Purity in Death Read Free Page B

him," she said as she sealed up and walked into 43F.
    "He's awful shook," Peabody said.
    "He'll have to get over it." She scanned the room.
    It was a filthy mess, smelling ripely of spoiled food and dirty laundry. The cramped kitchen area consisted of a two-foot counter, a mini-AutoChef and minifridgie. A huge tin sat on the counter. Eve lifted her brows as she read the label.
    "You know, I just don't see our Louie K. baking a lot of cakes." She opened one of the two cupboards and perused the neat line of sealed jars. "Looks like Louie was in the illegals line. Funny, everything in here's neat as Aunt Martha's, and the rest of the place is a pigsty."
    She turned around. "No dust on the furniture though. That's funny, too. You wouldn't figure a guy who sleeps on sheets that smell like a swamp would bother chasing dust."
    She opened the closet. "Tidy in here, too. Clothes show a lack of fashion taste, but they're all clean. Look at that window, Peabody."
    "Yes, sir?"
    "Glass is clean, inside and out. Somebody washed them within thelast couple weeks. Why do you wash your windows and leave-what the hell is this?-unidentified spilled food substance all over the floor?"
    "Maid's week off?"
    "Yeah, somebody's week off. That's about how long this underwear's been piled here." She glanced at the door when a uniform stepped in.
    "You Proctor?"
    "Yes, sir."
    "You know those two dead guys?"
    "I know Louie K." Proctor shook his head. "Shit-sorry, Lieutenant, but shit, this is some mess. That kid Trueheart's down there puking his guts out."
    "Tell me about Louie K., and let me worry about Trueheart and his guts."
    Proctor pokered up. "Small-time Illegals rat, went after school kids. Gave them samples of Zoner and Jazz to lure them in. Waste of air, you ask me. Did some time, but mostly he was pretty slick about it, and the Illegals guys never got much out of the kids."
    "He a violent tendency?"
    "Anything but. Kept a low profile, never gave you lip. You told him to move his ass along, he moved it. He'd give you a look now and then like he'd like to do more, but he never had the guts for it."
    "Had guts enough to open Ralph Wooster's head, bash a woman and assault a uniform."
    "Must've been sampling his own products all I can think. And that's not profile either. He maybe smoked a little Zoner now and then, but he was too cheap to do more. What's out there looks like Zeus," Proctor added with a jerk of the thumb toward the corridor. "Little guy like that going nutso. But he never handled anything that hot I heard about."
    "Okay, Proctor. Thanks."
    "Guy sells illegals to school kids, world's better off without him."
    "That's not our call." Eve dismissed him by turning her back. She moved to the desk, frowned at the computer screen.
    ABSOLUTE PURITY ACHIEVED
    "What the hell does this mean?" she asked aloud. "Peabody, any new shit on the streets going by the name Purity?"
    "I haven't heard of it."
    "Computer, identify Purity."
    INVALID COMMAND.
    Frowning, she entered her name, badge number, and authorization. "Identify Purity."
    INVALID COMMAND.
    "Huh. Peabody do a run on new and known illegals. Computer, save current display. Display last task performed."
    The screen wavered, then opened a tidy, organized spreadsheet detailing inventory, profit, loss, and coded customer base.
    "So, according to the last task, and time logged, Louie was sitting here, very efficiently doing his books when he got a bug up his ass to bust his neighbor's head open."
    "It's hot, Dallas." Peabody looked over Eve's shoulder. "People can just get crazy."
    "Yeah." Maybe it was just that simple. "Yeah, they can. Nothing on his inventory named Purity."
    "Nothing on the current illegals list by that name either."
    "So what the hell is it, and how was it achieved?" She stepped back. "Let's take a look at Louie K., see what he tells us."

Chapter 2
    He didn't tell her as much as she'd have liked.
    The best she could determine on-scene with her field kit was that Louie K. had