by J. D. Robb
He stopped the car, aimed his PPC out the window. “Point being, we don’t know what Francis and Willow are up to, so why risk it?”
“What are you doing?”
“Just a minute.”
She shifted in her seat. He’d tied his hair back—work mode—and was keying a series of numbers, letters—who could tell—into his handheld. He had a half smile on his face, but she knew those eyes. He was focused on whatever the hell he was doing.
“That should take care of it.”
“Of what?”
“For the next five minutes the cameras on this level will record the area as it is now—without us in it.” He drove on. “It’s not the Royal Museum, but still it would be awkward if a security man decided to check the garage and saw me fiddling with Renee’s vehicle.”
He pulled in longways behind it. “This won’t take long,” he told her as he got out.
Frowning, Eve shoved open the passenger door. She followed him around to the hood. She started to remind him the hood would be secured, but was glad she saved her breath. He had it open in seconds.
“How did you deactivate the alarm without—”
“Quiet.”
He took another of his little toys from his pocket, attached it to something under the hood with a thread-thin wire. He keyed in a command that had numbers and symbols flashing by in red on the miniscreen. He watched them, then paused the sequence. He keyed in another command, generated another series of codes.
Smiling, he held out the device. “Here, push ENTER.”
“Why?”
“Partners in crime.”
“Crap.” She pushed ENTER and distinctly heard several sharp electrical snaps.
“Nicely done. You’re a natural.”
“Bite me.”
“One of my favorite activities.” He entered yet another series, another command, then detached the device. Secured the hood.
“That’s it?”
“It is. I put the extra time blocking the cams in case you want to search the vehicle. Would you like me to get you in?”
She would. Oh boy, would she. “I didn’t get clearance for that.”
“Stickler—which is much the same as tight-ass.” He waited, watching her fight her internal battle.
“No. If I need to toss her ride, I’ll do the new one. With a warrant or at command directive. Let’s go.”
“That was fun.” Roarke got back behind the wheel, made the turn to curve up to the exit. “But vaguely unsatisfying.”
“What did you do to it?”
“Identified, copied, then countermanded the mainframe system code with an incompatible command issued by a diagnostic clone issuing feed directly into ...” He trailed off, smiling at her. “I do love it when you get glassy-eyed over tech. It’s not altogether dissimilar from when you come.”
“Oh, please.” Deliberately she darkened the look with a scowl.
“I’m the one privileged to look in those eyes of yours at such moments. Basically, I fried a number of chips, which will disable the starter. I issued a second command so when she get in, tries to start it, the action will set off a further reaction, and essentially completely bollocks the engine.”
“Okay. That’s good. Will it pass diagnostics?”
He sighed, long, deep, exaggerated. “I wonder why I tolerate such abuse and cynicism? Ah yes, it’s those glassy eyes. It’ll read like a starter defect, which, in turn, compromised the engine.”
“That’s perfect. Thanks.”
“My pleasure. On to our favorite grifter?”
“Yeah. They’re expecting us.”
Lieutenant Renee Oberman clipped into the squad room in a very bad mood.
“LT,” Detective Strong began, and received a furious shut-the-fuckup glare.
“Officer Heizer, contact Requisitions and tell them I want the damn paperwork on my vehicle asap.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And I don’t want to see that piece of crap they hauled out of my garage this morning again. If they replace it with a similar piece of crap, I’ll make their lives a living hell.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he repeated even as she stormed into her office. Renee pulled up short when she saw Eve in one of her visitor’s chairs.
“Lieutenant. Nice hours you have here in Illegals.”
“Don’t start on me.” Renee strode around to her desk, opened a bottom drawer, tossed her purse inside. “My vehicle rolled over and died this morning.”
“Sympathies,” Eve said with no sincerity whatsoever. “They are crap.”
“Now I’m dealing with those idiots in Requisitions and the Vehicle Pool.”
“Pain in the ass,” Eve agreed. “I’m here to give you a bigger one.”
