by J. D. Robb
“Dislocated, I think.”
“Sometimes I miss the streets.” The record moved inside, into the filth. “Sometimes I don’t.”
He lapsed into silence, watching the rest. When it was done, the silence remained for several moments. “I’ll review the rest, but assuming it’s as you’ve already related to me, what’s your next move? You have a next move, Dallas,” he added. “You’ve had enough time to calculate several next moves.”
“My first priority would be to officially discover the body and take the investigation. Through a tip from one of my CIs, or we’ll run it so the record she sees plays that out. I believe that’s less complicated and could be more useful than standard channels. She won’t know who contacted me, and I’ll have no obligation to inform her. In fact, it would be standard for me to protect my own weasel. She believes Keener’s death will be seen and treated as an accidental OD. It won’t be. I’ll hard-line it, give her something to worry about. Or just be pissed off about. I’ll be in her face, and by doing so will have the opportunity to observe her, her squad.”
“How many of them are in this?” Whitney nodded. “It’s not just Garnet.”
“No, sir, that would be unlikely. Concurrent to that would be the Internal Affairs investigation. With your permission, sir, I would inform and fully brief Lieutenant Webster. I’ve worked with him before, and he knows Peabody. That connection would save time and should streamline the process.”
“And you believe you can convince him you and your team need to play an active role, not just in the homicide but in the internal investigation?”
“There wouldn’t be an internal investigation without Peabody, and it’s very likely Keener’s death would have been put down as an OD.”
“You don’t have to convince me. I’ll also speak to Lieutenant Webster.”
“I also need to inform and brief Doctor Mira. Her insights, opinions, and evaluations would be essential.”
“Yes, agreed.”
“And I need Feeney. I need EDD.”
“IAB has its own e-men.”
“We need ours. McNab is already in this, and his captain should be apprised. Every meet I have with Renee Oberman should, when possible, be on record. IAB will shadow her, sir, but if she’s got any instincts it won’t take long for her to smell rats. She hasn’t gotten this far without good instincts, without taking precautions.”
“Feeney and Mira. Your part of this investigation will have to be run, for the most part, from this location. We don’t know how far her tentacles reach through the department. Through my house.” Whitney looked at Roarke again. “Yours just became primary HQ.”
“Apparently.”
“You’re a tolerant man.”
“Not altogether. I have had, you could say, some experience with cops such as Lieutenant Oberman. If using my house helps remove her from yours, my door’s open.”
Whitney nodded, got to his feet. His gaze swept over everyone in the room. “Let’s take the bitch down.”
When the briefing concluded, Eve turned to Roarke. “I need that weasel tip, and it needs to look legit in case Renee manages to get her hands on the log.”
“I can do that, but I need just one moment of your time first.” He stepped back into his office.
“I’m really on the clock here,” she began.
“Understood, and you’ll have your tip come in—transferred to your’link from your office unit—asap. I wanted to tell you I’ve just spoken with Darcia—Chief Angelo, Olympus.”
“Okay.”
“She’s on planet, on holiday. We had a meeting scheduled for next week before her return, but she’s come to New York early. She’d like to see Cop Central, and you.”
“I’m a little pressed right now.”
“And I could hardly tell her you’re busy launching an investigation on a ring of dirty cops, could I?”
Eve shoved her hands in her pockets. “No. Guess not.”
“Her main plan is to have a longer holiday in New York. I’ll meet with her, take her to lunch or for drinks. But it’s natural for her to want a look at your house, and to reconnect with you. You did work together, and well enough, during our little interlude on Olympus.”
“Yeah, yeah. Okay.” She considered, weighed, then nodded. “Maybe I can use it to my advantage. Once this rolls nobody who’s sniffing is going to think I’d be spending time giving tours and having a girl-cop chat if I were tied into an internal investigation.”
“I imagine, when it’s all said and done, she’ll be pleased to have been useful. I’ll take care of the tip. Five minutes.”
