Page 24 of Concealed in Death

The holo, much less refined here, showed a fuller face, slacker. Smaller eyes, Eve noted, thinner mouth. Not a particularly pretty girl, not at this point in any case. Pale skin, somewhat sallow, a broader nose.

“We’ll do better than this with more time. I’ll send you a copy of the final.”

“Good. We’ll take what you have for now, get started.”

“This one was sad.” Elsie laid her hands on her belly again. “You can just feel it. And she didn’t have time to get happy again.”

When Elsie’s belly jerked, visibly, under her hand, Eve took a definite step back. Peabody took one in.

“Can I?”

“Sure.” Elsie turned her enormous belly toward Peabody’s reaching hands.

“Awww.” The cooing sound matched the sappy look on Peabody’s face.

“I know, right? They’re going to settle down soon, running out of room in there. It’s crazy considering how many times a day they punch or kick me, but I’m going to miss it.”

“Have you got names?”

“Daddy and I are still arguing, but I’m pulling for Harmony and Haven.”

“Pretty.”

“Okay, well,” Eve began.

“Oh, let me make you a copy of both holos, and I’ll update the second image as I refine it. I can probably get a third started today,” Elsie continued as she programmed copies. “And possibly complete three to four tomorrow. I hope to have all of them for you within three days. I just think of the parents, the not knowing. It has to be torture, even after so many years.”

“I don’t want you upsetting yourself, Elsie,” DeWinter warned. “Adding stress to your life at this stage.”

“It’s not, not really. I feel like I’m doing something for them, bringing their faces back, and that leads to giving them their names back. They shouldn’t be numbers. None of us should ever just be a number.”

She handed Eve the disc.

“You do good work. I’ll be in touch, Dr. DeWinter. See you later, Morris.”

“I’ll be back in my own house before the end of the day if you need me.”

She headed down, worked her way back out of the maze. When they were clearly out of anyone’s earshot, Peabody spoke up.

“They look good together.”

Lost in thought, Eve frowned. “What? Who?”

“Morris and DeWinter?”

“What?” Eve repeated. “Get out.”

“No, they do. I don’t see that hum between them like he had with Detective Coltraine, I just meant on a kind of visual level. Both of them kind of exotic and artsy. I always wonder if McNab and I come close to looking good together,” she went on, speaking of her main man and one of the Electronic Detectives Division’s aces.

“I mean, I’m kinda short and—it’s Be Kind to Myself Day, so I’ll say zaftig.”

“Zaftig?” Eve muscled her way out the door, strode toward her car. “What language is that?”

“It’s fancy language for full-bodied. And McNab’s all bony and beanpoley.”

“You look right together, which is better than good.”

Completely stunned, Peabody stopped in her tracks. “That’s the totally, absolutely nicest thing you’ve ever said about me and McNab.”