“Look, Dallas, you put me in a corner regarding sensitive data and files generated with the use of my CI.”
“Your dead CI.”
“Dead or alive, that data remains sensitive. Several of those cases are either in trial or yet to come to trial. If the information’s compromised, those trials could be compromised.”
Eve’s face went stony. “Are you insinuating, Lieutenant, that I might apprise a defendant or said defendant’s legal rep of that data?”
“I’m not insinuating anything, I’m stating a fact. I don’t know how you run your division, who might now have access to that data. But you left me no choice. Now you’ve got it, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of it.”
“You’d be wrong. To start, Keener’s COD was an overdose of FYU, sweetened with barely pushed Zeus. I’m wondering how a low-level chemi-head who dealt primarily in zoner managed that one.”
“I told you.” Renee spoke deliberately, as if to a child. “He used whatever he could get.”
“Yeah, and I’m wondering how he managed to get the high grade. I need to know who in your squad worked on anything involving FYU, who they busted on it, and so on. I’ll need those files.”
“That’s bullshit! Are you standing there, in my office, implying one of my people passed my weasel high-grade illegals?”
Perfect, Eve thought. Simply perfect. “I wasn’t implying that. Should I be? In fact, given my next order of business with you, that’s a very interesting angle.”
Renee slapped her hands on her desk. “Now you listen to me—”
“’Scuze.” A tiny woman with shoe-black hair in hooking pigtails poked her head in. She snapped bright pink gum and gave the two lieutenants a bored look out of chocolate brown eyes. “Either of you LT Renee Oberman?” Brooklyn drenched her voice.
Renee gave the woman a quick sweep, from the pigtails, over the cheap white polo shirt, the baggy pants, the dull gray skids. “I’m Lieutenant Oberman.”
“Candy, Requisitions.” Candy’s ID badge bounced between enormous breasts as she walked to the desk.
“It’s about time.”
“Yeah, well, we get backed up, you know. Cops’re hard on their rides. Gotcha a spank-new Torrent. That’s an upgrade, as requested. Got your codes and whatnot here.”
Renee held out a hand. “Well?”
“Jeez, can’t hand ’em over till you sign. Whatcha think? We just pass out rides? Sign, date, initial both pages—that’s in dupe.” Candy laid the forms on the desk, tapped them with a bright—and chipped—pink fingernail. “Said you were in a big-ass hurry, so they sent me up. Nice office.”
“Just give me the codes,” Renee snapped as she dashed her signature on the forms.
“Don’t have to get huffy about it.” Candy passed her a sealed card. “You want to change the codes, you gotta notify—in trip—so’s we got it on record.”
“Fine. That’ll be all.”
“Nope. You gotta sign my screen here, verifying acceptance of the new vehicle and codes. You don’t verify, somebody could say I boosted the ride, turned it on the street.”
Renee snatched the little screen, scrawled her name on it with the attached stylus. “Get out.”
“Jeez.” Candy gathered
the forms, sniffed. “You’re fucking welcome.”
“It’s hardly a wonder they’re so disorganized over there,” Renee said when Candy strolled out. “Hiring people like that.”
“You got your new ride, Oberman. Now if you’re all set, why don’t we continue this fascinating discussion with you telling me why two of your detectives were in my victim’s flop yesterday?”
“Excuse me?”
“No, I won’t excuse you. What I will do is file a formal complaint against you, your detectives, and this squad for interfering with and potentially compromising a homicide investigation.”
Renee’s eyes burned hot as she took two challenging steps toward Eve. “You think you can come into my squad, into my office, and threaten me and my people?”
“Yeah, because that’s just what I’m doing.” For the hell of it, Eve closed the distance until they were nearly nose-to-nose. “And I will, I promise you, follow through if I’m not satisfied with your explanation of why Detectives Garnet and Bix entered Keener’s flop yesterday without my authorization. I’ll do more than follow up if I find out either or both of them hooked my vic up with illegals.”
“And I demand to know on what grounds you’re making that assertion.”
