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Mrs. R? No. Did they have an accident?”
    “Homicide, Mal, remember?”
    “Man, man.” Tears glazed across his eyes, coated his voice. “Were they mugged? They love to go to the vids, and sometimes they’d walk home late.”
    “No.”
    He dropped down again, covered his face with his hands. “I can’t believe it. Mrs. R, she always has something for me if I drop over. Cookies or pie or a sandwich. Always saying I need a haircut and to settle down with a nice girl. She’s like a second mother, you know? Oh, Jesus, when my ma finds out, it’s going to knock her flat. They’ve known each other forever. Poor Jerry. God, poor Jerry. Does he know?”
    “Yeah, he knows. He killed them.”
    His hands lowered slowly. His eyes, glassy with shock and tears,stared into Eve’s. “That’s not true. That’s bogus. That’s not possible. No way. No freaking way, lady.”
    “Lieutenant, and there’s absolute way. Where is he, Mal? Where would he go?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t know.” Rocking a little, he pressed his fist to his belly. “Where do you go when things are crazy or falling apart? You go the hell home.”
    “He’s finished with that.”
    “He wouldn’t hurt them. You’ve got it wrong.”
    “Contact him. Try him on the ’link.”
    “Look, I’m his friend. You’re trying to trap him for something he didn’t do. Couldn’t do.”
    Eve leaned forward. “He stabbed his mother in the kitchen. I haven’t been to the morgue yet so I can’t verify how many times, but he tore her up. Then he waited until his father got home from work and he bashed him to pulp with a baseball bat.”
    His color faded to a sickly gray. “No, no, he … a baseball bat.”
    “That’s right.”
    Mal swallowed hard. “We played ball. Little League, then a sandlot league my pop put together a few years ago. But he wouldn’t do this.”
    “He did this, then he stole the cash they had in the house, and he found the passcodes and transferred every dime they had into accounts in his name. He spent the last two nights in a fancy hotel, living it up.”
    “No.” He rose, walked to the window in front of his desk. “I don’t want what you’re telling me. We’ve known each other since we were
six
.”
    “Where would he go?”
    “I swear, I don’t know. My ma’s life, I swear it. He didn’t come here. He didn’t tag me.”
    “He ditched his ’link. He’ll have a clone by now so you won’t recognize the ID if he does. And if he does, be chilly, Mal. If he says to meet him somewhere, say you will, then contact me. If he comes here, don’t let him in. Don’t let him know you’re here, and contact me.” She set a card on the table as she rose.
    “Give me some names. Other friends. And this Lori Nuccio’s contact information.”
    “Okay.”
    He listed names, and Eve keyed them into her notebook.
    “She dumped him, you know. Lori. He lost his job, stopped paying his share of the rent.”
    “A habit of his.”
    “Yeah, I guess. He went to Vegas with some friends a couple months back. Joe and Dave from the names I gave you. I couldn’t make it. My sister’s birthday, and man, did I carp about that. He dropped a pile, I heard, and Lori kicked him. So he was living back home.”
    Mal rubbed his hands over his face. “I’ve gotta go see my mother.”
    “I can drive you.”
    “No, that’s okay. Thanks. I think I need to walk. I think I want to walk. He’s practically my brother, you know? They just had him, and I’ve got a sister, so we were like brothers coming up. He’s a screwup, okay? I don’t like to say it, but he’s a screwup. But to do what you say he did … I need to go home.”
    “Okay, Mal.” She picked up her card, handed it to him. “Put those numbers in your ’link. You contact me if you see him, hear from him, or anyone you know does. You got that?”
    “Yeah, I got it.”
    A fter tagging Peabody, dumping the two other friends Sylvia Guntersen gave them on her partner, she tried for