When he came out, he tossed the hair out of his face again. “I’m just gonna grab my shoes and take off.”
“We’re going to need your key to the place, Jed.”
Everything sagged, face, body. “Man. It’s not like he’ll be using it.”
“No, he won’t, and we’ll have to seal the flop up for the time being.” Eve held out her hand.
“Well, fuck it.” He dug into a pocket, handed it over. “I don’t have to leave the money for the nights I stayed this week, do I?”
“I think you’re clear there.”
“I guess that’s solid. Maybe I can talk to that asswipe Simon about subletting it or whatever.”
“Do that. And when you do, mention that Lieutenant Dallas, NYPSD, told you that since she personally observed a broken elevator, a poorly secured broken window, acres of grime, and a rodent, he can expect a building inspection by next week. We will be informing the owners of this building of same.”
“That’ll just piss him off.”
“Or,” Peabody said, “you could say you wanted to warn him, give him a heads-up on it.”
Jed brightened up. “Yeah, yeah, like a favor. Okay.” He shoved his feet in a pair of ragged kicks. “Um, anyway. Bye.”
Eve just shook her head when the door banged shut behind him. “How bad is your life when bagging a place like this is a step up?”
She glanced around. In addition to the pullout, he’d had a single chair, a folding table. In lieu of a closet, clothes hung on a rod or piled in a clear tub. In lieu of a kitchen, shelves held a mini-AC with two glasses, two plates, with a mini-friggie beneath.
The place wasn’t particularly messy. There weren’t enough possessions to create one. But domestic cleanliness hadn’t been high on Bobby’s list.
“Let’s give a look. It shouldn’t take long. Then we’ll see if we can hunt up the porn vid manager.”
They found a code-locked tablet, carefully hidden under clothes in the tub, a single brew, a single tube of Coke Plus!, a number of hygiene products that said Bobby cared more about his personal hygiene than that of his environment.
“Baseboard’s wrong there.”
Eve glanced over. “Everything in here’s wrong.”
“No, it’s just a little…” Peabody crouched down on the floor behind the single chair, gave the baseboard a tug.
A section came away in her hands.
“I knew it.”
“Good eye. What’s he hiding?”
Peabody took out a small plastic container.
“Something’s been chewing on it, so eeww.”
“But didn’t get through to his cash stash.”
“No.” Gingerly Peabody pulled off the lid, counted out. “Two-fifty, and one joint. Smells like Zoner, and looks pretty fresh.”
“Probably smoked right after a standard exam. Well, those days are over. Bag it up. We’ll get EDD to open the tablet. Anything else look wrong to you?”
“No.”
“Then let’s seal it up. We’ll find the porn guy, wake him up. When that’s done, I’ll do the notification while we’re in the field. We’ll hit the lab, then the morgue.”
They tracked down Alex Minor, a mixed-race male of thirty-six who lived in a decent apartment in a decent building.
