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Passions in Death

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“Bounce naked on somebody, be ready for complications.” - Eve to Peabody about bootie buddies, Passions in Death[1]

Plot Summary[]

On a hot August night, Lt. Eve Dallas and her husband, Roarke, speed through the streets of Manhattan to the Down and Dirty club, where a joyful, boisterous pre-wedding girls’ night out has turned into a murder scene. One of the brides lies in a pool of blood, garroted in a private room where she was preparing a surprise for her fiancée—two scrimped and saved-for tickets to Hawaii.

Despite the dozens of people present, useful witnesses are hard to come by. It all brings back some bad memories for Eve who once suffered an assault in the very same room—but she’d been able to fight back and survive. She’d gotten justice. And now she needs to provide some for poor young Erin.

Eve knows that the level of violence and the apparent premeditation involved suggest a volatile mix of hidden, heated passion and ice-cold calculation. This is a crime that can be countered only by hard detective work and relentless dedication—and Eve will not stop until she finds the killer who destroyed this couple’s dreams before the honeymoon even began…

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

Timeline[]

Story Dates: Monday, August 15 - Friday, August 19, 2061[2]

Day 1: Monday, August 15, 2061[]

Chapter 1[]

  • Erin Albright and Shauna Hunnicut are enjoying their pre-wedding hen party at the Down and Dirty Club, establishing how much they love each other and how happy and fun they and their friends are. Erin muses about how she, “the no-strings, live-life-for-today street artist,” walked into Fancy Feet for a pair of pink shoes and walked out totally infatuated with the store manager, Shauna.
  • Crack serves them their signature drinks - Girl Power and fills them in on Rochelle, his “one-in-ten-million woman,” who will be waiting for him when he gets home. More joy, more dancing.
  • Erin checked the time and sent a text, smiling at the response and slipping away from the dance floor. She’d planned a surprise for Shauna, with every detail worked out, including the timing. Her accomplice would be waiting in the privacy room she'd rented. Shauna's dream honeymoon was Hawaii, so Erin had been working extra jobs and selling paintings to earn enough money for the trip. She just needed her backup accomplice to smuggle in her overnight case holding a grass skirt, coconut bra, leis, and the pink shoes that kicked off the romance. The plan was to change, take the stage, and present Shauna with the tickets to Maui.
  • She pressed the buzzer so her accomplice could let her in. She entered the darkened room, saying she really appreciated this, then turned to close the door and was garotted. Her head slammed against the door as she died.

Day 2: Tuesday, August 16, 2061 (after midnight)[]

Chapter 1 (Continued)[]

  • Lt. Eve Dallas is woken by her communicator: “probably homicide, 9-1-1 caller requested her.” She recognizes the address and the caller. Her husband, Roarke, tells her if it had been Rochelle, Crack would have contacted her directly. Eve has Roarke drive and she contacts her partner, Detective Peabody so she and her cohab, Detective McNab, can meet them at the club.
  • Eve laments the lack of cameras at the sex club and Roarke reminds her she didn’t need them to deal with Casto, who attacked her there the night before their wedding, giving her a shiner.
  • The uniform at the door fills them in - the victim was one of the brides-to-be and part of a party of about two dozen. Crack blocked off the room where Erin was strangled and the exits and put the other bride and a couple of her friends in his office. Peabody and McNab arrive, with Peabody reminding Eve she had her pre-wedding party there. Eve has McNab get statements from people not connected with the party, Peabody starts with members of the party, and she and Roarke take the body.
  • Crack is furious that someone killed Erin in his place. Eve recalls her party and wonders why Erin was in the room. Crack said Erin rented it when she booked the party, two or three weeks ago, telling him she had a surprise for Shauna and not to tell anyone she had the room for the night. It’s, of course, the same room where Casto took Eve at her party.
  • There's no jewelry, so “somebody wants us to say robbery. Somebody thinks we're stupid.” Eve determines the killer was inside the room and used piano wire, which you wouldn't have if you were planning to mug someone. The killer took her from behind - Erin's reflexes were slower due to drinking, and Eve reflects that since Eve had her party the night before the wedding, she hadn't been drinking, which was Casto's mistake. She bets Roarke $20 Peabody will want to white sage the room.
  • The killer would have been several inches taller than Erin's 5'5", TOD was 2346 (11:46 p.m.), and nobody missed her for over twenty minutes. She's missing her 'link, cash, and credits, adding to the robbery staging. After Eve reviews the contents of the black case, she figures out Erin's plan and wonders why the killer left the case. There were no signs the lock on the privacy room door were compromised, so most likely the killer had the swipe from Erin and was already in the room, probably to bring the case to her.

Chapter 2[]

  • McNab cleared most of the people not with the party - nobody rang. Peabody reported that no one she interviewed knew anything about the privacy room or noticed Erin leaving the club area. A lot of them, including the other bride, Shauna, were onstage with the holo-band, many stripped down to their underwear or less, most of them dancing. One guy bought a round of drinks and got some ’link numbers, but left before midnight - Wade no last name. None of the women in Erin and Shauna's party wanted to leave until all of them were cleared.
  • Crack was handing out Sober-Up, water, and coffee, still furious about the murder. Erin came by the club around noon to pick up the swipe for the privacy room, and then she and Shauna arrived around 9:30 that night for their party, with most of the others getting there closer to ten. Crack took a break at 10:30, so Eve talks to the relief bartender, Renee, who had only been working at the D&D for a couple of months and didn't know Erin. Erin came to the bar with her empty glass for a refill and said to tell Shauna, if she asked, that she went to the ladies' and winked at Renee. Eve thinks that was probably the time Erin went to the back door to let in her accomplice, who brought the overnight case. Mostly Renee was watching the women dancing because they were having so much fun.
  • Eve next talks to Pete, who found Erin. He went to break and noticed the light was green on one of the privacy rooms, which is not usual. He pushed the door open and saw Erin's body, then pulled the door closed and got Crack. Eve assured him he did the right thing by not walking in and compromising the scene. He's worked at the D&D for a few years and knew Erin from her pre-Shauna hookup days. When Eve asked him about Wade, Crack said he's a player, but is smooth, not pushy, and he and Pete agree that Wade isn't a killer. Pete is afraid he'll see Erin in his sleep, and Eve tells him to put the image of Erin dancing on the table from earlier that night in front and see her like that instead.
  • There's no security on the back exit because there's no cover - they make money on drinks, privacy tables, and rooms. There's a monitor for unsecured privacy rooms but Crack was texting with Ro and missed it. Roarke comes back from checking the doors, saying “a toddler could go through your locks.” At Roarke’s request, he will work up a security system that won't show, since Eve is sure the killer came in through the back.
  • Eve and Peabody go to Crack's office to talk to Shauna, who is with her best friend, Becca DiNuzio, and Erin's best friend, Angie Decker. Angie, a model with an 8 a.m. start time, was paying attention to the time since she planned to leave at one, and mostly drinking water. She noticed Erin heading for the john around 10:30 and since they had a deal where they wouldn't go by themselves, she joined her. Afterwards, Erin went to the bar to get a refill and Angie found a table. Shauna asked Eve why Erin was in the back by herself, and Eve tells her Erin booked a privacy room. She asks Shauna if Erin had a black overnight case (yes) and pink shoes, which she described. Shauna burst out crying, saying that's how they met and Becca told Eve the story.
  • Eve tells them Erin had the shoes in a case, along with a costume and a card, and had scanned two tickets to Maui. None of the group knew about this, but since Erin had been selling extra paintings, they realize she was planning to surprise Shauna with her dream honeymoon. They try to determine who Erin would have trusted to bring her the case, since that's who killed her.
  • Shauna gives Eve a list of her exes, all men but no bad breakups, going all the way back to her high school sweetheart, Greg Barney, who has been cohabbing with Becca for nearly two years. Becca was in high school with Shauna and Greg, but ran in a different crown, being a self-proclaimed wheeze. Shauna and Greg were The Item - homecoming queen and quarterback, but they scattered after college. Shauna and Becca ran into each other in New York, reconnected, and became best friends.
  • Angie can give Eve Erin’s exes, but says Shauna was the first person Erin ever loved or was serious about, and she was on good terms with her past hookups. Shauna gives permission to access their apartment and she will stay with Angie for now.

