by J. D. Robb
“She kept Strong chained to that desk, but today she sends her out in the field? And with Bix. He had orders of execution. If he’d gotten her out of here, she’d be dead instead of in surgery. Strong suspected the squad room was monitored, but she went in anyway.”
“She took a risk. All of you take them every day.”
“I knew it was monitored after my last trip there. I knew Brinker was dirty. But I didn’t get word to her. Not in time. I saw an opportunity to have an inside man, so I took it, pulled her into this.”
“And, it seems, she saw an opportunity and took it. Risk and opportunity, Eve. It’s all part of it.”
“Louise will fix her. Goddamn it, she’ll fix her, because that bitch isn’t taking down another cop.” She strode over, got on the up glide.
Her com signaled, three short. She checked it, scanned the code. “Whitney’s called the meeting.”
“I believe I’ll mosey over, take a closer position while they file out.”
“Your face is pretty familiar around here. Don’t let any of them see you.”
“Insult after insult.” With a shake of his head, he moseyed.
Eve veered off to meet Webster, as she’d arranged.
“I’ve got five,” he told her when she slipped into his office. “We’ve got Bix on simmer. His lieutenant just broke off a heated exchange with my captain. Orders to report from the commander.” Webster tapped his temple in salute. “Slick timing, Dallas.”
“What’s on the discs?”
“He didn’t push her, but was unquestionably in pursuit. They were both shoving, running, knocking people aside. Somebody went down between them, and they fell like dominoes. We’re lucky she’s the only one who took the hard fall. She was off-balance, running flat out, and couldn’t catch herself.”
“How’s he answer it? Why was he pursuing a fellow officer?”
“He says she started shouting and clocked him, then began to run on the glides, endangering others. He pursued out of instinct, and because he feared she would harm herself or others. It’s close enough to what happened, we’d have a hard time pinning it on him without her statement. He doesn’t deviate from the story, not by a single word.”
“I want to see the run.”
“Figured.” He took a disc from his pocket. “If you’re looking to fry him, yeah, you could interpret it as he shoved through the right spot at the right time, calculated the angles, and caused her fall. But it wouldn’t hold up on its own. Renee’s playing the outraged boss, but we get that a lot around here. How can we question her man when it was obviously a terrible accident, and seems to have been precipitated by the injured officer who had been displaying some unstable behavior? As is noted in her evals.”
“Then she has to explain why she was sending an officer she deemed unstable into the field.”
“She’s shorthanded. She lost a man last night. She’s got an answer for everything. They’re shaky if you pick them apart, and you know what we know, but they’re answers.”
“She’s about to run out of answers.” Eve shoved the disc in her pocket. “Don’t let him out of here, Webster. Not for another thirty. I’m going to contact Janburry and Delfino, put them on alert. They may want to take him for a round soon.”
“Oh, we can keep him busy for a while yet. What’s Strong’s status?”
“She’ll hold her own.” Eve checked the time. “I’ve got to move. I’ve got my own dominoes to flick.”
She went straight to the conference room where Feeney and McNab were set up. Feeney sent her a reproachful look. “Do you know how much easier this would be if we could run it from EDD? And nothing about this is easy.”
“EDD’s everywhere, but if I’m hanging around EDD somebody we don’t want wondering might wonder. We’re boxing her, Feeney. I want this side of the box solid. Roarke’s had about five minutes since we emptied out the squad room. If he has any luck, the rest of the job should be easier.”
She plugged the disc into the room comp, watched the sequence. She toughened her mind when she watched Lilah’s fall, then landing.
“She knew she was in trouble,” Eve murmured. “She’s tracking, looking for a way out. He’s keeping her close, even grabs onto her. She played it pretty damn well, up to the end. She nearly made it.”
“He pushed her. He didn’t lay a hand on her,” McNab said when Eve glanced around. “But he pushed her. Look at him. Doesn’t even break a sweat. Mowing through people, dodging, weaving—and he never takes his eyes off her. Like the hound to the rabbit.”
