by J. D. Robb
“Let’s say,” he continued, “if we’re going to make it official, we believed we smelled an illegal substance emanating from the residence. Bix was uncertain whether it was an illegal substance or smoke. Bix?”
“Affirmative. Might’ve been smoke.”
“Therefore, we obtained entry in order to determine if the occupant was in need of assistance.”
“That’s your story?” Eve asked.
“That’s how it was,” Garnet insisted.
“And it took you thirty minutes to determine a flop the size of a utility closet was empty, there was no smoke either from an illegal substance or fire?”
“You want to come hard because we took a look around? We didn’t know the little prick was dead, and we’ve got a major investigation coming to flashpoint. Maybe he had something on it. I don’t know how you work it in Homicide, but—”
“Obviously not. Did you or your fellow officer remove anything from the area?”
“Nothing there but garbage. He lived like a pig, and from what I hear he died the same.”
“The little prick who lived like a pig is my victim,” Eve said coldly. “And by violating procedure you may very well have compromised the chain of evidence needed to bring his killer to justice.”
“I heard he OD’d.” Garnet shrugged. “There’s no reason for anybody to kill the little asshole.”
“Really? Even if the little asshole had information about an individual connected to a major investigation that is at flashpoint?”
Caught in that little hole in the web of lies, Garnet shut his mouth. Eve turned back to Renee. “In addition to the other data already required, I’ll need a copy of all files and data on this Geraldi investigation.”
Now Garnet surged to his feet, and his face blotched with angry color. “There’s no fucking way you’re sticking your nose in my case. You’re looking to bust our balls over some dead weasel because you’ve got nothing else.”
“You’d better stand down, Detective,” Eve warned.
“Fuck you!” He snarled it out even as Renee said his name. “Fuck her.” He whirled on Renee. “She’s not coming in here telling me how to run a case, screwing up my work over some useless dead junkie. You better back me on this, goddamn it, or—”
“Detective Garnet!” Renee’s voice sliced through the air, cut off his words so his breath heaved in and out.
“You’d better back me,” he repeated.
“I’m going to have that data, per procedure, Detective. Deal with it.” Eve stepped a little closer, angled, lifted a hand. “You’ve already crossed over into insubordination, so—”
He spun around, and as she’d hoped, his forearm smacked sharply into hers. To make it a little more dramatic, she fell back a step.
“Get off my back. You’re not in charge here.”
“From where I’m standing, nobody is.” Eve spared Renee a brief, disgusted look. “And you, Detective Garnet, just earned yourself a thirty-day rip. Another word comes out of your mouth, it’ll be sixty,” she warned, then gave Bix a cold stare as he got slowly to his feet. “Sit down, Detective Bix, unless you want the same.”
“Bix.” Renee spoke quietly when he didn’t move. “Take your seat.”
Good dog, Eve thought when he obeyed.
“Detective Garnet, sit down and calm down. Not another word,” Renee added. “Lieutenant Dallas, obviously we have a situation where emotions ran hot. My detectives are running a difficult investigation that appears to have bumped into yours. There’s no reason why we can’t work this out, reasonably, and without any undue interference to either investigation, right here in this office.”
“You want a favor from me?” Eve looked amazed. “You’re going to stand there and ask me to do you a solid when you failed to control your own detective, when you failed to take any action when he spoke to me with extreme disrespect, even after I warned him. When he laid hands on me?”
“In the heat of the moment—”
“My ass. I’ll be writing him up because, frankly, I don’t trust you to do so. I’ll also be writing up the incident regarding my vic’s residence. I will be speaking to any member of your squad who’s involved in this Geraldi case. Further, as already detailed, I want all data on any busts or investigations that involved the substance known as FYU.”
“That’s absolutely—”
Eve stepped closer, let her own heat show. “You don’t know how we do things in my division? I’ll tell you this, if one of my men displayed such extreme disrespect to a superior officer, I’d be the one who took him down. Because it’s my command. I want the data and files on the investigation within the hour.”
