Haunted in Death (In Death #22.5)(6)

“Was this business investment regarding Number Twelve?“

“Yeah, that’s it. Like I’d have anything to do with that place – or Rad.“

“Could you tell us where you were last night, Ms. Gill? From say midnight to three?“

“In bed, asleep. I teach my first class at seven in the morning.“ She sniffed, looking more amused than offended to be considered a suspect in a homicide. “Hey, if I’d wanted to kill Rad, I’d’ve done it twenty years ago. You’re going to ask my boy, too, aren’t you?“

“It’s routine.“

Fanny nodded. “I sleep alone, but he doesn’t.“

“Dead? Murdered?“ Cliff lowered the towel he’d used to dry his damp face. “How? When?“

“Early this morning. The how is classified for the moment. Can you give us your whereabouts between midnight and three?“

“We got home about one. We’d been out with friends. Um… give me a second.“ He picked up a bottle of water, stared at it, then drank. He was a well-built thirty, with streaked blond hair curling in a tail worn halfway down his back. “Lars Gavin, my cohab. We met some friends at Achilles. A club uptown. We went to bed right after we got home, and I got up about seven, seven-thirty. Sorry, I think I want to sit down.“

“We’re going to need names and contact information on the people you were with, and a number where we can reach your cohab.“

“Yeah, sure. Okay. How? How did it happen?“ He lifted dazed eyes to Eve’s. “Was he mugged?“

“No. I’m not able to give you many details at this time. When’s the last time you had contact with your father?“

“A couple months ago. He came by to try to hit my mother up for some money. Like that would work.“ Cliff managed a half smile, but it wobbled. “Then he put the line on me. I gave him five hundred.“

He glanced over to where Fanny was running another group through barre exercises. “Mom’ll skin me if she finds out, but I gave him the five.“

“That’s not the first time you gave him money,“ Eve deduced.

“No. I’d give him a few hundred now and then. It kept him off my mother’s back, and we do okay here. The school, I mean. We do okay. And Lars, he understands.“

“But this time he went to your mother first.“

“Got to her before I could steer him off. Upsets her, you know? He figured he could sweet talk her out of a good chunk for this investment. Get rich deal – always a deal.“ Now Cliff scrubbed his hands over his face.

“They fight about it?“ Eve asked him.

“No. My mother’s done fighting with him. Been done a long time ago. And my father, he doesn’t argue. He… he cajoles. Basically, she told him to come by again when Hell froze over. So he settled for me, on the sly, and the five hundred. He said he’d be in touch when the ball got rolling, but that was just another line. Didn’t matter. It was only five. I don’t know how to feel. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel.“

“I can’t tell you, Mr. Gill. Why did you remove Hopkins from your legal name?“

“This place – Gill School of Dance. My mother.“ He lifted his shoulder, looked a little abashed. “And well, it’s got a rep. Hopkins. It’s just bad luck.“

Three

Eve wasn’t surprised MD Morris had snagged Hopkins. Multiple gunshot wounds had to be a happy song and dance for a medical examiner. An interesting change of pace from the stabbings, the bludgeonings, strangulations and overdoses.

Morris, resplendent in a bronze-toned suit under his clear protective cape, his long dark hair in a shining tail, stood over the body with a sunny smile for Eve.

“You send me the most interesting things.“

“We do what we can,“ Eve said. “What can you tell me I don’t already know?“

“Members of one family of the fruit fly are called peacocks because they strut on the fruit.“

“Huh. I’ll file that one. Let’s be more specific. What can you tell me about our dead guy?“

“The first four wounds – chest – and the leg wound – fifth – could have been repaired with timely medical intervention. The next severed the spine, the seventh damaged the kidney. Number eight was a slight wound, meaty part of the shoulder. But he was dead by then. The final, close contact, entered the brain, which had already closed down shop.“

He gestured to his wall screen, and called up a program. “The first bullets entered at a near level angle.“ Morris continued as the graphics played out on-screen. “You see, the computer suggested, and I concur, that the assailant fired four times, rapidly, hitting body mass. The victim fell after the fourth shot.“

Eve studied the reenactment as Morris did, noting the graphic of the victim took the first two shots standing, the second two slightly hunched forward in the beginning of a fall.

“Big guy,“ Peabody commented. “Stumbles back a little, but keeps his feet for the first couple shots. I’ve only seen training and entertainment vids with gun death,“ she added. “I’d have thought the first shot would slap him down.“

“His size, the shock of the impact,“ Morris said, “and the rapidity of fire would have contributed to the delay in his fall. Again, from the angles by which the bullets entered the body, it’s likely he stumbled back, then lurched forward slightly, then went down – knee, heels of the hand taking the brunt of the fall.“