, but they’re also true.”
It’s never just the dead, Eve thought as they got back in the car. Death—but most especially murder—ripped so many lives to shreds. And no matter how they were put back together, they were never, never the same.
For some killers, she thought, that miserable truth was a kind of bonus point.
* * *
They swung by Louise’s clinic, and found the waiting area packed. An enormously pregnant woman sat beside a woman with a squalling baby. The pregnant woman seemed delighted to coo over the type of being she’d soon have to deal with around the clock.
A trio of marginally older kids banged or squabbled over a collection of toys in a corner. Adults sat in chairs with watery eyes, hacking coughs, bandaged limbs, or simply the blind-eye expression of those waiting their turn in what reality deemed wouldn’t come quickly.
Eve walked to the check-in counter, started to take out her badge.
“Lieutenant, Detective, Dr. Dimatto’s expecting you. Go right through the side door. Sharleen will take you back to the doctor’s office. She’s with a patient,” the receptionist told Eve. “But she’ll be with you shortly.”
“Great. Thanks.”
Once through the door, a perky little redhead in a flowered tunic guided them past exam rooms, a lab station, and into Louise’s tidy office.
“She shouldn’t be too long,” Sharleen began.
“We can start with you,” Eve said, and made Sharleen blink.
“Oh. Okay. Um. Dr. Dimatto said we need to give you our cooperation.”
“Makes it easier all around. You knew Dr. Abner?”
“Sure. I’ve worked here about eight months now. Dr. Abner was one of our regular volunteer docs. He was just great with kids. I’m studying to be a pediatric nurse, so he let me assist him whenever he could.”
She paused, lost a few layers of perky. “I really liked him a lot. It’s hard to understand … It just isn’t sinking in, I guess.”
“Do you know of anyone he had problems with?”
“I just don’t. Like I said, he was really good with kids, and they liked him. Your kid likes the doc, you’re going to like the doc. And he never played big shot or sticky benefactor with the staff, if you know what I mean. He was just … just one of us.”
“Did you ever see him or interact with him outside of work?”
“No. Wait, that’s not true, I guess.” She held up a finger with the nail painted bright purple. “A couple months ago he had a late shift, and I was working. He walked me home after—insisted. I only live a couple blocks from here, but he didn’t want me walking home alone. It was late, and it was icy. He walked me home, so that was outside work.”