Page 107 of Random in Death
“Yeah, but—”
“I’m telling you the same.”
The other boy—must be David—pushed his hands through a mass of blue-streaked blond hair. “Somebody tried to kill her. That’s really real?”
“Yes, and they failed. Kiki’s pretty damn tired, but she was awake, and lucid, and pissed off she missed seeing the vid.”
“Okay.” Tears swirled in Pres’s eyes for a moment. “Okay. Sorry. She can be a pain in my ass, but she’s my sister. She’s my little sister.”
“It’s okay, Pres.” The girl took his hand. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I’m Lieutenant Dallas.”
“Duh,” said Pres, and managed a weak smile.
“I need to talk to you about what happened tonight. Would each of you state your full name and age for the record?”
“Wow, since she’s really okay, this is chill. Presley Rosenburg. Eighteen.”
“I’m Lola Nelson, seventeen.”
“Lola, do your parents know where you are?”
“Oh yeah. I tagged them right away, said how something happened to Kiki and there were police and MTs and the police were bringing us to the hospital and they said I could stay because Kiki’s moms were coming and how I should talk to the police if it helped Kiki. They love Kiki, and Pres, too.”
Did all teenage girls talk in endless, run-on sentences? Eve wondered.
“You have parental permission to speak with me?”
“Yeah, sure. It’s for Kiki.”
“David Olmstead, eighteen.”
“All right. Let’s start with you, Presley. You, your sister, and your two friends were together?”
“Yeah, that’s right. We scored four tickets a couple weeks ago for the opening—exclusive show, ten o’clock tonight. Last night was the big premiere, but that’s for the cast and the bigwigs and the rich guys. Tonight was for real people. A hard score anyway, and some of the cast was supposed to come up for questions and stuff after the vid.”
“We were really excited,” Lola put in. “We’re monster fans of the Defenders.”
“You had to get on line even with the presells, so we got there like right after nine. We were still pretty far back, but it finally started moving.”
“Did you notice anyone in a trench?”
“Sure. It’s mostly flakers who wear them to the vids, but you’re always going to have the flakers.”
“A white guy, about Kiki’s age. Short. Probably about five-six.”
“Not really. Is he the one who stabbed her? I mean, she wasn’t stabbed, but she thought she was. He used a needle syringe. I heard what the MTs said.”
“Maybe he was behind us when we were getting the corn and drinks?” David posed it like a question, and Eve shifted her focus.
“You saw him?”
“Not so much. The trench, because if you’re going to wear a trench, you’ve got to beat it up some, right? And I just noticed this one was like right out of the box or whatever. And the doofus shoes.”
“What kind of doofus shoes?”
“Kick Its or Joe’s or one of those. I just remember because he’s the one who ran. He shoved right by us and ran when Kiki screamed.”