Detective Alexandra Eames surveyed the dead body. It was a man, early 40's, dressed in black tie. He still had his wallet, his watch, and his cuff links. What was missing from the scene was her partner. He had been there a minute before, looking over the deceased while she had interviewed the traumatized arbitrageur who had found the body on his way to work.
"Have you seen my partner," she asked the uniform holding back a few stray gawkers.
"The big guy? I saw him go down the block and turn right." A few minutes later, Goren returned, carrying a pair of women's shoes.
"They match your outfit, but I don't think they're practical for everyday wear," she said. Goren smiled sheepishly.
"I found these on top of a garbage can around the corner. I thought it was odd."
"I see shoes abandoned all of the time here in the city." Goren nodded.
"True, but sneakers over a phone wire, shoes with impractically high heels or a heel that broke. These, uh…"
"Open toed slingbacks"
"Yeah, open-toed slingbacks, are elegant, but you can walk in them. I mean, I couldn't, but you could. High quality stitching. Are they from a well-known designer?"
"No, those guys don't make shoes with the expectation that people will actually walk in them. These are from a well-known firm, the kind of thing Ms. Wall Street or Mrs. Old Money wears out on the town."
"A little too nice to be leaving on top of the public garbage can," suggested Goren
"Are you keeping them, or are they related to the case? The decedent, Carl Roth, by the way, is strictly a loafers man.
"Loafers with tassels."
"You may want to hide the disdain in your voice when we run this by Ross."
"It's not a judgment, but its true, tassels are usually for guys who don't think too much about their shoes, so they just wear what their fathers wore. He's wearing black tie, but it's not something he did often or by choice. " Eames didn't respond, instead gingerly opening the wallet, and began removing items one by one.
"Well, he's one of us, the riff raff. He has a subway Metrocard, and here's the not so lucrative profession. He's an archivist at the Metropolitan Museum. Head archivist."
"They had their benefit last night, didn't they," Goren asked. "They just got that Isaac Newton manuscript. A major coup like that, he would have been expected to be on hand to entertain the donors with useful facts. He would also have been expected to bring a date."
"Okay, I'll give you all of that, but you still haven't connected the shoes".
They walked back to the car, Goren carrying the now-bagged shoes like a boy who'd won a goldfish at the county fair. Back at 1 PP, things fell into place. Carl Roth's immediate superior, the assistant curator, confirmed that Roth had been at the benefit, and the curator could supply them with a list of people who had been there.