In Death 26 - Strangers in Death by authors_sort Read Free Book Online

penny of the kid’s take. Anders took the kid, supported, educated, and housed him on his own nickel.”
    Pausing, Peabody glanced down at her notes. “Forrest came into a nice chunk of change when he turned twenty-one, another portion at twenty-five, another at thirty. He has an MBA from Harvard, where he also played baseball and lacrosse. He worked his way up the ranks at Anders from a junior exec to his current position as Chief Operating Officer.”
    “Any criminal?”
    “Nada. Pretty regular hits for speeding, and a shitload of parking tickets, all paid up.”
    Eve sat back, swiveled in her desk chair. “Give me the wife.”
    “Ava Montgomery Anders, who I confirmed was in her hotel suite on St. Lucia when contacted about trouble at home. She booked a shuttle after the transmission. There’s no record of her leaving the island by any mode prior. Born Portland, Oregon, in 2008, upper-middle-class all the way. Previous marriage to one Dirk Bronson in 2032, ended in divorce in 2035. No offspring. Earned degrees in business and public relations from Brown—scholarship—which she put to use as the PR rep for Anders Worldwide—Chicago base, where she relocated after her divorce. Then she transferred to the New York office in 2041. She and Anders married in ’44. She currently serves as the company’s goodwill ambassador, serving on the board of Everybody Plays, Anders Worldwide’s organization founded to provide facilities, training, and equipment for children, ah, worldwide. And serving as chairman of Moms, Too, a program that offers educational seminars, workshops, networking opportunities, and so on to mothers of kids in Everybody Plays. No criminal on her either, and she’s worth about ten million in her own right.”
    Peabody lowered her notebook. “I could give you Greta Horowitz, but everything she told us runs true. I was about to start on Leopold Walsh, but I must find food. I can find you food, too.” Peabody smiled hugely. “How about a nice sandwich?”
    “How about we find out where the hell some of the reports are, and why they’re not on my desk? I want—” Eve broke off as her computer signaled an incoming. “Morris comes through,” she murmured.
    “And while you’re singing the praises of our ME, I’ll go hunt and gather.”
    “Computer, display incoming on screen, copy to open file, and print.”
    Multitask acknowledged. Working…
    As the computer hummed, Eve scanned the toxicology report. “Well, Jesus, Tommy,” she stated, “you didn’t have a snowball’s chance, did you?”
    While it printed, she engaged her ’link to harass the sweepers for a preliminary, and because her mind was elsewhere, answered her ’link when it signaled a few minutes later.
    “Dallas.”
    “You don’t call, you don’t write.”
    “Nadine.” Eve didn’t bother to curse herself as she stared into the sharp green eyes of the city’s hottest reporter. The fact that they were friends made it convenient—or inconvenient, depending on the circumstances. “Gosh, I’d just love to chat, but I’m about to do lunch. Then maybe I’ll have a manicure.”
    “That’s so cute. You caught a hot one, Dallas, just the kind of case we love to spotlight on Now . Tomorrow night. You’ll lead off, a full ten-minute segment.”
    “Again, gosh, but I have to have my eyes put out with a hot poker tomorrow night. Otherwise…”
    “Thomas Anders’s murder is big news, Dallas.”
    “We haven’t determined or announced the death as murder.”
    “That’s not what I hear. Strangled, in bed, with considerable kink attached. If not murder, was it accidental death during sex games?”
    So the trickle was already a flood, Eve thought. “You know better, Nadine.”
    “A girl’s gotta try. He was a nice guy, Dallas. I’d like to cover this right.”
    “You knew him?”
    “I did a few features on him, his wife, his nephew over the years. That’s not really knowing someone, but what I did know, I liked.