“But we know the call was made,” Elwood said.
“But we only have his word about the message. What if Diana pocketed that phone Sunday night? What if the call was only for show?”
“Why steal her mother’s phone?” Tippen asked.
“To disarm the security system from the app.”
“I like that,” Kovac said. “Gold star for Junior.”
“You didn’t drive to Dinkytown and ask the girl if she put a beat-down on her brother and hacked her mother up with a sword, Mr. Overachiever?” Tippen asked.
“The lights were off, and she didn’t answer the door,” Taylor returned. “I didn’t see her car on the street. And she never answers her phone.”
“She was probably off eating a bloody steak with her bare hands,” Kovac said, pushing to his feet. He looked at Elwood and Tippen. “You two stay on Gordon Krauss.”
He grabbed his coat and hat and nodded to Taylor. “We’re going to find Ms. Chamberlain and have a chat about her taste in men.”
35
Evi Burke had called in sick to work. Nikki mused on that on the drive south. Was she sick, as in the stomach flu? Was she sick, as in the work flu? Was she sick, as in afraid of a stalker? Was she sick, as in detectives came to her house and asked her questions that upset her?
“I’m freaking Typhoid Mary,” she muttered to herself, thinking of Jennifer Duffy lying in a hospital bed, recovering from a stomach pumping and suicidal intentions.
It made Nikki sick to think about it. Over and over she went through her meeting with Ted Duffy’s daughter. Had she pushed too hard? She didn’t think so. She knew what it was to go after a suspect like a tigress when it was the method that would yield the best result, but she prided herself on being able to read people and find the path of least resistance to get the information she needed.
They had talked about being the daughters of cops, how it was hard, how their fathers had been distant from them, how kids took things to heart. Jennifer Duffy had not spoken of her father in a sentimental way, and yet she had clearly absorbed some of the guilt the afternoon he died below her bedroom window. She had smiled a little remembering her secret bedtime reading sessions with Angie Jeager. Then a cloud had passed over her memories, and the smile had faded away.
She knew something. Something she had kept secret all these years. Something that had sent her to therapy. Something that had driven her to take an overdose of pills.
And the family had rallied around her.
What the hell was that about? Nikki wondered as she pulled up in front of the Burkes’ charming little English-cottage-style house.
Evi Burke’s husband answered the door. He was a virtual Viking god in the flesh. In jeans and a faded navy-blue thermal shirt that hugged sculpted muscles, he looked like he could have been a few years younger than his wife. Jackpot, Evi Burke, Nikki thought as he invited her in.
“What’s this about?” he asked, not letting her get any farther than the entryway. He crossed his arms over his chest and took a stance with his feet shoulder-width apart. The protector. “We’re looking for a person of interest in a homicide,” Nikki said. “And we’re trying to learn as much as we can about him.
“We think he might be connected to one of your wife’s clients at the Chrysalis Center,” she lied. “Mrs. Burke may have had an encounter with him during a home visit.”
“Do you think he’s in our neighborhood? There’ve been a lot of radio cars on the street.”
“A clerk at the SuperAmerica on Thirty-fourth thinks he might have seen him this morning. We’ve saturated the surrounding area with patrol cars.”
Eric Burke took in her answer, thought about it, and nodded. She gave a mental sigh of relief.
Evi emerged from the dining room white as a sheet, with dark circles under her eyes, shuffling in a pair of fuzzy cat-face slippers, yoga pants, and an oversize sweater. She was preceded by an adorable blond-haired moppet wearing a pink tutu and waving a glitter wand.
Nikki grinned at the little girl. “Are you a princess or a fairy?”
“I’m Mia!” the girl exclaimed as her father scooped her up onto his hip.
“Mia and I will go up to the Magic Kingdom while you two talk.”
Nikki murmured her thanks. Evi watched her husband and daughter disappear up the stairs. She hugged herself as if she was cold.
“Why did you do that?” she asked. “This suspect doesn’t have anything to do with anyone at Chrysalis.”
“No,” Nikki said. “But I didn’t see a need to tell your husband this is about something that happened twenty-five years ago, either.”
“Thank you.”
They went into the dining room, taking the same seats they had the night before.
“You look like you had a rough night,” Nikki said. “Did something happen after we left?”
Tears filled Evi Burke’s eyes. “I got a phone call,” she murmured. “In the middle of the night. The person said, ‘It all worked out for you.’”