by J. D. Robb
“Well, you won’t get exactly what you want, which is, at my guess, eating Ricker’s liver after you’ve roasted it on a spit over a slow fire. But we can get as close to that as the law allows.”
“The law’s your yardstick, not mine.”
“Roarke.” She put a hand over his. “I can get him without you, but it wouldn’t be as quick and it sure as hell wouldn’t be as satisfying. You could get him without me. Maybe quicker, and maybe more satisfying to you. But think about this: Wouldn’t you rather picture him living a long, miserable life in a cage than just throwing the switch on him?”
He considered it. “No.”
“You’re a scary guy, Roarke. A very scary guy.”
“But I’ll work with you on this, Lieutenant. And I’ll contemplate, depending on how that work goes, settling for that image. I’ll do that for you. I promise you, it costs me more than I can tell you.”
“I know that. So, thanks.”
“Don’t thank me until it’s done. Because if it doesn’t work your way, it will work mine. What do you need?”
She let out a breath. “First I need to know why IAB sent Kohli into Purgatory. What is there in the club or who is there they wanted? Bayliss said something today about Ricker’s connection to it, but you told me you severed business with him over ten years ago.”
“That’s right, I did, taking some of his more lucrative accounts with me. I’ve sold them off since, or adjusted them. As for Purgatory, he has no connection to it. But he did. I bought it from him five years ago. Or I should say,” he added when she gaped. “My representatives acquired it from his representatives.”
“He owned the place? And you didn’t tell me?”
“Lieutenant, I have to point out, you didn’t ask.”
“For God’s sake,” she grumbled and got to her feet to pace, to think.
“And at the time your Kohli was murdered, I didn’t think of it, see a connection, or consider it relevant. It’s been mine for a number of years and has been completely overhauled, remodeled, and restaffed.”
“If he used it for a front, it could be some of his people still come in. Do business.”
“None that’s ever been reported to me. If that’s the case, it’s very minor business.”
“A cop died there. That’s not minor.”
“Point taken.”
“Why did he sell it?”
“My research at the time indicated that it was becoming a little too warm. He often dispenses of businesses and property when they’ve outlived their usefulness to him. It’s basic business practice.”
“If he’s got this hard-on for you, why did he sell it to you?”
“He didn’t know until after the fact. I assume he was displeased, but the deal was done.” He sat back, doing some thinking himself. “Possibly he put out word that there was outside business being done there, or had some of his people come in to do some. He may have hoped to take a swipe at me that way. I can see that. He’d have waited until the club was well established, until it was running smoothly, then tried to disrupt it. He’s a patient man. A few years wouldn’t have been any time to wait.”
“And with his connections in the department, he’d have had a funnel for the rumors. IAB picked up on them, started looking into it, and put Kohli in. It plays. And it’s looking more and more like the poor guy died for nothing.”
“You’ll fix that.” Roarke got to his feet.
“Yeah, I’ll fix it. I want to look at some data, data I’m not supposed to see, without anyone knowing I’m looking.”
He smiled now. “Lieutenant, I believe I can help you with that.”
In his brilliantly lit lounging room in his expansive Connecticut estate, Max Ricker stomped viciously on the face of a house droid he’d called Marta.
She would never be the same.
Canarde wisely kept his distance during this torrent of temper. He’d seen it before, and it wasn’t always a droid Ricker broke to pieces when the rage was on him.
For a time, the only sounds in the room were harsh, ragged breathing and the distressing crunch of plastic and metal. Canarde had seen it before, yes indeed. But these lapses of control were getting much worse.
He began to think it would soon be time to put his carefully outlined escape plan into action, and spend the rest of his days in the relative peace and elegance of the home he’d purchased under a false name on the Paradise Colony.
But for now, he was confident he could weather the storm.
“One woman, one single woman, and they can’t deal with her? Can’t deal with her? I promise you, promise you, they will be dealt with.”
He kicked what was left of Marta’s head out of his way. The air stank with the stench of fried circuits. Calmer, as he always was after an . . . episode, he walked to the bar, filled a glass with his favored pink liquid that was sweetened rum with a heavy lacing of barbiturates.
“One dead, you say?” His voice was mild now, as were his eyes as he glanced toward Canarde. He might have said, “Two for dinner?” for all the inflection in the tone.
“Yes. Yawly. Ines and Murdock are being treated for injuries. Riggs has been booked and has followed my instructions as to his story. He’ll stick to it. He’s an intelligent man.”
“He’s a fool, like the rest of them. I want them disposed of.”
Prepared for this directive, Canarde stepped forward. “That may be prudent with Ines and Murdock. I believe, however, that if you act on Riggs when he proves himself to be loyal, it will seriously damage your organization’s morale.”
Ricker sipped, and his silver eyes slithered over Canarde’s face. “Why would you be under the impression I’m the least bit concerned with morale?”
“You should be,” Canarde said, knowing he risked a great deal. “By demonstrating goodwill, even lenience, to an employee under these circumstances—as you showed instant discipline to Lewis under different circumstances—you send a clear message to those who work for you. And,” he added, “Riggs can always be handled after a period of time has passed.”
