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He hit about six feet, Eve gauged, and most of it muscle. He wore his streaked brown hair in a stub of a tail.
“We can take it in the private classroom. Nobody’s in there right now, and we won’t have to yell at each other.”
“Works for me.” She spotted Peabody. “One minute, that’s my partner.”
“Mind if I get a drink?” He gestured toward the juice machine in the corner.
“Go ahead.”
“Get you something?”
“No, thanks.” She signaled to Peabody, then motioned her over to the machine. “Detective Peabody, Jacob Maddow. Goes by Juice. We’re going to talk in private.”
“It’s just through here.”
He led them into a room with frosted glass walls where the noise level dropped to a backbeat murmur.
“I want to say I’m sorry about what happened to Ziegler, but I’m not going to lie. We weren’t friends.”
“Why don’t you tell us where you were the evening before last, from say five P.M. to seven.”
“Home. My day off, so we don’t get a sitter. I had my kid while my wife was at work. She got home about five. We ate about six, I guess, and then she took Mimi up for a bath. I spent the next two hours putting this tricycle thing together for Mimi for Christmas. It comes cheaper unassembled, but let me tell you, it ain’t worth it.”
“You didn’t get sent to AC?”
“Lill would’ve sprung for it, but this close to Christmas, I want to be home with my family. Plus, my wife’s pregnant. Seven months along.”
“I heard you’re one of the top competitors for the next trainer of the year award.”
“I got a shot.” He chugged down juice. “It’d be nice—the cash prize—with another kid coming along. Another girl,” he said with a quick smile. “I’m surrounded by girls.”
“I also heard you had some words with Ziegler over your friend Rock’s sister.”
“Okay, sure—that was a while back, but sure. Look, I’ve known Kyria since she was a kid. When this happened, she was barely legal, and, okay, sowing some wild—but he didn’t have any business touching that. But that was Ziegler. I know damn well he messed with her because she was Rock’s. I didn’t like hearing him brag about it, so I told him to knock it off, and I warned him he didn’t want the shit he was spreading to get back to Rock.”
“And when it did?”
“Rock did what any brother would do. He got in his face about it. And as soon as he did, as soon as he did, Ziegler backed off.”
After a look of disgust for the cowardice, Juice guzzled some of his drink. “He shut up,” Juice continued, “and he slunk off. He wasn’t going to risk a pounding. I know he spread some shit about Rock’s place, but that didn’t matter. Rock Hard doesn’t cater to the same kind of clients we do here, so that wasn’t any skin off Rock. But that was the only way Ziegler could try to get his own back, smearing Rock’s rep.”
“If somebody smears my rep, I’m going to want to get up in their face,” Eve commented.
“It didn’t matter. The guy was like a gnat buzzing. You just ignore it. The way I figured, either me or Rock would take that award next spring, and that would pay Ziegler back.”
“He was favored.”
“Not anymore.” Juice shook his head. “I know how that sounds, but I said I wasn’t going to lie. I hated the son of a bitch.”
Outside, Eve headed for her car. “A competitor may just be a good angle here. I’ll fill you in on the three top candidates I got from Lill on the way to Ziegler’s apartment.”
“Did you see the arms on that guy? And the pecs?” Peabody bundled herself in the car. “I wonder what he charges for personal training.”
“You’ve got access to a gym right at Central,” Eve reminded her.
“I don’t have access to those arms.” Peabody glanced back as Eve pulled into traffic. “Or those pecs.”
Eve broke the seal on the apartment door, stepped inside.
