“Sure, Mick place down on Albany. Decent place, food’s tolerable.”
“What time does it close?”
“Two, earlier if it’s slow.”
“Okay. Thanks. Peabody?”
“Some blood. Some of the grass is ripped up, some’s tamped down. Got a couple of small scraps of cloth. Might be from an article of clothing.”
“I can see all that, Peabody. What do you see?”
“Well, I think he took her just inside the south entrance as she’d started in to cut across the park. Could’ve grabbed her outside, but more likely she cut in. He took her down here, assaulted, overpowered, tore some of her clothes in the struggle, though there’s no indication she put up much of a fight. Raped her here. I haven’t examined the body, but it looks like maybe she dug her fingers into the grass. As it appears to be the same MO as Maplewood, he would have strangled her at this point, taken her clothes, then carried her to the other location where he could pose her and remove her eyes.”
“Yeah, that’s what I see. Inside, though. She cut through, shortcut home. Patrols go by here regularly. Park stays pretty clean. Safe. He’d have to work fast, but that’s no problem for him. He’s got the routine knocked now. Time of death was oh two hundred, almost on the dot. First arrived two hundred twenty minutes. You factor in the time it took him to undress her, carry her, pose her, mutilate her, he cut it close this time.”
“He could’ve still been in the park when they arrived.”
Eve glanced back at Roarke, lifted her eyebrows.
“He could have heard them. Car pulls up, doors slam. He moves off, out of the lights, behind any number of trees. Wouldn’t he, if he could, enjoy watching her be discovered?”
“Yeah. Yeah, he would.”
“He’d only just finished with her. And wouldn’t he need a moment to pat himself on the back for the fine job he’d done?” Unable to help himself, Roarke glanced back to where Lily Napier lay on the bench. “He hears someone coming, and nips back. He’d kill them if he had to, that would be his thinking. But how gratifying it must have been to see cops find her, so quickly, so fresh, with him able to see. Then he’s out, the opposite direction, with a nice bonus to his evening.”
As she’d speculated along the exact same lines herself, she nodded. “You’re getting good at this. I want a thorough sweep of the entire park, every blade of grass, every flower petal, every tree.”
“He seals up, Lieutenant,” Peabody reminded her. “We don’t have his DNA, his blood type, his hair, nothing to match if they could find anything in an area this size.”
“He seals up.” Eve held out a hand, turned it over so the smears of blood shone in the light. “Me, too. We’re not looking for his DNA. We’re looking for hers.”
Again, she stepped back, but this time she gestured to Roarke. “Let’s take a little walk.”
“You’re hoping to be able to see his direction. Where he moved, how he moved.”
“Anything that adds a line to his picture’s good.” She needed to get away from cop eyes, from cop ears, and kept going until they were out of the park again, on the sidewalk. “I think, geographically, he’s closer to home here than he was with Maplewood. But it doesn’t matter to him. He’ll go where he needs to go.”
“And you didn’t come all the way out here to tell me that.”
“No. Look, there’s no point in you waiting. We’re going to be at this awhile, then I’ve got to go into Central.”
“Déjà vu.”
“Yeah. This guy likes night work.”
“You haven’t had more than an hour’s sleep.”
“I’ll catch some in my office.” She started to wipe her hand absently on her trousers, but he caught her wrist.
“Hold on.” He opened her field kit, took out a rag.
“Right.” Cleaning the blood off her hands, she stared back through the stone arch. The park was brilliant with light now. The sweepers, in their protective suits, moved through it like silent images on a screen. The media would pounce soon—they always did—and would have to be dealt with.
Before much longer, lights would go on in the windows of surrounding buildings. Some would glance out, see and wonder. Then civilians would have to be dealt with.
She was going to shut down the park. So the mayor would have to be dealt with.
The fun never quit.