Chapter 3[]

  • Eve sends Peabody home with plans to meet at Erin and Shauna's apartment at 8 a.m., with McNab for the e's if Feeney can spare him. Eve checks the alley behind the D&D, recreating the scenario - Erin had already given the case and swipe to her killer and they waited for her in the room to let her in since she wouldn't have known exactly what time she'd be able to slip away unnoticed - as proven by Angie intercepting her on the way to the john.
  • Eve sends Crack home, telling him the club is shut down, but she thinks she and the sweepers will be done by the next day. He asked her if she was going to loop him in and she said no, but if she has questions, she'll ask him. Crack tells Roarke, “hard-ass skinny white girl you hooked up with,” and Roarke says “that's one of the reasons she'll find who killed your friend, and who used your place to do it.” He leaves, then Eve and Roarke leave.
  • On the way home, Eve tells Roarke the killer brought in the case, so Erin trusted them to not spill about the surprise (no lock on the case) and the killer was prepared and killed quickly from behind. It would have been smarter to take the case and secure the door. They sleep for three hours.

Day 2, still: Tuesday, August 16, 2061 (morning)[]

Chapter 3 (Continued)[]

  • Eve and Roarke discuss the Great House Project over omelets, including the garden sculpture and metal lamp housewarming gifts for Mavis and Peabody, both to be delivered the next week. Eve’s glad that takes care of the “we have to give you something for getting a house” thing, although Roarke suggests a bottle of wine when they have their housewarming party wouldn't be amiss.
  • Eve grumbles about another party and “then Mavis is going to pop out Number Two,” which Roarke requests they not discuss over breakfast (the “or ever” is implied), and Eve wants to know if that means they have to have another shower for Mavis. According to Peabody, they do not since Mavis has all the baby gear, but they do need more gifts - “a gift for Mavis would be thoughtful, one for the baby is required.” Since Mavis and Leonardo are going with a magical forest theme, Leonardo is working on a magic forest fabric design for another rocker system; the rainbow chair is staying with Bella, who will need a big sister gift.
  • At Shauna and Erin's apartment building, McNab checks the door cams and e's, looking for the case or any reference to the trip, although Eve thinks the case would have been at the studio. Eve and Peabody go up to the apartment to see how they lived.

Chapter 4[]

  • As they walked up to the apartment, “Detective Loose Pants” stopped to give a screaming toddler a peanut butter cracker with his mother’s permission and gratitude. The Albright-Hunnicut apartment is clean and cheerful, radiating happiness and showcasing both women's styles, with Erin's art everywhere - cityscapes, still lifes, and portraits. Their wedding dresses, one on each side of the shared closet, under clear protective wrap, furthers the sadness, and finding their matching wedding bands completes the devastation.
  • The consensus is they were ridiculously happy, and apart from the Maui trip, didn't hide things from each other. They lived simply and joyfully. Erin did some moonlighting, paid in cash, and had cash deposits from her street sales. She had created a separate account for the trip and buried it - she'd been saving for a couple months and had just over $35,000 in it [note: that seems ridiculously high for a vacation and the numbers don't jibe with the sales, so maybe $3500?], and titled the file “Shauna's Big Dream.” She bought the tickets, booked the room, and earmarked money for food, drink, and fun, with ❤️, 😊, 🌴, and 🍾 emojis.
  • Peabody tells Eve she's going to build and paint a toy chest for Number Two, something that works with the chair. Next stop: the studio Erin shared with three other artists. The one who was there, Donna Fleschner, didn't believe Dallas and Peabody were there, thinking it was a prank by her friend Jen, then that Jen put them up to it when she saw it was them, and then after she wound down realized it meant someone she knows was dead. Eve gives her the bad news.
  • Donna wasn't at the party because her sister had a baby in Baltimore and she didn’t get back to New York until around midnight due to weather delays. She gave them the name of the birthing center and showed them her shuttle receipts. Erin was really supportive when she transitioned, about five years ago - it hurt her mother, who was ok with the gay but disappointed at the losing a son, gaining a daughter, and Erin helped with that. Donna was supposed to bring Erin the case but hadn't opened it and didn't know about the trip.
  • The case had been at the studio, and when she tagged Erin from the shuttle station to let her know about the delay, Erin said not to worry, she had a backup handling it, but didn't say who. Donna doesn't think Erin would have asked either of the other artists - they're friendly and supportive, but only Erin and Donna are tight. Roy Lutz worked nights waiting tables and Anton Carver wasn't the kind of guy you ask for a favor. Eve saw one of Erin's paintings in the studio - a street scene of Polumbi’s, with a lone figure sitting facing the window, a slice in one hand, just as she'd done when she first arrived in New York.
  • They're sure Donna didn't kill Erin, but Eve has Peabody check the alibi to cross her off. They'll check on the other artists, but think Donna knew Erin well enough to be right about her not asking either of them. The killer would have gone to the club, gotten the studio swipes (building and studio), then gone to the privacy room. They would have returned the swipes to Erin's purse when she came in. Eve thinks the murder was in the works and the killer was just waiting for the opportunity. “This wasn't impulse. Maybe the time and place were. But somebody wanted Erin Albright dead.”

Chapter 5[]

  • Donna’s alibi checks and Eve has Peabody check the moonlighting gigs while she visits Erin's body and Morris, who is sad that “something designed for beauty and enjoyment (piano wire) would be used to end a life.” Eve says, “This was personal, but not sexual. A straight kill, with a half-assed attempt to make it look like a robbery.”
  • Peabody confirmed the moonlighting gigs, including a cleaning job the previous morning from eight to 11:30. Eve thinks she finished there and went to the D&D to pick up the swipe. Everyone says she was personable, friendly, efficient, and a good worker. Eve has Peabody run the other artists and the people at the D&D who weren't with their party just to clear them.
  • Peabody said they have a tight circle of friends, some going back to high school - they found their tribe early and stuck and then lists Eve's diverse friend group, also calling it a tribe, although Eve is none too pleased about the inclusion of Trina. Peabody finds it hard to believe a member of the tribe would have any part in the murder, but Eve points out that people wear masks or they'd be able to close every case by saying, “You there with the murder face. You're under arrest.” Then the judge and/or jury would take one look at trial and say, “Murder Face is guilty on all counts.” In the elevator all of the cops act out their versions of Murder Face.
  • Eve contacts Erin's parents, who didn't know about the trip pr any enemies or resentful exes - Peabody thinks Erin wanted Shauna to know about the trip first since is was her big dream.
  • They interview Shauna's most recent ex, the booty buddy, Marcus Stillwater. He works for a publishing company conveniently located in a building Roarke owns, so Eve is, of course, sad to not be able to bitch anyone out. (Peabody: “He's diabolical.”) Stillwater didn't know about Erin's murder. He gave his whereabouts for the previous night - worked late with others, went for a meal with others, left around 11:30 to go home and turned off his 'link to get a decent night's sleep.
  • He last saw Shauna, Erin, Becca, and Greg a couple weeks ago for drinks and last had sex with Shauna a week or two before she fell for Erin. He had been surprised and didn't think it would last, but saw they had the real deal and was happy for them. “Erin, you just had to like her. She had so much... verve.” He knew about Shauna’s big dream, that they were saving to go in a year or two. He'd been to Erin's studio and bought a charcoal drawing and later a painting. Eve and Peabody think he rings true, but Eve says Bojo’s, the restaurant the work group went to, is a fifteen minute walk from the D&D and Albright would have trusted him as Donna's backup.