Eve strode out, pleased to see every eye in the place follow her out—and enjoyed the faint smirk Detective Strong didn’t quite mask.
Part of her wanted to break out in song, but she kept cold, controlled fury on her face as she stormed back to her own level, her own bullpen.
“Reineke!”
His head snapped up, eyes wide at the tone. “Sir!”
“What would happen if you said ‘fuck you’ to a superior officer in my presence?”
“If I said it in my head or out loud?”
“Out loud.”
“My ass would be extremely sore from the repeated and forceful application of your boot thereto.”
“Fucking A. Peabody, my office.” She kept that pissed-off look in place until Peabody came in, obeyed Eve’s signal to shut the door. “Watch this, because you won’t see it often.”
Eve swiveled her hips, pumped her arms in the air.
“Would that be your happy dance, sir?”
“It’s restrained, I know, but this is serious business and requires some restraint. I just creamed Renee, embarrassed her, pissed her off, and undermined her command—and as a bonus maneuvered Garnet into behavior that earned him a thirty-day rip. Which I will write up forthwith.”
“You did all that without me?”
“I didn’t know going in I was going to hit the jackpot. I need to write him up, file the rip. I have to do it asap, in my righteous fury and all that. I’ll fill you in as soon as possible. Meanwhile I’m expecting a case file from our pals in Illegals—the blind Garnet tried to use to justify going into the flop.”
“They admitted it?”
“Had to. Geraldi investigation’s what he used to excuse going into the flop. I want you to pick through the file. Odds are they’re planning on doing a nice skim when it goes down. Let’s see who and what we can use.”
“Did you scare her? I’m good with the embarrassed, pissed off, and undermined, but I’d really like her scared.”
Eve’s smile spread wide even as her eyes burned. “Peabody, I put the fear of God into her.”
“Good. Good. The guys are going to ask what’s up with you.”
“And you tell them—discreetly—that one of Lieutenant Oberman’s detectives got in my face, used obscenities, and struck me.”
Peabody’s eyes widened, rounded, all but glazed. “He hit you?”
“Well, technically I made sure my arm got in the way when he did his furious whirl around to me, but there was contact. Renee stood there ineffectively—pass that on—then tried to talk me into letting it go. That’s enough to get it growing on the Central grapevine.”
“I’ll say.” In a mimic of Eve, Peabody swiveled her hips, pumped her arms, then strolled out.
An hour later, Eve answered a summons to Whitney’s office.
He leaned back in his chair. “I just had a long conversation with Lieutenant Oberman.”
“I’m not surprised, sir.”
“She wished me to countermand your thirty-day suspension of Detective Garnet. I read your report on him. How did you manage to incite him to ... basically tell you to get fucked and to make physical contact?”
“It was surprisingly easy. He’s got a temper, and once the right buttons are pushed, feels entitled to use it. Bix is more controlled, sir, and I found it interesting that he
r tone with him is almost maternal. Garnet does the talking, Bix the listening. Bix immediately obeys an order, Garnet ignores them, at least when he’s hot.”
“Lieutenant Oberman cites a current investigation, in which both Garnet and Bix are involved, as the necessity for me to countermand, or failing that, to postpone the rip.”
“The Geraldi matter. My opinion, sir?” She waited for his nod. “Renee pulled that out of the air, and they tried to run with it. But without time to plan and coordinate, it tripped them up.”
“She relayed what happened—her version of what happened during the time you were in her office, assures me she will discipline her detectives and order Garnet to issue an apology to you.”
“Not accepted.”
“Nor would I accept in your place. But ...” He lifted his big hands. “Don’t you think it would be more useful to the investigation if Garnet remained on active duty?”
“He’s a hair trigger, Commander. He’s already steamed at Renee, already questioning—even ignoring her authority, her strategies. Now he’s taken this knock and she didn’t fix it. His dissatisfaction with the status quo just increased. He’s going to find trouble in his current mood and situation.”
“There’s a crack,” Whitney said with a nod, “and you use him to widen it.”
