“Leave it be. If someone tampered with it, using the original code could add another block. I’m on my way.”
“What could Bissel have in his studio he didn’t want his wife to see?” Peabody wondered.
“Doesn’t make sense.” Eve shook her head. “Nothing in his file to indicate he’s that security savvy. It takes savvy to alter a code without building security sniffing it out. And a guy who risks an affair with his wife’s friend, all but under her nose? Why’d he do that? For the sex, sure, but also for the thrill. Look what I can get away with. Why does a man who goes for the thrill take such extensive precautions with his home office unit, his art studio. What does one have to do with the other?”
She stepped off the elevator, into a space filled with sculpture, paintings, both static and animated. In the midst of the softly lighted room, a woman sat on the floor, sobbing her heart out.
“Man,” Eve said under her breath. “I hate when this happens. You take her.”
Pleased to have a concrete assignment, Peabody approached the woman, crouched in front of her. “Miss.”
“We’re closed.” She wailed into her own hands. ?
??Due to a de–de–death.”
“I’m Detective Peabody.” Under the circumstances, she tried not to display too much glee in being able to say just that. “This is my partner, Lieutenant Dallas. We’re investigating the deaths of Blair Bissel and Felicity Kade.”
“Blair!” She all but screamed it, and threw herself facedown on the floor. “No, no, no, he can’t be dead. I can’t stand it.”
“I’m sorry, this is a difficult time for you.”
“I don’t think I can go on! All the light, all the air’s gone out of the world.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ.” Since enough was enough, Eve stalked over, took the woman by one arm and hauled her back to a sitting position. “I want your name, your connection with Blair Bissel, and the reason you’re here.”
“Ch–ch–ch—”
“Suck it in,” Eve snapped. “Spit it out.”
“Chloe McCoy. I run the gallery. And I’m here, I’m here, because . . .” She crossed her arms over her heart, as if she were trying to hold it inside her. “We loved each other.”
Barely old enough to buy a drink in a legit bar, Eve gauged. Her face was ravaged, swollen and splotchy, with huge brown eyes still busily pumping out the tears. Her hair was ink black and tumbled over her shoulders, over a pair of young and perky breasts shown off in a snug black shirt.
“You had an intimate relationship with Bissel.”
“We were in love!” She threw out her arms, then wrapped them tightly around her own body. “We were soulmates. Destined for each other from our first breaths. We were—”
“Did you fuck him, Chloe?”
The crudeness did what Eve had hoped, and the tears magically dried up. “How dare you? How dare you demean something so beautiful?” She threw up her chin, and though it trembled, it stayed so high it nearly pointed at the ceiling. “Yes, we were lovers. Now that he’s dead, my soul is dead, too. How could she do it? That horrible, horrible woman? How could she turn out the light on someone so good, so true, so perfect.”
“So good and true he was sleeping with her friend and one of his employees?” Eve said pleasantly.
“His marriage was over.” Chloe turned her head away, stared at the wall. “It was just a matter of time until it was legally ended, and we’d be together in the sunlight, instead of in shadows.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m twenty-one, but age means nothing.” She closed her hand over a heart-shaped pendant around her throat. “I’m as old as time now, as old as grief.”
“When’s the last time you saw Blair?”
“Yesterday morning. We met here.” She brushed her free hand over her brow while she stroked the little gold heart. “To say a sweet good-bye before he had to go on his trip.”
“That would be his trip uptown where he snuggled in with Felicity Kade for a couple days?”
“That isn’t true.” Her puffy eyes took on a mutinous expression. “I don’t know what happened, what that horrible woman made it appear, but Blair certainly wasn’t involved that way with Ms. Kade. She was a client, and no more.”
“Uh-huh” was the kindest response Eve could think of. “How long have you worked here?”