Chapter 6[]

  • Eve and Peabody split up, with Peabody taking Shauna's ex before Stillwater, Jon Rierdon, who manages a Home Goods store and moonlights playing at a piano bar. Eve takes the player, Wade Rajinski, and they decide to meet up afterwards to follow up with Shauna. Eve heads for Mind, Body, Spirit, where Wade is a personal trainer and yoga instructor. The woman at the check-in desk said, “Figured he'd run into cops one day” - he was too smooth, too shiny, and a total player with the ladies.
  • She told a story of a woman who came in shrieking about how he bounced off her and right onto her sister, but he took her into the consult room and ten minutes later she came out flushed and starry-eyed with a smile on her face. “We lose a client now and then because of it, but management likes him because for every one we lose, he pulls in three more. Guy's got a magic cock.”
  • Rajinski went to another club after the D&D and had an “intimacy of the moment. Twice” with a woman he picked up there. He “sensed” Eve's darkness and offered to work with her in private meditation sessions. When she told him she had her own methods of working off stress, he offered to help with that, too. As Eve left the fitness center, the check-in woman told her she could help Eve “bulk up, put some muscles on,” so Eve did ten bicep curls with a twenty-five pound weight. Woman: “My mistake.” Eve: “A lot of people make it.”
  • Eve tagged Peabody to meet her at Decker’s apartment so they could follow up with Shauna. Over glide-cart lunches Peabody sais Rierdon didn't ring bells but wasn't alinied. He's two months into a relationship and even though Shauna ended things before he was ready, and therefore didn't want to stay friends, hearing that “she switched teams made him feel better about the breakup.” They agree Erin wouldn't have asked him to bring the case. Angie is probably heterosexual and Eve wondered why Erin didn't ask her to bring the case since she was going to stand up for her at her wedding, noting that she's tall and strong enough to have committed the murder.
  • Shauna, Becca, Greg, and Donna are all at Decker's apartment. Shauna and Erin's parents were just at the morgue to view Erin's body, with the parents planning a memorial, planning to use the wedding flowers and some of the music. Eve offered to give her the name of a grief counselor (not Dr. Mira - progress!) and asked Shauna if she were gone and Erin was here, what would she want? “she'd want you to find the son of a bitch.”

Chapter 7[]

  • A couple of the women Erin had “flitted” with were at the party - Wanda Rogan and ChiChi Lopez, but Erin didn’t do serious relationships before Shauna. Angie met Shauna at Erin's art show, the day Erin and Shauna met, and saw the spark. “Erin, you're wearing your dream eyes and isn't she straight?” Erin sighed and said “passion's passion, love's love” and she felt like she'd finally started living.
  • There were three no-shows at the party - Donna, Glenda Frost, who manages the gallery that sold most of Erin's work and was in Italy, planning to return before the wedding, and Kaydee, an intern working ER who was called in for a multi-vehicle accident around ten p.m.
  • Eve asks about Shauna's exes - Marcus contacted her that morning and is coming over after work. Before Rierdon, Shauna dated a Wall Street guy for three months; he was full of himself and not liked by Greg (“he's a little bit of a prick”) or Becca, who called him “Snobby Simon.” He cheated and then dumped her. She didn't date much in college, but in high school, she and Greg were The Couple - “Shaunbar.” She and Becca became best friends after Shauna moved to New York and ran into Becca - they lived close - and then Greg moved there and joined their friend group. Greg and Becca conded over their mutual dislike of Simon and began a relationship.
  • The hovering Greg worked until around seven or seven-fifteen, closing the men's shop he managed, On Trend, then walked to a local bar and met a friend for beer and food. Clint Wetz’s cohab, Jodi, was at the party, and Greg and Clint stayed at the bar a couple of hours before Greg walked home. Becca reminded him he bought her flowers on the way home. He then watched some screen and fell asleep on the couch, waking when Becca tagged him about Erin's murder.
  • Peabody confirmed the intern's alibi - she was on shift until after one a.m. The gallery manager's shuttle from Rome should be landing in New York about now - she booked it just after nine that morning to return early for support. Eve tells Peabody to do a deeper dive on “no-alibi Rierdon” and bring Rogan and Lopez into Central for interviews that afternoon in case one of them was more serious about Erin than she was about them.
  • Becca and Greg lived close to Shauna and to the D&D so they go there to check his alibi, such as it is. Peabody thinks of all the options for Greg buying flowers - different times, delivery, etc., but Eve says, “most likely, he bought them exactly as he said. Either because he's telling the truth, or because he wanted the little extra flourish as cover.” They pass the men's shop, which puts the apartment between it and the D&D, with the bar two blocks north.
  • They confirm Greg and Clint were at the bar and Greg is a nice guy who asks how you are and means it, and tips decent. They retrace his steps, stopping at a flower stall, to get the timing. The vendor says he’s a nice guy and buys flowers for his girl, but his son works nights, so he didn't see him after the bar. Peabody is losing the buzz since he's so likable.Eve is sure the killer looked in Erin's case and thinks it was stupid to take the jewelry and leave the case -- in fact, she thinks the killer shouldn't have even brought the case in the first place.
  • It's twelve minutes, forty seconds from the bar to the apartment, including the flower stop. Eve thinks if he's the killer he made noise coming in or otherwise got someone to notice his arrival, dropped off the flowers, changed, saw what was on screen, turning and leaving it on, but not too loud. Get the case, weapon, gloves, and privacy room swipe. It's sixteen minutes from the apartment to the D&D. They reenact the murder at the D&D. The killer had to take Erin's 'link since there that's how she contacted him, so took the jewelry and money to complete the “robbery” scenario. It probably took under five minutes. They head back to Central.

