Abandoned in Death, page 15
An oval mirror, framed in pale green, stood over a pale blue dresser with drawers painted to alternate the peach and green. Atop ranged a trio of fancy bottles, a faceted glass box, and a slim tray holding little candles.
No sign, Eve thought, of packing for a trip, outfits considered, tossed aside.
“Would you say this is how her room typically looks?”
“Oh, absolutely. If a hurricane blew through, M.K. would have everything back in its place within an hour.”
With a quick laugh, Cleo pointed across the hall to a room with bold, bright colors and cheerful disorder.
“I’m the hurricane. M.K.—sorry, Mary Kate and her sister, Tara, helped decorate my room, and the rest of the place. They’ve got vision, and Mary Kate needs order and, well, pretty, like she needs to breathe.”
Eve imagined Mary Kate felt short of breath at the moment, but didn’t say so. “We’d like to look through her things. I know it’s an intrusion, Cleo,” Eve continued when she saw Cleo’s anxiety, “but any detail can help us find her. I’d also like to send someone from EDD to take her D and C unit in, run a thorough search.”
“That’s for work. I mean to say, she’s really strict about that. Anything personal, she used her ’link or tablet. She wouldn’t even contact her mom from her home comp.”
“And still,” Eve said.
“Okay, yeah. Anything.”
“Thanks. Peabody, contact EDD, have this unit picked up.” As she spoke, she opened the closet door.
They spent an hour, and while they found nothing that pointed to where Covino might be, or the identity of who held her there, Eve added to her picture.
Girlie, organized, and—from her scan of the computer—hardworking. Family and friend oriented, and with a strong enough personality to have her less tidy roommate keep their shared space in order.
“Let’s walk down and have a conversation with the boyfriend.” Eve scanned the block when they came out of the building. “Plenty of places along here to keep tabs on the building. Shops, restaurants, and with the good weather, sitting outside having coffee or whatever. Still, he had to see her to want her.”
“The bar.” Peabody fell into step beside her. “Elder and Hobe both worked at bars, and Covino started hanging out in one, pitching in because of asshole boyfriend. He’s trolling bars looking for women who tick off points on his list.”
“Which means he’s been at this for months, most likely, not days, not weeks. This takes time. There’ll be others who didn’t make the cut, but it took time to eliminate them and select the ones that clicked for him.”
“Others,” Peabody agreed, “who wouldn’t be as easy to grab. They walked home or to transpo with somebody, or he found out they carried a sticker. Or … none of the three we’re looking at had kids. Yeah, young for it, but it happens.”
“Good point. His mother’s his mother, and nobody else’s.” She paused at a shop with an outdoor flower cart, then with a gesture to Peabody, went in.
Your basics, as Eve saw it. A small produce section, a tiny dairy one offset with shelves of dehydrated milk, eggs, soy products.
Candy, snacks, general household stuff.
She walked to the counter, where the clerk finished ringing up a sale. “Enjoy the day,” she said to the departing customer, offered Eve and Peabody an easy smile. “Help you?”
“Maybe.” Eve held up her badge and the photo of Covino on her ’link. “Do you recognize this woman?”
“Why?”
“She’s been reported missing. We’re looking for her.”
“Oh my God. No. I mean, yes, I recognize her. M.K., she’s in here several times a week. As nice as they come. But, wait, when she was in last—I guess last week—she said she was going on a little trip so wouldn’t be in.” The clerk, a tiny Black woman with a tat of a sinuous branch of ivy running from the inside of her elbow to her wrist, let out a huff of relief. “She went on a trip.”
“No,” Eve said, “she didn’t. She came in here regularly?”
“Yeah, yeah. For flowers once a week for sure, and just for this and that. Are you sure she didn’t go on that trip? She was awfully excited about it.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ivy, I’m Ivy. I don’t know what to think. I’d hate for anything to happen to that girl. Nice as they come.”
“Did you ever notice anyone, maybe who came in when she did? A male, likely Caucasian and in his sixties?”