“You’d be right. He had his orders. If he could’ve gotten to her after the fall, he’d have finished her—if he could’ve found the way, he’d have killed her right in Central.”
She turned, wanting coffee, turned back when she heard the door open.
“Couldn’t you get in?” she began.
“Really, it’s a bloody litany of insults.” Roarke tossed a small duffle on the conference table. “I borrowed the bag from one of your supply rooms. I hope I won’t be arrested.”
“You’re in, done, and out and back here in ten?”
“Well, I did have to stop to get the bag. And to scan her security system.” He tossed a disc to McNab. “That should quicken things up.”
“Yeah, baby!”
“Care to see what’s in the bag, Lieutenant?” Roarke asked. “What was safe behind Oberman?”
Eve pulled the bag open. “Her running kit—the ID, credit, cash—about two hundred K?”
“Oh, two-fifty, then there’s another hundred large in euros.”
“Clean ’link, clean weapon, PPC—and discs.”
“Her books,” Roarke supplied. “Her payroll, operating expenses, income—all very tidy. I had a bit of time so I took a quick glance.”
“Say hallelujah,” Eve breathed.
“If you like. I didn’t look through them all—just enough to verify. They’re encoded, of course, but fairly simply. I’d say she was confident no one was going to have a peek. Her security is more complex. If she’d set the alarm before leaving her office, it would have tripped the minute Strong went in. A silent alarm that would engage the cameras. Renee would have seen it when she went in herself and shut the alarm off.”
“But she doesn’t clear out the safe. Not yet anyway. No real time to do it,” Eve concluded. “She has to eliminate Strong. If she can’t get to Strong, she’s going to have to answer a lot of embarrassing questions. She can clear out the safe, put something not incriminating inside.”
“Strong took a severe blow to the head—is and was obviously confused.” Roarke nodded. “Many ways to circle it, but eliminating Strong is sure and it’s tidy.”
“She likes tidy, and she doesn’t know I have two men on Strong. She couldn’t know yet. Crap, I forgot about Whitney and Mira.” She took out her com, signaled Whitney the all-clear.
“Give my boy a hand, will you?” Feeney asked Roarke, then jerked his head so Eve followed him to the other side of the room.
“You’ve got her in that box, Dallas. With everything we’ve put together, with what the boy says Peabody’s bringing in. Top that with the little heist Roarke just pulled off, she’s done.”
“Maybe. Maybe if we look through her discs and find she’s written out chapter and verse on her operation, on her orders to kill cops, Keener, whoever else she might’ve done.”
“She’s going to have to explain the ID, the money.”
“Graft, corruption, falsifying docs aren’t murder.”
“You and I know that while Bix might stand like a rock, others’ll roll. It only takes one to start an avalanche. You make a deal with one of her men, the avalanche is going to crush her to dust.”
“Is that how you’d handle it?”
“I’m saying you could walk right out of here and put her in cuffs.”
She turned, took a couple paces away to try to settle her temper. Turned and stepped back when she decided she didn’t want it settled.
“
Make a deal with a dirty cop or two to snap off the head? Fuck that. Fuck that, Feeney. No deals. No deals if I have to sit on the PA until he cries for his mommy. I don’t want to deal to take her down. I’m going to take her down my way. I’m going to play her like a goddamn piano.”
He started to grin at the first fuck that, and then let out a snort. “You can’t play the piano.”
“But I can break one to splinters with a sledgehammer.”
“It’s a good choice. I was just checking.”
She puffed out a breath, felt the temper die. “You’d go sledgehammer?”
“Maybe a chain saw. I’ve got to think of my back.”
She glanced toward Roarke and McNab. “You get me the feed. I’ll get the hammer and saw.”
She paced while they worked. She wondered why things always took longer than you wanted them to take, unless you wanted them to take a lot longer—then they didn’t take nearly long enough.
Time sucked.
Peabody walked in.
