Brotherhood in Death (In Death 42)

“Pick me up, courthouse. I’ll be outside Justice Hall.”

Before Eve could argue, Reo cut off.

Still weaving, Eve muttered. She’d intended to use the drive time as thinking time with some nagging mixed in. The lab, EDD, Yancy. Then there was the likelihood of tapping Roarke for some assistance.

By the time she got to the garage, she’d resigned herself to hauling a passenger. And, yeah, sometimes a lawyer came in handy.

At least this one was as good as her word and stood outside with a sassy red beret tipped over her blond hair. Her coat matched it, and hit mid-calf over a pair of black boots with a high-curving heel.

“How do you walk on those?” Eve demanded when APA Cher Reo hopped in.

“With grace and sex appeal.” She settled her trim briefcase and enormous handbag on the floor and, like Peabody, ordered the seat warmer.

“New York winters, I wonder if I’ll ever get used to them.”

“They come every year.”

“You’re irritated because I’m coming along. How many warrants was that today?”

“Okay, okay.”

“Same team, Dallas. I’m assuming Franklin Betz is still missing.”

“Unless they decided to wrap it up and run—and I don’t see it—he’s still alive. But he’ll be in a world of hurt, and he won’t be breathing too much longer.”

“Such cloying optimism.” At its signal, Reo pulled out her ’link, scanned the readout, hit ignore.

“Don’t you need to take that?”

“No. I’m all yours,” Reo said cheerfully. “I’ve got some details. What don’t I know?”

Eve ran it through. It never hurt to run it through step-by-step again, for herself as much as Reo.

“You believe these men, your two victims and the three—no, four with the suicide—others, raped these women.”

“Yes. And since one of them is about two decades older than their usual taste, I think they’ve been raping women for at least that long. Maybe a lot longer.”

“Because of the tats.”

At least she didn’t have to explain every damn point.

“If the woman running the crisis center recognized three of them—by your instincts,” Reo added, “maybe the five of them met there.”

“It’s hard for me to buy five victims of the same group just happened to use the same crisis center. And none of them reported a rape. Nothing on record.”

“A support group then, a therapist, something else that united them.”

“Even then, all of them, independently? It’s a stretch. But it’s what I’ve got. Easterday’s shaken up. If I don’t find Betz, I’m pulling Easterday into Interview. I need to scare it out of him.

She shot a glance at Reo—petite, pretty. And under it, fierce.

“I could use some weight there.”

“He’s a lawyer, so he’s going to have plenty of representation telling him to exercise his right to remain silent.”

“If I make him believe his life’s on the line, he’ll break. It damn well is on the line. The other thing is getting into Edward Mira’s place—his things—without his wife’s consent. She’s going to block me however she can.”

“So lawyers come in handy. When do you want to go?”