“I get customers like that, sure, but nobody I noticed especially. If I’d seen anybody giving her the eye—the wrong kind of eye—I’d’ve said something. A sweetheart’s what she is. Takes time to chat a minute. Most are too busy or just don’t bother. She asks how I’m doing. My grandson—he works now and then after school or when I can squeeze him into it—he’s got a little crush on her.”
Ivy immediately looked horrified. “Zel would never—”
“Relax. Do you think Zel might have noticed someone you missed?”
“I can ask him. I can sure ask him. He’s coming in soon. Should be here any minute.”
“We have another stop to make in the neighborhood, then we’ll be back. We’d like to talk to him then.”
“Absolutely. I hope nothing’s happened to that girl. I’m going to say prayers for her.”
“Makes sense she’d use that shop,” Peabody said when they walked outside again. “And if he was watching her, getting her routine down, he may have gone in after her, at least once.”
“She talks to people—the shopkeeper, the grandson. I’m betting the glide-cart operator where she got her street coffee, or the bakery clerk where she picked up bagels or muffins. Let’s pull in a couple uniforms to hit the shops and restaurants along this stretch—from her subway stop to her apartment, and to the bar. And we’ll check the same from her workplace.”
“I’ll get that started.”
While Peabody arranged it, they took the turn to the bar. A lot of people out and about, Eve thought, enjoying the cafés, breezing in and out of shops, just strolling, enjoying the weather.
“Perfect time of year for it,” she commented. “Did he wait, I wonder, for the weather? So he could sit outside and watch, or wander along behind her? Why trudge along in the cold when you can stalk in the warm?”
When they reached the bar, Eve stood a moment, studying it.
“Night spot, doesn’t open until five, and that’s to grab the drink-after-work crowd. We’ll try upstairs.”
She mastered through the door to the apartments over the bar. In this case, she didn’t give the single gray-doored elevator with its frowny-face graffiti an instant’s consideration.
They took the stairs to the third floor.
She noted Stone’s apartment door had double security locks and a cam.
She buzzed, waited a few beats, buzzed again, then just leaned on the buzzer.
“Maybe he’s not in there,” Peabody suggested.
“Cam light blipped from red to green. He’s home.”
The door banged open a half inch to a double security chain. “What the fuck?”
“The fuck is this.” Eve held up her badge. “We’d like to speak with you, Mr. Stone.”
“Then come back when I’m not sleeping.”
“Happy to, with a search warrant, and we can have this conversation at Cop Central.” She turned away.
“Wait a damn minute.” He slammed the door, chains rattled. He yanked it open again and stood in a pair of black boxers that showed off a tanned, buff body. He swept a hand through a lot of disordered hair—milk-chocolate brown with a lot of sun-kissed highlights.
“I’m not even awake yet. I own the bar down below. I work nights. What’s this about?”
“Mary Kate Covino.”
“For Christ’s sake. Whiny woman goes off to sulk somewhere, and I get harassed over it? I need some goddamn coffee.”
“We’d like to come in, Mr. Stone, unless you’d like to have this conversation in the hallway, or down at Central.”
He made a come-ahead gesture, slammed the door behind them, then stalked off in his boxers to, Eve assumed, get his goddamn coffee.
The elevator and stairwell might be dicey, she concluded, but Stone lived lush.
Snappy furnishings in manly browns and blacks, slick double-size gel sofa, roomy leather chairs, an entertainment screen that spanned an entire wall.
His dining area held a glossy black table, with some sort of ornate copper centerpiece. A serving bar displayed several fancy decanters with the glass doors under it showing off sparkling glasses and a full wine fridge.
He stalked back out with a large white mug.
“Look, I’ll tell you what I told her nosy roommate. I don’t know where she is, and I don’t care. Guess what? It’s not my problem.”
Eve held up her badge again. “Guess what? I’m making it your problem.”
11
He walked over, dropped down in one of his leather chairs. Gulped coffee.
