Connections in Death (In Death 48)

“And yet you still have some of that sad in you.”

“I’ll shake it out. In the end, the system worked

. And now there are a couple of neighborhoods and the people in them who’ll be safer. My team worked this top to bottom, inside and out. Every interview I’ve reviewed…”

She drank more coffee. “Well, it’s good work. Mira said she might write a paper on it.” Now she turned to him. “We gutted two gangs. Gutted them. No leadership left now, and when the word spreads—and it damn well will—about the cheating, the betrayals, the lack of what they’d think of as honor and loyalty?” She shook her head. “They’re done. Something else will spring up, that’s the world. But the system will keep working.”

He leaned down to kiss her because, whether she’d admit it or not, she needed it.

Strong stepped into the doorway. “Oh. Sorry.”

“Not at all.” Roarke eased back. “Coffee?”

“I, ah…”

“Why don’t you get that, Lieutenant? I’m going to check on Peabody.”

When Roarke stepped out, Strong still hesitated. “I didn’t mean to chase him off.”

“You didn’t.” Eve handed Strong the coffee.

“Thanks. I wanted a couple minutes before the media briefing.”

“You’ve got it. I reviewed your interview with Ho. You worked him well. He’s smarter than most of them, but he’s got that quick trigger. You figured how to play him.”

“He’s got a little skim of polish, and under it, he’s the most vicious bastard I’ve ever had in the box. Anyway, I got the word you wrapped Bolt, Snapper, and Ticker. Jones, too, but he wasn’t—”

She broke off to look at the board. “He wasn’t part of killing Lyle.”

“No. And the ones that did bought concrete cages on Omega. They didn’t kill him because he was your CI, Strong.”

Strong’s head snapped around, then she lowered into the visitor’s chair. “You’re sure?”

“I am. They didn’t know, and that tells me you were both good at it. I gave them every opening, and if they’d known, they’d have taken it. It would’ve made more sense, given them some screwed-up prestige if that had been the motive. It wasn’t.”

“Then why?”

“Jorgenson ordered it to undermine Jones, to take a personal shot at Jones, and because it just pissed him off that Lyle walked away. The others, just following orders, proving their worth. Review the interviews.”

“I will. If it had been because of working with me, I’d have to live with it. I’ve been working on how I would.”

She stared down into her coffee a moment, then looked up. “I really liked him, Dallas, and I respected him. Is it worse that they killed him for nothing? Really for nothing?”

She’d asked herself the same question, and had no answer.

“We’re cops. We live with that every day. His family knows now, but you might want to talk to them.”

“I will. I want to thank you, Lieutenant, for bringing me into this, for giving me a part of it.”

“He was yours.”

“Yeah.” Strong rose. “Yeah, he was.” She started out, stopped in the doorway. “We still have his two-year chip in Evidence. Do you think if I had it put in a nice box, like a memorial, his family would like it?”

“I think they’d appreciate it. I’ll clear you signing it out.”

“Okay. I’ll see you at the briefing.”

Eve took her last few minutes alone, looking out her skinny window at the world.