Ricker continued to drink, continued to calm. “You’re right. Of course, you’re right.” His smile was quick and almost terrifyingly brilliant. “Thank you. I’m afraid I let the matter of this annoying cop influence my better judgment. Some things are worth waiting for.”
He thought of Roarke. He’d waited there. Years now. And hadn’t he found just the right place to strike?
But it was harder to wait, harder to see clearly, when he could almost taste the blood.
“Assure Mr. Riggs that his loyalty is appreciated and will be rewarded.”
He started toward the window-wall, saw the droid debris scattered over the floor. For a moment he was blank, for another simply puzzled. Then, dismissing it from his mind, he walked around it, slid open the glass, and stepped out on the deck overlooking his lawns.
“I spent a lifetime building what I have, and will one day pass it all to my son. A man needs a legacy to pass on to his son.” He was mellowing now, his tone turning dreamy. “But I have a number of goals to reach before that time comes. And one I intend to achieve very soon is to crush Roarke. To have him on his knees. I will accomplish that, Canarde. Make no mistake.”
He sipped his bright drink and looked out over the grounds, a man satisfied and still vital. “I’ll accomplish that,” he said again, “and have his cop begging for mercy.”
chapter sixteen
In the sealed room of Roarke’s private office, the equipment was state of the art, expansive, and unregistered. The wide, searching eye of CompuGuard was blind to it. Nothing generated on it or scanned from it could be detected by any outside factor.
And in the hands of a man with Roarke’s talents, there were no data that could not, eventually, be unearthed.
Despite the fact that besides Roarke, only Eve and Summerset had ever been through the secured doors, and the purpose of the area was business, it was a handsome room with generous privacy-screened win
dows and a floor of beautiful tile.
She’d often thought the glossy U-shaped control deck resembled the bridge of a particularly well-designed spacecraft. And when he was behind those controls, Roarke was very much captain of the ship.
Here, she would bend the rules. Or let Roarke bend them for her.
“Roth first,” Eve began. “Her story is her husband’s been bleeding out her financial accounts, setting up a nest egg for himself and his on-the-side piece. Roth, Captain Eileen. Her address is—”
“That isn’t necessary.”
He enjoyed this type of work nearly as much as he enjoyed the annoyed look on Eve’s face when he easily danced through the blocks and obstacles even the brains and talents in EDD couldn’t budge. He put the data on a wall screen rather than commanding the computer to read it off.
“Not a very impressive nest egg,” he commented. “But enough, one supposes, to set himself and his on-the-side piece up cozily enough. He’s an unemployed writer. Some women are attracted to the struggling artist type. All those pale, Byronic moods.”
“Is that so?” Eve said in a voice dry as dust.
“Indeed. In my experience. She isn’t his first,” he added, shooting more data to a second screen. “He has two marriages and three cohabitations under his belt, and repeats this pattern of tapping into his partner’s financial resources toward the end of the run.”
“You’d think she’d be too smart for that kind of con. Christ, she’s a cop.”
“Love,” Roarke said, “is blind.”
“The hell it is. I see you clear enough, don’t I?”
His grin was quick and gorgeous. “Why, Lieutenant, you’ve made my heart flutter.” He grabbed her hand, kissed her knuckles lavishly.
“No funny stuff.” She slapped him aside, an absent gesture that only made him smile again.
It was good, he thought, to be back in synch.
“She’s got two payments to a Lucius Breck,” Eve noted. “Three thousand a pop. Who’s Breck?”
Because she hadn’t realized he’d cued her into the system, she nearly jumped when the computer’s polite voice answered.
Breck, Lucius. Substance abuse counselor. Private practice. Office address 529 Sixth Avenue, New York City. Residence—
“Never mind. That jibes with the story she gave me. Jesus, she’s close onto flat busted financially and still paying through the nose for private counseling when she could get it through departmental sources for nothing. And she’s going to lose anyway. She won’t keep her squad command when this all washes down.”
And she thinks I’m bucking for her desk. Eve shook her head. No, thanks. Eve would wear captain’s bars one day, but damn if they’d drag her off the street by them.
“You can’t find any other accounts linked to her?”
“I can’t find what’s not there,” Roarke said reasonably. “As you’ve seen for yourself, your Captain Roth is very nearly in financial ruin. She’s borrowed from her retirement account in order to pay Breck’s fee. Her living expenses are otherwise frugal.”
“So she’s clean, and her squad’s dirty, which may go to motive. She commanded both victims and had visited Kohli at Purgatory. Her probability scan’s still fairly low, but that could change if I can add in her personality analysis from the department files and my own take on her.”
“And your take is?”
“She’s hard, got a mean temper, and she’s been so busy rising up the ladder, she’s been missing details. She’s covering up personal mistakes in a scramble to protect her position. Could be she’s covered up more, in her squad, to keep her superiors from yanking her out. A lot of temper went into that first murder. Like I said, she’s got a mean one.”
She turned back to Roarke. “Vernon, Detective Jeremy. I’ve already got enough on him to haul him in—after I let him sweat awhile.”
“What do you need from me?”
