“Is the scene secured?”
“Affirmative.”
“I’m on my way.”
Before Eve finished the statement, Trina had the cape whipped away and the chair back in an upright position. “Should I find Peabody?”
“No, she can stay here. I can handle it. If anyone asks, just say I went to bed.”
“You got it.”
Eve slipped out of the room, started to make a dash.
“Hey, hey!” Spotting her, Peabody set off in staggering pursuit.
“You can’t run away. We’re going to start the vids. You—you’ve got something,” she said when she managed to focus.
“I’ve got it. Go on back. Go handle . . . whatever the hell it is down there.”
“No, sir. I’m with you. I’ve got some Sober-Up with me. I can be level pretty quick. It’s about Coltraine, so I’m with you.”
“All right, but make it quick. I’ve got to go change. And so, by all that’s holy, do you.”
As Eve called for the elevator, Mira hurried over. “What’s wrong?”
“DB ID’d as Sandy. I’ve got to go. She’s got to sober up if she wants in.”
“I want in.”
“Go change,” Mira ordered, and put an arm around Peabody’s waist. “I’ll take care of it. She’ll meet you upstairs.”
“Ten minutes,” Eve snapped. She jumped on the elevator, thinking there was no way in hell her partner would be clean and sober in ten.
And, she thought as she rode up, no matter how hard she’d pushed that day, she’d never had a chance of taking Rod Sandy alive.
18
EVE PEELED OFF THE DRESS, YANKED ON PANTS, shirt, her weapon. She hunted up a short leather jacket and shrugged into it as she jogged downstairs. She realized she’d underestimated Peabody when her partner stepped off the foyer elevator with Mira and Mavis.
“I’m about halfway there,” Peabody told her.
“You’re all the way there when we get to the scene, or you stay in the car. Ah, do whatever you think works downstairs,” she said to Mira.
“Don’t worry. Everything’s under control here.”
“We’re totally on top of it,” Mavis assured her. “I told Summerset the what, so he brought your car around.”
“Good thinking. We’ll be back when we’re back. Peabody.”
Peabody went a little pale when the fresh air slapped her, but got into the car with the minimum of groans.
“If you even think about booting in here—”
“No, I’m past that. Where’s the scene?”
“Building down on Pearl.”
“I’ll be leveled out by the time we . . . Where did you get this vehicle?”