Read In Death Collection: Books 30-32 for Free Online

afternoon. I’d have been a little more organized by then. Probably.”
    â€œThis is Lieutenant Dallas and ...”
    â€œDetective Peabody.”
    â€œYeah.” Cill took a deep breath, then closed the glass door. “They’re here about Bart.”
    â€œBart?” A quick laugh exploded. “What’d he do? Get drunk and jaywalk? Do we need to post bail?”
    â€œSit down, Var,” Cill murmured.
    â€œWhy? What?” Amusement faded. “Oh hell, oh shit, did he get mugged or something? Is he hurt? Is he okay?”
    â€œWe’re Homicide,” Eve said. “Bart Minnock’s been murdered.”
    The coffee slipped out of Var’s hand and splashed over his bright red shoes. “What do you mean? What does that mean?”
    â€œSit down, Var.” Cill pulled him to a chair. “Just sit down. We’ll clean that up later.”
    â€œBut this is crazy. Bart can’t be ... When? How?”
    â€œSometime between four-thirty and five yesterday afternoon, in his apartment a few blocks from here. He was found by CeeCee Rove earlier this morning, in his holo-room. He’d been decapitated.”
    After Benny’s strangled gasp, there was utter silence. Beside him, Cill went deathly white. Her hand flayed out, and Var gripped it.
    â€œSomeone cut his head off?” As Cill began to shake, Benny put an arm around her so the three of them sat on the sofa as one unit. “Someone cut Bart’s head off?”
    â€œThat’s correct. It appears he was in the holo-room at the time of the attack, and had programmed a game by disc. EDD is working on removing the disc from the holo-unit. I’m going to need to verify the whereabouts of all of you from three to six yesterday.”
    â€œWe were here,” Cill said quietly. “We were all here. Well, I left just before six. I had a yoga class, and it starts at six. It’s just down the street at Blossom. Benny and Var were still here when I left.”
    â€œI think I was here until about six-thirty.” Var cleared his throat. “I-I went home. My group’s got a game—a virtual game—of Warlord going, and we played from about seven to ten. Benny was still here when I left, and he was already in when I got here at eight-thirty this morning.”
    â€œI worked late and bunked here. Some of us were around until seven or eight—I don’t remember, but we can check the logs. I shut the place up, and worked until about one, then I crashed. None of us would hurt Bart. We’re family. We’re family.”
    â€œThey have to know.” Cill leaned her head on his shoulder a moment. “It’s one of the steps. You have to take the steps to get to the next level. If Bart let somebody into his holo, he trusted them, or ...”
    â€œOr,” Eve prompted.
    â€œHe was showing off.” Var’s voice broke, and once again he cleared his throat.
    â€œWhat might he want to show off? What was he working on he’d want to take home, play with, show off?”
    â€œWe’ve got a lot of things in development,” Var told her. “A lot ready to roll out, others we’re fine-tuning. Bart took hard copies home a lot, to play them out, look for kinks and glitches and ways to pump it up. We all did.”
    â€œThen he’d have logged it out?”
    â€œHe should have, yeah.” Var stared blankly. “Oh, I could check. I can go check.”
    â€œI’ll go with you, Peabody,” Eve said with a nod, then followed Var out while her partner continued to interview.
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    T hey took one of the elevators down, with Var waving people off. His pockets sent out chirps and beeps and buzzes. She saw him start to reach in—an instinctive move—then let his hand drop away.
    â€œThey’ll know something’s up, something’s wrong,” he said to Eve. “What do we tell them? I don’t know what to tell