“Of course—just one minute.” She tapped her earpiece. “Adam, cover the desk for five, please. Thanks. Come with me,” she told Eve. “You can use my office.”

She led the way back, paused outside a nice little break room. “Would you like anything?”

Since she wanted to keep her thoughts cool, Eve opted for cold. “I could use a tube of Pepsi.”

“Detective?”

“Same for me, but diet.”

“The chicken noodle soup’s very good. You’ve been here over three hours,” Rhoda pointed out. “Without a lunch break.”

“Roarke approved,” Eve commented, and making Rhoda smile.

“My office is the second on the left. I’ll just bring in the soup and drinks.”

20

She had to admit Rhoda was right about the soup.

While she ate, Eve tracked down Colonel Xavier Unger, had a long chat while Peabody did the same with Felicia Mortimer.

When Eve finished, she sat back, stared up at the ceiling and thought it all through. She sat up again when she heard Peabody end her conversation.

“Report.”

“Felicia met Terry when he was stationed in Germany, and she was doing some postgrad work. She’s a linguist—a UN interpreter now. They hit it off right away, both native New Yorkers, both living in Germany. Started dating. Got serious enough she put off coming home until he had leave. Meet-the-family time on both ends. Long distance relationship, but it held. He got assigned to South Korea. They met twice while he took R & R in Tokyo, had more time when he came home on leave. She’d have said yes.”

“Impressions.”

“She loved him, would have made herself into a military spouse, and she felt they’d build a solid foundation away from his family. She liked them—apparently his mother particularly. She found his father too controlling, emotionally distant and—from what Terry told her—he was always expected to serve.”

“Another second-son thing?”

“Maybe. Sort of. She said his older brother—that’s our guy—wasn’t athletic or tough as a kid, and Terry was. Older bro, a little frail, but very protective of little bro. Used to read him stories.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Terry Iler was almost ten years younger than his older brother. The parents traveled a lot, so it was nannies, staff, and big brother. It sounds like Iler took the big brother job seriously. So Terry went into the service because it was expected, but according to Felicia, he thrived there. He found his place there. The old band of brothers thing—sisters, too. He loved the Army, made captain inside four years. When he was killed, she says her whole world fell apart. She spent more time with his family after that. She and Iler leaned on each other. She went to grief therapy, gradually pulled out of it.

“Nearly three years after he died, she met someone. They got married last summer.”

“There’s a trigger. The bitch isn’t honoring hero baby brother’s memory. Decides to have a life.”

“Is he a memory?” Peabody asked.

“Yeah. His CO not only has confirmation—DNA—but saw Captain Iler pulling wounded to safety before Iler rushed back for more. The second explosion took him out. CO’s a solid eyewit on it.”

“So the hero dead brother isn’t the partner.”

“No, but the partner’s military. That’s the connection, the bond between them. Iler’s weak, and not as smart or clever as he thinks. He has money, he knows art, he knows the market enough to play in it, but he’s never been in combat, never trained, never laid out or been in an op. The partner’s that end of it. The partner knows explosives. The brother died in an explosion, and the target of the attack on the base was ordinance as well as personnel. A lot of the men and women who died or were wounded in the attack were trained in dem

olition and explosives.”

“Band of brothers.”

“You’re the sharp Peabody today. The brother of my brother’s my brother. What brings these two together—greed, profit, gambling. But now we’ve got more. The grieving brother with the often-absent, controlling father.”

“If the father hadn’t controlled and expected, maybe the brother doesn’t join the Army and end up dead.”

Tags: J.D. Robb In Death Mystery
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