Light again, Eve mused, then shadows.
There will be no shadows in them now. No shadows to smother the light. This is my gift to them. Theirs to me. And when it’s done, when it’s complete, our gift to humanity.
“He wants the world to know what he’s doing. Artistically,” Eve continued. “Hastings, or at least Hastings’s work, is one of his springboards. We question everyone who’s worked with or for Hastings over the last year.”
Peabody pulled out her pad, keyed in, scrolled down the list. “That’s going to take awhile. The guy’s not kidding about going through assistants like toilet paper. Then you add in the staff, and turnover in the retail end, the models and stylists, and so on. You want to start at the top?”
“For now. But we start back at the data club. The transmission to Nadine was sent from there, both times. It’s a link.”
There was a lively lunch crowd jammed at tables and booths, heavy on the students, Eve decided. Lots of them gathered in groups or going solo over data and sandwiches.
She spotted Steve Audrey at the bar, working two-handed to fill orders on trendy iced drinks and coffee. He acknowledged her with a little head bob.
“Summer session has them pouring in midday.” He slid something frothy and blue into waiting hands, then wiped his own on the bar rag tucked in his waistband. “Getcha something cold?”
“I wouldn’t mind a Blue Meanie.” Peabody spoke fast, knowing her lieutenant.
“Coming up.” He pumped at levers. “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?”
“Take a break.”
“I just came on an hour ago. I’m not due for a break until—”
“Take one now.”
He flipped the slush machine, grabbed a glass. “Hold on. Mitz, need you to take over for five. Can’t take more than five,” he told Eve as he poured the blue slush into a tall, skinny glass for Peabody. “I’ll get iced otherwise.”
“Five’ll do. Is there anyplace in here that’s quiet?”
“Not this time of day.” He scanned the crowd, used his chin to point. “Grab that privacy booth in the back, to the right. Give me a minute to fill these other orders.”
Eve wound through, Peabody, slurping Blue Meanie, in her wake. Students, she noted, treated the club like a safari and came in loaded with bags and satchels.
There was no bag or satchel in Kenby’s locker at Lincoln Center.
She stepped over, stepped around, shoved aside, and reached the booth at the same time a pair of college boys in track shirts leaped into the chairs.
They looked up at her and grinned. “You lose. We’re younger and faster.”
“I’m older and I’ve got a badge.” She flipped it out and grinned back. “Maybe I should have a look through your backpacks, then brighten everyone’s day with a quick cavity search.”
They scrambled up and away.
“They are fast,” Peabody noted.
“Yeah, but I don’t need some pussy drink to be mean.”
Peabody slurped again. “It’s very refreshing, and contrary to its name puts me in a very amenable mood. Or maybe that has something to do with the cavity search McNab and I performed on each other last night.”
Eve slapped at the cheek muscle that twitched. “Thank God I haven’t had any lunch. I’d have lost it.”
“I think it’s nice we’re both having regular sex. It keeps us in rhythm.”
“Shut up, shut up.”
“Can’t help it. I’m happy.”
“I can fix that.”