Page 106 of Devoted in Death

“Timing works. Do they know his whereabouts?”

The elevator doors opened; a trio of uniforms started to board.

Eve snarled, laid her hand on her stunner.

They backed out again.

“He says no, and I believe him. No love lost there, LT. He took the loss on the truck and the tools for his woman, but when we said the M word, he spewed like a geyser. Carmichael’s talking to the mother now, but it doesn’t look like she knows anything much. She claims she hasn’t spoken to him since midsummer, right before he got out, and it rings true. But she did say something about a woman before she got hysterical. No name, just he’d hooked up with some woman somewhere, and it was all her fault—according to the mother.”

Santiago managed an eye roll and a smirk at the same time. “Carmichael’s working it.”

“Get me her name, get all you can, then get home.”

“I’m so ready for that. Yippee-ki-freaking-yay.”

“Peabody,” Eve said as she clicked off, and stepping out this time when the doors opened and other cops piled on.

“James, Darryl Roy, age twenty-five, single, one offspring.”

Eve’s head snapped around to her partner. “Offspring?”

“He’s listed as the father of a baby, Darra Louise James, born in April of last year. The mother is listed as Ella-Loo Parsens, age twenty-six.”

“That’s going to be her. That’s got to be.” Revved, Eve jogged her way up the glides. “How the hell are they doing all this with a baby in tow?”

“Jeez, poor baby. Not even a year old.”

Eve yanked out her ’link again, contacted Carmichael. “Ask the mother if she knows about a baby. Does she know she’s a grandmother?”

“Holy hell. I’m betting no. Hang loose a minute.”

Eve waited, pushing her way up to Homicide. When Carmichael came back on, Eve could hear the wailing from Oklahoma.

“She didn’t know. I’m going to calm her down again, Dallas, but she didn’t know about a kid, she doesn’t know the woman’s name. She only knows Darryl told her he was in love—had met his soul mate. Called her his Juliet, but he was into the Shakespeare thing, star-crossed lovers, Romeo, and all that. This was during visitation in prison.”

“Settle her down, work her some more. You and Santiago hang there until I get back to you. You may be out there a little longer.”

“Then I’m buying some damn cowboy boots.”

“If you buy pink ones, I’ll hurt you, Carmichael. Work the mother. She may know more than she thinks she knows. Peabody.”

Peabody read off her PPC. “Parsens, Ella-Loo, born Elk City, Oklahoma. Couple of pops for possession, low-rent stuff. No marriages, no cohabs on record. Lots of short employment history, with the last one picking up in January of ’58 through last August—her longest on record. A bar called Ringo’s, McAlester, Oklahoma. That’s where the prison is, Dallas. The Oklahoma pen.”

“Wanted to be near her man, waited for him. Close to four years—that’s devoted. Go back over the employment.”

“The next is short-term. March to July, 2057, the Rope ’N Ride, Dry Creek, Oklahoma.”

“And Darryl boosted Hanks’s truck, stole the cash, the tools, the knife in July, set out from there, and you bet your ass into the Rope ’N Ride in Dry Creek.”

She stepped into Homicide, held a hand up to stop anyone from asking her anything, and tagged Santiago again.

“NYPSD West,” he answered.

“Ha. Wrap it up there, asap, and head to someplace called Dry Creek.”

“Ah, man.”

“A bar called the Rope ’N Ride. Show the photos, Santiago. Get everything you can get on Ella-Loo Parsens—she worked there—and James. From there, it’s Elk City and Parsens’s mother.”