The In Death Collection Books 21-25 - J. D. Robb [50]
“Entry to residence was gained through entry and search warrant. Single household droid was reactivated by automated security system. Crime scene shows no sign of forced entry, no sign of struggle.”
Eve held her hand out for her field kit when Peabody came back. Her partner stepped over the APA. “What happened to her?”
“Fainted. Do what you can.”
“I guess Southern types are delicate.”
Eve sealed up, then carried her kit inside. For form, she checked for vitals, found none. “DOS, confirmed.” She scanned his prints. “Identification confirmed. Peabody, do a sweep through the house, but secure the droid first.”
“I already secured the droid. I’ll do the sweep once I wake up Sleeping Beauty. He go out the same way as his father?”
“Looks that way.” She took the body temperature, worked the gauge. “He’s been dead less than two hours. Goddamn it.”
Eve straightened, studied the angle of the body, the angle of the weapon. “In close again. He’s lying down. He’s deactivated the droid—leaving it and the house security programmed for do-not-disturb. But he’s lying here and he doesn’t worry about somebody coming in, leaning over him. Tranqs maybe. We’ll check the tox screen. But I don’t think so. I don’t think so. He knew her. He wasn’t afraid of her. He didn’t fear for his life when she came into the room.”
She stepped back to the doorway to see it in her head. Reo was sitting up now, her head in her hands. Peabody stood by, smirking.
“The sweep, Detective.”
“Yes, sir. Simply making certain the civilian is all right.”
“I’m okay, I’m okay. Just a little shaken up.” She waved a hand in Peabody’s direction. “Go ahead. I’ve never seen a body before,” she said to Eve. “Images, photographs. But I’ve never walked in on a real one. It just took me by surprise.”
“Go downstairs, wait for Crime Scene.”
“I will, in a minute. I heard you say he’d only been dead a couple hours.” Her eyes were still a little glassy, but they met Eve’s straight on. “I couldn’t get the warrant any faster. I did damn handsprings to get it at all. I couldn’t move it faster.”
“I’m not blaming you.”
Reo leaned her head back against the wall. “Maybe not. But it’s hard to convince myself not to. We sure as hell found something, didn’t we? Did you expect this?”
“No. And it’s hard to convince myself I shouldn’t have. Go downstairs, Reo. I’ve got work here.”
Reo got to her feet. “I can contact the next of kin.”
“Do that. Don’t tell her he’s dead. Just tell her we need her back in the city, now. Do another handspring and get her into a police shuttle, and back here within the hour. Keep it under media radar, Reo. This is going to be one hell of a mess soon enough.”
Eve lifted the thermal pot, sniffed. Coffee. She marked it, the cup, the plate of fruit and cheese for the lab.
Leaving the body, Eve crossed to the desk and began to check incoming and outgoing transmissions, recent data input or deleted. She bagged all discs, marked the unit itself for EDD transfer.
“House is empty,” Peabody reported. “Domestic droids—three in full—were all deactivated. All doors and windows were fully secured. No sign of tampering. McNab told me that the current security disc—which, in order from the previous, would have run since nine hundred hours this morning—is missing two hours.”
Eve glanced back, frowned. “Two hours.”
“Affirmative. There’s no record through the system of entry or exit of the premises during that time. The disc stops at eighteen-thirty, and picks up again at twenty hundred and forty-two hours. It clearly shows us approaching, being verified, and admitted at twenty-one sixteen.”
Minutes, Eve thought. Missed her by minutes. She gestured toward the desk ’link. “He had that on privacy mode. Set it at seventeen hundred. No transmissions in the holding area. Let’s check the other ’links.”
They headed down while the sweepers headed up.
“Icove’s wife is being picked up now. She’ll be here in about