“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?”
“In the heat of the moment—”
“My ass. I’ll be writing him up because, frankly, I don’t trust you to do so. I’ll also be writing up the incident regarding my vic’s residence. I will be speaking to any member of your squad who’s involved in this Geraldi case. Further, as already detailed, I want all data on any busts or investigations that involved the substance known as FYU.”
“That’s absolutely—”
Eve stepped closer, let her own heat show. “You don’t know how we do things in my division? I’ll tell you this, if one of my men displayed such extreme disrespect to a superior officer, I’d be the one who took him down. Because it’s my command. I want the data and files on the investigation within the hour.”
Eve strode out, pleased to see every eye in the place follow her out—and enjoyed the faint smirk Detective Strong didn’t quite mask.
Part of her wanted to break out in song, but she kept cold, controlled fury on her face as she stormed back to her own level, her own bullpen.
“Reineke!”
His head snapped up, eyes wide at the tone. “Sir!”
“What would happen if you said ‘fuck you’ to a superior officer in my presence?”
“If I said it in my head or out loud?”
“Out loud.”
“My ass would be extremely sore from the repeated and forceful application of your boot thereto.”
“Fucking A. Peabody, my office.” She kept that pissed-off look in place until Peabody came in, obeyed Eve’s signal to shut the door. “Watch this, because you won’t see it often.”
Eve swiveled her hips, pumped her arms in the air.
“Would that be your happy dance, sir?”
“It’s restrained, I know, but this is serious business and requires some restraint. I just creamed Renee, embarrassed her, pissed her off, and undermined her command—and as a bonus maneuvered Garnet into behavior that earned him a thirty-day rip. Which I will write up forthwith.”
“You did all that without me?”
“I didn’t know going in I was going to hit the jackpot. I need to write him up, file the rip. I have to do it asap, in my righteous fury and all that. I’ll fill you in as soon as possible. Meanwhile I’m expecting a case file from our pals in Illegals—the blind Garnet tried to use to justify going into the flop.”
“They admitted it?”
“Had to. Geraldi investigation’s what he used to excuse going into the flop. I want you to pick through the file. Odds are they’re planning on doing a nice skim when it goes down. Let’s see who and what we can use.”
“Did you scare her? I’m good with the embarrassed, pissed off, and undermined, but I’d really like her scared.”
Eve’s smile spread wide even as her eyes burned. “Peabody, I put the fear of God into her.”
“Good. Good. The guys are going to ask what’s up with you.”
“And you tell them—discreetly—that one of Lieutenant Oberman’s detectives got in my face, used obscenities, and struck me.”
Peabody’s eyes widened, rounded, all but glazed. “He hit you?”
“Well, technically I made sure my arm got in the way when he did his furious whirl around to me, but there was contact. Renee stood there ineffectively—pass that on—then tried to talk me into letting it go. That’s enough to get it growing on the Central grapevine.”
“I’ll say.” In a mimic of Eve, Peabody swiveled her hips, pumped her arms, then strolled out.
An hour later, Eve answered a summons to Whitney’s office.
He leaned back in his chair. “I just had a long conversation with Lieutenant Oberman.”