Creation in Death (In Death 25) - Page 52

“That’s the life. Get the tox, wrap it up. Reach out to Illegals on the DB if anything looks shaky,” Eve added. “Somebody over there probably has a take on him.”

She walked into her office, shut the door.

“She’ll walk,” Roarke commented.

“Likely. Smart not to run, to come in voluntarily. Less smart to party with a guy on Zeus, if that was the case. And if she’s worked that sector for a couple, three years, she’d know if he was pumped.”

“A girl’s got to make a living.”

“That’s what they tell me. So, anything from the unregistered?”

“Nothing that gels, not at this point. I have Summerset running more searches and crosses. He knows what to look for, and how to find it.”

Her brows drew together. “Am I going to have to be grateful to him?”

“I’ll take care of that.”

“Good.” She pulled off her coat, went for coffee. “Did McNab actually give you an update?”

“He did, yes. I’ll go through the employee list, cull out any who might take a home appointment or consultation. Do you think now this has been his pattern all along?”

“I don’t know, can’t say.” Eve rubbed at her eyes, then scratched her head furiously as if to wake up the brain under her scalp. “But we’re talking more than twenty women. How likely is it that not one of them ever told anyone where they were going? Bogus name, sure, but if they had the location in advance, made this appointment, how likely is it none of them told anyone, or left any sort of record of the appointment?”

“Low. Yes, I see. But…There may have been more than the twenty. And I see you’ve considered that as well,” he added when he studied her face. “He picked them, made the arrangements, and if he sensed or learned they’d mentioned it, he’d simply follow through with the cover. Take his fucking dance lesson.”

“Yeah, I think he could pull that off. And I think he could grab or lure them later in his schedule. So we go back over the prior cases, find out if any of the vics took a house call in the week or two before they were killed. He’s focused,” Eve continued, “careful enough to make sure he’s clear, but focused. I can see him postponing the grab, or switching vics. If so, it’s something we didn’t have before. A mistake we missed.”

Roarke drank his coffee. The office seemed ridiculously confining to him all at once. The piss-poor light barely seeping through her excuse for a window, the tight box formed by the walls.

“Haven’t you ever considered asking for a bigger office?”

“What for?”

“A little breathing room might be a plus.”

“I can breathe fine. You can’t take this in, Roarke.”

“And how would you suggest I avoid that?” he demanded. “I’m his springboard, aren’t I? There’s a woman dead because she worked for me. Another who, even now, is being tortured. It’s too late for Gia Rossi.”

“It’s not too late until it’s too late.” Still, she knew she owed him the straight line, and that he had to be able to deal with it. “The probability is low that we’ll find her in time. It’s not impossible, but at this point, it’s not likely.”

“And the next, she’d already be in his sights.”

“He’d have stalked her, selected her, worked her by now. But we’ve got more time there. He’s not infallible, and there’s only one of him. I’ve put the best I’ve got on this. It ends here.”

Her eyes went flat, cop flat. “It’s going to end here. But you’re no good to me if you can’t set the emotional connection aside.”

“Well, I can’t. But I can use it. I can do what I need to do.”

“Okay.”

“Which includes getting right pissed from time to time.”

“Fine. But get this in your head. The responsibility for this is his. Totally, completely, absolutely. No portion of it’s yours. He owns it. If his mother used him as her butt monkey when he was a kid, he still owns it. He made the choice. If his father, uncle, aunt, cousin from Toledo kicked his ass every Tuesday, it’s still his. You and I know that. We know about the choice. We know, whenever we take a life, whatever the circumstances, whatever the reasons, it’s still our choice. Right or wrong, we own it.”

Roarke considered his coffee, set it aside. And his eyes met hers. “I love you, for so many reasons.”

“Maybe you can give me a few of them later.”

Tags: J.D. Robb In Death Mystery
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