Eve twisted her lips into a sneer. “I don’t have to tell you squat. This is my case, my investigation, my vic. And I’m wondering just why you’re trying to stall it, to interfere with it, to compromise it.”
“That’s ridiculous, and insulting. I don’t take those kinds of accusations lightly, so believe me, I’ll be following up.”
“I don’t take a couple of your men tromping through my vic’s flop, screwing with potential evidence and undermining my authority and investigation in the process lightly. In fact I don’t fucking take it at all. You don’t want to talk to me, no problem. We’ll both talk to Whitney.”
“Is that how you solve things, Lieutenant? Jumping to the commander?”
“When it’s warranted, you bet your ass.” Deliberately Eve glanced over her shoulder at Commander Oberman’s portrait. “I’d have thought you’d understand and respect that, particularly since Dad used to hold the chair.”
“You don’t want to bring my father into this.”
Sore spot, hot button, Eve thought when Renee’s voice vibrated. “You don’t want to stonewall me. I can, and I will, write both your men up for this, drag both your men into formal interview. I can and will charge them with trespassing, illegal entry, obstruction of justice—for a start—if I don’t get some answers.”
Renee swung around to stand behind her desk. “I’ll speak with my detectives on this matter, and get back to you with my findings.”
Oh, you’re pissed, Eve thought, and trying to convince both of us you’re in charge. “You’re not following me, Oberman. You will speak to your men, in my presence, now, or they will speak to me in my interview room, on record. Make a choice, and stop wasting my time.”
In the moment of heated silence, Eve thought if Renee believed she could get away with using her weapon on a fellow officer, she’d have drawn and fired.
Instead, she flicked on her squad room com. “Detectives Garnet and Bix. My office. Immediately. I won’t have you harassing my men, Lieutenant.”
“Harassing’s the least I have in mind.”
Garnet came in a step ahead of Bix. Both wore dark suits, carefully knotted ties, and a mirror shine on their shoes.
Are these cops or Feds? Eve wondered, and got a hard, cold look from Garnet.
“Close the door, Detective Bix. Lieutenant Dallas, Detectives, please sit down.”
“No. Thanks,” Eve added after a beat.
“Suit yourself.” Renee sat behind her desk in what Eve assumed she considered her position of authority. Shoulders back, hands clasped together, face stern. “Detectives, Lieutenant Dallas is asserting that the two of you entered the residence of Rickie Keener, now deceased, at some point yesterday. The lieutenant is primary in the investigation of Keener’s death.”
“Murder,” Eve corrected. “It’s a homicide investigation.”
“Lieutenant Dallas is approaching it as such, though as yet the ME has not determined homicide, self-termination, or accidental death.”
“You’re behind the times there, Lieutenant Oberman, as the ME has determined homicide as of this morning. But that’s not the point.”
“This matter has been determined a homicide?” Renee demanded. “I want to see the ME’s report.”
“I’m not here to give you information, but to get it. These two men entered Keener’s flop yesterday, between the time I informed you of the death of your CI and the time my partner and I went to Keener’s place. Which means, Lieutenant, you were aware of his death and my investigation when your men so entered—in violation of procedure, in violation of my authority.”
Renee held up a finger. “Are Lieutenant Dallas’s assertions accurate?” she asked the men. “Did you, in fact, go to Keener’s residence and enter same?”
Not going to cover for them, you spineless, calculating bitch, Eve thought. Going to let them swing for it.
Garnet kept his eyes on Renee’s. “Could I talk to you in private a minute, LT?”
“Not going to happen,” Dallas told him before Renee could speak. “I hear it now, from you, or I’m charging you both—as I’ve already informed your lieutenant. And I will be informing command.”
“Detectives, I know you’ve been focused on the Geraldi investigation. I fail to see how that would take you to Keener’s residence, if indeed the lieutenant’s information is correct.”
“We had some intel. We had a tip.” Garnet glanced toward Eve, then back at Renee. “LT, the investigation is at a sensitive point.”