“I think he’d shatter it. When we take him down, he’ll flip on her. As much as making a deal with him leaves a bad taste, Commander, Garnet will flip on all of them for a decent deal. Bix won’t flip. He’s loyal. But I can flip Garnet.”
“Compromise, even with a bad taste, is something command routinely swallows. All right, Lieutenant, the suspension holds. Has Renee copied you on the investigation?”
“The data came in right before I received your request to meet, sir. I’ve got Peabody going through it, and I’ll do so myself.”
“As will I. You’ve made an enemy of her, Dallas.”
“She always was, Commander. She just didn’t know it.”
11
EVE KEPT HER STONY FACE ON AS SHE TRAVELED back to her division. From the few glances shot her way, the occasional murmur, she was assured the Central grapevine was spreading the gossip.
She needed to close herself off in her office awhile, do some probabilities, and use her instincts to select the next step.
Peabody started to hail her, but Eve shook her head and kept going. She heard the squeal when she was a few short steps from her door.
There was baby Bella decked out like a daffodil with her sunny curls, her chubby body tucked into a bright yellow sundress decorated with pink candy hearts.
The hearts matched her mother’s hair. Mavis Freestone bounced her baby girl and giggled at the squeals of delight. She’d scooped her hair back into a trio of stacked ponytails. What there was of her summer dress exploded with interlacing circles in vivid purple and pink.
Green eyes sparked with laughter in her pretty face as Bella bapped her hands together.
“Applause, applause!” Mavis gurgled, and the baby slapped her hands together again. “Now take your bow!”
On cue—and how the hell did a brain that tiny know—Bella pushed her feet—in shiny pink sandals that were a mini version of her mother’s—and rose up to stand on Mavis’s lap. She lowered her chin to her chest.
“Kisses to the crowd!” Mavis switched her handhold to Bella’s waist so the baby could smack her palm against her lips, then wave it.
Eve had to admit it was a pretty good routine.
“You brought the baby to a cop shop?”
Mother and daughter both turned, and big, happy smiles spread. “She wanted to visit.”
Bella threw out her arms, babbled.
Eve inched back. “What does she want?”
“You. Which is great.” Mavis popped up. “‘Cause I absolutely have to pee. BRB,” she added, and shoved the baby at Eve.
“Hey! Hey!” But Mavis’s shiny pink sandals were already skipping away. “Jesus Christ.”
Bella giggled, patted her drool-dewed hands on Eve’s cheeks, then got a Herculean grip on her hair. She tugged then slurped her wet lips on Eve’s cheek.
“Slooch!”
“Yeah, yeah, I remember.” Smooch, Eve thought, and eyed Bella’s lips—and more drool. “On the mouth?”
“Slooch!” Bella pursed like a guppy and made kissy noises.
“Fine, fine.” Eve gave her a little peck, then stared into her big blue eyes. “Now what?”
Bella widened her eyes, and looked, to Eve’s mind, very serious as she babbled and garbled, head turning side-to-side, little butt bouncing on Eve’s forearm.
“Nobody understands that. Anybody who tells you they do is just stringing you, kid.”
She decided to sit—safer and closer to the floor if the kid wriggled free. Plus maybe she could start on the probabilities. But the minute they were down, Bella pushed up.
“God! I wish you wouldn’t do that. Sit.”
In response Bella pumped her legs and danced on Eve’s knees. She grinned like a maniac and squealed, “Das!”
“Sure, sure.” Eve eyed the mountainous purple bag taking up most of her desk. “Probably something in there to keep you occupied. One of those plugs, something.” Hooking an arm around Bella’s waist, she pulled out things at random—shaking things, beeping things, singing things.
But all the kid wanted to do was dance.
She pulled out a box highlighted with a baby’s cherubic face. Bella danced harder, cried, “Yum!” and made a grab for it.
“Hold it, hold it.” It was a struggle, but Eve managed to hold the box out of reach and peek inside at what appeared to be thick crescents of stale bread.
“Those look disgusting.”
Bella narrowed those big blue eyes, slitting them into what looked suspiciously like a warning. “Yum!”
