Obsession in Death

Was there anything more exhausting than having complete strangers build fantasies and scenarios around you? – Eve Dallas, Obsession in Death

Obsession in Death
Obsession in Death US Hardcover
Book Number	40
Release Date	February 18, 2014
Publisher	Putnam Adult
ISBN	9780749959418
Publication order
Previous	Festive in Death
Next	Devoted in Death

Plot Summary

Eve Dallas has solved a lot of high-profile murders for the NYPSD and gotten a lot of media. She—and her billionaire husband—are getting accustomed to being objects of attention, of gossip, of speculation.

But now Eve has become the object of one person’s obsession. Someone who finds her extraordinary, and thinks about her every hour of every day. Who believes the two of them have a special relationship. Who would kill for her—again and again…

With a murderer reading meanings into her every move, handling this case will be a delicate—and dangerous—psychological dance. And Eve knows that underneath the worship and admiration, a terrible threat lies in wait. Because the beautiful lieutenant is not at all grateful for these bloody offerings from her “true and loyal friend.” And in time, idols always fall… 

Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details about an upcoming episode.

Timeline

Story Dates: December 27-31, 2060

Prologue (December 27)

• Killer - “Killing was easier than I thought it could be, and a lot more rewarding. I finally feel as if I’ve done something important, something that deserves real attention. My first weight on the scale toward balance. My first tribute, I suppose, in honor of my friend and partner.”
• The killer believed the lawyer deserved to die. She was furious that she had demeaned the person who deserved her RESPECT!
• The killer plans to be her avenger and champion.
• One day, when the time is right, she will meet her friend, and that friend will know they are the truest of friends and it will be the happiest day of the killer’s life.

Day 1 (December 28)

Chapter 1

• “On a cold, crisp morning in the waning days of 2060,” NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas stands over the body of Leanore Bastwick, “a once-high-powered defense attorney” with “the ethics of a rattlesnake.”
  • She’d been stunned and then garroted from behind, and her tongue had been cut out.
  • Above the bed is a note, written on the wall. Addressed to Dallas, it claims that the woman deserved death for her insults, and is signed “your true and loyal friend.”
• Dallas and Peabody interview Cecil Haversham. He was Bastwick’s admin and the one that found her body. It amused her that he spoke with a British accent even though he was born in Toledo, Ohio. He grew concerned when he saw a message from clients that Bastwick was supposed to dine with the night before complaining that she never arrived. He found the body upon checking on her and called 9-1-1.

Chapter 2

• Dallas and Peabody review the security discs. Security cameras recorded a delivery person - bundled up, gender unknowable, face constantly blocked by a box - enter and exit the apartment at the times bracketing TOD.
• The crime scene is extremely tidy and extremely clean of any trace evidence. The murderer must have planned and practiced.
• On the way back to Central, they discuss threat files. Dallas tends to dump hers on the media liaison.

• Commander Whitney decides to keep Dallas as primary despite the probable “media shitstorm” because Dallas convinces him that her connection won’t get in her way. She also points out that the killer wants her attention and she wants to give it to him in hopes he contacts her again.
• Thinking about her bullpen and craving good coffee, she momentarily thinks of providing them with her good coffee. But decides against it because they would lose the fun of sneaking in and stealing coffee from her AutoChef.
• Mira surprises her by dropping in her office to go over the case. Mira wants her to drop the case because it is personal. Eve claims they are all personal. She is upset because Eve matters to her. Mira intends to review Eve’s correspondence herself to help with the case. She also points out that Roarke and others she loves may eventually be targets.