Chapter 8[]

  • Eve researched Greg Barney, who turns out to be dead average on paper, and Peabody continues with Rierdon, with nothing to add. They interview Wanda in the lounge. She moved to New York from Kansas when she was twenty to make her marke as a singer. She met Erin at the SoHo cafe where she was waitressing between auditions and gigs - struggling artist, struggling performer. Erin bought her a drink after her shift and they became friends. Although they had sex, there was no clock there, and they opted for friendship.
  • Erin painted her onstage in a red dress and gave it to her the first Christmas they knew each other. She met Donna, Angie, and Margo through Erin, and Angie encouraged her to sell real estate between gigs instead of waitressing, which she hated. Erin and Shauna had each asked her (separately) to sing at their wedding, with Erin wanting to surprise Shauna with a recording for their first dance, and Shauna wanting to surprise Erin with singing them down the aisle and the first dance. Wanda didn’t know about the Maui trip, but said “that's so Erin.” When Peabody told her about the case and the costume, she said, “that's just what she'd do. Big surprise, big fun, big splash. Giving Shauna something she'd only dreamed of, and share it with all of us. That's who she was. That's Erin.”
  • Wanda thinks Erin didn't ask her to bring the case because she'd already asked her for something and Becca and Angie did the shower and helped with the party last night. Spread it out - ask somebody else. She thinks it would have been Donna, but remembered about the baby, and isn't sure who else, but it could have been almost anyone else in their friend group except a couple of who had a hard time keeping secrets.
  • She's strong enough, and maybe tall enough in heels, to have been the killer, but it just didn't play, and she came off truthful. Eve thinks it wasn't somebody at the party because they'd've had to get rid of the 'link and jewelry after the kill and it was just too much time away from the party to not be noticed, and thinks it was a solo kill - “Two people can rarely keep a secret. Three? Forget it. Add murder? Not this one. Solo kill, solo planner. Known and trusted.” She has Peabody work with McNab or take his interviews and do 'link follow-ups, then clock out.
  • Eve's plan is to talk to Crack at the D&D, where he's cleaning up after the sweepers, and then track down Lopez. Peabody will set up a meeting with Frost for the morning in case she knew something. Barney and Rierdon both work, but she doesn't think Erin would have asked Rierdon for a favor.
  • Rochelle was cleaning the bar when Eve arrived. Crack was heartsick about the murder and wouldn’t let anyone else clean the privacy room where it happened. Ro gives Eve a progress report on An Dídean: Counseling is helping Dorian Gregg deal with everything, from her mother's emotional and physical abuse through the nightmare of The Pleasure Academy, and is blossoming, making friends and getting good grades. Tom (Mouser) is “a wonder. So damn entertaining, and not just smart. Scary smart. He just latches on.” Eve asked if she'd seen much of Sebastian. Ro said he checks in with Dorian and Tom from time to time and “they need that connection. He helped them - in his way.” Eve said his way is questionable and they let it go.
  • Eve filled Crack in, letting him know they're trying to find the backup person since that's who killed Erin. He told her, “No use me asking you to give me five minutes with who did this before you lock them up, especially in front of my lady, who wouldn't like it.” Eve told him, “A cracked head or punch in the face heals. Life in a cage goes on and on.” She cleared him to open the next day.

Chapter 9[]

  • Since ChiChi lived five blocks from the D&D and worked two more blocks away, Eve walked to her home, tagging Roarke on the way. He offered to meet her to interview the stripper. ChiCChi wasn't home, but her grandmother was leaving to walk her little rat dog and filled Eve in a little. The family owned the restaurant next door, Abuela’s, but ChiChi “has no skill for cooking. She has other skills.” The grandmother had met and liked Erin, and Eve wondered about the stripper sharing a wall with her grandmother and living right next door to the family business, if they might have been available to help with the murder.
  • Roarke is waiting for Eve at Delights and Eve has him check ownership of the restaurant, club, and townhouses - all owned by Lopez Family LLC, plus some other properties. ChiChi was on stage and amazingly flexible and talented. Security is a cousin, and their grandmother called ahead so they were expecting Eve. Roarke was eye-fucked by a server and Eve filled him on the case while they waited for ChiChi to finish her set.
  • ChiChi gave Eve grief: “Cops can make our clientele nervous” and told Roarke if he likes redheads, Gia would give him a free lap dance. He declined, saying he preferred lanky brunettes. She says she and Erin had sex, but “we weren't looking to pick out china patterns.” She didn't like Shauna because she considered her “boring and ordinary,” but she went to the party. She's been to Erin's studio, to pose for her and have sex, and after Erin got together with Shauna, to pose for and have sex with another artist there, Anton Carver. She's tall, strong, and angry and doesn't like Shauna so she stays on the suspect list.
  • Eve tells Roarke about the painting of Polumbi’s and they decide to dine there. Roarke tells her she should buy the painting. She ran through the list of exes, deciding “it's not money, it's not some deep secret, I don't find envy. What I find is personal. Sex, passion, rejection, betrayal.” Roarke offers to take a closer look at their financials, of course, offering that Albright's art will be worth a lot more now that she's dead. Eve said all of her friends owned her art, plus the gallery had some. Since there was no will, everything would legally go to her parents, although Shauna would probably be given some of the work.
  • It's a weak motive, but needs to be checked, so she tags Peabody to check with the gallery owner to find out the terms, verify her travel, and have her meet them at the gallery in the morning. Eve will check who owns her art, and Roarke will see if anyone was having money issues.

Chapter 10[]

  • Galahad hissed and growled at Eve for the rat dog, which she pointed out she didn't even touch. Eve runs ChiChi - impressive and prolific family, hardworking and savvy. She has two dings for assault, both charges dropped, anger management required. She worked in the restaurant, then at twenty-one started dancing at the club, working her way up to headlining within a year, and is paid well. She continued taking dance classes, spends a lot on clothes, salons, and spas, and has weekly shrink and masseur visits, plus a lot of purchases from SoHo Arts over the past eight years.
  • Roarke said she invests well, has no hidden accounts, and is careful with her accounting. Like the rest of her family, she is in excellent financial shape. Eve thinks she's so pissed off because she’s alone, while the rest of her family is married and popping out kids. But if she killed Erin, what did she do with the weapon, jewelry, and 'link?
  • Eve thinks Erin would have trusted Barney, and since he lived and worked close and wasn't going to the party, he would have made a great accomplice. His non-alibi was both specific and general - he didn't mention the flowers and didn't give the name of the alien invasion vid, but Eve found it and he probably did have it playing at the apartment. Plus he was hovering over Shauna at Angie's place.
  • Lopez has a considerable art collection with fourteen Albrights, currently insured for $58K, including one she bought two weeks ago and insured for $5K. Eve speculates it pissed her off that she was helping pay for somebody else's dream and now Erin wanted her to be part of the surprise. “There was a meanness to this, with the time and place. A meanness that says personal.”
  • Barney and Lopez are the top two suspects, but Eve doesn't want to miss anybody because she's looking too hard at those two. They work another hour. Roarke is disappointed: “Financials are rarely so boring.” Barney doesn't own any of Erin's work, but Becca owns two. Eve needs a distraction, so they have sex.

Chapter 11[]

  • Eve dreamed she was at the D&D watching Shauna and Nadine Furst, both half-naked, dancing like lunatics. Peabody was there with her bowl cut, giggling like a drunk teenager, and Angie Decker was laughing with Mira. Mavis was there with no baby belly, standing on a table. Crack was at the bar, grinning as he mixed a drink for ChiChi Lopez. All of it blurred into one wild and singular party. Erin was standing beside Eve, wearing the pink shoes and Hawaiian costume, and said, “They’re having so much fun celebrating for us.” Eve said she wasn't really into it because she was just coming around to understanding she wanted the whole marriage thing even though it scared the crap out of her. Erin said she wasn't scared and she wanted marriage more than she ever wanted anything, but they both loved somebody who loved them, and they both had friends who wanted to celebrate that.
  • Erin is sad she never had the chance to make Shauna's dream come true. They never had the chance to make the promises Eve made. Erin tells Eve she got lucky. Eve remembers fighting Casto off and the next day, a bright summer day, she'd married Roarke under an arbor of flowers. Erin tells her, “It's nice, isn't it, being married?” Eve trusted the bad cop, but not 100% and she knew how to fight. Erin knew how to paint, but not to fight. Erin trusted the wrong person and so did Shauna, and Shauna still trusts the wrong person since she doesn't know she trusts the person who killed Erin.