“Is that a threat? Do you see how much bigger I am than you? Do you really think that’s going to work?”
Now the little mouth quivered, and the big blue eyes filled with tears. “Yum,” she sniffled. A single fat one slid down the rosy cheek.
“Okay, that works.” Eve dug one out. The box wouldn’t have a baby on it if it wasn’t for babies, she reasoned.
Bella clutched it and brought the biscuit and Eve’s hand to her mouth to gnaw. Tears miraculously vanished into a sunny smile.
“Yum!”
“You’re a player, aren’t you? I have to admire that. But turning on the waterworks to get what you want? That’s weak. Effective, but weak.”
Still smiling, Bella pulled the gnawed biscuit from her mouth and shoved it at Eve’s.
“No. Thanks. Oh, God, it is disgusting.”
“Yum,” Bella insisted, then plopped her butt on Eve’s desk and happily gnawed away.
Eve looked around quickly as Mavis bounced in. “If she’s not supposed to have that thing, you shouldn’t have left it here.”
“No big deal, those are her yums.”
“So she told me—I guess.”
Mavis pulled a heart-covered bib out of the bag, whipped it around Bella’s neck. “They’re kinda messy.”
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Dumped her in my lap and poofed.”
Mavis giggled, lifted her shoulders. “Busted. But I did pee.”
“Why?”
“Because my bladder asked me to.”
“Mavis.”
“Because she loves you, and because you’ve pretty much stopped holding her at arm’s length like she’s a boomer full of poop.”
“Poop is sometimes involved.”
“True.” Mavis took a quick sniff. “But not now. She can say your name.” To prove it Mavis gave Eve a kiss on the cheek. “Dallas.”
“Das!” Bella squealed and stroked a gooey hand where her mother had kissed.
On a strangled sound, Eve started to swipe the goo off with the heel of her hand, but Mavis pulled a damp wipe out of a packet.
“That’s my name?”
“It’s the clos
est she can come to Dallas right now. She can’t manage Peabody, but she’s got McNab.”
“Nab!” Bella waved her dripping biscuit in triumph.
“And she’s got Roarke.”
“Ork!”
“Ork.” That tickled a laugh out of Eve, and the sound had the baby sending out a chant.
“Ork! Ork! Ork!” Then damned if the kid didn’t take a bow.
“Jesus, Mavis, she’s you all over.”
“With her daddy’s sweet, sweet heart.” Mavis pulled a rainbow-hued blanket out of the apparently bottomless bag. After spreading it on the floor, she took Bella, plopped her on it.
“Okay if I close the door? In case she starts to motor.”
“Good idea.”
Mavis shut the door, then dropped down in Eve’s visitor’s chair. With the baby at her feet, she crossed her legs. “So, how’d I do?”
“Good job, Candy.”
“Not too OTT? Over the top,” Mavis translated. “I decided to plug in the Brooklyn and the tits when I was putting it together this morning. Just a little jazz.”
“Both were impressive. I barely recognized you myself. You haven’t lost your skills.”
“Felt mag, too, gotta confess. Sliding back in and duping a mark. Temporarily,” she added, “and for a righteous cause.”
“Check.”
“I guess you still can’t tell me what the righteous cause is?”
“Not yet.”
“Doesn’t matter, because I so totally didn’t like the mark. Pushy b-i-t-c-h. Hard a-s-s, and not in a good or frosty way.”
“You’re actually spelling swear words now? The kid’s not even listening.”
“You never know. This Oberman is the b word and the a word and a whole universe of other words I don’t want to say in front of my Bellamina. And, Dallas, she’d like to rip your heart out of your chest with her bare hands.”
“I’ve given her cause. That’s part of it.”
“Just watch your as—a-s-s. I was back in my grifter’s skin, you know, and man, the vibes. Cold and dark. Belle and I want our Das to stay safe, and to kick the b-word’s you-know-what.”
“I plan to do both.”
After Bella waved bye-bye, Eve got coffee, settled down to review the data she’d already accessed on the detectives who’d transferred out of Renee’s squad, crossed that with what Baxter had dug up for her.