Eve spotted Peabody and McNab trotting up. She signaled for McNab to stand with Roarke, gestured Peabody forward.
“DB’s pretty beat up,” Cohen continued. “But from the build and what I can see of his face, I’d say it’s the asshole lives down the hall from me. Name’s Kagen, Arlo Kagen. He’s got a sheet, not surprising, as he’s a mean drunk.”
“When’s the last time you saw Kagen?” Eve asked him.
“Tonight, when I was heading to work. That’d be about nineteen hundred, seeing as I grab a bite on the way. He was heading out about the same time. Likely to go get his drunk on. He generally gets it on at Nowhere, a dive bar just a couple blocks from here.”
“Have you noticed anyone in or around the building who doesn’t belong? Somebody who set off your buzzer?”
He shook his head. “I sleep till fourteen hundred most days, maybe walk around in good weather. We got the tat parlor, the hair place, a couple cheap eats, and get some of the street levels off the stroll who patronize ’em. I head out for work pretty much the same time every day, so I’m not here all that much, and when I am, I’m sleeping.”
“Okay, appreciate the help.”
“Don’t much like finding a DB at my door. Hope you close this down sooner than later. I’m gonna go get some rack time. You know where I am.”
Eve waited until Cohen went in the building. “Any chance he touched the body, compromised the scene?”
“Not one in a million,” Keller told her. “Brigg likes to rag on us, but he’s solid.”
“He’s a grizzled old fart,” Andrew put in, but with affection. “And he’s got a rep as a good cop for a reason. We caught a break with him finding the DB.”
“All right then. You can start knocking on doors.”
“We’re off shift at six hundred. Okay to put in the OT?”
Eve nodded at Keller. “Check with your LT. I’d like you on this. Peabody, let’s ID the body, just to cross that off. McNab, and Roarke if you’re still in this, you can start on the e’s once we do. The building’s got a door cam. Let’s find out if it actually works.”
She took her field kit from Roarke, walked to the body, crouched down to verify the ID.
Peabody hunkered beside her. “I didn’t think she’d hit again so fast. She’d go for another, yeah, but not three days in a row.”
“She’s goal oriented. And she’s on a streak. You don’t mess with a streak. Victim is identified as Kagen, Arlo, age thirty-one, of this address. As with the two other victims, his body shows severe burns, bruising. His left arm’s broken, most probably from a severe blow. Dig into it, Peabody. See if he was left-handed. Severe facial bruising—broken nose, some broken and missing teeth. His genitals have been severed and removed.”
She put on microgoggles, leaned in. “Looks like the same weapon or same type, the same method. ME to confirm. TOD three-fifty-six. COD most probably blood loss from amputation. ME to confirm.”
Eve pulled out an evidence bag, slid the poem into it, sealed it, read through it.
He used his fists against his wife,
So with cruelty and violence he lived his life.
Though she gave him a child to cherish,
He stroked her fears until all hope perished.
This death he earned by my decree,
Now mother and son are finally free.
LADY JUSTICE
“She can’t stop,” Eve mumbled. “The world she’s created and her place in it are too important to her.”
And that world was black-and-white.
“Vic was left-handed,” Peabody told her. “That’s why she broke his left arm. He probably led with his left when he beat his wife. It makes it specific. More specific,” she corrected. “And you know what? This isn’t just the third in a row. It’s the third in a row who hurt or cheated on a spouse. All of them were married. Pettigrew and Kagen were divorced, but they committed their crimes—what she’s using—while married.”
Eve sat back on her heels. “You’re right about that. She’s going after the men who are or were married first. We can narrow down the next potential by factoring that in. That’s good, Peabody.