Day 3: Wednesday, August 17, 2061[]

Chapter 11 (Continued)[]

  • Roarke brings Eve coffee and she tells him about the dream, wondering if Shauna is in danger. Roarke thinks it would be too risky while Eve’s still investigating, and she decides it’s too early to tell him he thinks like a cop, plus he brought her coffee. Over waffles he updates her on her club, Off Duty, which will be able to open by the holidays, Peabody’s parents’ housewarming gifts, and a small Australian resort he bought that morning. They say goodbye while Galahad finishes the syrup from their breakfast plates.
  • At the gallery, Eve and Peabody talk to Glenda Frost, who met Erin when she browsed by the street art and saw something in her work, about five years ago. Her gallery, SoHo Arts, held Albright’s first show, and they display and sell a lot of her art. She considered Erin a friend in addition to being a talented young artist. Frost wants to do a showing of Erin’s work “for the art, for the business of art. And for Erin, for Shauna and Erin’s family.” Her work would sell and Frost would double the prices — “that’s my job and also a tribute to a friend.“

Chapter 12[]

  • Eve and Peabody drop in on the cantankerous Anton Carver, noticing a painting of Lopez “wearing only a black top hat and sky-high red heels” in his apartment. Carver was okay with Erin, even though she “bubbled,” but mainly painted in the studio at night to avoid others. Lopez came in now and then, asking him about “the redhead” (Shauna) - how often she came into the studio. “I couldn’t say, so I bounced on her to shut her up/ Who needs the drama?” He thought Lopez has a mean streak in her but it would have made more sense for her to kill Shauna than Erin if she wanted Erin back. He hadn't seen Barney, who he described from his picture as “everybody's all-American. Looks boring.”
  • Although they can't see Carver for it, Peabody will check his alibi again. They head back to Central, with Eve allowing Peabody two minutes of the GHP talk. Their plan is to all move in together the following month. Mira joins them in the elevator and since she agrees to a quick consult, Eve tolerates more GHP talk on the way to her office.
  • Eve and Mira discuss the players and the murder. Mira posits: “A very personal killing. A marriage thwarted - they will never take vows, never become wives. A honeymoon thwarted - they will never have that dream, one that includes... an emphasis on sex and intimacy. though planned for the method, for the timing, it was a moment of passion. Cold and hot blood running at the same time. They’re not entitled to this, this won't happen. I won't allow it.”
  • Eve wonders if it's because she rejected the killer or because she was in the killer's way, i.e., is it Lopez or Barney. Mira says the mask will slip at some point, and Eve has Peabody pull in the best friends separately to try to get dish on their suspects when they're not surrounded by friends.

Chapter 13[]

  • Becca came into Central first. Shauna was doing a little better because she's mad, but Erin's memorial is the next day, so they're worried. They didn't want it any later since the wedding was supposed to be that weekend. Shauna will sublet the apartment and find another place to live. Becca brought their wedding dresses to a consignment shop.
  • Although Becca didn't run in the same crowd in high school, she and Shauna were lab partners on a chemistry assignment and Becca still followed the code when Greg asked her out, tagging Shauna to make sure it was ok to accept. Shauna told her she'd hoped they'd try dating because she saw a spark. Also, even when Shauna was high school royalty, she never punched down.
  • Marcus was surprised and baffled when Shauna and Erin got together, but threw them an engagement party at Tippler's and was happy for them. Greg was a little weirded out, but Becca chalked the reaction up to “Guys.” Becca said Lopez “is a little bit mean and has a bite to her” so they weren't as friendly as she was with Erin's other friends.

Chapter 14[]

  • Next up is Angie, who was weepy after having to be strong for everybody else. She didn’t know about the trip, but thought that was the type of thing Erin would do - she'd want to surprise Shauna and everybody else with it. She said one more sorrow in all this is “Shauna's had that dream since she was a little girl. Now she'll never be able to go. It would break her heart all over again to go. So that dream's dead, too.”
  • She rules out several friends as the accomplice who were too busy or didn't live close or might spill. She thinks Erin asked Donna because they shared studio space, which is where she was storing the case, and because she'd already asked Angie and Becca for help with the wedding and pre parties. Donna started worrying on Friday, when her sister's midwife told her the baby could come any day, so that's probably when she lined up the alternate.
  • They discuss Lopez, who Angie said “can be difficult.” Shhe enjoyed “shooting out sharp little arrows. She's judgmental, and can be harsh, She'd sometimes take shots at Donna because Donna and Erin were close. Donna wouldn't tell Erin,” but did tell Angie because Lopez took shots at her also. She doesn't see Lopez planning a murder, though - she's impulsive and hot-tempered, and again, would be more likely to kill Shauna than Erin. Greg comes off as big brotherly to Shauna even though they're the same age.
  • A group of them went to see Lopez dance at her club, and after her set, she came over to their table. When somebody said something about lopez being mega flexible, she rubbed against Erin and said how Erin always liked that about her. “It was crude and uncalled for. But Shauna? She just laughed, then bent her leg up behind her -- grabbed her ankle and bent her leg up over her head. And said like 'Me, too.'” Angie liked that Shauna set the tone.
  • Eve sends Peabody to Fancy Feet to see if Lopez or anybody else from the group ever came in, and she runs the names of the men who went to see Lopez dance - all alibied. She sends copies of the DiNuzio and Decker interviews to Mira and goes to interview the family who lived across the hall from Shauna and Erin. Erin used to give the six-year-old art lessons, and Eve wanted to get their impressions of the friend group. The mother liked Angie and Becca a lot, thought Lopez was snooty, and saw Barney a lot because he often walked home with her after work.
  • As Eve finished with Ms. Burger, she saw Barney leaving the apartment with a large box, which he claimed was stuff from the friggie and AC, that Becca suggested getting it since Shauna didn't want to go back to the apartment. He was cagey about it and told Eve “It had to be somebody in the club, some lowlife, right? I wish they hadn’t gone to a place like that. I don't mean to be critical, but it just seems like a bad choice. And it was, as it turns out.” He further suggested somebody who worked there as the murderer, “somebody who works in a place like that.” Eve thought of him as “the very nervous helpful friend trying to dig out information on the investigation” and she's sure whatever was in the box wasn't out of the AC or friggie.

Chapter 15[]

  • Eve joins Peabody and McNab at Fancy Feet, where the assistant manager, Mae-Lu, is regaling them with a story of ChiChi Lopez, who came in primarily to annoy Shauna, make her do a lot of busy work, and then declare, “there’s nothing in this store worth having. Nothing at all.” Shauna let it roll off her, and Lopez hasn't returned. They all liked Erin, who came in once in a while.
  • Eve filled Peabody in on her interview with the neighbor and her encounter with Barney, who she thought was trying to push for the murderer being outside the group, but not in the same way Angie did - Angie hoped it was somebody outside of the group, but didn't think it was; Greg was nudging Eve to look outside the group. Lopez was outclassed by Shauna, and showed a lack of control.
  • Roarke drives the four of them to Peabody and McNab's apartment for more boxes, then they head to the house so they can look at the comm system and visit with Mavis, who made lemonade from real lemons, recipe and lemons courtesy of Summerset. At home, Eve contacts Stillwater, who didn't know Lopez well and hadn't been to the club to see her dance, but described her as “sexy, confident, and a little edgy.” Lopez didn’t like Shauna and Shauna didn't like her back. Shauna told him rather than Becca or Erin because he wasn't one of the girls and Shauna didn't want to cause trouble between Erin and Lopez. He also thought Greg acted like a big brother with Shauna, which sometimes crowded her, but he meant well.