Chapter 3

• Dallas and Peabody interview Bastwick’s coworkers at the law office (some of whom she had interacted with during Rapture in Death), acquaintances, clients, etc.
• They did a run on Fitzhugh’s former spouse, Arthur Foxx, and found he had moved to Hawaii, so wasn’t the perp.
• Bastwick didn’t have any close friends, and used escorts and professional licensed companions for dating and intimacy.
• They get input from Mira, Morris at the morgue, Berenski at the lab, Feeney in EDD, Kyung in media, and Reo in the PA’s office.
• The scene was so clean and the murder so efficient, they begin to reluctantly wonder if the perp is a cop, lab tech, or field tech, or other person involved in law enforcement.
• They also think the perp could have held a grudge on Dallas’s behalf or could have committed the crime thinking it was a gift to her.
• Morris and Eve agree that the perp probably used the box to carry the garotte and clothing to protect the killer. Killer used clean block printing on the wall so there would be no way to identify the killer from handwriting. All three agree that the killer might just be a cop.
• Dallas is frustrated at thinking about going over all the correspondence to “start looking at who might want to give me a dead lawyer as a fucking holiday gift.”
• At the lab, Dickhead starts out by annoying Eve hoping she had brought him another gift. He gets annoyed when she asks him to look at all his people, but points out that people in evidence know how to keep a scene pristine.

Chapter 4

• Back at Central, Dallas goes up to meet with Feeney in EDD. After telling her the whole thing is “fucked up” he programs them spinach smoothies. She says she will pass, but spinach smoothies turn out to be Roarke coffee.
• The unsub looks to be about 5 feet, 10 inches wearing Urban Hiker boots. Everything is middle of the line - brands, height, sizes, figure. Could be male or female.
• They agree the person is going to want to kill again because they were so happy leaving the scene of the crime.
• Back in her office, Eve contacts Nadine, who is on vacation in Nevis with a sexy hunk named Bruno. Nadine is instantly concerned when she is told about Bastwick’s death and that there was a personal message. She asks Nadine to go over her correspondence related to the Icove stuff.
• Kyung then drops in to discuss handling the media with Dallas. He goes over potential responses to media questions with her since they know it will blow up once the note leaks.
• On her way home, she walks through the crime scene and spent a long time reading the writing on the wall.
• Eve and Summerset have their usual banter about her coming home. She is a bit bothered to hear she has plans for the evening she forgot about. As she heads up the stairs, she asks him to be cautious about any deliveries coming to the house and to change up his schedule.

• That evening, Roarke and Eve were supposed to attend a charity benefit at Carnegie Hall, but he cancels because she is so disturbed. Once she shows him the message he becomes very concerned. As he puts it, “you’re the target here. The murder was a gift to you. As brutal and bloody as a cat dropping a dead mouse at your feet.”

Chapter 5

• Roarke seeks to comfort Eve by starting off with a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. She feels a little guilty about canceling on the charity event and suggests she pay for the donation. Until she finds it would be about $5 million. She then goes over the steps of her day for him.
• Roarke settles down to go over financials for her. Eve set up her board and finished it by adding her own ID photo. She then goes over all the messages that have come in since she left Central.
• Mira vets Eve’s recent fan mail and sends some suspicious items, which give Eve the creeps and supply more suspects. She also included a profile of the killer.
• When Roarke comes back to her office she is pacing and annoyed because people are so fucked up. She shows him an obsessive letter from one female fan and points out it was just the first of 15 letters. Then she tells him about other “fans” and the letters they have written. At that point, they shut down for the night.

Day 2 (December 29)

Chapter 6

• Eve awakens from a nightmare, and she and Roarke make love.
• “Excitement built on the climb up the stairs, and the anticipation of killing again – this time knowing the rush of it, an immense satisfaction. The importance of the work. There was no question Eve would be pleased, very pleased now to know scum like Ledo had been removed from society. Protect and serve.”
• Wendall Ledo – illegals dealer, addict, and pool hustler who bruised Dallas’s cheek in Conspiracy in Death – is dead. He’d been stunned and then stabbed through the chest with a broken pool cue, and his tongue had been cut out. A message to Dallas is longer, talks of justice for the insult to her, and is signed “your true friend.” The building and apartment have no security system, but this crime looks just as well planned and clean as Bastwick’s.
• As Dallas gets ready to head out to the office, a call comes through from Dispatch to report to a homicide for Ledo, unknown first name. Roarke insists on going along so she has him drive. As they drive she tells him about one of the last times she met him in the underground where she used Ledo’s pool cue to knock back another player. Ledo got upset and hit her in the cheek with the pool cue.
• This death bolsters the theory of the tie with Dallas: the perp would only know about Ledo through Dallas’s incident report. That means law enforcement or support, court staff, reporter, etc.
• Eve entertained herself before going into the crime scene by “discouraging” an onlooker with a twist of his prized possession.

