Then studied the photo of Mina Cabot.
“That’s the girl got dead. Saw about it on-screen. It’s sad.”
“Did you ever see her before that? Before on-screen?”
“Uh-uh. Hard to miss that hair, check it? And the looks with it.”
“Right. How about this one?” Eve swiped to the photo of Dorian Gregg.
Tiko frowned, turned his head side to side. “I remember her.”
Eve felt a lurch in her gut. “Don’t tell me what I want to hear because I want to hear it.”
“Why’d I lie to you? You’re the good cops. I took my granny to see your vid, about the clones? Frosted supreme. I remember her, but it’s back during holiday sale time. Maybe December, maybe November—but late in that, ’cause I had turkey stuff on clearance.”
“Turkey stuff. So after Thanksgiving.”
“For sure after.”
He held up a finger, walked over to a couple fiddling with the shirts and caps, made his pitch.
Damn good pitch, Eve decided, as he sold and bagged three shirts, two caps, some sort of purse thing, and sunshades.
“For sure after,” he said again when he stepped back over to Eve. “And not here. I got a second stall downtown. I expanded.” The grin popped back. “I got five em-ploy-ees.”
Two stalls, five employees, Eve thought, and he was younger than the child in the morgue.
“Do you have any trouble, anyone trying to hassle or hustle you?”
He married a snort with a shrug. “Maybe they try, but I handle that. Plus, I made friends with the beat cops, even the droids. I just show them the card you give me, say Dallas is a friend of mine. They look out for me and my staff.”
She decided the kid would likely give Roarke a run at owning half of New York one of these days.
“Okay. Tell me how you remember the girl from months ago.”
“She is fine,” he said simply. “Gotta look twice at that kind of fine. And she’s staking out the stall. I got scarves and hats—good quality, good prices—gloves and bags. I know a street thief when I see one, check it?”
“Yeah, I check it.”
“So, even if she’s fine, I give her a look that lets her know I know, and she better not try lifting from me. And I think might be she’s cold, so I tell her if she’s got five, I’ve got a few scarves under my table got some flaws, and she can take one for five. I think she’s pissed I made her so easy, but she dug up the five, and took a scarf—an orange-and-black one.”
“Jesus, you remember all that? You’re absolutely sure?”
“Hundred percent. Hold it.”
He dealt with a trio of customers already loaded with shopping bags.
“After Thanksgiving,” Eve said the moment he freed up again. “But before Christmas.”
“Had to be. Scarf she took was like Halloween and Thanksgiving stock, and already on discount, so I could break even selling it to her so low. I had the Santa stuff, and snowflakes, and the good-quality gift scarves and hats and all.”
“Did you see her again, after that?”
“Once, not long after—few days maybe. She had on the scarf and was stalking some tourists. I didn’t say anything to the beat cops.” He shrugged. “I figure she’s just trying to get through, right? That’s different than the bad guys.”
“All right. I’m going to send the pictures to your ’link, and I need the exact location of your downtown stall.”
“She get dead, too?”
“No.”
“She do something you gotta arrest her for?”
“No.”
“In trouble then?”
“Yes, she’s in trouble. I want to find her, get her out of trouble.”
“Anybody can, it’s gonna be you. But you need these shades. They’re badass. I’ll give you a cop discount.”
She bought the shades, got the stall location, transferred the photos to his ’link.
“Thanks for the help.”
He just pointed at the shades she’d slipped on. “Badass.”
“Check it.”
On the way back to her car, she ordered up some uniforms to canvass a four-block radius around the downtown stall location. If Tiko had spotted Dorian twice, someone else must have seen her.
The orange-and-black scarf wouldn’t hurt pinning a sighting.
Tiko added weight to what she already firmly believed. Dorian had been abducted from New York. And now, the most logical conclusion targeted that abduction after Thanksgiving and before Christmas.