“I want to connect the money to Ricker. Getting it this way, I won’t be able to use it as evidence. But I can make him think I can. I break Vernon, I’ve got new lines to tug. He’s connected to both victims and to Roth. And to Ricker.”
“Ricker’s going to be insulated, thickly. Any funds he disperses in that manner would have been washed.”
“Can you find it?”
His brow winged up. “That is, I assume, a rhetorical question. It’ll take time.”
“Then why don’t you get started? Can I use this subunit to check a few other names?”
“Hold on.” He issued some commands she didn’t understand, keyed in something manually. The computer acknowledged him and began a low hum. “It’ll sift through the initial layers on auto,” he explained, “as quickly as I could do it. What are the other names?”
She looked at him. “Rue MacLean.”
If he was annoyed or surprised, he didn’t show it. “You suspect her?”
“She manages Purgatory, knows or should know what goes down there. Now you tell me Ricker used to own the place, and we know IAB suspects or suspected a connection. If he’s doing any business there, she should’ve known about it. And,” she concluded, “you already thought of that.”
“I did a run on her yesterday. Deep search. Computer, results of search on MacLean, Rue, on screen three. You can study the data yourself,” he told Eve. “I found nothing to alarm me. Overmuch. But then again, if she’s playing with Ricker, she’d be careful. She knows me.”
“Would she risk it?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so.”
Eve scanned the financial first. “Jesus, Roarke, you pay her a goddamn mint.”
“Which traditionally inspires loyalty. She essentially runs the club. She earns her salary. You’ll see she enjoys the financial rewards and doesn’t pinch her credits. She took a vacation to Saint Barthélemy this winter. Ricker’s known to have a base near there.”
He paused for a moment, strolling over to pour himself a brandy. “I intend to ask her about that tomorrow.”
“Just ask her?”
“That’s right, and I’ll know if she’s lying.”
Eve studied his face: cool, hard, ruthless. Yes, he would know, and God help MacLean if she lied. “I’d rather you didn’t. I’ll ask her.”
“If she’s connected in any way to Ricker, it’s a very tenuous connection to your case. She’s my employee, and I deal with my own.”
“If you scare her off—”
“If she has reason to be frightened, she’ll have nowhere to go. Then she’ll be yours to question. Do you have more names?”
“You’re not cooperating.”
“On the contrary.” He spread his hands, indicating the room and the busy equipment. “Let me ask you a question, Lieutenant. Are you after a killer or Max Ricker?”
“I’m after a killer,” she snapped. “And since Ricker’s hooked to it somewhere, I intend to haul them both.”
“Because he’s connected to the case, or once was, to me?”
“Both.” She shifted her stance, an unconscious move into combat. “So what?”
“Nothing. Unless, when the time comes, you intend to stand between us.” He studied his brandy. “But why borrow trouble? Names?”
She didn’t intend to borrow anything. But she fully intended to get to Ricker first. “Webster, Lieutenant Don.”
The faintest smirk touched his mouth. “Well now, isn’t that interesting? What do you suspect him of? Being the killer or being a target?”
“At the moment, neither, which is the same as both. He tailed me today. Maybe it was like he said, to apologize for being an idiot. Or maybe that whole business was staged. I want all the facts before I decide to trust him.”
Saying nothing, Roarke tapped keys and had data shooting onto a screen.
“You already ran him?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t?” Roarke said coolly. “Webster appears to be as clean as the traditional whistle. Which, using the standard you applied to Roth, puts him on your suspect list.”
/> “Except for one thing.” She moved closer to the screen, frowning over the data. “He knew about Kohli, helped set it all up. Why take out a straight cop? Going from evidence, from my own instincts, and from Mira’s profile, I’m looking for someone avenging themselves. Someone who’s taking out cops who went wrong. Webster was one of the few who knew Kohli hadn’t. So no, I’m not looking at him for this, not if he’s clean.”
“And if he wasn’t?”
“Then maybe I could’ve stretched it that he took Kohli out because Kohli was clean and knew Webster wasn’t. What are these payments here? Steady outlay every month for the last two years to LaDonna Kirk.”
“He’s got a sister, divorced. She’s going to medical school. He’s helping her out.”
“Hmmm. Could be a blind.”
“It’s legitimate. I checked. She’s in the top ten percent of her class, by the way. He gambles occasionally,” Roarke continued, sipping his brandy. “Small stakes, typical entertainment gambling pattern. He springs for season tickets for arena ball every year and has an affection for suits made by an overpriced and, in my opinion, woefully inferior designer. He doesn’t put much away for a rainy day, but lives within his means. Which isn’t difficult. He makes twice as much as you do, at the same rank. I’d complain about that.”
“Desk jockeys,” Eve said with obvious disdain. “Who can figure it? You went awfully deep on him.”
“I prefer being thorough.”
She decided, under the circumstances, to leave it at that. “He wants in.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“On the case, Roarke. He wants me to let him in on the homicide investigation. He’s feeling used and abused at the way it was set up. I believe him.”
“Are you asking me my opinion?”
Relationships, she thought darkly, were so often a major pain in the ass. “I’m asking you if it’s going to cause any problems around here if I let him in.”