Mona Hill last Monday. This is my partner, Lucy. Do you have a minute to answer a few questions?”
He shrugged. “Sure.” He looked in his messy room. “Umm, there’s no place to sit.”
“That’s okay,” Patrick said, “this won’t take long.”
Ned smiled again, motioned for them to come in. Patrick glanced at the game he had paused. “Fallout. I love that game.”
“Oh, man, the expansion pack is totally dope.”
“I can play for hours. That and Rainbow Six Siege.”
“Totally. I have a group of buddies from high school, we still play.”
“My best friend moved to San Antonio and sometimes that’s the only time I get to talk to him.”
“I know, right?” He smiled, looked again from Patrick to Lucy. “So, what can I help ya’ll with? This about the woman over on Hudson Street?”
“Yes, Mona Hill. Do you deliver regularly to the building?”
“All the time. It’s on my route.”
“And Ms. Hill orders often?”
“Well, she uses the name Odette. But yeah, at least once a week.”
“An Officer Reynolds spoke to you the day after the murder, correct?”
“Yeah, thought I was in trouble—and I didn’t do anything, I mean, I work thirty hours a week at the pizza place—mostly deliveries at night, some of their events and stuff. And I have a full load of classes and tutor at the math lab twice a week. I don’t have time to get into trouble. But it was just about my delivery.”
“I have a copy of Officer Reynolds’s report, I just want to confirm the facts, okay?”
“Sure.” He leaned against his dresser.
“The order came in at seven thirty Monday evening.”
“Yeah. At least, that’s what the receipt said.”
“Did she pay by credit card?”
“Usually, I guess.” He shrugged. “And she always tips well. Five bucks, no matter what, and that’s even on top of the two-dollar delivery charge. If she orders a lot, like for a party, she tips even more.”
“No one answered the door when you arrived at eight thirty?”
“No. Which was weird, because she isn’t one of those jerks, you know? I called the number on the receipt, and it went to voice mail. So I left. Ran into Christian in the lobby, knew him because he was over there a lot, he’s paid a few times, and he took care of me then. Tipped well, too. I thought he was her boyfriend, but the cop said he was a bodyguard, and I’m like, no shit? Then I read that she was a prostitute. Wow. Just didn’t see that. She was nice, that’s all I cared about, you know?”
“Nice” was relative, Lucy realized. Ned didn’t know that Mona Hill used to blackmail powerful men and women to keep her business running, or had supplied women to a brutal cartel leader. So what if she had turned over a new leaf and kept her business mostly on the up-and-up?
But she didn’t say anything. Ned was friendly and cooperating.
“So Christian Porter, her bodyguard or friend, took the pizza and tipped you?”
“Ten bucks. He said she was probably in the shower. He went up and I left. And that was it until the cops came the next day to talk to me.”
“Did you see or hear anyone in her apartment?”
He shook his head. “It was quiet.”
“Did you see someone getting in or out of the elevator? Maybe while you were waiting for it?”
“No.” He cocked his head to the side. “Well, when I got off there was this chick walking toward the elevator. I held it for her, but she just walked by, didn’t say a word. Just went to the end of the hall. I just thought whatever, you know? And walked the other way.”
“So she was coming from the direction of Ms. Hill’s apartment?”
“Hmm, yeah.”
“And she just walked to the end of the hall?”
“I heard the staircase door close. Sometimes I go down the stairs, especially if it’s busy. There’s only one elevator. But there’s a staircase at the elevator, though it only goes to the lobby. The others go all the way down to the garage.”
“Do you remember what she looks like?”
“Not really. Why? I thought they caught the guy?”
“I’m a private investigator,” Patrick said, “I’m looking at all possibilities. You said ‘chick.’ Was she young? Old? In between?”
“Young. Teenager. Twenty, tops.”
“What was she wearing?”
“Dark hoodie, her hands in her pockets, you know, very pulled in, like not friendly and all. I’m friendly, I don’t get it, but I guess I do. Petite white girl sees big Black guy and just walks by, it is what