Page 58 of Random in Death

She took out her gauges. “TOD, twenty-two-forty-two. Two minutes after the nine-one-one. How much longer from the injection? Not much. It won’t be much.”

Arlie also wore a cross-body bag, a larger one than Jenna’s. Opening it, Eve read off the contents for the record.

“Purse contains victim’s ID, twenty-six dollars in cash, a ’link, two key swipes, some makeup, a roll-on scent, a toothbrush, two condoms sealed in their packs, a change of underwear.”

Roarke handed her an evidence bag.

“Weren’t going home tonight, were you, Arlie?”

“Peabody and McNab are coming.”

“About damn time.”

She took out microgoggles to get a closer look at the injection site.

Same damn thing.

“Dallas, sorry, sorry. I didn’t put the comm by the bed like I always do. We were dead asleep. Neither of us heard the comm for I don’t know how long.”

In the big scheme, Eve thought, it didn’t really matter.

Another teenage girl wouldn’t go home again.

“Bring in the morgue, the sweepers. Got a little puke there, so mark it. Sweepers aren’t likely to find much in this mess. Over two thousand people stomped around.”

“Media’s swarming,” Peabody told her.

“Yeah, I bet they are.”

“Nadine’s out there with Quilla and Jamie. Jamie asked us to ask you if he could assist, since Nadine’s here.”

As she rose, Eve let out a sigh. “Go ahead and bring him in, McNab. He sticks with you. Take whatever group was onstage at the time of the attack. They’re holding them behind the stage in tents. Tell him to keep his mouth shut, his ears and eyes open so he can learn something.”

She stepped around the shield the uniforms had set up.

“Peabody, with me. She came with three people, and one of them was trying CPR. Are you sticking?” she asked Roarke.

“Can I be useful?”

“You could review whatever footage the vid crew has. They’d have panned over the crowd a few times. You see the angle here, and you know what we’re looking for. That would be useful.”

“All right then.”

Peabody lengthened her strides to keep up with Eve’s. “I’m really sorry for the delay. I should’ve been here before you. We hung around the house longer than we should have, then we just crashed.”

“I’m not pissed. I was going to be, but we’ve been on with hardly a break for twenty-four. I ran the victim on the way here. No connection I can find to Jenna Harbough other than age. Even then, this vic’s about a year older.”

“He hit them both downtown. Not in the same sector, but that may say he lives or works downtown.”

“It may. Hold on.” She stopped at the stage, climbed the short steps to it. Then looked out.

“She wasn’t as close as Jenna, but if you’re standing up here, you could see her if you looked that way. You could see someone moving in on her, or dooser-walking away.”

She jumped off. “We’ve got her boyfriend and two female friends. They’re not suspects, so we’ll take them together. One might jog something out of another’s memory.”

Well behind the stage she found three tents that had probably once been white. She stopped a uniform.

“Which one has the people who were with the victim?”

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