8:10 pm
The
Jane Doe from The Governor’s Tavern ID’ed as Anya Eiffel, a career junkie and
small-time offender from Curtis Bay; a great place to live if you were a pimp,
a hooker, or a crack dealer.
After helping the widow Ida
with her groceries and talking my way out of a cup of tea, I ran background
checks on Anya. A visit to her probation officer
turned up small-time stuff: possession and solicitation and the like. Out of
the hundreds of probationary cases Anya’s P.O. handled, he had no trouble remembering her. I smelled the booze through the mouthwash.
“Anya Eiffel. Yeah, I know her. We call her Anya Eye-Full. I
bet she looked better dead than most women do alive. Am I right? She had a way
about her, ya know? A real special way.”
The man was a pig. I wanted to arrest him for something. Anything.
After Vecchio tossed Munroe’s
apartment I cut him loose. I didn’t really believe Munroe was a killer, but I had
to dot every “i” to keep Atkins at bay until CK, or his imitator, or both, made
a mistake. Vecchio made a point mentioning
that the murder was sloppy and unlike any of the CK credited murders to date,
suggesting in her own annoying way that there might actually be a second
copycat mimicking CK. I had to admit she might be right. There might actually
be three killers, and the only upside to that is that maybe the slayings would
stop should any one of them be caught. If that happened, a weasel
like Atkins would hang all the killings on that one suspect whose guilt or
innocence depended on how air-tight a case the state prosecutor could manage. But
before that happened, I had to catch at least one of them.
One out of three.
My odds were improving.
On my way into Squad, I thought
to call Vecchio. See if she wanted some dinner. But my cell battery was dead.
If I’m lucky, I’ll find a wireless store close to a McDonald’s ... if I’m lucky.
It takes a while but I get the battey replaced. I got a message from Vecchio. She's bitchin' about my phone goin' to voice mail. Says she's got the Tox reports on Eiffel but wants to wait till the morning to go over them. Says nothing jumps out at her as different.
OK with me.
I'm tired too.
bit.ly/AmazonChainofEvidence