“Good enough.” She walked back into her office. “We’ll have the tip in five,” she told Peabody. “I’ll tag you on your ’link, tell you I’m swinging by to pick you up at your place to follow up on the tip. Could be nothing, so we won’t inform Dispatch as yet. McNab, you need to get yourself to Central by your usual means. By the time you do, Whitney will have briefed Feeney. I want filters on all our electronics. Something that will not only show if anyone attempts a hack, but prevent one.”
“We can do that,” McNab assured her. “I’d go to the bank that Roarke already has filters and shields on everything in here. A couple minutes in Roarke’s comp lab, and I can fix your pocket ’link, and Peabody’s.”
“We’ll get to that after the tip. Speaking of which,” she said when hers signaled. “He’s fast, you have to give it to him.” She held up a finger for silence. “Dallas.”
“Don’t use my name! Got me?” The voice was garbled, panty, and would never be mistaken for Roarke’s.
“I got you.”
“Somebody did him. Old Juicy. Did him bad, man, left him swimming in puke.”
“Who’s Juicy?”
“Juicy’d never pop heavy, man. They did him. The ones he was scared of. Fucker’s dead.”
“You’re stoned, you asshole. Don’t waste my time.”
“Got stoned for Juicy. You gotta get him, Dallas, see? It ain’t right. Stuffed him in the fucking tub. I ain’t just doing weasel for you, Dallas. It’s for Juicy.”
The record would show her scowl, replay the warning in her voice. “Give me where, but if I don’t find a body, I’m hunting you down and kicking your ass.”
“You find him.” The voice mumbled out an address. “Poor old Juicy. You get me my twenty, right? I get my twenty.”
“If I find a body, you get your twenty. If I don’t, better find a hole.” She clicked off, then walked to the door connecting her office with Roarke’s. “How did you do that?”
“Oh, just a little voice-exchange program I’ve been working on. I used a blend of two actors in a couple of drug vids.” He grinned, showing her he’d enjoyed himself. “Interesting, isn’t it?”
“Hmm. You’re up, Peabody,” Eve said, and moved to step two.
“It seems kind of silly when I’m standing right here.”
“By the numbers.”
After the brief exchange Eve tossed her ’link to McNab. “Do your geek thing, then get down to Central—business as usual.”
“I can give you a lift partway, Ian,” Roarke said from the doorway.
“Iced. Give me a shake first.”
“I’ll go with you,” Peabody told him, “get the ’links when you’ve done your magic. Meet you downstairs, Dallas. Thanks for everything, Roarke. Totally everything.”
“Don’t take him all the way,” Eve began when Peabody followed McNab out of the room.
“It’s not my first time being sneaky.” Roarke stepped to her to trace a finger down the dent in her chin. “I could beat you in a sneaky face-off.”
“Probably.”
“His respect for his predecessor weighs on your commander.”
“Yeah, I got that. But he doesn’t like the daughter. Didn’t even before this. Sometimes that apple and the tree thing? Sometimes it does. Fall far.”
Understanding she thought of herself and perhaps him as well, as much as Renee Oberman, he cupped
her face, touched his lips to hers. “Sometimes the apple makes the deliberate choice to fall as far as possible. For good or ill, Eve.”
“And sometimes it was rotten before it fell. And that’s enough about fruit. I have to go find a dead junkie.”
“Happily, this time I don’t.” He kissed her again. “Mind the live ones.”
“Maybe I’ll try your prime move.” And she walked out sort of hoping she could.
Once they were in her vehicle Eve ran it through again with Peabody. “We’re going by the book. Sealed up, record on. Following a tip. We’ll clear the first level before we move up. We don’t know the vic by anything but Juicy until we ID him. Keep your recorder off me when I remove the eyes Roarke put over the bathroom doorway.”
“Got it.”
“We work the body and the scene exactly as we’d work any body and scene, and that’s why we’re going to give some weight to homicide. Regardless, it’s a suspicious, unattended death, and in my department we don’t brush that off because the vic is a loser chemi-head with a sheet.”
“Damn straight. I was nervous with the commander.”
