She pulled out her ’link as it signaled, saw Nadine on the readout, nearly ignored it.

Not entirely fair, Eve decided, and answered.

“In the middle of things here, Nadine.”

“Me, too. I thought I should let you know I have two women I’ve already convinced to go on the record about Cooke. It’s going to blow wide open in a matter of days, and I’m lighting the fuse.”

“Justice,” Eve said, “hopefully the right kind.” Now she considered. “Something else is about to blow, so save space, time, whatever you save. It’ll be big.”

Nadine’s cat’s eyes glowed. “You caught Lady Justice.”

“I’ve got her. I’m not going to give you the details this minute because there are others who are going to take a hit on this who don’t deserve it. So I’m going to give you the details as soon as I’m clear because you’d cushion that hit. You’ll use your weight on the right side of it.”

“Then I’ll stand by.”

“I’ll get back to you.”

Eve pocketed the ’link.

Moments later, with Donnalou beside her, Eloise came in. She’d put on what Eve figured was a dressing gown, as it looked too quietly glamorous to be called a robe.

The soft, warm blue draped over her small frame to just above her ankles. She’d brushed her hair back, applied some subtle makeup.

“Thank you for waiting. Donnalou, would you mind getting us all coffee?”

“Of course, you sit down now.” The nurse helped her into a peacock-blue chair, walked over to a serving bar.

“I want to say I’m grateful to you—I want to call you Eve, and I hope you’ll allow it, because there’s an intimacy between us now. I respect your rank, your work, but I need to speak to you as a woman as well as a police officer.”

“That’s fine.”

“You were correct that I knew Darla was—is suffering from an illness. I believed living here, even tending to me—and she did tend to me so devotedly—when I fell ill helped her cope. I swear to you I had no idea how deep the suffering, how severe the illness. She hid it very well.”

When her voice broke, she paused to fight for composure, then took the coffee Donnalou offered. She sat, sipped, drew herself up again.

“I swear to you, I never saw this in her. Self-destruction, that I feared when the life she so desperately wanted crumbled, but not this. I can’t conceive of it. I love her with all my heart, and I never saw this in her. I would have gotten her help. Her father—my son—he would have gotten her help.”

“I believe you,” Eve said without hesitation. “I saw it when I met you. This is not on you in any way.”

“Oh, but how can it not be? She’s the child of my child. You saw it in her, didn’t you? How did you see it?”

“It’s a different thing. It’s training, it’s … I don’t love her,” Eve said.

Nodding, Eloise looked down at her cup. “It’s too late to get her the help that would have saved the lives she took, to spare those who loved those men the grief of loss. But she is the child of my child. I’ll engage the best attorney available, the best doctors.”

“I have the department psychiatrist coming in to evaluate her. Dr. Charlotte Mira. She’s the best there is.”

“I know her from the book, the vid, but—”

“You should engage your own. I’m telling you that Dr. Mira will evaluate your granddaughter, and that you can trust her. I’m going in to interview Darla, and Dr. Mira will observe.”

“Will I be able to see her, speak with her?”

“Yes, later. Is there somewhere you can go for a few days? This isn’t where you want to be now.”

“Yes. I have friends. Donnalou will help me pack what I need. You’ve been very kind and very patient with me. I won’t forget it.”

“I’m just doing my job.”

Tags: J.D. Robb In Death Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net