“Put the data up,” Eve ordered. “I need to see it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good work, Peabody. You did good work today.”
“I needed to.” Peabody glanced over as she installed the disc. “I want to be able to go back to her mom and tell her Detective Gail Devin helped bring this down. Dallas, can you get her a commendation? From the top? Could you put her in for one from the commander?”
“I can. I will. But I believe the commander will issue one without my request.”
Eve stood, studying the data. “God, she was thorough. Look at this. Times, dates, length of time, participants of closed-door meets in Renee’s office. Coordinating them with busts or ops gone sour—or where the take from the bust came in well below expectations and information. Invoice changes—she logged them down whenever she caught one. Logged once-a-week meets between Renee and Dennis Dyson in Accounting. Here’s another who shows up regularly, every couple weeks, and routinely after a sizable bust. From Records.
“Notations on inconsistencies in files, in reports. Here’s a cop who dug into her research.”
“She was building a pretty good case,” Peabody added. “She’s got records of street contacts she’d started to develop on her own. She went through court docs checking wits, did follow-ups. She went to see dealers in their cages. She was starting to push hard, then . . .”
“Pushed the wrong way, and Renee caught the scent.” Eve ordered the data to share the screen with Renee’s. Cued them up.
“We got names matching here. A lot of her names match what’s looking like Renee’s payroll.”
“You got the payroll?”
“I’ll fill you in. Feeney! I’m getting tired of holding this hammer.”
“Then set it down a damn minute.”
“Look at all this money.” Peabody gaped at the open duffle. “And ... a passport, ID. You found her hole? You found her hole without me?”
“You were busy doing a good job.”
“Now you can say hallelujah.” Roarke turned to her. “You’re tapped in, Lieutenant.”
“She’s not back in her office yet.” Eve watched the screen image of Renee’s office with narrowed eyes. “Went back to IAB to try to squeeze her boy out. Okay.” Eve rolled her shoulders. “Time to play.”
22
IN HER OFFICE, RENEE GATHERED HER FORCES.
“We’re going to clean up this mess tonight.”
She stood behind her desk, met the eyes of each man under her command—something she’d learned from her father. She spoke in clipped, confident tones.
“There will be no loose ends. There will be no mistakes. Freeman, get to the hospital. If Strong makes it out of surgery, she’ll need to be dealt with. You’re on hold until I contact you. Do what you do—blend.”
“You got it, LT.”
“Go now. And Freeman? If and when? Don’t leave any marks.”
“You know me. I’m a ghost.”
“Marcell,” she continued when the door closed behind Freeman, “you and Palmer are going to deal with Dallas. She’s over.”
“How do you want it done?” Marcell asked.
“I’ve been giving it some thought. We take it back to Keener.” A full circle, she calculated. Closed and locked. “She’s so in love with the little bastard, it seems appropriate. You’ll take her in the garage when she’s leaving. Armand, you’ll need to give us a security glitch.”
“Can do.”
“It’ll have to be fast and clean. Wait until she’s at her vehicle. I don’t want you to give her room to maneuver. Stun her. Then take her and her vehicle to Keener’s hide. Once you’ve got her in and secured, do it however you want, but make damn sure she’s dead. Take anything on her a chemi-head would pawn for scratch. We’ll be planting some of it later to give Homicide our fall guy. When you’re done, contact Manford. He’ll pick you up.”
“What if she’s not alone in the garage?” Palmer asked.
“If she’s with her partner or one of her men, you take them both. Tulis will keep an eye on her, contact Armand when she heads down.”
She looked at Tulis, got his nod.
“Armand will handle the cams and elevators. He’ll give you the window, you’d better damn sight go through it. Until then stay clear of her. No contact, no connection.”
“Consider it done.”
“When it is, go to Samuels at Five-O. He’ll cover you. He’s closed the place so you could hold vigil for Strong, wake Garnet.” She checked her wrist unit. “My sources say Dallas rarely if ever leaves end of shift, which makes it easier to grab her alone. You’ve got some time, and I’ll toss her something to hang her up here to make sure of that.”