Chapter 7

• Peabody opened the door for Eve and Roarke since she got there first. The neighbor, Misty Polinsky, saw the door standing open and saw Ledo and called it in.
• A witness saw an exterminator at Ledo’s apartment, but the building supervisor didn’t hire one. The witness works on a sketch with Detective Yancy. Misty is young and naive so Eve asks Roarke to get her out of the dumpy apartment and crappy jobs and into Dóchas. Although she claims to be 22, she is only 17 and came from an abusive home.
• Dallas and Peabody continue to interview suspects and witnesses on both murders. One of the visits is to Hilly Decker who idolizes Eve and writes to her.

Chapter 8

• After Hilly Decker’s place, they go to see Carmine Atelli in his luxurious apartment instead of having to go below Times Square. He can’t provide any important information on Ledo but says he will cover his funeral if no one else will.
• More “queasy”-inducing letters come in from Mira as potential perps.
• Dallas books a conference room at Central to fill in her team on the murders. She goes over the cases and answers their questions. They all volunteer to help out in any way they can between their own cases.
• Nadine Furst joins in the investigation, adding her fan mail and investigative skills. While they were talking, the message information got covered by the media. Kyung agrees to give Nadine some information from an unnamed source.

Chapter 9

• Dallas and Peabody go out to interview Mason Tobias - one of the people regularly writing her. His mother answers the door and gets upset when she sees Dallas since she know Mason idolizes her. It turns out Eve took his father down as part of the takedown of crooked cops under Captain Roth. He did know Ledo, but left him alone. He and his mother were working at the time of the first murder.
• Tobias was thrilled when Eve gave him an assignment as an observer. He gives her a copy of all his files and reports.
• Dallas gets Ledo’s autopsy results and Morris’s evaluation of who in his support staff could be involved in these crimes (no one).
• In the media briefing, Dallas is careful not to snap at anyone, for fear that “If I go a round with some idiot reporter I could be putting a target on his back.” She does go off script to tell the reporters what she will identify and apprehend the killer so they can receive justice.

Chapter 10

• Mira is concerned that the perp will turn on Dallas, because she won't live up to his idea of perfect justice. Mira and Dallas also agree that the perp already has the next target set and they may not stop him in time. Eve states that the killer claims they are able to get justice by going outside of the law, but believes they are just excuses to kill. They believe the killer will be frustrated that Eve is know acknowledging them and while they expect Eve to pursue him, they probably think Eve will understand once they are caught. Mira cautions her that in the killer’s mind she will go from angel to demon quickly.
• “She won’t need anyone but me. I hope she’s starting to understand that now. I have to show her so she understands. Maybe after tonight. Maybe after one more.” The killer is getting upset that Dallas won’t tell everyone that they had written to her and were killing on her behalf.
• Dallas shuts herself in her office to analyze the messages and think. Reading through Mason Tobias’ entries she realizes he had seen the killer. He agrees to work on a sketch with Yancy.
• After another fruitless and annoying interview with a horny criminology instructor, Dallas goes home.

Chapter 11

• After verbally sparring with Sommerset and giving him another warning, she went up to her office and updated her board.
• She works off the accumulated rage with a hard workout, pounds (and gets pounded by) a new sparring droid called Crusher, then finishes it up with hot shower sex.
• Roarke works with Eve as they cross-examine her fan mail, Nadine’s fan mail, and the two crime-scene messages. Eve also views a report of people who had applied for law enforcement but been denied. After programming some searches, they sit down to dinner and she fills him in on her day.
• “And while she filled him in, the brown-clad, nondescript delivery person strode toward the chosen address. It was hard to keep a spring out of the step. No one saw the real person, and that had always hurt and infuriated. Now it became a plus, an asset, even a weapon.”
• The killer keeps pressing a buzzer until the door is yanked open by a furious Dirk Hastings. As he reaches for the box to get rid of the delivery person, he receives a mid-body stun. Preparing to drag him farther into the room, they are surprised when someone comes down stairs to talk to Hastings, spots them and starts screaming.

