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.
It smelled of death and sweeper dust.
“Logical place for tea’s the kitchen, right? Where do people keep incense?”
“There wasn’t any in the bedroom, not that I remember,” Peabody began. “If he uses it on off-the-book or in-home massages, maybe he has some with his gear.”
“Check the gear, I’ll check the kitchen.”
Eve moved into the small U-shaped kitchen, gave it a quick overview. Standard AutoChef, friggie, compact oven, three-burner range, mini dishwasher.
Not that Ziegler made much use of it, she noted. Dishes, glassware piled in the sink, empty or near-empty takeout boxes scattered the counter. The sweepers had taken the lidless pizza box, but she couldn’t imagine what that might tell them.
In any case, the obvious conclusion was, Ziegler had been too lazy for the recycler.
Out of curiosity, she opened the friggie. Energy drinks, lite beer, box wine, a jug of one of those mixed fruit and veggie juices, a small container of soy milk.
She checked the menu on the AutoChef. A couple of whole wheat