“I understand that, but the investigation will stall, or worse, break down if the lieutenant files a complaint, or worse, charges. For God’s sake, Detective, did you go in to Keener’s?”
“We got wind he had some juice on—” He broke off, glanced at Eve again. “Some information on an individual with a connection to our investigation. So we went over to talk to him. We weren’t aware, at that time, he was dead. We didn’t find him in his usual locations, so we went to his flop. He didn’t answer. Everybody knows Juicy enjoys his own product and has a habit of zoning out.”
She’d thrown them a hook with this Geraldi angle, Eve concluded. Now Garnet was spinning his line from it.
“Let’s say,” he continued, “if we’re going to make it official, we believed we smelled an illegal substance emanating from the residence. Bix was uncertain whether it was an illegal substance or smoke. Bix?”
“Affirmative. Might’ve been smoke.”
“Therefore, we obtained entry in order to determine if the occupant was in need of assistance.”
“That’s your story?” Eve asked.
“That’s how it was,” Garnet insisted.
“And it took you thirty minutes to determine a flop the size of a utility closet was empty, there was no smoke either from an illegal substance or fire?”
“You want to come hard because we took a look around? We didn’t know the little prick was dead, and we’ve got a major investigation coming to flashpoint. Maybe he had something on it. I don’t know how you work it in Homicide, but—”
“Obviously not. Did you or your fellow officer remove anything from the area?”
“Nothing there but garbage. He lived like a pig, and from what I hear he died the same.”
“The little prick who lived like a pig is my victim,” Eve said coldly. “And by violating procedure you may very well have compromised the chain of evidence needed to bring his killer to justice.”
“I heard he OD’d.” Garnet shrugged. “There’s no reason for anybody to kill the little asshole.”
“Really? Even if the little asshole had information about an individual connected to a major investigation that is at flashpoint?”
Caught in that little hole in the web of lies, Garnet shut his mouth. Eve t
urned back to Renee. “In addition to the other data already required, I’ll need a copy of all files and data on this Geraldi investigation.”
Now Garnet surged to his feet, and his face blotched with angry color. “There’s no fucking way you’re sticking your nose in my case. You’re looking to bust our balls over some dead weasel because you’ve got nothing else.”
“You’d better stand down, Detective,” Eve warned.
“Fuck you!” He snarled it out even as Renee said his name. “Fuck her.” He whirled on Renee. “She’s not coming in here telling me how to run a case, screwing up my work over some useless dead junkie. You better back me on this, goddamn it, or—”
“Detective Garnet!” Renee’s voice sliced through the air, cut off his words so his breath heaved in and out.
“You’d better back me,” he repeated.
“I’m going to have that data, per procedure, Detective. Deal with it.” Eve stepped a little closer, angled, lifted a hand. “You’ve already crossed over into insubordination, so—”
He spun around, and as she’d hoped, his forearm smacked sharply into hers. To make it a little more dramatic, she fell back a step.
“Get off my back. You’re not in charge here.”
“From where I’m standing, nobody is.” Eve spared Renee a brief, disgusted look. “And you, Detective Garnet, just earned yourself a thirty-day rip. Another word comes out of your mouth, it’ll be sixty,” she warned, then gave Bix a cold stare as he got slowly to his feet. “Sit down, Detective Bix, unless you want the same.”
“Bix.” Renee spoke quietly when he didn’t move. “Take your seat.”
Good dog, Eve thought when he obeyed.
“Detective Garnet, sit down and calm down. Not another word,” Renee added. “Lieutenant Dallas, obviously we have a situation where emotions ran hot. My detectives are running a difficult investigation that appears to have bumped into yours. There’s no reason why we can’t work this out, reasonably, and without any undue interference to either investigation, right here in this office.”
“You want a favor from me?” Eve looked amazed. “You’re going to stand there and ask me to do you a solid when you failed to control your own detective, when you failed to take any action when he spoke to me with extreme disrespect, even after I warned him. When he laid hands on me?”
