“You’ve got something. I know you, and you’ve got something.” Eyes narrowed, Nadine jabbed a finger toward Eve. “Do you have a suspect? How close are you to making an arrest?”
“And you know me well enough to know I’m not going to answer any of that.”
“Off the record.” Nadine held up her hands to signal no recorder. “I might be able to help.”
She had in the past, no question. But here, Eve thought, it couldn’t be done.
“You’re going to say no. Before you do let me tell you that when you’ve worked the crime beat the way I have, you get to see how cops work-the good, the bad, the indifferent. You see what it is to do the job you’re doing. Now this kid, this cop’s kid is murdered this way, and it comes practically on the heels of Detective Coltraine’s murder. It’s hard to stand back from that. I can be objective, Dallas, because that’s my job. But it matters.”
Eve contemplated her coffee. “Maybe you’d want to do a segment on your show on high-end security systems.”
“Isn’t that odd? I was just considering doing a segment on Now! on high-end home security systems.”
“Spooky.” Eve cocked her hip, slid a hand into her pocket as she drank. “A lot of experts feel the Interface Total Home 5500 is one of the best, if you can afford it. You know, as a cop, I have to wonder: Do people shell out for something like that because they want to be secure, or because they have something to hide?”
Nadine gave her slow, feline smile. “That’s an interesting angle.”
“Maybe. You know, thousands of people in New York bought that system, and pay for the regular updates and maintenance-Security Plus being a big and trusted service agent. Probably most of them are just careful law-abiding types. Then again, it only takes one.”
“It would be hard to find that one who bought it for reasons other than law-abiding ones.”
“A long, tedious process,” Eve agreed easily. “Even if you, say, decided to check out those customers with certain initials. Like D.P. or even V.P. That would narrow it down some, but odds are you’d have to wade through hundreds.”
“True, but reporters and their research staffs are hardwired to wade through the tedious.”
“Yeah. Cops wouldn’t know anything about that.” Eve smiled thinly. “Go away, Nadine. I have a meeting.”
“I’ll see you at noon.” Nadine rose, started for the door. “And I’m looking forward to the upcoming wedding festivities, including the slumber party.”
“Shut up.”
With a laugh, Nadine sauntered out, and finishing her coffee Eve thought at least she’d come up with a possible way to cut down on those possibles.
16
EVE WALKED INTO WHITNEY’S OFFICE TO find both men standing. Though MacMasters still looked pale, and there were lines dug deep around his eyes and mouth that hadn’t been there even at their last meeting, he seemed… straighter, she thought.
And the cold, hard look in his eyes told her he was ready.
“Detective Peabody is handling some assignments, and about to pursue a lead,” Eve began. “I thought it better for her to stay on top of that than to attend this meeting.”
“Jack told me you… The commander informs me you have a possible lead that connects to an old case of mine.”
“I do. We were able to identify an individual through image matching with the sketch Detective Yancy composited from the two witnesses. He’s identified as Darrin Pauley, with a residence listed in Alabama.”
“Alabama.”
“Captain, we believe this identification is falsified, and that this subject may be involved in fraud, cyber crime, and identity theft. I spoke with Vincent Pauley, who is listed as the subject’s father on this identification.”
She ran through it briefly, watched MacMasters struggle to pinpoint the names, the details, the case.
“Twenty years ago?”
“I believe it was twenty-one years. We are accessing all data on the investigation, the individuals involved. You got the collar, Captain. You worked with a detective named Frisco, who went down in the line six years later.”
“Frisco trained me. He was a good man, solid cop.”
“I have a copy of the file. Looking through it might jump your memory.”
“Use my desk,” Whitney told him, and plugged in the disc Eve offered. “Meanwhile, Lieutenant.” He gestured her a few feet away. “You’ll have the file on the Illya Schooner murder this morning. A Lieutenant Pulliti, retired, was primary on that investigation. He’ll contact you. I have the name and contact data for a Kim Sung, who was a guard assigned to Irene Schultz’s cell block during her incarceration.”
“Thank you, sir. The information should be helpful.”
“I remember a few tricks.”
“I know this,” MacMasters murmured. “I remember this. I was still in uniform, hadn’t taken the detective’s exam yet. Frisco let me take the lead on it. We got a tip from one of our weasels on this woman running scams. She’d solicit a john, then she’d copy his ID, his credit card. Next thing he knew, he’d have all these bogus charges, or he’d find his bank account lighter by a few thousand. A lot of marks don’t report that, especially if they’re married or involved, or have something more to lose.”
MacMasters studied the screen, nodding slowly. “Yeah, I remember this. I remember her. She had, apparently, been targeting the type least likely to make noise. But she scammed the weasel’s brother, and that rolled it out to us. Frisco and I set up a sting. I posed as the mark and we trolled the area where she was known to work.”
“And she bit,” Eve prompted when MacMasters fell silent.
“Sorry, it takes me back. Before Deena was born, when Carol and I were just beginning, when Frisco was alive. He was a tough bastard. Sorry,” he repeated, bringing himself back. “Yes, she bit the second night. It was clean and simple. We busted her on the solicitation without a license, found illegals on her, and a cloner.”
His eyes narrowed as if he worked to see clearly back through two decades. “Yeah, that little cloner. It was slick, I remember that, too. Barely the size of her palm. Pretty damn slick considering it was twenty years back. She had my ID on her, too. I’d never felt her lift it. She was stoned, and she still pulled the civilian ID I’d put in my pocket without me feeling the grab, even though I’d been waiting for it.”
“She’d been using?” Eve asked.
“Yeah. She didn’t have the look of a longtimer, of the street, but she was high. She had ups and Exotica on her, and both in her system. Maybe she needed them to have sex with the marks.”
“How’d she play it?” Eve asked him. “Did she try to barter, work a deal, bitch, cry?”
“No, none of the usual. She-the impression I’m remembering is she seemed shaken, a little scared. That’s what I’m remembering, and that she wanted her call right off. You see that here in the notes. She wouldn’t say anything about anything until she’d made her call. But she didn’t call a lawyer, like we figured she would. She cried then. That’s right,” he mumbled. “She started crying during the call. I could see her through the glass, the tears running down her face, and I felt…”