Chapter 16[]

  • Roarke points out that murder offends Eve, often makes her sad or angry - or both, but this one also annoys her. She's the victim's agent of justice and feels for those left behind. For this one she sees “mean stupidity, a friend killing a friend and bringing grief to so many others they claim as friends, so many others who were on the verge of celebrating that victim starting a new phase of her life.” Eve says when Casto came for her, he just needed to end her because she was too close to exposing him - it wasn't stupid, but logical.
  • Over dinner Roarke told her he was downtown for a meeting at Off Duty - tenants are already applying for Stone's apartment, and they're going to interview for staff in a couple of months. Eve gifts Roarke with all this because he likes it. Roarke will have a security system at the D&D inside a week, although that probably wouldn't have made a difference with Erin's murder. Crack and Rochelle will be at the memorial because it's personal to him. They work for an hour, then watch a vid with lots of action and have slow, lazy sex.
  • Eve dreams she's back at the D&D, the same party, with a mix of Erin and her friends. Erin says, “I love her so much. She'll never go to Maui now. it's ruined for her. They killed me, sure. But they killed something in her, too.” Eve leaves the club area and Casto jumps her, the syringe full of the drug Immortality in his hand. He gets some in her and as she stumbles her way to the door, the wire went around her neck, biting into her skin. Unlike Erin, she didn't claw at the wire, but threw her body back against the attacker, elbow jabbing him. The wire loosened for an instant before tightening again, and she stopped getting air. She thought of Roarke, waiting for her and all the people in the club celebrating both of them and of the life she'd never know.

Day 4: Thursday, August 18, 2061[]

Chapter 16 (Continued)[]

  • Eve woke up to Roarke pulling her up, yelling at her to breathe, and Galahad butting his head against her hip. It's early so she grabbed a workout. Over breakfast Eve realizes the killer left the case intentionally, to ruin Shauna's dream - not stupid, but mean, vindictive, and purposeful. “Looks like that dream wasn't a waste of time after all.” Roarke tells her he'd rather she come to those conclusions without scaring the life out of him.

Chapter 17[]

  • On the drive downtown Eve thinks about it - for Lopez, take the life of the one who rejected you and destroy the dream of the one she chose instead; for Barney, take the life of the one who replaced you and destroy the dream of the one who moved on from you. Reineke and Jenkinson closed their eighteen-year-old cold case and updated Eve - the widow finally realized the best friend, now husband, soon-to-be-ex, who was wooing her started making mistakes and revealing his true self.
  • Peabody favors Lopez as the killer because she's mean, but Eve thinks it's Barney, based on his face coming out of the apartment and that he dissed Crack and the D&D. She thinks he just hides his mean streak better. She called him “one of the Mr. All-Americans. Straight, white, male. Closing in on 30, good-looking, solid job, sharp dresser. He's also pretty much gotten what he wants. The popular boy in high school and party of the shining couple. Quarterback - calls the plays. Team captain, and all that. Two younger sisters. So he's - potentially - the prince growing up.” He's a big brother in a very traditional family.
  • Shauna moved to the city first, then three months later he moved into the same apartment building. Becca was already in the city, living around the corner from Shauna, when they reconnected and became best friends, then added Greg. Erin has to go to save Shauna from making a mistake. They can't tell what's specifically missing from the apartment, other than clothes, pictures, and jewelry.

Chapter 18[]

  • They stopped at the gallery to find out what will happen to Erin's art. Erin's family and Shauna plan to keep some of the paintings and have Frost hold a showing of the rest in the fall, with proceeds going to start a scholarship for art students. Eve mentioned wanting to buy the Polumbi's painting. Nobody in the friend group has asked Frost to appraise Erin's art for insurance or to have a record. Eve tells Peabody, “it's not money.”
  • At the memorial, Eve and Peabody speak to Erin's family and friends and then stand in back to observe. ChiChi's grandparents are there, but ChiChi is not. Marcus gave the eulogy, followed by Angie speaking of their long friendship, Donna of Erin's unshakable loyalty, Frost of her talent and verve, and others with personal stories. Shauna said how much Erin changed her life, expanding and brightening it.
  • Lopez came in wearing a stoplight-red body-skimming dress that stopped at mid-thigh and sky-high heels in the same bold color. She stopped a foot from Shauna and said “This is bullshit.” She told Shauna she (Shauna) didn't know Erin, she wasn't the boring doormat shauna turned her into. “She had life, and you drained it right the hell out of her. You fucking killed her. You bitch, she's dead because of you.” Lopez slapped her, and shauna punched her, knocking her out, with Stillwater catching her before she hit the ground.
  • Lopez's grandparents apologize for her behavior and Eve says they are going to charge her with assault. Her grandmother said maybe it's best she pays a price and they'll have her lawyer meet them at Central. Shauna doesn't want to press charges, but Eve convinces her: “Actions require consequences.” On the way into Central, Lopez tells them Erin is dead because of Shauna. She killed all of erin's passion by manipulating her, playing at the romance, making everything all about Shauna.
  • Lopez made a play for Erin, but was rebuffed. She told her she was in love with her the morning of the party, at her cleaning job, but Erin said she didn't feel that way about her, she loved Shauna and was making a life with her. “She'd be alive if it wasn't for Shauna. Why didn't they kill her? Stupid, second-rate shoe clerk with her boring friends and let's-stay-home lifestyle.” She says she would have made Erin happy and they would have had a real life together, not “some pale, boring excuse for one.” She says it wouldn't have lasted and Erin would have come back to her, but now there's nothing to wait for.
  • Eve told her, “Only one person's responsible for her death, and that's the one who killed her. If it helps you sleep at night to blame the woman she loved and who loved her, that's your damage. But I’ll do my job and see the person responsible’s held responsible.”

Chapter 19[]

  • Whitney stops by to let Eve know the mayor likes the enchiladas at Abuela’s and requested leeway on the assault charge, which Eve says will be up to the court, which he agrees with. She tells him Lopez isn’t the murderer but she knows who is and just needs evidence. She tells Peabody she knows it’s Barney - he smirked when ChiChi slapped Shauna. Eve started recording when lopez started her rant and caught Barney’s reaction.
  • Eve explains it as: “He lost the Shaun part of Shaunbar. He’d been a star in high school, but part of that shine came from her, being coupled with her.” She moved, so he moved near her for access to that shine. “But she’s not interested in going back to high school. So he starts up with her good friend and the self-identified high school wheeze. gets some shine there. And Shauna’s not really with anyone, or not with anyone for long. Until Erin.” She’s in her first real relationship since him and she switched teams, which is salt-in-the-wound for Barney. For Lopez it was jealousy, but for Barney it’s pride, not passion. She thinks Barney always planned to kill Erin before the wedding, but took advantage of the opportunity at the D&D, a further insult to him - having the party at a sex club.
  • Eve thinks he probably got rid of the ’link he used to contact Erin about the case, but tells Peabody to get her a consult with Mira while she finishes the report on Lopez and gets EDD to enhance the smirk. Peabody will do a run on people in high school with them to get impressions. Barney is holding Becca back and holding in a laugh when Lopez first stepped up to Shauna, then smirking after the slap. marcus, on the other hand, was pissed and moving in.
  • Callendar walked in and recognized that dooser (Barney). She went to On Trend to buy a fancy shirt for her brother for his 21st birthday and Barney gave her grief, suggesting maybe she try the L&W for a more affordable knock-off. He pissed her off but she bought the shirt anyway and her brother freaking loves it. Peabody got Eve fifteen minutes with Mira, so Eve tells her to keep going on high school and then move to people who knew him in college.