“So check the half crap of a condo she rented on the Jersey Shore. Her idea of a freaking love nest. She probably went there to cry in her pillow.”
“Gee, why didn’t we think of that?” Eve let the sarcasm drip. Stone just shrugged. “You have a lot of contempt for a woman you were recently involved with.”
“Involved’s a strong word. We had sex once in a while, for a while. It ran its course, and I showed her the door. Arrest me.”
“If there was a law against being a complete dick, we would.”
Eve raised her eyebrows at Peabody’s comeback, but said nothing.
“Unfortunately,” she continued, “there are so many we’d run out of room for them.”
“Listen, sister—”
“Detective.” Eve stepped closer to stare him down. “Detective Peabody and Lieutenant Dallas, and I believe my partner has just let you know you’re nobody special. You were in a sexual relationship with Ms. Covino.”
“We had sex, not a relationship.”
“Several nights a week, she worked in your bar.”
“She helped out—her idea. And she takes all that and blows it up into something. Not my problem.”
“Yet you agreed to take a trip with her to this half-crap condo on the Jersey Shore.”
He shrugged. “So I didn’t say no right off. I was thinking about it. Maybe I even said sure, we’ll do that, fix it up. I changed my mind, and she couldn’t handle it. Dragged her dumbass suitcase into my place, puts it in the back like she owns the joint. Pissed me off.”
“Did she help you out in the bar that night before you changed your mind?”
“Sure. I was busy. I run a popular place, so I didn’t get around to it for a while. I tried letting her down easy. Told her I wasn’t going to be able to make it, and she got pushy. Not my problem she took off work, not my problem she put down a deposit. I can see she was going to make a scene out of it, so I cut it off. We’re done, there’s the door.”
He shrugged again. “Women just can’t take the moment and move on. We had some fun, that’s it. It’s why I’ve got a firm policy none of them stay the night. Makes them get too cozy. And what do they do? Leave something—a scarf, a hair thing, lip dye, whatever, so they have an excuse to come back. Pathetic. Like I don’t get that?”
Idly, Eve wondered why so many ugly people had beautiful faces.
“What time did she leave?”
“How the hell do I know? I didn’t clock her out. About midnight,” he said when Eve stared. “Left her damn suitcase.”
“Did you try to contact her so she could come back for it?”
“Hell no—that’s what they want. I give it a week, then I toss it—whatever they leave.”
“Did you notice anyone in the bar when she helped you out? Male, White, in his sixties, probably alone?”
“Hell, we get plenty of those. It’s a popular place. If they’re not causing trouble, I don’t pay much attention to old men. Look, she’s just trying to get my attention. That’s what they do.”
“Do they? Well, in this case, she has ours. Where is Ms. Covino’s property?”
“Where she left it. Like I’m going to drag it up here, give her an excuse to come to the door.”
“Put some clothes on, open the bar. We’ll take it with us.”
“You expect me to get dressed—”
“Since I can’t arrest you for being a complete dick, I’d be thrilled to arrest you for indecent exposure. You’ve been flashing your actual dick since you sat down. While it’s not very impressive, I could make a case. Put some pants on. Ms. Covino’s suitcase is evidence.”
He went from slouch to poker straight. “You’ve got no business talking to me that way. I pay your fucking salary.”
“Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. File a complaint—but put your pants on first, and give me my evidence.”
He pushed up, stormed to a closet in the hallway off the bedroom, came back with the suitcase.
“Evidence, my ass.”
“Funny, this doesn’t look like the back room of your bar.”
“So I forgot I brought it up here to get it out of the way. When she comes slinking back after her snit, I’m going to demand an apology from all of you.”
“Good luck with that.” Eve pulled up the handle, rolled the suitcase to the door. “Thanks for your time, and for revealing yourself to be an asshole.”
She shut the door. “Let the roommate know we have the suitcase. It’s now evidence, and we’ll return it as soon as possible.”
“I’m so steamed.”