Chapter 12

• Eve is studying Yancy’s latest sketch when the dreaded and expected call comes through from Dispatch. She and Roarke rush out to got to his building. Hastings, a photographer and “asshole” with “a temper” (from Portrait in Death), is injured but alive.
• After the first on scene lets them in, she is surprised to see that he has a second witness sitting next to him. He was stunned, but the supermodel, Matilda Zebler, he had just started a relationship with panicked the attacker so she ran away – and he is sure the delivery person was female. Both witnesses agree to work with Yancy.
• Hastings is stunned to realize that it wasn’t armed robbery that was stopped, but murder. He asks Eve why someone would want to kill him. Her response, “How many people have you thrown something at, or threatened to skin alive, boil in acid, toss out the window - just for instance - since the last time I saw you?”
• Hastings commented that just before she stunned him, he saw excitement in her eyes.
• As they drive home, Dallas and Roarke discuss the interviews. And come to the conclusion that the only way the killer could know the details is from reading her files.

Day 3 (December 30)

• While Dallas works into the night until she falls asleep at her desk, the killer paces and bemoans the fact that the kill did not happen. She stands in a room with a wall covered with photographs, drawings and clippings of Eve. On the killer’s whiteboard with many faces on it. Two have thick red X’s across their faces. The killer sits down to write an apology to Eve.

Chapter 13

• Dallas, working from home, digs deeper into her fan mail because she’s come to believe the killer’s obsession with her is not a recent thing.
• She finds the writer, who has been sending emails from different accounts but with similar writing styles, dating back to Survivor in Death. The messages have been escalating in tone and frequency.
• Peabody and McNab come in, grab some food, and contribute to theorizing and work.
• A fresh email comes in, full of disappointment and rage and is long and rambling, and starting to doubt Dallas. The perp has turned on her former idol. Dallas says “About fucking time.”

Chapter 14

• Roarke and McNab trace the message to Ledo’s flop. The four of them rush over to Ledo's former place.

• At Ledo’s, the perp left a short angry message. “It Matters! I Matter! Show me it matters or I can’t be YOUR TRUE FRIEND.” “She’s losing it.”
• The police block had been opened by a master, with Dallas’s ID but it isn’t Dallas’s. The perp has moderate e-skills. (Note: Dallas’ master code is 382TZ1A0). At first Eve wants to cancel the code, but they decide to kill it and put an alert on it for when it is used again.
• After they pull into Central, Roarke warns Dallas to be extra careful even there.

• Input from Mira, Peabody, and others helps Dallas refine the killer’s profile. Baxter and Trueheart give her two more names to look at, Gina Tortelli and Hilda Farmer. Jenkinson and Santiago give her 5 more names.

• Mira, waiting in Eve’s office, believes that she’ll eventually try to kill Dallas, and both of them will die “in the ultimate bond.”

Chapter 15

• Dallas widens the net on warning her friends and coworkers – who might be targets.
• Dallas and Peabody interview – and eliminate – more potential suspects. Gina Tortelli had attitude, until she found out her mother could be potentially in trouble for writing Dallas. She also infuriates Dallas by whining about getting caught taking money on the job.
• While driving to the next interview, Eve tells Peabody, “I can’t remember ever wanting to be anything but a cop. When I woke up in that hospital in Dalla, everything that happened blurry, or too bright to look at, the cops were there. They scared me some -- he'd put that in me, how the cops would throw me in a dark hole with spiders. But there were careful with me, and nobody had been.”
• Hilda Farmer turns out to be a piece of work. Wanting to work with Dallas, but then starts talking about how all everyone (including Peabody and Dallas) does is look at her like a sexual subject.