Chapter 20[]

  • Mira said Lopez had “narcissistic tendencies, but much of her self-worth is tied to her physicality and her sexuality. A difficult woman who uses that physicality and sex to attain what she wants. Attention, approval, admiration.” Eve said is Albright had been killed with a handy blunt object, she’d narrow in on Lopez - crime of passion, heat of the moment. But to plan it out, Shauna would need to be the target, not Erin.
  • Eve tells Mira about Callendar’s encounter with Barney, and Mira isn’t surprised. “He enjoys his social standing. From a solidly, dependably upper-middle-class background, and a classically traditional one, he rose a bit above as a teenager. Class president, star athlete, and a pairing with a popular and attractive girl that made them both stars in that arena.” She thinks it will be easy to find former schoolmates, especially those on lower rungs of the social ladder, who don’t remember him fondly.
  • Eve calls him “a bully, but not an obvious one. He hovers, observes, insinuates, placates. He’s ridden some on his looks, like Lopez. His job makes him a kid of boss, and in a shiny venue. Appearances are important to him.” She doesn’t think he would have looked twice at Becca in high school, based on her pictures from that time, but now that she found a style that suits her and has developed confidence in herself, she fits his template. Shauna no longer fit, so he blamed Erin for that, and for diminishing him by smearing their history.
  • She played the smirk for Mira, who suggested speaking with former staff. When Eve interviews him, Mira says to make him angry, which Eve says she has a knack for. They agree it’s nice being married, and they both chose the right life partners.
  • Peabody found a former schoolmate, Julian Prowder, who remembered Barney as a “puffed-up prick, stuck-up jerk with a stick up his ass. More than happy to narc on a fellow student for any infraction, but kept it down-low. Any guy who so much as looked at Shauna too close became a prime target for just that... Barney would wait and watch for a misstep, then pounce.” He wasn’t among the best dressed in that era - youngest of three boys, so hand-me-downs. Barney used to sneer and snark at him about his clothes, but down-low because he pretended he was above the fray, and Shauna wasn’t one for snarking that way.
  • Eve found a former employee, LeRoy Vic, who worked as an assistant manager under Barney. He had an opportunity for a manager’s position at Orlando’s, in Brooklyn. His wife was having a baby and they wanted to move closer to their families, plus it would have been a step up for him and a solid raise. Barney gave him a crap eval: his work ethic had declined, he was taking too much time off, his customer service tended to be shoddy. He always covered for Greg or anybody when they needed time, but his wife had a shaky first trimester and needed him. He had the time coming and took it, but his work was never shoddy and he had top sales six months running. He wouldn’t have known about it but for the outgoing manager at Orlando’s who told him. When he confronted Barney, he was told it was for his own good, that he wouldn’t have been able to handle the job and was making a mistake when he had a kid coming.
  • Instead of quitting, he made copies of his sales records, contacted some of his regulars for references, and got a sales position with Orlando’s two years ago. He’s currently manager there. He told Eve: “He’s the type who always thinks he knows best.” He also suggested Eve talk to Sharlene Wilson, a former On Trend salesperson Barney pushed out a year and a half ago.
  • Peabody has another story from high school, this time one of Barney’s teammates who got suspended from school and the team when someone reported he had a couple Zoner joints in his locker. Since he was going hard after Barney’s team captain position, the guy figured Barney for the squealer, but Barney claimed he saw the other kid heading into the vice principal’s office right before the teammate was called down and suspended. Since he was a member of the Clean Teens Club, it seemed plausible and when Zoner guy jumped him, Barney saw the fight and smirked.
  • Eve heads home, with the plan that she and Peabody will have Shauna take them through her apartment in the morning, showing them anything that was missing. Eve thinks of Barney as “an ordinary man, an average sort of guy with an average sort of background, income, lifestyle, but in his way, he’d decided he was qualified to play God. He decided what suited, what didn’t. And in Erin Albright’s case, who lived, who died.” She thinks Barney is sure he’s gotten away with it.
  • Summerset informed Eve that Roarke had a difficult day, so she browbeats it out of him - he had to fire a long-term employee, who was stealing from him. Her son started gambling and got into considerable debt to the wrong sort. She skimmed and shifted, intending to pay it all back, and when it came out, she tried to blame her assistant, only making it worse. Roarke would have helped her but she broke trust between them and would’ve let someone innocent pay the price, so he let her go. He didn’t press charges but set up a repayment schedule. He spoke with her son, using the threat of her going to prison for embezzlement as motivation for him to enter rehab for gambling addiction, i.e., he was Scary Roarke.

Chapter 21[]

  • Over fish and chips, Roarke’s comfort food, she tells him about the memorial, showing him the clip of Barney’s smirk. She also told him about the schoolmates Peabody found and the people who used to work with him, including Wilson, who worked part-time at On Trend until about eighteen months ago. Barney made a habit of saying how she’d make more as a professional mother, and how much better off her kids would be if she stayed home. She’d say how she liked working, being out in the world, and her kids were fine. It irritated her some, but she didn’t think much of it. He also wondered, out loud, why she wanted to work in a men’s shop. Wouldn’t she be more comfortable, if she insisted on working, putting in her time at a woman’s boutique.
  • After a while, he started cutting her hours and hired another part-timer - a man. She took off for a school function, with advance notice, but he wrote her up for it. He continued to undermine her in little ways, claimed some customers complained about her attitude, her service, which she said was bullshit. When she finally quit -- she decided it wasn’t worth the annoyance of dealing with him -- he told her she was making the right choice for her family.
  • They take a walk to the pond, eating fresh peaches from the trees on the way. She tells him since Barney took something from Shauna’s apartment, it’s probably something he gave her when they were a couple that he wanted back because she no longer deserved it. “I gave you this when you were perfect, and now you’re not. You can’t keep it.” Once Shauna identifies what’s missing, Eve can get a search warrant and arrest him on robbery, then goad him into a confession of murder.
  • Once inside, Eve asks Roarke to take a good look at Becca’s family to see how they fit into Barney’s narrow worldview, then see if he’s insured any paintings since the murder, and then check his finances to see what types of girlfriend gifts he’s bought in the last three years. That will give Eve an idea of what he gave Shauna, and what he took back, and she also wants to know if he sees the DiNuzios as worthy.
  • Becca’s family seems traditional, with them being married for 31 years, three children, and the mother taking parental leave from her mathematician job for each offspring. Barney insured an Albright painting that morning for $4800, and has for gifts, he buys sweaters and scarves for his mother and sisters and jewelry for his girlfriend - birthdays, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and an anniversary. nothing overly expensive, but not too cheap - usually earrings, but a necklace or bracelet now and then, and a non-engagement ring for Becca’s birthday the previous spring, which Eve remembered her wearing whenever she saw her.

Day 5: Friday, August 19, 2061[]

Chapter 21 (Continued)[]

  • Breakfast is a full Irish, with the plan being Eve will take Barney at his shop for maximum mortification. Roarke picked out Eve’s outfit, designed for maximum intimidation.

