Vendetta in Death (In Death 49)

“Not disputing. Confession’s always best, and this one will give us chapter and verse. She’s never going in a concrete cage off-planet.”

“Legal insanity isn’t your call.”

“I know it when I see it.”

“She’s right, Reo.” Peabody nibbled her own slice to make it last.

“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t go into a high-security prison, but it’s going to be the mentally defective wing. Still.” Eve looked at Mira. “If we’re wrong, you’ll know it.”

“She planned each murder precisely,” Reo argued. “With alternatives, escape routes, ways to avoid detection. She knew right from wrong.”

“I’ll observe, and I’ll have a one-to-one evaluation session with her. Eve, what is this pizza? I’ve never had better.”

“Shagging, apparently.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s one of Roarke’s deals. He’s started stocking my office AC because he’s constantly afraid I’ll starve to death.”

“Aw,” Reo and Peabody said in stereo.

“Love sometimes comes with mozzarella,” Mira said with a smile.

“I guess it does. I have to tag some

body, then we’re going in. Peabody, we square on approach?”

“Yeah.”

“Have her brought up. I’ll meet you there.”

Now Eve went to her office, contacted Nadine.

“Late this afternoon,” Eve began, “officers attached to Homicide and EDD entered the home of Eloise Callahan—”

“The what!”

“On a duly authorized warrant,” Eve continued. “At that time they apprehended Darla Pettigrew. Ms. Pettigrew is charged with the abduction, torture, and murder of Nigel McEnroy, Thaddeus Pettigrew, and Arlo Kagen, and the abduction and torture of Linus Brinkman. Ms. Callahan, grandmother of Ms. Pettigrew, had been sedated by her granddaughter and is not a suspect or a person of interest in the investigation.

“Those are the highlights, you could say.”

“Jumping Jesus, Dallas.”

“I want Eloise Callahan protected, Nadine. I want you to give her a damn good cushion. She’s a victim in this, too.”

“You’re sure she wasn’t—”

“One hundred percent. Pettigrew slipped her something before she went out on the hunt and had a goddamn medical droid—of her making—guarding her. She did her dirty work in the basement behind doors locked so tight it took Roarke—who designed the damn system—several precious minutes to get through.”

“Okay, got it. Give me—”

“I’m putting her in the box now. That’s all I can give you. You do your job, I’ll do mine.”

“And good luck to us both.”

Eve put the ’link back in her pocket, rolled her shoulders to loosen them, and went out to meet Peabody.

“She’s in there,” Peabody told her outside the door of Interview B. “Hasn’t asked for legal representation, hasn’t asked to make any contact. The uniforms who brought her up said she’s anxious to talk to us.”