“Why is it always me?” Jo demanded. “He started it. He won’t . . .” She trailed off, flushing deeply when she spotted Eve and Peabody. “I didn’t know anyone was here.”
“Jo, baby—”
“I’m Lieutenant Dallas. This is my partner, Detective Peabody.”
“Police? Are you going to haul that freak off?”
“You’re the freak.” A boy, curly brown hair shagging in the current style, eyes just as violent as his sister’s, snarled as he stormed down the steps.
“Stop! Both of you! Now!”
At last, Eve thought. Obviously stunned by the tone and the order, both kids stopped and stared at their mother as they might a two-headed alien.
Eve stepped up, pointed to a chair. “Sit.”
“Am I in trouble? I haven’t done anything. I swear.”
“Freak,” the boy muttered under his breath, then visibly shrunk under Eve’s frigid stare.
Eve turned back to Jo. “I’m sorry to inform you that Deena MacMasters was killed this morning.”
“Huh?” It was knee-jerk disbelief. “What?” And the tears welled and spilled instantly. “Mom? Mom? What is she saying?”
Though Eve preferred to leave weepers to Peabody, she sat across from Jo, kept their faces level as the mother squeezed into the chair to put her arms around her daughter.
“Someone killed her. Someone she knew. A boy she’s been seeing secretly. What’s his name?”
“She is not dead. We went shopping on Saturday with Hilly. Why are you saying that?”
The brother moved to her other side, all anger forgotten.
“She let someone into the house while her parents were away. Who was she dating?”
“Nobody.”
“Lying doesn’t help her now.”
“Lieutenant, please. Can’t you see how upset she is? We all are.”
“Her parents are upset, too. They came home and found their daughter dead. Who was she seeing, Jo? What’s his name?”
“I don’t know. Mom. Mom. Make her go away.” She turned her face, pressing it to her mother’s breast. “Make it go away.”
“It can’t go away.” Eve said it coldly, before Mrs. Jennings could speak. “It happened. Were you her friend?”
“Yes. Yes.”
“I’ll get her some water,” Peabody murmured, and turned away to find the kitchen.
“Tell me everything you know. It’s the only way to help her now. If you’re her friend, you want to help her.”
“But I don’t know. I really don’t. I never met him, or even saw him. She just called him David. She said his name was David, and he was wonderful. They met in the park a few weeks ago. She ran there a couple times a week. More sometimes.”
“Okay. How did they meet?”
“She liked to run, and this one day he was on the same path, and he tripped. He went down pretty hard, so she stopped to see if he was okay. He was all embarrassed, and he’d banged his knee a little, turned his ankle, you know? And he told her he was fine, not to stop, but when he tried to get up, his water bottle was broken and spilled all over, and he was more embarrassed because it got her shoes wet. They went over to sit on the grass, started talking a little, so she could make him feel better. And he was really cute.”
“What did he look like?”