Page 65 of Random in Death

“You should sit down, Ms. Dillon.” As gently as Peabody, Roarke took Tisha’s arm, guided her to a chair in cheerfully striped blue and green. “Could I get you some water?”

She looked at him. The plea in her eyes, the one that said, so clearly, Say it’s not true, died away.

“No. No, thank you. How can you be sure it’s Arlie?”

“I identified her fingerprints. In addition, she had her ID in her bag.” Eve sat across from her on the edge of a sofa with a green back and arms, and cushions that matched the chair. “She had three friends with her.”

“Nikki, Moses, Dawn.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Was there an accident? At the contest, on the subway? Where is she? Where’s Arlie? I need to go to her.”

“Ms. Dillon, I know this is hard. Arlie was murdered.”

“What?” Tisha gripped both arms of her chair. “How? Why? No, no, this is a mistake. She was with Moses. He’s a good, responsible young man. And Nikki and Dawn.”

“I’ll explain as much as I can. Do you recognize the name Jenna Harbough?”

“No. Why?” Fire flashed over her face. “Did she kill my baby?”

“No, ma’am. Jenna was killed last night. There have been extensive reports in the media.”

“I worked today. I had to work because a client… Doesn’t matter. I had music on. What does it have to do with Arlie?”

“Though the investigation is ongoing, we believe they were both killed by the same method, and the same person.”

“What method? Who?”

“I can’t tell you who, and can only assure you that the NYPSD is working diligently to find this individual. Arlie was injected, without her knowledge or consent, with a lethal mixture of illegals.”

“Illegals? Arlie never, never used illegals.”

“Without her knowledge or consent, ma’am,” Eve repeated.

“Why would anyone do that? I know there were police there, and medicals.” When her lips trembled, Tisha pressed the back of her hand against them, steadied them. “Why didn’t anybody help her?”

“Both medicals and police responded quickly once contacted. Moses, corroborated by Nikki and Dawn, stated Arlie thought, and said, she’d been stung by a wasp.”

“A wasp.” Now Tisha closed her eyes. “She’s afraid of wasps. One got into her bed somehow. She was just a little thing, about six. It stung her four times. I ran in because she was screaming, grabbed her up, and it was still on her arm. I killed the hell out of it. She’s been afraid of them since.”

“Believing that, she more or less ignored it. When Moses looked at her arm, it was very red at the site. He went to get her ice.”

“He’s a sweet boy,” Tisha murmured.

“It was a few minutes after the injection, and he was getting the ice, when the reaction set in. Nikki stated that was when she herself looked at the arm, and believed it was a needle stick.”

“Nikki wants to be a doctor.”

“Yes. She acted quickly, Ms. Dillon. I want to stress that. She directed Dawn to call for help, and tried to help Arlie, including administering CPR.”

“They tried to help her.”

“They did.”

Her eyes filled as she nodded. Eve could all but see the force of will that held the tears back. “They tried to help her. It’s good to know that.”

“I understand how difficult this is, but I need to ask you some questions. And at some point, I’d like to go through Arlie’s room.”

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