Chapter 16

• Back at Central, they book a holoroom and walk through the three crime scenes in sequence.
  • They determine that the perp spent extra time going over the scene to ensure she left no trace evidence.
  • She also becomes less controlled, more daring, and more excited with each crime.
  • On the other hand, she didn’t have the instincts, flexibility, or training to change the plan when the model showed up at Hastings’s place. She is/was in law enforcement in some capacity but couldn’t possibly be a cop.
• In a short media conference, Dallas all but says the perp is a coward.

Chapter 17

• Dallas gives Peabody and McNab a ride home after the media conference.
• McNab and Yancy collaborated, and get more details on the perp by combining the sketches with the holo reconstructions (and putting them in skimpy outfits because - men.
• Dallas “crams” in Roarke’s all terrain at the apartment building so she can go up and check on Mavis. Just as she gets out of the vehicle, she sees the killer across the street and takes off.
• Dallas heads to see Mavis, and spots the perp-as-delivery-person casing the building, but loses her in the subsequent chase when a chef in a kitchen blocks her for a minute. No one in the restaurant really noticed much about the killer, but to apologize they give her some soup and pie to go.
• Dallas reiterates her warning to Mavis then spends some time with the family. Bella tries to charm her out of her Giant’s Tear necklace and Eve blames Leonardo for leaving her alone with a toddler.

Chapter 18

• Dallas goes home with take-out and meets an old friend of Summerset’s, Ivanna Liski, who had been a prima ballerina and an Urban Wars operative.
• She sends a blanket email to everyone she cares about to be extra careful.
• “She chased me, as if she were the hunter and I some sort of prey. Have I lost her? This pain in my heart, this drumming in my head, it feels like loss. It feels too familiar, too unspeakable. I know what has to be done now. This very night. She must lose. She must pay a price. Scales to balance.”
• Dallas reruns a search on the NYPSD database, using the McNab/Yancy collaboration. She wonders who the killer will go after that night, since she will have to having failed the night before.
• Roarke refines the McNab/Yancy collaboration into possible outfits, and Eve further refines with her memories of the glimpse and chase.
  • Eve also realizes that the perp knew the neighborhood, which is why she got away. Roarke adds a six-block perimeter to Eve’s NYPSD database search.

Chapter 19

• “Some risks were worth taking. It was a matter of principle. The delivery-person gear that had served so well wouldn’t do now. But with some adjustments, the same ploy would work. Like going undercover, she thought. Eve would appreciate that. She’d better start appreciating.”
• Nadine is going over her reader/viewer mail and thinking of her next book, about the Red Horse Conspiracy (Delusion in Death). She receives an email about a package being messengered over. Eve’s emailed warning makes Nadine cautious so the stunner only partially disables her through the chained opening, and she manages to burn the attacker with a lighter.
  • Local canvass finds two girls who rode an elevator with the messenger. The perp smelled of chemicals – maybe sealant and cleaning compound.
• Dallas receives an alarm that the fake master was just attempted on Jamie Lingstrom’s mother’s home.
• Eve and Roarke go over the recordings from security cameras at Nadine’s building and Jamie’s house. They find a shadowy face, and Roarke promises to clean it up.
• “How could it all go so wrong? She’d done everything, been so careful, so patient. So true. And now it was all for nothing. So she’d end it. She lifted her head, and there was Eve, looking back at her. She could hear the voice – and there was purpose. The ball’s going to drop. It’s the end of the year, so out with the old. In with the new. You’ll convince me. You’ll do what’s best for us. Better get started.”

Day 4 (December 31)