“What about Bix?” Marcell asked her.
“Armand’s going to hack her comp, plug in some data that takes the heat off Bix, makes it clear the bitch was on some sort of vendetta against me and mine.”
Destroying her sterling rep as well as her life would almost, Renee thought, make up for the trouble she’d caused.
“Meanwhile, IAB’s got Bix so he’ll be in the clear when Strong and Dallas go down. With her and Strong out of the way, everything goes back to normal. We have a moment of silence for our fallen comrades. In a week, we clear the Giraldi case and have a nice payday.
“Now.” She paused, smiled. “I’ll get Dallas busy being supercop, then pay another visit to IAB to express outrage over this business with Bix before heading out to check on Strong and express my deep concern there. Everybody does their job, this ends tonight, and we move on.”
They worked on refining details, coordinating timing. After, alone at her desk, Renee sat, stared at her father’s portrait, blinked until her eyes watered. Then used her ’link.
“Dad.” She pressed her lips together as if struggling to control herself. “I know you’re disappointed in me.”
“Renee—”
“No, I know I’ve let you down. Let myself down. I should never have let things with Garnet get out of hand. I should’ve been stronger. And I’m going to be. I need to talk to you, Dad, to ask your advice. I have to go by the hospital and check on one of my people. She had an accident today. After that, can I come by and see you?”
“Of course.”
“Thanks, Dad. I know I let my personal feelings get in the way of my job, of my responsibilities. My feelings about Garnet, and about Dallas, too. I see that now. She’s so much more the kind of daughter you wanted. I resented her for that.”
“She’s not my daughter, Renee. You are.”
“I know. I know, Dad. I’ll see you soon.”
She clicked off, stared with icy eyes at the portrait. “I’m your daughter? Too bad for us both you wanted a son, isn’t it? Too damn bad I could never measure up to your lofty standards. Would you be proud of me, you fucker, if you knew just how much I command?”
“Daddy issues,” Eve commented as she watched the monitor. “Definite daddy issues.”
“That’s one cold, fu
cked-up woman.” Feeney shook his head. “A cop briefing other cops on how to kill cops.”
“I was starting to worry she wouldn’t go for me. I’d have hated to miss that opportunity.”
“She plans to eliminate you because you’re a threat.” Mira had come in to observe, and now looked at Eve. “But only partly. What she said to her father was truth, as she sees it. You’re more what he would’ve wanted in a daughter than she. And that’s just as much a motivation to eliminate you.”
“We’ll worry about her motivations later. I’ll need the e-team to handle the glitch she plans. They’ll need to think it worked. Peabody, check on Strong. I need to talk to Louise the minute she’s clear. I don’t want Louise or any of the docs to talk to anyone else, even Strong’s mother, the boyfriend. Nobody.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“What are you doing?” Roarke asked as Eve took out her own ’link.
“Setting up my counter op. I’m texting Jacobson, then I’ve got to go be seen by her man. We want her plan to move right along.”
“You’re building a bigger box,” Feeney said with some pride.
“Jumbo size. And when we’re done, it’s still going to be crowded in there. Oh look. I believe I’m getting an anonymous tip from an unregistered’link. Check records and reports for Garnet, initialed by Strong, incl all expenses. Proof Garnet & Strong did Keener.
“Set them up for Keener.” Feeney pursed his lips. “Being dead they can’t argue about it.”
“She’ll take a hit on Garnet, but she’s got her notes and evals on Strong. It’s not bad for seat-of-the-pants,” Eve decided. “And it’s enough to keep me busy here through end of shift. Can you redirect this hack they’re going to pull on my comp?”
“Redirect,” Roarke told her, “track to the source and deal with this busywork of records and report searches so the source confirms you took the bait.”
“All that?” Eve smiled at him. “Handy. Gives me time to tag Janburry and Delfino, put them on Bix so they can wrap him up. They’ll need to time it.”