“He came at you hard because IAB’s going to come hard, and when we take her down, the defense is going to come hard.”
“I got that, too.” Peabody fiddled with her rainbow sunshades but didn’t put them on. “And I got that there’s going to be other cops who look at me like a traitor.”
“She’s the traitor, Peabody.”
“I know. But I have to be ready for it. So whenever it comes at me, I’m going to see myself in that shower stall, and I’m going to think, ‘Fuck you.’”
“It’s a good thought. Time to set up the next step.” She used her pocket ’link to contact Webster.
“Well, good morning, Dallas.”
While his attractive face filled the screen she heard the sounds of traffic. “Where are you?”
“Walking to work on this fine summer day. Why?”
“Got company?”
“A few million New Yorkers.” He sipped from a go-cup of coffee, but she saw his eyes change. Flatten. “No company.”
“I need a meet. Remember where we met during a little federal matter?”
“I remember.”
“There. In two hours. You’ll need to take this as personal time.”
“I’ve got a boss, Dallas.”
“So does he, and so does his boss. This comes from the big chair, Webster. If you don’t want it, I’ll tag another rat.”
“Funny. Two hours.” He clicked off.
“Tag Crack,” Eve ordered Peabody. “Tell him I need him to have his place open in a couple hours.”
“You want me to tag a giant sex club owner at this hour of the morning, knowing I’ll be waking him up?”
“Find your spine, Peabody,” Eve suggested.
The neighborhood looked worse in the daylight, Eve decided, when every stain, every smear showed in sharp relief. A sad little convenience store sagged near the corner, papered with warnings.
NO CASH ON PREMISES!
MONITORED BY ON GUARD!
DROID OPERATORS ONLY!
A handful of people moved along the sidewalk, heads down, going about their business while it was too early for most thugs and toughs and troublemakers to hassle them.
“It’s a hard life here,” Peabody commented. “A couple blocks away, it’s different, but here it’s hard and mean. If you’re born here, how do you get out?”
Eve thought of Roarke, a child, navigating the violent Dublin alley-ways where hard and mean would have been a holiday. “Hook or crook,” she murmured.
After parking, engaging all alarms and her On Duty light, Eve got her field kit out of the trunk. “Curtain up. Record on. Let’s seal up.” She tossed Peabody the can of Seal-It. “In case this turns out to be something other than a waste of time.”
Peabody obeyed, tossed the can back. “We could’ve had some uniforms check it out.”
“My tip. No point in wasting the resources until we take a look.” She pulled out her master as they approached the building. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s lived in this place during this century, but see here—that’s a new lock. Nobody’s bothered to bust it yet.”
“Looks like that’s it for security. No cams, no pads.”
“If it had them, they’re long gone. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, and Peabody, Detective Delia, bypassing lock, entering premises to validate or refute report of a body by a confidential informant.”
She bypassed, drew her weapon. Then eased the door open. “Now, that’s a lovely stench. If this is the flight of the wild goose, that weasel’s going to get a serious scolding. Weapon and light, Peabody. Let’s start clearing.”
As she had hours before with Roarke, she swept the first level.
“This was probably a nice place once,” Peabody commented. “You can see some of the original flooring and plasterwork.”
“Sure. It’s a real fixer-upper. Level one clear,” she said for the record. “Crap, these steps better hold. If you fall through, I’m not hauling you out.”
“I believe that’s a comment on my weight. I may file an official complaint.”
Eve snorted out a laugh. “You do that. God, the smell just gets better. It’s like a shit pile bouquet perfumed with ... crap.”
“Shit is crap.”
“For Christ’s sake, Peabody, you’ve worked Homicide long enough you should be able to smell a DB even through this. Weasel said in the tub. Clear as you go,” she ordered, and sweeping areas made her way back to the ruined bathroom. “This must be Juicy.”
“I guess you owe the weasel an apology.”
“He’ll get his twenty.” Eve approached the tub. “Swimming in puke. An exaggeration, but close enough. Let’s ID him, call it in.”
