The In Death Collection, Books 21-25

by J. D. Robb

  “Ms. Bullock is a liar and a pervert and a coward. You shouldn’t discuss plans for murder and kidnapping in front of the servants, Madeline. Even droids, especially droids, as they keep records.”

  Eve flipped open a file. “Got a voice-print match right here, with you telling Win to kill Natalie Copperfield.”

  “That’s impossible. We were alone when I—”

  “When you gave him the orders,” Eve finished when Madeline cut herself off. “You know, people like you are oblivious to servants. You probably thought you were alone.” She closed the file.

  “I’ve got Randall Sloan’s records—your boy messed up there and didn’t find the second safe. I’ve got multiple corroborating statements, and Tandy’s firsthand account. I’ve got ’link transmissions you didn’t have time to delete before your arrest that add further weight to the mountain of evidence. Give it up, Madeline. At least your son had enough pride to take credit for what he considered his work. Work you assigned him.”

  “I have nothing more to say.”

  “Okay.” Eve rose. “I’ve got you for conspiracy to murder, multiple counts. That’s going to put you in an off-planet facility, several life terms. And that’s before the Feds, Global, the Brits, the Italians weigh in. How long do you think she’ll keep those classy looks in an off-planet cage, Peabody?”

  “Six months, outside.”

  “I’ll go with that. You won’t be getting bail, and your lawyers will tell you the same—no matter how they try to sweet-talk the judge. You’re a prime flight risk. You’re going to want to deal after another day or two in The Tombs, but when I walk out of this room, there will be no deal.”

  She headed for the door.

  “Lieutenant.” It was one of the lawyers who called out, then leaned in to murmur in Madeline’s ear.

  “I certainly will not consider it.” She tossed her head. “She’s bluffing. She doesn’t have half what she claims. She’s bluffing.”

  Eve smiled as she opened the door, then spared one last look back. “No, I’m not.”

  “You didn’t want her to deal,” Peabody said when they walked away.

  “No, I didn’t. She’s worse than her son could ever be. She created him, she corrupted him and used him. She’s worse and I want to imagine her living the next fifty years or so in a concrete cage. Go home, Peabody. You did good.”

  “I go when you go.”

  Eve sighed. “Then let’s get this damn thing written up, and get the hell out of here.”

  She might have been walking in the door by six, but Eve was ready to admit she was dragging her ass to do it. She wanted a long soak in the jet tub, and an entire bottle of wine followed by lazy sex with her husband before sleeping for ten hours straight.

  She wanted the image of Madeline Bullock stroking the body of her son out of her head.

  Because she heard the music coming out of the parlor, and Mavis’s voice piping through it, Eve knew she might have to wait just a little longer before soaking, sex, and sleep.

  Mavis was sitting back in a chair, her feet on a hassock while Summerset passed her a cup of tea—which explained why he hadn’t been looming in the foyer. Leonardo sat beaming at her, while Roarke sipped at wine with an indulgent look in his eye.

  “I feel so pampered. Not that you don’t take mag care of me, sugar lips,” she said to Leonardo. “But today’s been like a little vacation or something. Summerset, you should come live with us.”

  “Take him, he’s yours,” Eve said as she walked in.

  “Dallas! Dallas!”

  “Don’t get up.” Eve waved her back. “It’ll take you too long and I’m going to sit anyway.” She did, on the arm of Roarke’s chair so she could cop his wine.

  “Tandy’s resting. She’s been up and around today, and Summerset said she’s doing just fine.” Mavis sent him an adoring look. “He treated us both like pregnant princesses.”

  “You’ve had a trying few days, both of you. Have one of these canapés.” He held out the tray. “They’re your favorite.”

  “I’m not really hungry, but maybe one. Or two. We’re taking Tandy home with us when she wakes up, get out of your hair. She’s not ready to go home alone yet. Though that may not be the situation for long.”

  “Hmm?” It was the best Eve could do as her mind was already starting to float.

