Dark in Death (In Death 46)

“Get her taken to her cage, then go on home. I’ll write it up.”

“I can give you a hand with it.”

“I’ve got it. Find McNab, he’s probably lurking around here somewhere.” Even as she spoke McNab came out of Observation with Callendar. The two of them looked like the headliners for a carnival.

“Didn’t want to miss the big finish,” McNab said.

“And that chick is whoa,” Callendar added, making her eyes jiggle in her head.

“She’s all that and a side of fries. Thanks for your help, both of you, in bringing her down. Peabody, get her gone, then get gone yourself.”

“You off?” McNab tapped his fingertips to Peabody’s. “I could use some libations, some chow, maybe some tunes. You in, Callendar?”

“You had me at libations. We can wait for you, Dallas. Do a victory lap with brews.”

“That’s okay, go ahead. I’ve got ends to tie yet.”

“Sucks being the boss.”

Eve glanced back at the Interview door. “Not tonight it doesn’t.”

She walked toward her office with Roarke. “It can suck otherwise, because I’m going to be about another hour writing and wrapping this up. I can meet you at home.”

“Why don’t I have dinner with my wife in her office while she works? It can be pizza.”

“You had me at pizza.”

“I always have you at pizza.”

In her office, she dropped into her chair, let him program it. “She’s fucked-up crazy, but there’s a lot of sly in there. Sly and smart in there, too. I don’t know if legal crazy wins or not.”

“She’d added you to her list. You knew she would.”

“I knew she’d never get that far. Plus you should read the scene. A boneheaded first-day rookie wouldn’t walk into the situation she dreamed up for my untimely death.”

“And still she managed to kill three people.”

“And still,” Eve agreed with a look at her board. “I don’t think she’d have taken Lomare, even without our arrival on the scene. That’s not a woman who gets pushed down the stairs.”

“I tend to agree with you.” He set the pizza on her desk, sat on the edge of it, and took a slice.

“Did you get this tube of Pepsi from my AC?”

“You generally prefer it, when you can’t have wine, with pizza.”

“Why didn’t I know I have Pepsi in there? Do you know the bullshit I get at Vending?”

“I do, which is why you have Pepsi in there.”

She cracked the tube, drank deep. “Sometimes I sort of like the challenge.”

He knew that, too.

“Well then, now you have a choice, depending on your mood. You pushed the right button when you challenged her to defend her work. At that point, and from that point forward, she wanted to confess.”

“Not confess so much as tell the stories, brag about them, hype her work and brilliance—which amounts to the same.” She bit into pizza, took a moment to acknowledge and enjoy her own little victory lap.

Roarke, a cold tube of Pepsi, and pizza.