“Yeah, okay, I’m just trying to get the details. Yeah, I sold a thirteen-inch, high-carbon steel, smooth face, curved claw to a guy like that a couple hours ago.”
Bingo.
Peabody stepped over, lifted down a hammer from a congregation of others. “One of these?”
“Yeah, that one. You know your hammers, girlie.”
“I’ve got a brother who’s a carpenter, and my father does some.”
“I can give discounts to people in the trade,” he began.
“We don’t want to buy anything, and we don’t need a discount,” Eve interrupted. “We need to see your security disc.”
The man glanced up to the camera. “Ain’t nothing to see. We can’t afford a real camera. That’s just what you call a deterrent. Not that anybody bothers us. They gonna rob somebody, there’s the liquor store down the block. People buy more booze than screws.”
“How’d he pay?”
“Cash.”
“Did you get a good look at him?”
“Nothing wrong with my eyes. He was standing right there where you’re standing.”
“I need you to come down to Central, work with a sketch artist.”
“I can’t close this place down to go work with no artist. I gotta make a living here.”
“I’ll send someone to you, Mister . . .”
“Burnbaum. Ernie. What the guy do, hit somebody over the head with the hammer?”
“Something like that. Peabody, I want Yancy.”
“I’ll get him.”
“Now, Ernie, why don’t you describe the hammer guy for me, and tell me what the two of you talked about.”
“Like you said, he’s a big guy. Big white guy.”
“Hair? Short, long, dark, light.”
“Short, buzzed, kinda medium.”
“Eyes? The color of his eyes?”
“Ah, brown. Maybe brown. I think brown.”
“Any scars, tats, piercings, anything that stood out?”
“No, can’t say there was. Had a kinda squared-off jaw, I guess. Hard-looking guy. Tough-looking.”
Yancy would get more, she thought. “What did he say to you?”
“He comes in—”
“Alone?”
“Yeah, just him. And he says he wants to buy a hammer. So I say, what kind? He just walks over there, takes the curved claw off the wall. He said, ‘This one.’ Pretty sure about that, how he just walked over and picked the hammer. I asked if he needed anything else, and he said he wanted a coverall. I asked what kind. He got a little irritated, I guess you could say, but you gotta know what kind. I showed him the stock in XXL, being he was big. He took one of the clear, full-body styles. I said something about what kind of project he had going, and he just said, ‘What’s the price.’ So I rang it up, he paid cash, and that’s that.”
“Do you have the money?”
“Course I got the money. You think I ate it?”
“I’m going to need it. You’ll get a receipt, and it will be returned to you in full.”
“Yancy’s on his way,” Peabody told her.
“Get some sweepers in here. Maybe we can get some prints. That wall, the counter. I need the money, Ernie.”
“It’s all together.” He unlocked the under-counter safe, took out a red zipper pouch. “Most people use credit or debit, but we get cash sales. I put the money in with the cash from yesterday and the day before. I don’t know which was his money.”
“All right, count it up. I’ll give you a receipt.”
“It’s over five hundred dollars!” He clutched the envelope to his breast like a beloved child she meant to kidnap.
“And you’ll get every dollar of it back. The man who came in here, bought the hammer, is suspected of killing two people this morning.”
Ernie’s jaw dropped. “With my hammer?”
“One of them. Ernie, your money’s going to be safe. I’m going to put in for you to get a ten percent use fee.”
His grip loosened. “Ten percent?”
“Yeah, and if you work with the artist, and your description and cooperation aids in the arrest of this individual, I’ll put in for another fifty.”
“A hundred bucks?”
“That’s right.”
He held out the envelope. “I still want the receipt.”
After he’d carefully counted the cash twice, Eve printed out a receipt, added her card.
“What do I do if he comes back? Maybe he wants a skill saw.”
Jesus, Eve hoped not. “I don’t think he’ll be back, but if he comes in, sell him whatever he wants. Contact me when he leaves. Did you notice which way he went, if he got into a car?”
“He went out the door. That’s all I know.”
“Okay, thanks for your cooperation.” Eve went out the door as well.
“I’m going to drop you off at the lab,” Eve began as she got behind the wheel.