Page 139 of Passions in Death
“Well, I hope whatever it is, I read about it. Shoddy customer service, my ass.”
“Thanks for your time, Mr. Vic.”
“No problem.”
She contacted Sharlene Wilson, left a voice mail.
Then she put her boots up, closed her eyes.
And took the thinking time.
Peabody said, “Um.”
“I’m thinking.” Though Eve had heard her coming, she stayed another moment as she was. “I reached Barney’s former assistant manager, and have a voice mail into another former clerk. The former assistant manager shares your former classmate’s opinion of Greg Barney.”
Eve pointed to the AC, then opened her eyes. As Peabody programmed coffee, she relayed LeRoy Vic’s statement.
“That’s a crappy thing to do.”
“It is, but more, it fits the ‘I’m going to screw up your life for your own good’ routine.”
“I hit another who said he got the shit kicked out of him in high school, not by Barney, but because of him.”
With her coffee, Peabody eased very, very carefully onto the ass-biting visitor’s chair.
“One of Barney’s teammates got suspended—from school and the team—when someone reported he had a couple Zoner joints in his locker. Since the teammate was going hard after Barney’s team captain position, the guy figured Barney for the squealer, but Barney claimed he actually saw the other kid heading into the vice principal’s office right before the teammate was called down and suspended.”
Peabody shifted, again very, very carefully. “You have to figure the guy’s got no reason to lie about it now. He says he never went to the vice principal, never said a damn thing, but got his ass kicked over it anyway. He figures Barney turned it on him because his locker was next to Zoner Guy’s and he was a member of the Clean Teens Club. They take an oath not to use illegals or drink alcohol, to eat only plant-based foods and abstain from sex.”
Eve glanced up from her coffee. “Seriously?”
“I take it it’s a pretty small club. Anyway, when Zoner Guy jumped Mr. Clean Teen—you’re going to like this—he said Barney saw it go down. And he smirked.”
“I bet he did. Oh yeah, he did. Gets rid of competition, covers his own ass, and gets to watch someone he probably considered an annoyance get tuned up.”
Eve looked at the board, looked at Barney’s easy, attractive smile. “You know, he’d have lived his life smoothly bullying and manipulating—a general asshole who’d probably have carved out the life he wanted. But then Shauna had to fall for someone he didn’t approve of—and couldn’t be smoothly manipulated out of it. So he turned to murder. He’d feel justified,” she added. “In all cases, he’d feel justified.”
She lifted her mug toward the board. “We’re going to nail his ass, Peabody.”
“I like to think so, but up till now the only real evidence we have, and that’s still circumstantial, is he’s an asshole.”
“Next step.” Thinking time had given her that. “We go through the victim’s apartment again. With Shauna. Barney took something out with him in that damn box. She’s the only one who’d know what’s missing.”
“That’s going to be touchy.”
“She’ll stand up to it.” Eve remembered the punch, the damn good punch. “I’m not going to hit her with it today. Not only too emotional, but she’ll have too many people around her today. But tomorrow. You have to figure her friends need to go back to work—they can’t surround her all day. So tomorrow, we go by where she’s staying and convince her to go through the apartment with us.”
“Okay, but if he took something she didn’t even know was there—”
“She will. It’s personal. Something he wanted for himself, or wanted back, or maybe some sort of trophy. It mattered to him enough to take it. If she notices later, well, it got lost in all the confusion, so sorry.”
“It’s worth a shot, but even with that—”
“It’s the next step,” Eve interrupted. “And it’s going to lead to the one after. He’s slick, Peabody. A first kill, yes, but he’s been honing his skills in manipulation, ass-covering, that smooth bullying his whole life, so he’s slick. We’re slicker.”
“I’d drink to that if I hadn’t already finished my coffee.”
“Go contact Shauna—you’re just checking on her, letting her know we charged Lopez with assault. Lay on the sympathy and find out if she’s still at Decker’s for the next few days, blah blah. How you guess her friends have to get back to work. Don’t mention tomorrow.”
