“Probably.” Instead she just drove into the garage. “The uniforms need to get the lead out. Of what?” she wondered when she pulled into her slot. “Just what do you get the lead out of? Why would anybody haul lead around anyway? Language is ridiculous.”
“I always thought it was your ass—not literally,” Peabody added before they went down that road. “Just like you’re slow because you’ve got the lead ass.”
“What kind of ass do you have if you’re fast?” Eve countered as they walked to the elevator. “What’s the opposite of lead? Feathers? Hey, you’re a real feather ass. Nobody says that.”
They got into the elevator. “But they could,” she continued, “because people just make shit up, then other people say it, and then it’s a thing. I’m heading straight to Mira,” Eve continued while Peabody was still processing. “Start digging into Grange so we have solid data before we talk to Rufty.”
She rode up a handful of floors, then started to jump off to take the glides.
“Helium,” Peabody called out. “Maybe because it’s light it’s sort of the opposite of lead.”
“Well, those cops weren’t helium asses, not the way they were running.”
Eve continued on and, unlike her partner, who would ponder it for some time, she forgot the entire conversation.
Mira’s admin gave her the hard eye, but cleared the way.
Mira sat behind her desk in a suit of pale lavender with a little flouncy thing at the waist. She signaled Eve to wait while she finished her ’link call.
“No, of course. Don’t worry about that. I know, honey, I do. We’ll eat whenever you get home, and talk about it. You did, but it’s nice to hear it again. And I love you, too. I’ll see you at home. Bye now.”
She clicked off, sighed. “Dennis.”
“I kind of figured.”
“He’s taking Jay Duran’s Shakespeare Club meeting at five,” she said as she rose and crossed to her AutoChef on purple heels. Their open fronts revealed toes with nails painted the exact shade of the suit.
How did anyone think of that? Eve wondered.
“This has hit him very hard.”
“He was great with Duran,” Eve told her. “He helped, a lot.”
“I barely remember Elise.” The air filled with the scent of flowers as Mira took cups of tea from the AC. “I didn’t even have a clear picture until I brought up her data.”
“You didn’t really socialize.”
“No.” She handed Eve a cup, took a seat in one of her blue scoop chairs. “I don’t get to many of Dennis’s faculty functions. Work interferes. But I did meet her a few times. There are two teenage sons.”
“Yeah. I had Baxter and Trueheart get them out of school, take them to their grandparents. The victim’s mother found her.”
“What a terrible day for them. I’ve read the data on the murders, the forensics, the timelines. Tell me what you know.”
“The school—the Gold Academy—has to be the link. Duran had accepted the job at Columbia when Rufty came on as headmaster, but they worked there together for a semester. According to Duran, the previous headmaster had let a lot of things slide. More interested in courting parents with deep pockets than handling staff issues or problems with bullying, cheating, disciplinary problems. A group of teachers—including Duran—made
a formal complaint to the board.”
Mira sipped tea. “Was action taken?”
“I can’t confirm that as yet, but the previous headmaster—Lotte Grange—transferred to a high-toned prep school in East Washington, and Rufty came on board at the Gold Academy. Duran states that Rufty changed the tone, took action, made changes. For the better, in Duran’s opinion. I figure somebody didn’t share that opinion.”
“And you theorize someone is killing the spouses of those he had grudges against at Gold?”
“It’s what plays. Duran claims he didn’t have any serious problems or enemies, but—”
“What’s a momentary annoyance or past issue for one is a deep and abiding insult to another,” Mira finished. “And Rufty?”
“I’m meeting with him again shortly. I’ll take him back to that first semester. With Duran in this, it has to go back to that timeline. Before, no Rufty, after, no Duran. Potentially we could have someone who developed a hard-on for Duran before Rufty came along, and got going on Rufty after Duran left. But I start with that timeline.”