“Dallas, it’s bad in here. If we don’t want to spend an hour in the sanitizer, we should put on protective gear.”
“Got a point.” Eve stepped back, and as Peabody bent to remove the cover-ups from the kit, reached up and behind her for the cam Roarke had positioned. She slid it into her pocket, disengaged, then took out her communicator.
“Dallas, Lieutenant Eve.”
Dispatch, Dallas acknowledged.
She reported the body, the location, the situation, requested uniforms to assist. Done, she unsealed the protective wrap Peabody offered her.
As before, Eve used her pad for ID. “Victim is identified as Keener, Rickie, age twenty-seven. Mixed race male, five feet and nine inches, one hundred and thirty pounds. Brown and brown. Vic is curled in a broken bathtub, empty needle syringe is in the tub with him. Other illegals paraphernalia also in evidence.”
“TOD’s coming in at oh four hundred yesterday, Dallas. It’s reading approximate due to time lag and ambient conditions.”
“ME to confirm TOD.”
Peabody said what she believed she’d have said if they’d come across the body by a tip. “It looks like an OD. You can see his track marks. He went old school, but it’s not his first trip to Neverland.”
“Why the tub? There was a mattress in the next room, what could loosely be called a bed. He’s got bruising, a scraped elbow.”
“He could’ve gotten those seizing, banging against the tub. I think it’s cast iron.”
“Yeah. He’s got a sheet, and wasn’t a stranger to illegals. Maybe he screwed up his pop, or maybe he got something hotter than he knew.” She shook her head. “He’s got an address on record, and this isn’t it. So why here?”
“Maybe he came to shoot with somebody, OD’d, and the somebody put him in here and went rabbit.”
“Those are questions and possibilities. Well, Juicy’s ours now. So we’ll have to get the answers. ME will determine COD, but for now this is a suspicious death, and our case. Let’s get to work.”
6
SHE CAUGHT THE GRIMACES WHEN SHE SENT the uniforms out to canvass and knock on doors. It wasn’t the type of neighborhood where cops were greeted with an offer of
coffee, or even a pretense of respect. Nor was it likely anyone would admit to seeing anything or anyone even if they’d been a magical fly on the wall of the crime scene.
But it had to be done.
When the sweepers arrived, she hunted up the head CSI. “I’m going to want a full-level sweep, all three levels.”
Eve got the beady eye. “Is this a joke?”
“No. And I tagged the lock on the front door. I need make, model, and an analysis of when it was installed.”
“Petrie put you up to this, didn’t he? He’s got a sick sense of humor.”
“Do you have a problem being thorough, Kurtz?”
Behind her goggles, the woman rolled her eyes. “Next thing you’ll tell me is that isn’t some dead chemi-head but the Prince of Monaco or some shit.”
“No, I’m pretty sure he’s some dead chemi-head. He’s also my dead guy, and I need what I need.”
“You’ll get what you need, but it’d be better all around to just burn everything in here. Purify.”
“Don’t light the match until after the sweep.”
That, at least, got a smile out of Kurtz before Eve left the scene to the sweepers and the body to the morgue team.
On her way out she sent a text to Morris, the chief medical examiner, requesting he take the body himself.
“There’s going to be some muttering about going top level on this,” Peabody commented once they were outside, recorders off.
“Just what I had in mind.”
She got behind the wheel and headed off to a sex club to rat out Renee Oberman.
When she walked into the Down and Dirty, Crack stood huge behind the bar. His shaved head gleamed like polished onyx, and his chest, his muscled arms, bared but for a sleeveless vest, rippled with tattoos.
He shot her a steely stare. “You screwed my beauty sleep, white girl.”
“Black man, just how much prettier do you want to be?”
“Smart answer.” He inclined his head toward a corner table. “Got a rat in the house.”
“Yeah.” She’d already spotted Webster. “I’ve got reasons. I owe you one, Crack. I’ll owe you two if you keep the place shut until I’m done.”
“This time of day that ain’t no thing. Figure one and a half. Want coffee?”