  “Aaron’s tagged her here a half-dozen times today. Her boyfriend? He’s so sweet, so groveling. They’ve talked and talked. She cried a lot, but she laughed, too. He wanted—begged, actually—to come over to see her today, but she just wasn’t ready. But she said he could come by our place tonight. He asked her to marry him.”

  “Nice.”

  “She didn’t say yes yet, but she will. She told me it was all she ever wanted, and that maybe all this happened so they can be a stronger family. I knew you’d find her, Dallas.”

  “So you said.”

  “I can’t say it enough. I can’t tell you what it all means, what you did. You and Roarke, and Peabody, McNab, Baxter, that cutie Trueheart. I hope those terrible people sit in a cell in their own body waste until their faces rot off.”

  “Teddy bear,” Leonardo murmured, and she winced.

  “I know. Out with the bad energy, in with the good.” Mavis shifted in her chair. “But I can’t help it. She told me everything that happened.”

  “Wrapped up. Confessions all around, except for Bullock. But I didn’t push too hard for one there. Didn’t need it, and I like watching her try to squirm and writhe.”

  “Busy little bee,” Roarke put in.

  “We’re going to get out of your hive.” Mavis shifted again, winced again.

  “Mavis?” Leonardo came half out of his seat.

  “Just sitting wrong, that’s all. Hard to get comfortable these days. Only ten days to go. Help me up, baby doll, so I can work these kinks out.”

  As he drew her to her feet, Tandy waddled in. “I’m sorry. Oh, hello, Dallas, Roarke. I want to thank you, so much, and there’s so much I want to say. But I’m afraid my water just broke.”

  “Really?” Mavis squealed it as Eve went pale. “Oh, boy, oh, boy! Tandy.” She hurried, as fast as possible, to take her friend’s hands. “We’re going to have a baby! You want us to call Aaron, don’t you?”

  “I do.” The sunlight switched on in Tandy’s face. “I really do.”

  “Don’t you worry about a thing. Leonardo will go by and get your bag at your place, and I’ll go with you to the birthing center. And we’ll…Oh. Uh-oh.”

  Mavis pressed a hand to the side of her belly, hunching a bit, breathing out. “Wow. Gee. Oops. I kind of think maybe I’m in labor.”

  Eve pressed her fingers to her eyes as Leonardo bounded across the room like a drunken bull. “That’s just perfect.”

  “Both of them?” Roarke gripped Eve’s hand, pushed to his feet, pulling her with him. “Now? Both?”

  “Just bloody hell perfect.”

  Hadn’t she just run an op that had taken down two international criminals? And during which, hadn’t she personally kicked a killer in the balls?

  Hadn’t she just faced a personal demon by sitting in Interview with Bullock and seeing her own father’s face?

  She could handle this. Please God.

  But she had two women in labor in her parlor squealing at each other and talking so fast the words were a shiny blur, one expectant father who looked as if he was going to pass out at any moment. And her own husband, who was notoriously cool-headed, had just—literally—shoved her toward the insanity.

  When she glanced over her shoulder to glare at him, he merely pointed at her and gulped down the rest of his wine.

  “Okay, stop! Stop! Here’s what we’re going to do.”

  The squealing and babbling cut off as if she’d sliced through it with a laser, and all eyes turned to her. Since her first clear thought was to scream wildly for Summerset, she bit down ruthlessly on her own rising hysteria.

  “Right. Everybody’s g
oing to get in one of the all-terrains, and we’re going to go to the birthing center.

  “But I need my bag.” Tandy rubbed her belly, breathed out in little puffs. “I have to have it. It has my music and my focus—”

  “Me, too, me, too.” Mavis pressed a hand to the small of her back. “If we don’t have our bags—”

  “And here’s what we’re going to do next. I’ll get Peabody and McNab to go by both your places, get both bags. But we’re going. Now.”

  “Ladies, you need your coats.” Roarke stepped up, laid a bolstering hand on Eve’s shoulder. “Sorry, I clutched,” he said to her. “Ah, Summerset, just who we need. We need a vehicle brought around right away.”

  “Are you in labor, Tandy?”

  “My water broke, and Mavis is having contractions.”