“Shake it off.” Eve shoved the handle down, hefted the bag up—it had weight!—to carry it down the stairs. “He’s nothing. I did admire your remark about not enough cage room to arrest complete dicks.”
“It just popped right out. The way he demeaned her, well, all of us, women in general.”
“It’ll catch up with him. Sooner or later he’ll pull that shit with the wrong woman. But for now, Mary Kate Covino’s a lot more important than he is.”
“He lied about bringing the suitcase up there just to give us grief. I mentally kicked him in the groin, several times.”
“Good target, since that’s where he lives. I feel there’s another way. Like doing a search on former female employees who have either quit or been fired. Wouldn’t it be fun if we found some who had a story about leaving his employ due to his sexual treatment of them?”
Peabody said nothing for nearly thirty seconds. “Dallas, Lieutenant, sir, you are my hero. I am mentally kissing you on the mouth.”
“Keep it in your head or my boot meets your ass.”
“It might be worth it, but my admiration at this moment is too deep to cause your wrath. Can I do it, please, please? I can ask McNab to help. Off duty. Our own time.”
“It’s all yours. What do you suppose she packed in here?” Eve wondered when they reached the street. “It weighs a freaking ton.”
“Oh shit, and I didn’t even offer to carry it.”
“So noted.” She pulled up the handle, pushed the case at Peabody. “Take it to the car, seal it, log it. Contact Covino’s boss, tell them we’re coming in. I’ll stop by the market and talk to Zel if he’s there.”
He was, and as upset and cooperative as his grandmother. But he couldn’t add anything. Still, Eve left a card and a request to contact her if they remembered anything or anyone.
They hit the marketing firm next.
Eve found a high-energy atmosphere in the converted warehouse. Lots of open space with splashes and slashes of color in contrast, likely deliberate, with the industrial framework. She might have equated the sound and movement to EDD, except the denizens weren’t dressed like circus performers.
What passed as the lobby area looked more like a loungy living area in someone’s upscale home. Sofas, chairs, tables arranged in conversational groups, a bar area offering choices of water and soft drinks, coffees, teas, lent an air—certainly deliberate—of casual hospitality.
A man and a woman worked at the counter, chatting away on earbuds. The woman said, “Hold please,” and tapped hers as Eve and Peabody approached. “Hi! How can I help you?”
Eve held up her badge, and the woman hopped up before she could speak.
“You’re here about M.K. Is she okay? Sly! It’s about M.K.”
Her coworker’s eyes widened as he ended the call. “Is she okay?”
“We haven’t located Ms. Covino. We’d like to see her work space and speak to her immediate supervisor.”
“I’ll take you right up. I’ve got this, Andi. We only heard about her being missing a little while ago.”
He led them to a freight elevator. Eve looked longingly at the iron steps leading up to the open upper floors, but got in.
“Were you and Ms. Covino friends?”
“We’re all friends here. We all thought she was at the beach for a few days with her boyfriend.”
“Has anyone come in asking about or for her?”
“Her roommate, Cleo, called this morning, and a detective from the police a little while ago.”
“Before that. In the last few weeks?”
“No. I mean, clients, accounts, that sort of thing. Her sister, her brother, or her mom or dad drop in now and again. And Cleo—her roommate—sometimes. Linny’s chill with family or friends visiting.”
The elevator door clanked open into spacious work areas. No cubes so staff mixed and mingled as they worked. Offices had doors open. Sly led them to one with a corner view.
The woman behind the desk had her feet, clad in red sneaks, on it and her eyes on a screen where what looked like a family of four enjoyed a rollicking breakfast.
“Linny, sorry, the police are here.”
“Hold vid.” Linny swung her feet off the desk, rose to a good six feet in height.
She wore her ink-black hair in a skullcap, had a tiny red stud winking on the right side of her nose and enormous silver hoops in her ears.
She thrust out a hand. “Linny Dowell, thank you so much for coming. I’ve got this, Sly, thanks. And close the door.” The minute it did, her brisk welcome turned to fear. “I recognize you. Mary Kate … please say it fast.”
