He offered her a wad of cash.
“What— Oh, right. I don’t need that much.”
“You may be too pressed today to stop for a withdrawal, so this carries you through until.” He tapped her chin. “Now, you’re graciously accepting a loan, as I’ll be equally gracious when you repay it.”
Since they’d made exactly that deal, she stuffed the wad in her pocket. “Right,” she said again, “thanks.”
He kissed her. “While you’re taking care of my cop today, feed her a bit more.”
Eve grabbed another slice of bacon, bit in. “Done.” She kissed him back, then rushed out.
“Not quite what I meant.” Roarke rubbed at the gray button in his pocket. Then spotted the cat. “And stop where you are, mate. Don’t think you’ll help yourself to her breakfast.”
The cat looked at Roarke; Roarke looked at the cat. Then he shrugged. “Well then, I don’t suppose there’s any harm in a bite or two of an omelet.”
As he caved and crumbled a slice of bacon over a portion of the eggs, Eve drove through the gates.
Not the gallery owners, this time, she thought, but a gallery. Midtownrather than downtown. That took location out of the mix, but left the art world at the center.
She’d hoped for another day, some data from the lab to work on before she stood over another body. But no cooling-off period for this one. She’d add impatient, likely driven, organized, precise, and in her opinion, batshit.
As she headed south, pockets of the city yawned itself awake. Light flicking on in windows, a handful of people taking the stairs down to the subway, the inevitable blat of a maxibus rolling to a stop for another handful to get off, yet another to drag themselves on.
She rounded the corner, noted the cruiser, saw the barricade already in place. Two uniforms stood with a man in red-and-black-checked pants, white T-shirt, and what looked like old house skids.
He had a fluffy, tail-swinging yellow dog on a leash.
She pulled in behind the cruiser, then held up her badge as she crossed to the police tape, then under.
And noted she wouldn’t literally stand over the body, initially at least, as the body itself stood in the recessed doorway of the gallery.
The dog bounded to her, dragged the guy on the other end of the leash along. With eyes crazed with love, the dog planted his paws on her legs.
“Sorry! Sorry! Hand to God, he’s harmless. Still a puppy, and real friendly. C’mon, Bouncer, get down!”
Bouncer got down, and immediately attacked the fake laces in Eve’s boots.
“Aw, jeez.” Instead of tugging, the man hauled the dog up in his arms, where it wiggled joyfully and lapped at his face. “Six months old, that’s all. We got him for the kids, and you can see who’s walking him before the damn sun comes up. I was walking him, and I see… I thought it was a display, you know? And Bouncer’s headed over because he thinks it’s a person, and he’s never met a person he doesn’t love.”
“Did either you or the dog touch the body, Mister…”
“Franks, Glenn Franks. No. I managed to hold him back, and I started to… I thought it was a display, until. Jeez, what a way to start the day.”
He paused a moment, shifted the puppy. “I called nine-one-one, and the officers, they got here real fast. I’m glad they got here fast. It’s, sorry, but it’s creepy. All dressed up like that, and standing there dead. It’s really fucking—sorry—creepy.”
“Did you see anyone else in the area, Mr. Franks?”
“I sure didn’t. We live just up on the next block. This one woke me up like every morning. Like ‘Man, I gotta go.’ But does he?”
“Do you usually walk this way at this time?”
“Time’s pretty regular. Sometimes we go the other way. Mix it up, you know? It can take a few blocks before he does what he got me out of bed to do. Usually don’t see anybody else walking around.”
Since Bouncer looked ready to leap out of the man’s arms and into hers, Eve shifted back a little, pulled out a card. “If I could have your contact information? This is mine if you think of anything else.”
“Sure, sure. I gave mine to the officers.” He repeated it for Eve, took her card. “I’m going to walk him back now.” He took another quick glance toward the doorway. “Man, you couldn’t pay me enough to do your job.”
“I’d add weird to creepy. Officer Cunningham, Lieutenant. Mr. Franks and Bouncer’s nine-one-one relayed to us at zero-five-forty-two. Officer Su and I arrived on scene at zero-five-forty-six. We determined, visually, the individual who looks like he went to a costume party was dead. We secured the scene and took Mr. Franks’s statement.”
