“We’re looking at every angle.”
When she gave Peabody the nod, Peabody took out her PPC, brought up the reproduction of the egg. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”
Rufty frowned over it. “A golden egg—like the goose? I suppose I have, in trinket shops, in drawings, that sort of thing. What does it mean?”
“We were able to reconstruct this from the broken pieces on your kitchen floor,” Eve told him. “In doing so, our forensic specialists were able to determine the inside of this … trinket had been painted with an airtight sealant, and a sealant had also been added to the edges of the open halves. When Dr. Abner opened this container, the toxin inside was released into the air. This caused his death.”
“But—but—that’s diabolical, isn’t it?” Rufty went very pale as his daughter put her arm tight around him. “We don’t know anyone like that. It had to have been meant for someone else.”
“Sir, the package was addressed specifically to your husband. I’m asking you now if Dr. Abner spoke of anyone in the last few weeks that concerned him, that he’d had an altercation with, or words with.”
“No one. I swear to you. I’d tell you. Why wouldn’t I tell you?”
As his voice rose, shook, tears blurred his eyes, his daughter, trembling, held him tighter. “Daddy, don’t be upset. We want to know who hurt Dad. We have to know.”
“But she said how everyone loved him.” He pointed at Peabody. “She understands that. And now someone…” He squeezed his eyes shut as Landa rose and slipped from the room. “All right, all right. Someone … this took planning and resources and knowledge and—and terrible cruelty. We don’t know anyone who could do this.”
He leaned toward Eve now, his eyes full of grief and pleas. “Understand, please understand, Kent and I lived a good life together, tried to do good work, to be good people. We raised our children to be good people, to do good work. To care. Please understand.”
“I do, Dr. Rufty. I do understand. Nothing your husband did caused this.”
Landa came back with a glass. “You drink this now, you take this soother. No argument. I’m a doctor, too, and, my darling, you drink the soother, or I get my medical bag.”
“He was so proud of you. He loved you like a daughter.”
“I know.” Landa pressed the soother on Rufty, kissed his cheek. “You drink this now, then you come upstairs with me and lie down awhile. I’ll stay with you.”
“But they have questions.”
“No, that’s all for now.” Eve rose. “Again, we’re sorry for your loss. Those are cop words, but they’re also true.”
It’s never just the dead, Eve thought as they got back in the car. Death—but most especially murder—ripped so many lives to shreds. And no matter how they were put back together, they were never, never the same.
For some killers, she thought, that miserable truth was a kind of bonus point.
* * *
They swung by Louise’s clinic, and found the waiting area packed. An enormously pregnant woman sat beside a woman with a squalling baby. The pregnant woman seemed delighted to coo over the type of being she’d soon have to deal with around the clock.
A trio of marginally older kids banged or squabbled over a collection of toys in a corner. Adults sat in chairs with watery eyes, hacking coughs, bandaged limbs, or simply the blind-eye expression of those waiting their turn in what reality deemed wouldn’t come quickly.
Eve walked to the check-in counter, started to take out her badge.
“Lieutenant, Detective, Dr. Dimatto’s expecting you. Go right through the side door. Sharleen will take you back to the doctor’s office. She’s with a patient,” the receptionist told Eve. “But she’ll be with you shortly.”
“Great. Thanks.”
Once through the door, a perky little redhead in a flowered tunic guided them past exam rooms, a lab station, and into Louise’s tidy office.
“She shouldn’t be too long,” Sharleen began.
“We can start with you,” Eve said, and made Sharleen blink.
“Oh. Okay. Um. Dr. Dimatto said we need to give you our cooperation.”
“Makes it easier all around. You knew Dr. Abner?”
“Sure. I’ve worked here about eight months now. Dr. Abner was one of our regular volunteer docs. He was just great with kids. I’m studying to be a pediatric nurse, so he let me assist him whenever he could.”
She paused, lost a few layers of perky. “I really liked him a lot. It’s hard to understand … It just isn’t sinking in, I guess.”
“Do you know of anyone he had problems with?”
“I just don’t. Like I said, he was really good with kids, and they liked him. Your kid likes the doc, you’re going to like the doc. And he never played big shot or sticky benefactor with the staff, if you know what I mean. He was just … just one of us.”
“Did you ever see him or interact with him outside of work?”
“No. Wait, that’s not true, I guess.” She held up a finger with the nail painted bright purple. “A couple months ago he had a late shift, and I was working. He walked me home after—insisted. I only live a couple blocks from here, but he didn’t want me walking home alone. It was late, and it was icy. He walked me home, so that was outside work.”
She sighed and the perky dissolved into distress. “He was nice that way.”
“All right. Sharleen, why don’t you see if anyone else is free to talk to us. You could send them back.”
“Sure. Okay.”
They got cooperation, anecdotes, regret from another two on staff before Louise came in.
“Sorry you had to wait.” With her traditional white coat flapping around a black shirt and pants, she headed straight to the mini-AC on a shelf behind her desk.
“It isn’t your blend, but it’s several steps up from the usual office-slash-waiting-room coffee. You want?”
“We’re good.”
“Sorry about your friend, Louise,” Peabody added.
“Thanks. Me, too.” She gulped down coffee, breathed out. “I want to say straight off I’m really glad it’s the two of you investigating. We’re pretty slammed today, but you can use the office for interviews, and I’ll have the staff come in on rotation.”
“We’ve already started,” Eve told her, and got a raised eyebrow.
“Is that so?”
“It is. We also have a warrant for anything relating to the victim that isn’t privacy protected.”
“Figured you would.” Louise walked to her desk, opened a drawer, took out a disc. “We came in last night after Charles and I talked to you. This is everything. It’s not much, Dallas. He was an invaluable asset to the clinic, but it was still only a handful of hours a week.”
Eve took the disc, passed it off to Peabody.
“And I should tell you, I spoke to the staff first thing—and contacted staff who are either off today or on the late shifts. I know you have to talk to them, be thorough—I want you to be thorough, but you’re not going to get anything.”