Connections in Death (In Death 48)

She took the photos Peabody generated to the board. Jones, Ho—primary targets. Then the lieutenants. As she arranged them, Eve studied them again.

“This one here.” She tapped a photo. “Put a ring around him.”

“Which one is that?” Peabody shifted to read the name on the ID shot. “Jorgenson.”

“He’s the one I keep coming back to.”

“Why him, especially?”

“Duff. She’s flopping with him—she’s broke, a used-up, burned-out, whiny addict. Plenty of others who aren’t as far gone as she was, but he lets her flop with him. Connections, Peabody. She’s connected to Pickering, and Pickering had a soft spot for her.”

“And still he cut her off.”

“Yeah, which made her prime to pay him back.”

“We’ll never be able to ask her,” Peabody said, “but yeah, that’s how I see it.”

“The why for Jorgenson? Could be he got wind—through our pal Cohen—about how Jones is skimming, how he’s fattening his own accounts, separate from the gang. Jones started putting some hurt on Cohen’s take, so Cohen looks to someone who’d be grateful for some information, who’d be willing to take Jones out. Not directly. Jones has too much punch and pull. But you set the cops on him, shake some of that pull. Start a war—and if the cops don’t have Jones in a cage, he ends up a casualty of war.”

“Then Jorgenson steps in—with the advantage of knowing where Jones has his money buried.”

“And Cohen ends up owning all that property. Big win for him.”

“It could play like that,” Peabody considered, “because Cohen lies and cheats like other people breathe. It’s like an involuntary reflex. But Lyle Pickering’s murder could track back to being Strong’s CI, and that getting out somehow. And then—”

Peabody broke off when Strong came in. Both she and Eve let that end of the discussion die off.

“I pulled five from my squad,” Strong told them, “and have a translator on tap in case any of the ones we pull in claim they don’t speak English. My team’s solid.”

“Good enough. You’ll have an e-team and Tactical added on. Work with Peabody on the targets. We’ll hit Ho’s headquarters. If we don’t flush him out there, we hit his residence.”

Baxter strolled in next. “Trueheart’s letting his mom know we’ll be late for dinner. Seriously,” he added when Eve frowned. “His mom invited me over for a home-cooked.”

He got bad cop coffee from the conference room AutoChef, drank it while he studied the board. “Bad dudes—and one dudette, though wow, she is one big mama. This’ll be fun.”

As the rest filed in, the room smelled of that bad cop coffee. When Jenkinson sat, she realized she’d managed to avoid looking directly at his madly pink polka dots over nuked green tie, until just that moment.

Now her eyes vibrated.

As they started to adjust, McNab bounced in along with Callendar and a couple more e-geeks dressed like circus performers.

Even when she closed her newly vibrating eyes, colors pulsed behind them.

Feeney shuffled in, soothing in wrinkled beige and brown. Then Commander Whitney with SWAT commander Lowenbaum. She gave everybody a moment to settle, then stepped up to the board.

“This will be a two-pronged operation. Detective Strong will head the team targeting this individual. George Ho, aka Fan Ho, is a leader of the Dragons organization. At this time he’s charged with aggravated assault and threats to cause bodily harm. It’s very likely there will be additional charges pending. Detective Strong’s team will be assisted by EDD and Tactical. All team members will wear vests and helmets. This is a dangerous, violent individual. Assume he’s armed, assume any with him are also armed and dangerous.

“Peabody, Dragon HQ on-screen.”

She outlined positions, timing, added three experienced uniforms to Strong’s team.

“Detective Strong, anything to add?”

“Yes, sir, a couple of things.”

Roarke slipped in while Strong added some details.

He leaned against the back wall, watched his cop run the briefing as Strong finished up.