• Waking early, Eve evaluates the overnight runs and starts up more.
• Dallas makes the rounds with the refined picture: lab, morgue, sweepers.
• “She’d taken a personal day – the first in more than two years. The work she did now, the most important work she’d ever done, ever would do, needed the time. Everything ended. She knew that, accepted that. Life was a cycle, one that couldn’t refresh until it ended. So she would end it. Purge, purify, destroy to rebuild. Careful of her wrist, she shrugged into the combat vest she’d worked on for most of the night. It fit well – heavy, of course, with the charges she wired in.”
• In her bullpen, Dallas assigns “grunt work”: going through the reams of possible perps found through database searches.
  • A likely one pops up, and Dallas and Peabody head out to interview.
• Lottie accesses the Evidence department, stuns the officer on duty, and starts to get what she needs from the Evidence boxes. “With the right tools, the right skills, it really wasn’t that hard to create explosives. With some rudimentary calculations, she could – would – build a bomb vest that would take out all of Homicide.”
• Back again at Central, Dallas resumes her look into database results.
  • Lottie Roebuck rings her bells. Crime scene sweeper, right build, right face, lives on Mavis’s block, mother and sister killed by juvenile drunk-drivers who did minimal time.
• In the lab, one of the techs asks why Lottie’s picture is posted on the wall. The lab head, Dawson, contacts Dallas.
• Dallas starts to mobilize her squad, when Lottie – dressed to look like Dallas – walks in with a suicide vest on a dead man’s switch.
  • Stay calm and stay alive. All the cops disarm and lie facedown, except Reineke who happened to be in the breakroom.
  • Roarke calls, and Dallas inserts as many “baby”s and “sweetheart”s as she can, to tip him off.
  • Eve starts talking, trying to stall.
• Roarke bulls his way to the corridor outside Homicide, which is barricaded. They have a photo of the vest, taken by Reineke from the breakroom. McNab gets them eyes and ears. Roarke goes to work on picking “the most important lock of his life.”
• Eve talks to Lottie. When Reineke has a clear shot, he stuns the sweeper and Dallas grabs for the dead man’s switch, just as Roarke and the rest burst in.
• As Eve finally sits, feeling a little light-headed, Roarke orders pizza for the whole division and Mira gives her input on the upcoming interview.
• Dallas notices that the entire squad plus Feeney has packed into Observation, then goes in to interview Lottie. They have a thorough and enlightening conversation. She is sick inside and she’s going away.
• Dallas writes her report while Feeney breaks out the whiskey with the squad, and Roarke waits for her.
• “As revelers celebrated in Times Square, as a killer wept bitter, bitter tears in her cell, they drove home, to get perfectly drunk.”

Character List

List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book

• Eve Dallas
• Roarke

List of Secondary Characters Appearing in this Book

• David Baxter
• Detective Carmichael
• Ryan Feeney
• Mavis Freestone
• Nadine Furst
• Galahad
• Jenkinson
• Leonardo
• Ian McNab
• Charlotte Mira
• Morris
• Delia Peabody
• Reineke
• Detective Santiago
• Lawrence Summerset
• Troy Trueheart
• Jack Whitney

List of Recurring Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book

• Elizabeth Barrister
• Kyung Beaverton
• Bella Eve
• Dickie Berenski
• Crack
• Richard DeBlass
• Garnet DeWinter
• Louise Dimatto
• Caro Ewing
• Harvo
• Jamie Lingstrom
• Dennis Mira
• Charles Monroe
• Cher Reo
• Nixie Swisher
• Chief Tibble
• Trina
• Donald Webster
• Detective Yancy

List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book

• Carmine Atelli
• Nick Bocco
• Savannah Bocco
• D-Officer Carter (droid)
• Casey
• Chester
• Crusher (droid)
• Dawson
• Hilly Decker
• Carolina Dowd
• Hilda Farmer
• Flake
• Officer Hanks
• Dirk Hastings
• Cecil Haversham
• Ivanna Liski
• Lolo
• Benedict Mantal
• Loreen Messner
• Mickey
• Mrs. Missenelli
• Officer Morales
• Officer Osgood
• Pick
• Misty Polinsky
• Officer Rineheart
• Lottie Roebuck
• Thea Rossi
• Sherry
• Aaron Stern
• Mason Tobias
• Mrs. Tobias
• Gina Tortelli
• Vivi
• Brenda Wojinski
• Matilda Zebler

