Treachery in Death (In Death 32)

“Oh, we can keep him busy for a while yet. What’s Strong’s status?”

“She’ll hold her own.” Eve checked the time. “I’ve got to move. I’ve got my own dominoes to flick.”

She went straight to the conference room where Feeney and McNab were set up. Feeney sent her a reproachful look. “Do you know how much easier this would be if we could run it from EDD? And nothing about this is easy.”

“EDD’s everywhere, but if I’m hanging around EDD somebody we don’t want wondering might wonder. We’re boxing her, Feeney. I want this side of the box solid. Roarke’s had about five minutes since we emptied out the squad room. If he has any luck, the rest of the job should be easier.”

She plugged the disc into the room comp, watched the sequence. She toughened her mind when she watched Lilah’s fall, then landing.

“She knew she was in trouble,” Eve murmured. “She’s tracking, looking for a way out. He’s keeping her close, even grabs onto her. She played it pretty damn well, up to the end. She nearly made it.”

“He pushed her. He didn’t lay a hand on her,” McNab said when Eve glanced around. “But he pushed her. Look at him. Doesn’t even break a sweat. Mowing through people, dodging, weaving—and he never takes his eyes off her. Like the hound to the rabbit.”

“You’d be right. He had his orders. If he could’ve gotten to her after the fall, he’d have finished her—if he could’ve found the way, he’d have killed her right in Central.”

She turned, wanting coffee, turned back when she heard the door open.

“Couldn’t you get in?” she began.

“Really, it’s a bloody litany of insults.” Roarke tossed a small duffle on the conference table. “I borrowed the bag from one of your supply rooms. I hope I won’t be arrested.”

“You’re in, done, and out and back here in ten?”

“Well, I did have to stop to get the bag. And to scan her security system.” He tossed a disc to McNab. “That should quicken things up.”

“Yeah, baby!”

“Care to see what’s in the bag, Lieutenant?” Roarke asked. “What was safe behind Oberman?”

Eve pulled the bag open. “Her running kit—the ID, credit, cash—about two hundred K?”

“Oh, two-fifty, then there’s another hundred large in euros.”

“Clean ’link, clean weapon, PPC—and discs.”

“Her books,” Roarke supplied. “Her payroll, operating expenses, income—all very tidy. I had a bit of time so I took a quick glance.”

“Say hallelujah,” Eve breathed.

“If you like. I didn’t look through them all—just enough to verify. They’re encoded, of course, but fairly simply. I’d say she was confident no one was going to have a peek. Her security is more complex. If she’d set the alarm before leaving her office, it would have tripped the minute Strong went in. A silent alarm that would engage the cameras. Renee would have seen it when she went in herself and shut the alarm off.”

“But she doesn’t clear out the safe. Not yet anyway. No real time to do it,” Eve concluded. “She has to eliminate Strong. If she can’t get to Strong, she’s going to have to answer a lot of embarrassing questions. She can clear out the safe, put something not incriminating inside.”

“Strong took a severe blow to the head—is and was obviously confused.” Roarke nodded. “Many ways to circle it, but eliminating Strong is sure and it’s tidy.”

“She likes tidy, and she doesn’t know I have two men on Strong. She couldn’t know yet. Crap, I forgot about Whitney and Mira.” She took out her com, signaled Whitney the all-clear.

“Give my boy a hand, will you?” Feeney asked Roarke, then jerked his head so Eve followed him to the other side of the room.

“You’ve got her in that box, Dallas. With everything we’ve put together, with what the boy says Peabody’s bringing in. Top that with the little heist Roarke just pulled off, she’s done.”

“Maybe. Maybe if we look through her discs and find she’s written out chapter and verse on her operation, on her orders to kill cops, Keener, whoever else she might’ve done.”

“She’s going to have to explain the ID, the money.”

“Graft, corruption, falsifying docs aren’t murder.”

“You and I know that while Bix might stand like a rock, others’ll roll. It only takes one to start an avalanche. You make a deal with one of her men, the avalanche is going to crush her to dust.”