“You know it wasn’t you she hated because she never knew you. Not really. And her lack of feeling wasn’t-isn’t-your fault. It was-and is-her lack. You’re a difficult woman, Eve.”
She laughed a little, jerked a shoulder. “Yeah. So?”
“A difficult woman, often abrasive, moody and demanding, and impatient.”
“Are you going to get to my good parts any time soon?”
“I don’t have that much time.” But Mira smiled, pleased to hear the habitual sarcasm. “But your flaws, as some might see them, don’t prevent those who know you from loving you, respecting you, admiring you. Tell me what you remembered.”
Eve blew out a breath, and ran through it with the cool dispassion and attention to detail she’d use in a police report.
“I don’t know where we were. I mean what city. But I know she whored for money and drugs, and that was okay with him. I know she wanted to ditch me, and that wasn’t okay with him because he had other plans for me. For his investment.”
“They weren’t your parents.”
“I’m sorry?”
“They conceived you-egg and sperm. She incubated you, and expelled you from her body when it was time. But they weren’t your parents. There’s a difference. You know there is.”
“I guess I do.”
“You didn’t come from them. You overcame them. There’s another difference. Let me say one more thing before my assistant chews through my door and punishes me for ruining her schedule. You’ve also left your mark, and had an impact on more lives than either of us can count. Remember that when you look in the mirror, and into your own eyes.”
Chapter11
WhenEve walked into the break room,Baxter was chowing down on an enormous sandwich that smelled too good and looked too fresh to have come out of the facility’s AutoChef, any of the vending machines, or the take-out counter at the Eatery.
It looked civilian and delicious.
Beside him at the square table, the sweet-faced Trueheart was making neat work of a leafy salad topped with chunks of chicken. Across from them, a woman who looked to have seen the dawn and dusk of a couple of centuries beamed goodwill over them.
“There now,” she said in a reedy voice, “isn’t that better than anything you can get out of a machine?”
“Glump,”Baxter responded over bread and meat in what was obviously delirious agreement.
Trueheart, who was younger, nearly as green as his salad, and whose mouth wasn’t quite as full at the time, scraped back his chair when he spottedEve. “Lieutenant.” He shot to attention asBaxter rolled his eyes in amusement over the rookie, and adoration over his sandwich.
He swallowed. “Jeez, Trueheart, save the brownnosing until after I digest.Dallas, this is the amazing and wonderfulMrs.ElsaParksy. Mrs. Parksy, ma’am, this isLieutenantDallas, the primary investigator you wanted to see.”
“Thanks for coming in,Mrs.Parksy.”
“My duty, isn’t it? As a citizen, not to mention as a friend and neighbor.Lois looked after me when I needed it, now I’ll look after her, best I can. Sit down, dearie. Have you had your lunch?”
Eveeyed the sandwich, the salad, and ignored the envy that swirled in her mostly empty stomach. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I told these boys I’d fix extra. Can’t abide food out of a machine. It’s not natural. DetectiveBaxter, you offer some of that sandwich to this girl. She’s too skinny.”
“I’m fine, really. DetectiveBaxter told me you saw a man leavingMrs.Gregg ’s apartment building on Sunday morning.”
“Did. I didn’t talk to the police before as I went straight on to my grandson’s after church and stayed overnight. Didn’t get back home until this morning. Heard aboutLois on the news yesterday, of course.”
The countless wrinkles in her withered raisin of a face shifted in whatEve took for sorrow.
“I’ve never been so shocked and sad, even when myFred, God rest him, fell under the Number Three train back in2035. She was a good woman, and a good neighbor.”
“Yes, I know she was. What can you tell us about the man you saw?”
“Hardly paid him any attention. My eyes are pretty good yet. Got them fixed up again last March, but I wasn’t paying him much mind.”
Absently, she pulled a pack of nap-wipes out of a cavernous handbag, and passed them toBaxter.
“Thank you,Mrs.Parksy,” he said in a humbled, respectful voice.
“You’re a good boy.” She patted his hand, then turned her attention back toEve. “Where was I? Oh yes. I was just coming out to wait for my grandson. He comes by every Sunday at nine-fifteen, to take me to church. You go to church?”
There was a quick and beady gleam inMrs. Parksy’s eyes, causingEve to hesitate between the truth and a convenient lie.
“Yes, ma’am,” Trueheart spoke up, his face solemn. “I like to go to Mass atSt. Pat’s when I can get into Midtown on Sunday. Otherwise, I go to Our Lady of the Sorrows, downtown.”
“Catholic, are you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Well, that’s all right.” She patted his hand in turn, as if it wasn’t his fault.
“You saw the man come out fromMrs. Gregg’s building,”Eve prompted.
“Said I did, didn’t I? He came out just a minute after I stepped out my own front door across the street. Had on a gray uniform and carried a black toolbox. Had a blue plastic basket in his other hand, like the kind they have down at the market. Couldn’t see what was in it, ‘cause it was a ways, and I wasn’t staring at the man.”
“What can you tell me about how he looked?”
“Looked like a repairman, is all. White man, or maybe mixed. Hard to tell as the sun was blasting. Don’t know how old. Not as old as me. Thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, that’s all the same when you hit your century mark, and I hit mine seventeen years ago last March. But I’d say thirty or forty as a best guess.”
“Congratulations,Mrs.Parksy,” Trueheart said and she smiled at him.
“You’re a very nice young man. This other, he had a cap on, uniform cap, and sunglasses. Dark ones. Had mine on, myself. Sun was blazing even though it was early. He saw me. Couldn’t see his eyes, of course, but he saw me, as he sent me a big-as-life grin and gave me this little bow. Sassy’s what I call it, and I just sniffed and looked the other way, as I don’t hold with sass. Sorry about that now. Wish I’d watched after him more.”
“Which direction did he go?”
“Oh, he headed east. Spring in his step, like a man pleased with his morning’s work. Bad business, bad business when a man can all but skip out the door and onto the sidewalk when he’s killed a woman.Lois went to the market for me more than once when I was feeling poorly, and she brought me flowers to cheer me up. Always had a minute to chat. I wish I’d known what he’d done when I saw him. My grandson drove up just a minute or two later. He’s always prompt. I’d’ve told him to run that murdering bastard down on the street. As God is my witness, I would’ve.”
She workedMrs.Parksy until she was sure she had everything the woman could give her, then passed her to Trueheart, asking him to escort her to a uniform for transport home.
“Baxter, another minute here.” She dug in her pocket and discovered she’d givenPeabody all her credits earlier. “Got enough on you for a Pepsi?”
“What’s wrong with using your badge number? You over your limit?”
She gave him a disgusted look, with a sulk right on the edges. “I plug in my badge number, the machine will give me grief. The one up by our squad hates me, has a personal vendetta. And they talk to each other,Baxter. Don’t think they don’t communicate.”