“How does she know you didn’t? Be as vague about that as you want. Lawyers are good at being vague and incomprehensible. I want her to believe she’s going to be getting this property. This duplex at this address, with a fair market value of eight point three mil. I want her to be compelled to respond, to demand more info. That’s all you have to do.”
“Well, yes, but . . .”
“I could go around you, Feinburg, but I don’t want her smelling even a whiff of the game. She’ll believe it’s from you, because it is from you. And she’ll believe the contents because, hey, eight point three mil. Get it done.”
“Do you do mail by keyboard or voice?” McNab asked him.
“Ah, voice.”
“Okay. Just do what you do, but don’t authorize the send. I’ll take care of it. Anytime,” McNab added.
“All right.” Feinburg sat, blew out a breath. He recited the recipient’s name, account name, then began the text.
Eve nodded as he spoke. Yeah, he lawyered it up, she thought, used ten words when one would do. She knew exactly what he was saying and still barely understood half of it.
She signaled McNab to send.
“What now?” Feinburg asked.
“We move the station to portable. She doesn’t have the address or the codes. She’ll want them. We’ll be in place when she gets them. Let’s move it out, set it up, take it down.”
At the duplex, Roarke let Eve and Peabody in the westernmost door. He glanced over as the two detectives entered the second. “You’re banking on her coming to this side first.”
“I want to give them a shot at taking her. But yeah, I figure she’ll come to this one first. Aren’t you assigned to the e-machine?”
“I’d sooner hang with you and Peabody.” He glanced around the short foyer, down the hall, into the room on the left. “It needs a bit of polish yet, but should be quite nice.”
“The trim’s original, isn’t it? And wow. My brother would pee his pants.”
“Gee, Peabody,” Eve began, “if you’d like a tour, why—” She broke off, pulled out her communicator. “Dallas.”
“She bit,” Feeney told her. “McNab’s ready to work the lawyer through the response.”
“Wait twenty. Let her sweat. Then give it to her. Give it all.” She contacted the other members of the team. “Now we wait,” she said. “And it won’t be long.”
The streetlights blinked on. Eve could see their glow against the dim when Baxter beeped her an hour later. “Suspect is approaching from the west, on 95th. On foot. Red shirt, black pants, black handbag. Moving fast. Your location within one minute.”
“Copy that. Maintain position. Nobody moves in until she’s inside the building. Come on in,” Eve coaxed. “Come on in.”
“Dallas, she’s at the door. You’re a go.”
“Hold positions.” Come on, bitch, she thought. She saw, from her position, the security light blink from red to green as the locks opened. She waited, holding, as Penny came in, closed the door quickly behind her.
Penny looked toward the stairs as a wild grin spread on her face. And Eve hit the lights.
“Surprise.”
“What the fuck is this?” Penny edged back toward the door.
“It’s a little party I call You’re Under Arrest—for fraud, for falsifying official documents, for utilizing forged identification, and practicing said fraud over the Internet. For accessory to murder. Multiple charges on that. And we’re just getting started.”
“This is bullshit. You’re bullshit.”
“If you try to go out that door, you’d be resisting.”
“You tried that shit before, didn’t you? Got squat.” Penny turned, whipped open the door. As Eve moved forward, she whirled back, hacked out with a knife.
It caught Eve’s sleeve, and the tip broke skin. She hacked again, and Eve merely stepped back to evade. “You tried that shit before,” Eve reminded Penny.