‘I don’t mean the money.’ She took a shuddering breath and gripped both of his hands. ‘You don’t really know her, but you believe in her because I do. That’s what I can’t pay you back for. I have to go get her.’
‘You want to do it alone.’ He understood, and had already convinced himself not to argue the point. ‘I’ll alert her lawyers. What are the charges?’
‘Murder two. I’ll have to deal with the media. It’s certainly going to leak that Mavis and I have history.’ She pulled her hands through her disordered hair. ‘That may bleed over onto you.’
‘Do you think that worries me?’
She nearly smiled. ‘No, I guess not. This may take awhile. I’ll bring her back as soon as I can.’
‘Eve,’ he murmured as she started up the stairs. ‘She believes in you, too. There’s good reason for it.’
‘I hope you’re right.’ Bracing herself, she continued up, walked slowly down the corridor to Mavis’s room, and knocked.
‘Come on in, Summerset. I told you I’d come down for the cake. Oh.’ Surprised, Mavis leaned back from the computer where she’d been struggling to write a new song. To cheer herself up, she’d worn a skin suit of bright sapphire and had dyed her hair to match. ‘I thought it was Summerset.’
‘And cake.’
‘Yeah, he buzzed in and told me the cook had baked a triple chocolate fudge cake. Summerset knows I’ve got this weakness. I know the two of you don’t get along, but he’s really sweet to me.’
‘That’s because he keeps imagining you naked.’
‘Whatever works.’ She began to tap her tricolored nails on the console in a quick, nervous tattoo. ‘Anyway he’s been great. I guess if he thought I had my eye on Roarke, it’d be different. He’s like totally devoted. You’d think Roarke was his first and only born or something instead of his boss. That’s the only reason he gives you grief - Well, and you being a cop doesn’t help. I think Summerset has this block about cops.’
She broke off, trembled visibly. ‘I’m sorry, Dallas, I’m babbling. I’m so scared. You found Leonardo, didn’t you? Something’s really, really wrong. He’s hurt, isn’t he? He’s dead.’
‘No, he’s not hurt.’ Eve crossed the room and sat on the foot of the bed. ‘He came into the cop shop this morning. He had a cut on his arm, that’s all. The two of you had pretty much the same idea last night. He got tanked and headed for your place, ended up cutting his arm on an empty bottle he dropped before he keeled.’
‘He was drunk?’ Mavis sprang up at that. ‘He hardly ever drinks. He knows he can’t. He told me how he does things he can’t remember if he drinks too much. It scares him, and . . . To my place,’ she said, eyes softening. ‘That’s so sweet. Then he came to see you because he couldn’t find me.’
‘He came to see me to confess to the murder of Pandora.’
Mavis reared back as if Eve had struck her. ‘That’s impossible. Leonardo wouldn’t hurt anyone. He’s just not capable of it. He was just trying to protect me.’
‘He didn’t know anything about your involvement at that time. He believes he must have argued with Pandora, fought with her, then killed her.’
‘Well, that’s absolutely wrong.’
‘So the evidence indicates.’ Eve rubbed her weary eyes, kept her fingers pressed there for a moment. ‘The cut on his arm came from a piece of the broken bottle. None of his blood was found at the scene, none of Pandora’s was on the clothes he’d been wearing. We haven’t pinned down his movements precisely as yet, but we don’t have anything on him.’
Mavis missed a beat, caught up. ‘Oh, then it’s all right. You didn’t believe him.’
‘I haven’t decided that, but the evidence, at this point, keeps him clear.’
‘Thank God.’ Mavis slid down onto the bed beside Eve. ‘When can I see him, Dallas? Leonardo and I have to work things out between us.’
‘That may take a little time.’ Eve squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again, made herself look at Mavis. ‘I have to ask you for a favor, the biggest anyone’s ever asked you.’
‘Is it going to hurt?’
‘Yeah.’ Eve watched Mavis’s attempt at a smile fade away. ‘I have to ask you to trust me to take care of you. To believe that I’m so good at my job that nothing, however small, will get past me. I have to ask you to remember you’re my closest friend, and that I love you.’
Mavis’s breath started to jerk. Her eyes stayed dry, burning dry. The saliva evaporated from her mouth. ‘You’re going to arrest me.’
‘The lab reports came in.’ She caught Mavis’s hands, held them hard in hers. ‘They weren’t a surprise, because I knew someone had set things up. I was expecting this, Mavis. I hoped I could find something - anything - before it did, but I haven’t been able to. Feeney’s working on it, too. He’s the best, Mavis, trust me here. And Roarke’s already lined up the top defense lawyers known to man. It’s just procedure.’
‘You have to arrest me for murder.’
‘It’s murder two. That’s a small break. I know it doesn’t sound like one, but the PA’s office isn’t going to try to block bail. I’ll have you back here eating cake in a few hours.’