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The easy laugh had the black cloud lifting. Because it did, Eve pulled over at a cross-street 24/7 and waited while Peabody ran in and loaded up.
“You know, I’m really trying to cut down on this stuff. But…” Peabody ripped into the pack of cookies. “Thing is, weird, McNab doesn’t think I’m chubby. And when a guy sees you naked, he knows where the extra layers are.”
“Peabody, do you have some delusion that I want to hear how McNab sees you naked?”
She crunched into a cookie. “I’m just saying. Anyway, you know we have sex, so you’ve probably reached the conclusion we’re naked when we’re having it. You being an ace detective and all.”
“Peabody, in the chain of command, you may, on rare occasions and due to my astonishing good nature, respond to sarcasm with sarcasm. You are not permitted to lead with it. Give me a damn cookie.”
“They’re coconut crunchies. You hate coconut.”
“Then why did you buy coconut?”
“To piss you off.” Grinning now, Peabody pulled another pack of cookies from her bag. “Then I bought chocolate chip, just for you.”
“Well, hand them over then.”
“Okay, so…” Peabody ripped open the second pack, offered Eve a cookie. “Anyway, McNab’s got a little, bitty butt, and hardly any shoulders. Still—”
“Stop. Stop right there. If I get an image of a naked McNab in my head, you’re going back to traffic detail.”
Peabody munched, hummed, waited.
“Damn it! There he is.”
Hooting with laughter, Peabody polished off the last cookie. “Sorry. Dallas, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. Kinda cute, isn’t he?”
And, she thought, it had bumped whatever had been troubling her lieutenant out of the way.
“Button it up,” Eve warned, but she had to swallow a chuckle along with her cookie. “Brush the crumbs off your shirt and try to find your dignity somewhere.” She pulled to the curb in front of Carly’s building.
The high-end neighborhood, the exclusive building, the plush lobby sent a different signal to Eve now. Anja Carvell had selected wealthy parents for the child. The kind of parents who could assure the child would grow up with privilege, security, luxuries.
Had she taken as much care in researching the kind of people they were? Stable, loving, wise, supporting?
“Peabody, we did the run on Carly Landsdowne’s educational history? It was private schools, right?”
“Yes, sir, I believe so.” To verify, Peabody pulled out her PPC as they entered the lobby elevator. “Private and top rated, preschool through college. They sprang for a bunch of extras i
ncluding drama, dance, music, voice. All private tutors.”
“What do the parents do?”
“Father’s a doctor, micro-surgeon. Mother’s a travel agent, her own company. But she filed as professional mother from 2036 until 2056, the full twenty years allotted per child.”
“No siblings?”
“None.”
“She picked winners. She was careful. It mattered,” she said to herself as she stepped out and walked to Carly’s door.
It took two long buzzes before the door opened. Heavy-eyed, her hair sleep-tumbled, Carly gave a careless yawn. “What now?”
“A moment of your time.”
“At dawn?”
“It’s after nine.”
