Leverage in Death (In Death 47)

“Unlikely. We’ll run her anyway, just cover that angle. Say she did bump uglies with Banks. He feeds her inside information, she uses it to advise clients and work her way up that ladder.”

As Eve drove uptown again through the drip, drip, drip, Peabody did the run.

“Jeez! She’s seriously smart as they come. Yale grad, top of her class. I do mean top as in number one. She speaks four languages including Mandarin. Only child, no marriages or cohabs. Dallas, she’s only twenty-five, and she speaks four languages. No criminal.”

Peabody looked wistfully into the rain. “I wish I spoke four languages.”

“You speak two. Civilian and cop. That’s enough for anybody. She half fits. She’s focused, detail and goal oriented, and being in finance, a gambler. Not strong or tall enough to break Banks’s neck. No military in the family?”

“No. Her mother was ambassador to Italy when she was a kid, so they lived there for three years—Italian’s one of her languages. Father’s a political consultant. They’re based in East Washington, but have a place in New York. No military service there. Grandparents still living, both sides, but none there, either. Wait, wait, she has a cousin who served four years in the Army—but he was a corpsman. And now he’s a doctor—based in Atlanta.”

Eve let the angle go for now, and pulled up in front of Banks’s building. A different doorman strolled over, but with the same deference as the night before.

“Can I help you, Lieutenant? Detective?”

“Access to Jordan Banks’s apartment.”

“Of course. I heard the bulletin. It’s shocking.”

“Has anyone inquired about Mr. Banks this morning?”

“Not to me.”

He let them inside. A different security clerk, a black-suited, sharp-eyed woman—manned the desk.

“Rhoda, Lieutenant Dallas and Detective Peabody need access to the Banks unit.”

“I’ll clear that immediately. We’re all stunned by what happened.”

“Have you cleared anyone else into that unit?”

“No. I did check the log and I see that the night security recorded Mr. Banks requesting a cab at eight-fifty-three. One was ordered, and he departed the building at nine. He wasn’t logged back in. I can contact the cab company and ask for his destination, if it’s helpful.”

“I’ve got it.”

She moved to the elevator, got in with Peabody.

“Roarke’s building?”

Eve scowled, just a little. “Yeah.”

“It’s nice.”

Eve only shrugged, shoved her hands in her pockets.

They got out, walked the same fragrant hallway to Banks’s main door. Eve mastered in.

One glance had her weapon in her hand as she did a low sweep and Peabody did the same high.

“Shit,” she muttered. “Shit, shit.” Knowing the weapons wouldn’t be necessary.

Whoever had searched and trashed the luxury apartment was already long gone.

11

“Let’s clear it,” Eve said, “then go down, get copies of the security discs from nineteen hundred to oh-nine hundred. And I want to talk to whoever was on duty—door and desk during that time frame.”

In a hurry, Eve thought as they cleared the two levels, a room at a time. Rushed work, sloppy work with drawers upended, art pulled from walls on the main level.