Chapter 22[]

  • Eve and Peabody pick Shauna up at Angie’s apartment, letting her know Lopez agreed to plead guilty to the assault in exchange for mandatory community service and (more) anger management training, and they need to have her go with them to her apartment to see what’s missing. being inside the apartment for the first time since Erin’s death is actually a little comforting, seeing the things they bought together or merged. She still planned to sublet the apartment but thinks maybe she’ll keep some of their things.
  • Shauna realizes the red Shaunbar box is missing - it contained some things Greg gave her when they were dating - earrings, a ring, a necklace. First she thinks Eve is telling her Becca took it, but Eve asks who else knew where she kept it. Eve swears her to secrecy and tells her Greg murdered Erin. When Shauna first started dating Erin, he was harsh about it, which she chalked up to his family being very set. They had a fight about it because he thought Erin was a bad influence, and she told him it was none of his business. He apologized and they made up.
  • Eve convinces Shauna that Erin would have trusted Barney to bring the case when Donna was out of town, and he knew about Maui. They’ve known each other since middle school, and he could be petty, but “that’s something you overlook in a friend. She would have trusted him. I trusted him. He always thinks he knows what I should do, what’s best for me. I overlooked that, too, or ignored it.” If she got pissed about it, he would back off and apologize, saying, “Just trying to look out for you, Shaunbar.” She promises not to say anything, as long as Eve tells her if it’s true, right away.
  • Using the search warrant, they easily find the Shaunbar box in the back of the top drawer of his highboy, behind some red socks. Peabody found a package of piano wire, although they don’t have a piano, and they get an arrest warrant and head to On Trend. As he’s being brought into the store from where he was assisting a customer, Allisandra Charro, Francis Bryce’s personal shopper from Random in Death, came in and officially met Lieutenant Dallas. Eve and Peabody arrest him for robbery, with Eve a little sad because he didn’t resist and Charro calling out after her, “I’d absolutely love to dress you. More than ever!”
  • They let Barney talk since they’ve read him his rights, and he disses Lopez, saying “I assumed the two of you were reasonably competent, but now I see why it took you days to arrest that stripper for Erin’s murder. I told you it was some lowlife, and it was. Shauna should never have associated with someone like that, and wouldn’t have except for Erin.” He tells them there’s no excuse for humiliating him at work and “there will be recompense.” When he tells them once it’s sorted out they will come to his shop and apologize to him in front of his staff, one of the cops in the elevator says, “Doesn’t know you very well, does he?”

Chapter 23[]

  • Barney didn’t call for a lawyer, most likely because he considered himself above the law and smarter than two female cops. “Tagging a lawyer also meant someone else knew about his arrest. he wouldn’t want that.” Eve tags Roarke to tell him they have Barney in Interview for robbery to start, then murder. Roarke says hiding the box of jewelry in his sock drawer wasn’t very clever, and Eve can see he’s no longer broody.
  • Eve leaves the Giant’s Tear outside of her shirt (Roarke’s suggestion, a power move) when she starts the interview. She showed Barney the box he took from Shauna’s apartment. He said he gave the items to Shauna, and Eve points out that once you give a gift, it no longer belongs to you, hence theft. He claimed he took them for safekeeping because Shauna hasn’t been herself and isn’t thinking clearly, talking about selling most of her things. Eve tells him that’s still called theft. He said he worried that other people were going through the apartment - friends and family of Erin and “who knows what they might take?” Eve counters with: “So, worried about thievery, you committed same.” She also pointed out that he hid the box, so Becca didn’t know he had taken it.
  • It comes down to him deciding what’s best for Shauna. Eve takes the jewelry out from the Shaunbar box and Peabody calls the pieces “sweet, pretty, immature, but suitable for a high school girl.” Barney says they’re classic and timeless pieces, and Eve says Shauna kept them separate from her other jewelry since she didn’t wear them anymore. Her choice, like Erin was her choice. Barney will help her to rebuild her life because he looks out for her, as a friend should do. He finally admits he didn’t want to bother Shauna in her state, and he was “acting in the best interest of a friend who tends to act on impulse and emotion in the best of times. which these clearly weren’t.”
  • Eve tells him he likes to decide what’s in other’s best interests, like LRoy Vic and Sharlene Wilson. “You like to manage people. you get to decide what they should do, how they should do it. How they should live. What’s best for them. Then you take the necessary steps to see they stay inside the lines you’ve drawn.” She continues on this path until he says strong families are built on the man being the head of the household, providing for the children, and the woman mothering them.
  • Eve asks him what he thought when Shauna became involved with Erin (Shauna acting on impulse, unwisely). Shauna would never have know the woman who killed Erin were it not for her involvement with a woman like Erin in the first place: “A lesbian, for God’s sake. A street artist, basically living hand to mouth, who counted strippers, trans people, gay people, people who constantly engaged in indiscriminate sex among her so-called friends. Freaks and losers. [Shauna] comes from a strong, traditional family.”
  • Eve tells him no wonder he had to kill Erin, since her death cleared the way for Shauna to get back to where she belongs. Barney said Erin twisted something in Shauna, and it was just a fling, so he had no reason to kill Erin. “Yes, their relationship embarrassed me. For Shauna. she was making a fool of herself.” Eve shows him the piano wire, which he says they planted or maybe Becca put it in his apartment. Eve tells him they traced the purchase and he didn’t even pay cash, making him a moron. They can match the wire to the wound on Erin’s throat, making him an imbecile. EDD found he searched on making a garotte, making him whatever’s below imbecile, which Eve and Peabody decide is Greg Barney. Also he kept his ’link where he texted with Erin about bringing the case to the D&D. His excuse is he was throwing a rope to a friend who was hanging off a cliff, saving a drowning friend, and in time she would have understood. “I took a life to save a life.”

Epilogue[]

  • Eve comes home to find Roarke clearing her murder board. she tells him Barney confessed and tells him about the interview over wine. Roarke summed it up as: “He murdered a woman because her relationship with his high school sweetheart embarrassed him.” He got life, on-planet, with the possibility of parole at twenty-five years, which Eve doesn’t think he’s smart enough to get. Talking to Shauna and Becca afterwards was harder, but they have their tribe, including Angie, who’s now hosting both of them until they find other apartments.
  • The money from the sales of Erin’s paintings are going to a scholarship for artists, so Shauna asked her to find someone at An Dídean for that amount, which she will have Rochelle do. Eve tells him it’s nice being married, and he tells her it was his idea, and they finish the day together.

Character List[]

List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Secondary Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]

List of Recurring Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]

List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Peripheral Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]

YANNIs[]

  • Eve told Donna Fleschner “I regret to inform you Erin Albright was killed early this morning” (Chapter 4), but her TOD was actually 2346 (11:46 p.m.) the previous night (Chapter 1)
  • Becca DiNuzio and Greg Barney either lived on the second (Chapter 7) or the third floor (Chapter 22).
  • Becca and Greg either lived sixteen minutes, twelve seconds from the D&D (Chapter 7) or closer than Lopez (Chapter 11), who lived five blocks from the D&D (Chapter 9).
  • Eve asked Roarke, “Do you still have that button?” It just doesn’t ring true since Eve knows he still has it and that he carries it with him everywhere (Chapter 16).

Footnotes[]

  1. ↑ Passions in Death, Chapter 5
  2. ↑ The story begins on Monday, August 15, 2061: Chapter 1: “They’d chosen a Monday night at the Down and Dirty...” and “...in five days, only five more days, Erin thought, on August 20, 2061, she’ll be my wife, and I’ll be hers.”
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