Page 28 of Random in Death

“If the timing’s correct, and I trust it is, an injection of street Junk wouldn’t have caused such rapid death. Not alone, particularly since she wasn’t a user, was healthy. The MTs arrived quickly, and could have given her an opioid antagonist injection. Purer heroine, a massive dose? Still within that narrow window?”

He shook his head. “I think they’ll find a cocktail, one that quickly began to shut down her organs, stopped a healthy heart from beating.”

“Why not just shoot her up with poison?” Peabody wondered.

“Well, didn’t he, essentially?”

“This is more… exotic,” Eve speculated. “More special. Like a signature?” Eve looked back at Jenna. “She didn’t know him, or at least didn’t recognize him. I don’t know if he came to kill her, specifically, or just whoever caught his eye.

“If it’s a cocktail,” Eve began, and she’d bet a year’s pay on Morris’s analysis, “he’d need access to illegals, controlled substances, the means, the way to create them.”

“He would.”

“Somewhere to start. Her family, they’ll contact you this morning.”

“I’ll make sure she’s ready for them.”

“Thanks for coming in on Sunday.”

“She’s more than worth it,” he said, “to all of us.”

As they went out, Eve rolled it all around.

“Morris said he used a dirty needle, and one probably treated with a bacteria or virus to cause the rapid infection at the site.”

“Jeez! I was going to say overkill much, but it’s just snarly.”

“Snarly?”

“Like mean and petty and piling on all together in one.”

“It’s all that. Thinking of, accessing, and knowing how to mix the substances, access to bacteria or viruses? We have to reconsider adult. The victim, the snarly, the venue? That all reads teenage boy. But…”

“Maybe an adult who can pass for a teenager.”

Maybe, Eve thought as they got in the car. “Or maybe a kid who’s around junkies, or around people who work with chemicals, controlled substances. Somebody who works in medical research, or is around those who do. Maybe an adult using the boy as the trigger.”

“Somebody snarly.”

“Somebody snarly,” Eve agreed, and started the drive to Central.

“You want coffee? I want it, but I should lay off for right now due to double espresso.”

“I want coffee.”

Peabody programmed black coffee for Eve and stuck herself with water.

“When we get in, contact the Harboughs. Find out when it’s most convenient for them to let us go through the victim’s room. Jake’s at ten, so block off an hour there. The Harboughs live next door to Charles and Louise.”

“They do?”

“They know each other. They’re friendly. The mother’s a doctor and does some of Louise’s free clinic time. They knew the victim.”

“They’ll be good people for the Harboughs to lean on.”

“They still had some lights on, so we stopped in after we did the notification. I wanted another perspective on the family, the victim.”

Pulling into Central’s garage, Eve aimed for her slot.

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