“If you look at it straight, it’s about him. It’s not about you.”
Reva only stared out the window. “I loved him, Lieutenant. Maybe from where you’re sitting that’s weak of me, and stupid of me, but I loved him, the way I’ve never loved anyone else. If I accept all this, I have to let go of that, and everything it means to me. I’m not sure prison’s any worse.”
“You don’t have to believe anything, or accept anything. That’s your choice. But unless you want to find out if prison’s any worse, you’ll cooperate. You’ll submit to Tr
uth Testing, level three, tomorrow at oh eight hundred. You’ll agree to full psychiatric eval by the departmental psychiatrist, and you’ll instruct your attorneys to clear all of your records. All of them, and those of your husband. If there are any sealed records—either yours or his—you will authorize us to break them.”
“I don’t have any sealeds,” Reva replied softly.
“You were Secret Service. You’ll have sealeds.”
She turned back, and her eyes were dazed like a woman living in a dream. “You’re right. Sorry. I’ll authorize.”
“And yours,” Eve said to Caro.
“Why hers?” The earlier resentment was forgotten as she leaped to her mother’s defense. “She’s not part of this.”
“She’s connected to you, to the victim, and to the project.”
“If you think she might be in danger, she should have protection.”
“I’ve seen to it, Reva,” Roarke stated, and earned a quick, surprised look from Caro.
“You might have mentioned it,” she mumbled, then sighed. “But I won’t argue. And I’ll take care of the authorization immediately.”
“Good. Meanwhile, both of you think, go back over any conversations you might have had with either victim, or anyone else for that matter, about work. Particularly this Code Red. I’ll be in touch.”
Eve started for the door, but Roarke lingered another moment. “Get some rest, both of you. Take tomorrow if you need it, but I expect you both back to work the following day.” He glanced over at Eve. “Any problem with that, Lieutenant?”
“Not for me. That’s your deal.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. Detective”—Caro opened the door—“I hope you get some rest yourselves.”
“We’ll get to it.”
Eve waited until they were in the elevator and heading down before she spoke to Peabody. “That was a good hunch about Caro running Bissel. How’d you come to it?”
“She strikes me as a thorough woman and a thorough mom. She didn’t much like Bissel.”
“I got that part.”
“So, she doesn’t much like him, but she loves her daughter and wants her daughter to have what she wants. Still, she’d want to be sure he was what he said he was. She had to look.”
“And she looked deep enough that you’d figure he was straight.” Eve nodded. “Good catch, even if you did lead up to it with cookies.”
“Hey, they were really good cookies.”
“It earned you the rest of the day. Go home, get some sleep.”
“Seriously?”
“And report to my home office at seven hundred. Sharp.”
“With bells on.”
She looked down at Peabody’s colorful airsneaks. “It wouldn’t surprise me.”
“I can put in a couple more hours if you want to keep pushing.”