  “Isn’t that lovely,” he said with a calm that made Eve want to punch him even harder than she usually wanted to. “You’ll have your babies together. Mavis, how far apart are the contractions?”

  “I forgot to time.” Ripe panic bubbled out of Leonardo. “I forgot to time.”

  “It’s all right. Did you just start to have contractions?” Summerset asked her.

  “I think I’ve sort of been having them off and on for a couple hours. Maybe three.”

  “A couple hours.” Eve heard that same ripe panic come out of her mouth. “Jesus, Mavis.”

  “It’s perfectly fine.” Summerset shot Eve a damning look. “Tandy, when was your last contraction?”

  “Um. More or less now.” She took a slow breath.

  “I need to time!” Leonardo threw his long arms in the air. “I need to time.”

  “No.” Eve pointed a finger at Leonardo. “We need to go.”

  “Has anyone contacted the midwife?” Summerset asked.

  “Shit.” Eve pulled at her hair. “You call her,” she ordered Summerset. “Tell her we’re heading in, carrying two. And contact Peabody, have her and McNab pick up the baby bags in Tandy’s and Mavis’s apartments. Apparently if we don’t have them, we’re doomed. And you need to contact Aaron Applebee.”

  “Oh, yes, please.” Tandy beamed.

  “Tell him where we’re going and why.”

  “Certainly, now, ladies, sit down.”

  “Sit down! No sitting,” Eve snapped. “Going.”

  “These things take time. You be comfortable while we get your coats and the proper vehicle warmed up for you. Tandy, wouldn’t you like to speak to your Aaron yourself?”

  “Yes. Yes, thank you, I really would.”

  Summerset took a ’link out of his pocket, offered it. “I’ll just contact the midwife, and I’ll be back in a moment with your coats.”

  Whatever his legion of faults, Summerset was efficient—Eve had to admit it. Within fifteen minutes they were driving through the gates. All of them, including Summerset, at Mavis’s and Tandy’s insistence.

  There was constant chatter—about dilation, contractions, focus points, breast-feeding. Eve thought nostalgically of the last time she’d ridden with a crew on a mission. The chatter of cops, the possibility of death or injury.

  It had been a lot less stressful.

  Twice on the drive, Leonardo had to put his head between his knees. She couldn’t really blame him.

  “I’m going to drop them off at the entrance, then park.” Roarke slid a glance toward Eve. “I’m not going to keep driving until I get to Mexico. I’ll be right along. My word.”

  “Just remember, if you’re not, I’ll hunt you down, disarticulate all your limbs, then feed them to small, ugly dogs.”

  “Noted.”

  They were greeted inside by two bright-eyed, cheerful nurses, but Eve’s relief in passing the burden was short-lived.

  “You have to come with us.”

  “Come with you?” She goggled at Mavis. “Leonardo—”

  “He has to check us in.” Mavis grabbed Eve’s hand and clung. “You have to come. Uh-oh.”

  Recognizing the signs now, Eve looked at Summerset. “She’s having another one.”

  “Yes, that’s how it’s done. Go along with her. I’ll bring Leonardo and Roarke.”

  It didn’t seem fair, it didn’t seem right, that she should have to take any part of this solo. But Mavis’s hand was glued to hers, and the nurses were leading them all away.

  “You’re not going to shoot anything out before the rest of the team’s in place, right?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Plenty of time.” Mavis’s nurse smiled at Eve. “I’m Dolly, and I’ll be taking care of you, Mavis. Randa will be here soon.”

  “I’m Opal. We’ll just get both of you settled in your room and see how far you’ve progressed. I didn’t see your bags.”

  “Somebody’s bringing them.” Tandy found Eve’s free hand, grabbed it. “We weren’t home when we started. My boyfriend—fiancé—the baby’s father, he’s coming.”

  “We’ll make sure he’s sent right up to you. Don’t worry, Mommy. It’s the first for both of you, isn’t it? And you’re friends, having babies at the same time. Isn’t that fun?”

  “A barrel of monkeys,” Eve muttered.

