By the time they were finished, they were filthy, sweaty, and disgusted. At Eve’s direct order, Peabody had loosened the stiff collar of her uniform and rolled up the sleeves. Still, sweat rained down her face and had her hair curling madly.
‘I thought my brothers were pigs.’
Eve toed aside dirty underwear. ‘How many you got?’
‘Two. And a sister.’
‘Four of you?’
‘My parents are Free-Agers, sir,’ Peabody explained with twin notes of apology and embarrassment in her voice. ‘They’re really into rural living and propagation.’
‘You continue to surprise me, Peabody. A tough urbanite like you springing from Free-Agers. How come you’re not growing alfalfa, weaving mats, and raising a brood?’
‘I like to kick ass. Sir.’
‘Good reason.’ Eve had left what she considered the worst for last. With unconcealed revulsion, she studied the bed. The thought of body parasites scrambled through her head. ‘We’ve got to deal with the mattress.’
Peabody swallowed hard. ‘Yes, sir.’
‘I don’t know about you, Peabody, but I’m heading straight for a decontamination chamber when we’re done here.’
‘I’ll be right behind you, Lieutenant.’
‘Okay. Let’s do it.’
The sheets came first. There was nothing but smells and stains. Eve would leave them for the sweepers to analyze, but she’d already ruled out any possibility that Boomer had been killed in his own flop.
Still, she was thorough, shaking out the pillow, manipulating the foam. At her signal, Peabody hefted one end of the mattress and she the other. It was heavy as a rock, and with a grunt they flipped it.
‘Maybe there is a God,’ Eve murmured.
Affixed to the bottom of the mattress were two small packs. One was filled with pale blue powder, the other a sealed disc. She tugged both free. Cla
mping down on the urge to break open the powder, she studied the disc. It wasn’t labeled, but unlike the others, it had been carefully encased to keep it free of dust.
Ordinarily, she would have run it immediately in Boomer’s unit. She could stand the stench, the sweat, even the dirt. But she didn’t think she could maintain another minute wondering what microcosmic parasites were crawling over her skin.
‘Let’s get the hell out of here.’
She waited until Peabody carried the evidence box out into the hall. With one last glance at the way her man had lived, Eve shut the door, sealed it, and left the red police security light beaming.
Decontamination wasn’t painful, but it wasn’t particularly pleasant. It had the single virtue of being fairly short. Eve sat with Peabody, both of them stripped to the skin, in a two-seated chamber with curved white walls reflecting the hot white light.
‘But it’s a dry heat,’ Peabody stated and had Eve laughing.
‘I always figured this is what Hell’s like.’ She closed her eyes, willed herself to relax. She didn’t consider herself phobic, but closed-in spaces made her itchy. ‘You know, Peabody, I used Boomer about five years now. He wasn’t exactly the GQ type, but I wouldn’t have pegged him living like that.’ She still had the smell in her nostrils. ‘He was clean. Tell me what you saw in the bathroom.’
‘Filth, mold, scum, towels that hadn’t been washed. Two bars of soap, one unopened, a half tube of shampoo, tooth gel, an ultrasound brush and shaver. One hair comb, broken.’
‘Grooming tools. He kept himself in shape, Peabody. Even liked to consider himself a lady’s man. My guess is the sweepers are going to tell me the food, the clothes, the grunge is all about two, maybe three weeks old. What does that tell you?’
‘That he was holed up - worried, scared, or involved enough to let things go.’
‘Exactly. Not desperate enough to come in and unload to me, but worried enough to hide a couple of things under his mattress.’
‘Where no one would ever think of looking for them,’ Peabody said dryly.
‘He wasn’t terribly bright about some things. You got a guess on the substance?’