Possession in Death by J. D. Robb Read Free Book Online Page A

body home?”
    “I don’t have that information.”
    “I hope she goes home,” Sasha murmured, then wandered back inside.
    “He immigrated here from Russia with his sister and her kid—Alexi was a
couple months old—twenty-six years ago,” Peabody added. “Sister’s husband’s
listed as dead, right before the kid was born. Korchov was thirty-five and had
been a big-deal ballet guy until he got messed up in a car wreck. They fixed him,
but his career was shot. The sister was thirty, and had a pretty decent career
herself. They opened the school. He has his own apartment on six. No criminal
record. No marriages on record, two cohabs, both in Russia. The second one
died in the same wreck that messed him up.”
    “Okay.” Eve watched the willowy blonde glide out.
    “You wanted to see me?” She had a breathy, baby doll voice that made Eve
think it was Allie’s good luck ballet didn’t require vocals.
    “Just verifying some information. Would you mind telling me where you
were this afternoon?”
    “Sure. Alex and I had brunch with some friends at Quazar’s. Caviar and
champagne—it was CeeCee’s birthday—which probably wasn’t a good idea right
before practice. I’m still carrying those blinis.” She smiled easily. “Doesn’t bother
Alex, I guess, because he jumped right in when we got here. Pushed me through
that damn pas de deux until I thought about just sticking my fingers down my
throat. But Barinova will skin you for purging, and she always knows. Anyway, I
got through it. My Angel to his Devil.”
    “His what?”
    “Devil.” She lifted the water bottle she carried, took a long sip. “We’re
performing the final pas de deux from
Diabolique
. I’m dancing Angel. Alex is
Devil. Let me tell you, it’s a killer.”
    Eve looked past her to the studio doorway. “I just bet.”

Chapter Six
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    “That’s what I’d call a devil of a coincidence,” Peabody commented when
they stepped out on the street.
    “Are you buying it?”
    “Not even for the couple of loose credits in my pocket.”
    “I want you to check with the other people the blonde gave us, and the
restaurant. We’ll see if Alexi could’ve managed to slip away. See what the timing
is from the restaurant to the alley, from the school to the alley.”
    “Beata turned him down, pissed him off. He kills her, buries the body.”
Peabody scanned the area. “God knows where, but that would fit in with the
west of the alley, underground deal.”
    “She’s not dead. She’s trapped.” Eve snapped it out furiously, shocking
herself as much as Peabody.
    “Okay… So you think—”
    “It’s what she thought. Szabo.” Eve rubbed a hand between her breasts
where her heart beat, hard and dull, a hammer against cloth. “I’m saying Szabo
thought Beata was alive.”
    “Right. Behind a red door. Why do people have to be so cryptic?”
    Think like a cop, Eve ordered herself. Facts, logic, instinct. “Szabo spends
time at the school, with Alexi et al, sniffs it out, suspects, hints around. Maybe
trying to get Alexi to make a move. He kills her.” Eve rolled it around. “Awful
damn tidy, but sometimes it just is.”
    “Well, the old lady told everybody Beata was still alive, so that doesn’t ride
the train very well.”
    “She poofs. She’s got a job, her classes, landed a part. Sounds like
everything’s working out for her, but she poofs. Odds are she didn’t poof
voluntarily—that’s Lloyd’s take, and I agree.”
    “Three months is a long time,” Peabody put in. “A long time to hold
somebody who doesn’t want to be held. And for what reason?”
    “Szabo didn’t want to believe the girl was dead, and who can blame her?”
Eve added. “Not only her great-granddaughter, but she overrode the rest of the
family so Beata could come to New York.”
    “Had to feel sick about it.” Like Eve, Peabody scanned the street, the
buildings, the traffic. “What did she say exactly? To you, I mean.”
    Eve