List of Peripheral Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book

• Mr. Arsenial
• Jess Barrow
• Leanore Bastwick
• D-Officer Bates (droid)
• Janet Beaver
• Della Bonds
• Mistique Brady
• Bruno
• Marisol Butler
• Bing Cabott
• Charis Cannery
• Lorilee Castle
• Vance Collier
• Amaryllis Coltraine
• Crystal
• Madame Curracus
• Cerise Devane
• Cosette Deveroix
• Dobey
• Julianna Dunne
• Marlo Durn
• Fergus
• Marti Fester
• S.T. Fitzhugh
• Fizz
• Florence Louise (Flo-lo)
• Arthur Foxx
• Steve Grommet
• Hannigan
• Jackson
• Josie
• Charlie Kent
• Jen Kobechek
• Taj Kohli
• Marlena Kolchek
• Morgan Larkin
• Wendall Ledo
• Luca
• Marion
• Drew Mathias
• Officer Messner
• Miranda
• Mr. Missenelli
• Carlos Montoya
• Newton
• Reanna Ott [sic]
• Pete
• Cherry Pie
• Zane Quirk
• Officer Rhodes
• Rizz
• Meg Roarke
• Patrick Roarke
• Captain Roth
• Snooks
• Steph
• Gerald Stevenson
• Tink (dog)
• Officer Roland Tobias
• Toby (cat)
• Teresa Tortelli
• Trevor
• Zoey Trimbal
• Richard Troy
• Chance Warren
• Dr. Michael Waverly
• Milton Whepp
• Officer Willis
• Master Wu [sic]
• Matthew Zank

Trivia

1. What did McNab get Peabody for Christmas that matched her “magic coat?”
   1. Gloves
   2. Sweater
   3. Boots
   4. Scarf
2. Which one of Eve’s possessions did baby Bella decide she wanted for herself?
   1. Wrist Unit
   2. Diamond
   3. Purse
   4. Badge
3. What activity did the book’s second victim, Ledo, excel at?
   1. Pool
   2. Poker
   3. Dancing
   4. Singing
4. How did Eve signal Roarke that she was in trouble when the killer came to her office?
   1. She complimented Summerset
   2. She called him by his first name
   3. She asked for a Coke
   4. She used sweet talk
5. What weapon did the killer bring for a showdown at Eve’s office?
   1. Knife
   2. Suicide vest
   3. Pipe bomb
   4. Stunner

Answers: 3, 2, 1, 4, 2

Memorable Quotes

Dallas, on having cop coffee in the squad room:

• She went back to her office, where she had really good coffee. She considered, as she never had, that she could install Roarke’s real and excellent blend in the break room. But then she rejected the notion as temporarily sentimental.
• You just didn’t go around breaking tradition of bad cop break-room coffee because you felt good about having good cops under your command.
• Besides, they’d lose the fun of sneaking in and stealing it from her AutoChef. Who was she to spoil their good time?

Dallas, on dog accessories:

• She had three yappy little dogs, all in plaid sweaters – and, to Eve’s amazement, tiny boots – on leashes.
• “Those dogs had boots.”
• “I guess their paws get cold,” Peabody said.
• “Huh. Who makes tiny dog boots? Who thinks to make tiny dog boots? How do you know what size to buy? This is an area with many, many questions.”

Peabody, on hot chocolate from the morgue’s vending machine:

• “I think it’s a small, pale island off the continent of hot chocolate, but it carries a faint whiff.”

Dallas, on celebrating New Years Eve in Times Square:

• [Peabody:] “Are you and Roarke going to the ball drop?”
• “Oh, absolutely. If we both suffer extensive brain damage in the next twenty-four hours.” She beetled her brows at Peabody as they walked. “You’re going?”
• “Well, yeah – if we’re clear. Sure, it’s insanity – I worked crowd control New Year’s Eve my first year on the job, and it’s wild and wicked. But fun, too. And Mavis got us all full-access passes, so we get some VIP treatment and get to hob and nob with celeb and music stars.”
• “I’d rather be flayed alive and force-fed my own skin.”
• “Eeww!”
• “Yeah, that was pretty disgusting, but close to true.”

YANNIs

• Cecil Haversham’s Employment:
  • He said he came on after the Barrow case, but since he worked for Leanore Bastwick for two years, he would have been in her employ during at least the appeal.
• Portography Address:
  • In Portrait in Death, the address was given as “West 115th,” but in Obsession it was “358 West 109th Street.”