a blast from the past.”
“Do they?” Eve asked.
“Jan and I were summer friends—vacation friends—years and years ago. We were twelve, thirteen. It’s such a nice surprise to see her again. She works for you?”
“She works for the City of New York.”
Eve opened the door to Interview B.
“Oh!” The green toenails stopped at the threshold. “This looks so … official. And dire.”
“Private and handy. Can I get you anything to drink?”
“I’d love a sparkling water, if it’s no trouble.”
“No trouble. Have a seat. I’ll get what we need and we’ll get this done.”
She hurried back to the bullpen. “Peabody, Huffman’s in B. Get her a sparkling water—a small one. I’ll be two minutes.” She moved straight back to Shelby’s cube.
She looked at Officer Carmichael, got a slight nod.
Good, Shelby had told him.
“Officer Shelby.”
“Sir.”
“Would you like to observe this interview?”
“I … Yes, sir, I would.”
“Look for tells, inconsistencies, fabrications. Note them down, write them up for me. Can you do that?”
“Yes, sir, Lieutenant, I can.”
“Good. Officer Carmichael, I’d like you and Shelby in Observation asap. I’ll be ready to start in two minutes.”
“Get on your horse, girl,” Carmichael said quietly when Eve strode away. “Our LT’s counting on you.”
Eve got what she needed from her office, then walked down to meet Peabody outside Interview B.
“I’m having Shelby observe. Carmichael will be with her.”
“Does he know?”
“Yeah. Now let’s break this lying bitch down.”
Eve opened the door, put on her I’m very distracted face. “Record on. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve and Peabody, Detective Delia, entering Interview with Huffman, Gwendolyn, in the matter of case file H-5872.”
“Official,” Gwen said again, with suspicion in her eyes. “Dire.”
“Just official,” Eve assured her. “You’re here voluntarily as a witness, in the matter of Ariel Byrd’s murder. We need everything on record. I’m going to have you read over your statement from this morning—and you can make any corrections or additions—then initial and date each page, sign and date the last.”
“All right.”
“Before I do, I’m going to read you your rights, for the record.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The lieutenant does like to cross all the t’s,” Peabody said cheerfully. “Sometimes when it gets to court, or just to the lawyers, a witness will recant, or claim they didn’t mean what they said or that the cops twisted their words and/or meaning. Dallas likes to cross those t’s, have everything by the book and on the record.”
For Gwen’s benefit, Peabody gave Eve the side-eye. “Even though it takes longer.”
“Saves time and trouble in the long run. So. Gwendolyn Huffman, you have the right to remain silent.”
Eve read off the Revised Miranda in pleasant, casual tones.
“Okay—see, not much time. Do you understand your rights and obligations in this matter?”
“I do, of course.”
“Great.” Eve started to draw papers out of a file, stopped. “Before you sign off, you mentioned to Peabody that Ariel Byrd told you she’d noticed someone hanging out in the neighborhood, someone out of place? Can you tell us about that? We can put it on record.”
“Of course. Honestly, it just occurred to me when Detective Peabody mentioned you were looking for someone like that. Ariel commented, a couple of times over the last few weeks, she’d noticed some guy hanging out, walking up and down the street, and she didn’t like the look of him.”
“Did she describe him?”
“No, I’m sorry.”
“But she indicated male.”
“She did.” Eyes clear and direct, Gwen gave a decisive nod. “A guy. Not all that clean, she said, and walking around, studying the buildings. She even said, like, he was casing the apartments, the shops. I’m sorry to say I fluffed it off, joked about it. People walk in New York.”
Gwen looked away, worked up a tear shine in her eyes. “The idea that she was right, it haunts me.”
“Did he ever approach her, try to panhandle or connect with her?”
“She never said so, and I think she would have. Or … I don’t know, since I joked about it.” She worked up more shine so tears just trembled but didn’t fall. “God, maybe he did, and she didn’t tell me because she thought I’d make fun of her again.”
As if to give Gwen time to compose herself, Eve paused.
Peabody picked up the cue. “Why don’t I get you another water, Ms. Huffman?”
“Would you? Thank you. This is all so upsetting.”
Peabody took the empty tube. “Peabody exiting Interview.”
“You can’t blame yourself for not taking that comment seriously.”
“It’s hard not to. If I could just have a minute?”
Eve lifted her hands. “All the time you need.”
Gwen took a pack