  22

  SHE HATED HOSPITALS. IT DIDN’T MATTER IF they put pictures of angelic babies on the pastel walls, arranged small, gardenlike seating areas, and wrapped the staff with rainbows. It was still a hospital—a place where doctors and machines took over your body, and there was usually some sort of pain involved.

  It was no doubt due to Mavis’s celebrity status that she was taken to a birthing room that was appointed like a high-end hotel suite. Bathed in the spillover glory, Tandy was settled into a plush room across the hall.

  Eve’s hopes that all she’d be called on to do, for the moment, was get her charges where they were going were quickly dashed. The only way Mavis would release the vicelike grip on her hand was with the promise Eve would go over, check on Tandy, and come right back.

  “Leonardo and I were going to be with her. And now we’re at countdown, too. She doesn’t have anyone until Aaron gets here.”

  Since Eve was prepared to treat both women as she would a dangerous, wounded animal, she patted Mavis’s white-knuckled hand. “Sure, no problem. I’m on it.”

  She walked over, pushed open the door, and found herself staring at a completely naked, enormously pregnant woman being helped into a short blue gown.

  “Jesus.” Eve slapped her hand over her eyes. “Sorry. Mavis wanted to be sure you were okay.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about me.” Tandy’s voice was cheerful and bright. “You need to be with her now.”

  “No problem. I’m going.”

  “Oh, oh, Dallas. Do you think you could reach Aaron again? Make sure he’s on his way.”

  “You bet.” She turned, went back over, and was flashed with a naked Mavis. “Please, in the name of all that’s holy and good, will someone cover these women?”

  Mavis giggled as Dolly slipped a gown in mad swirls of blue and pink over her head. “Is Tandy all right? Is Leonardo coming? Is Aaron?”

  “She’s fine. I’ll check.”

  Desperate to escape, Eve darted into the hall. There she determined that Aaron had finally gotten into a cab, and Leonardo had just completed the check-ins.

  “Courage,” she reminded herself, and went back into Mavis.

  “Hey! I’m wired!” She was sitting up in bed, flushed with excitement. “See, that’s the baby’s heartbeat, and that one’s to measure contractions.”

  Dolly snapped on a protective glove. “We’re just going to do a cervical check.”

  God have mercy. “I’ll be in the hall.”

  “No, don’t leave!” Mavis shot out a hand. Resigned to the idea there was no God, Eve took it as Mavis assumed the position.

  “Leonardo’s on his way up,” Eve told her, careful to keep her eyes trained on Mavis’s face.

  “About three centimeters,” Dolly announced. “You’ve got plenty of time, so be comfortable. Let me kno
w if I can get you anything. And you, Dallas, is that right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What can I get you?”

  “A huge glass of wine.”

  Dolly laughed. “Now, now, no alcohol until the toast after baby. How about a nice cup of tea?”

  Eve started to ask for coffee, then remembered hospital sludge was as bad as cop coffee. “Got Pepsi?”

  “Of course.”

  “Moonpie!” Mavis called out when Leonardo came in, carrying an emormous vase of yellow roses. “Aw, you brought me flowers and I haven’t even had the baby yet.”

  “They’re like sunshine, so you can focus on them until the bag gets here.” He leaned over, kissed her gently on the forehead. “Are you all right? Should I get you ice chips, the stability ball? Do you want music?”

  “I’m mag. Three centimeters and counting. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m so glad you’re all here. It’s just like I pictured it. Summerset, would you be an abso angel and be with Tandy until…Oh! Here comes a little one.”

  Since Leonardo was there to hover, Eve stepped away to stand with Roarke. “I saw them naked, both of them, and now I’m scared for life. The human body isn’t meant to stretch like that.”

  “I’m more concerned about other areas of their body stretching.”

  “Oh, please.”

  “That wasn’t so bad,” Mavis said cheerfully, then she gave Leonardo a gooey look. “Honey bear? You know what you asked me before. Last week, and last month, and the month before that?”

  He had both of her hands in his, and pressed them to his heart. “Angel Eyes!”

  “Yes.”

  Eve averted her own eyes as they engaged in the sort of intense liplock that had likely been the precursor to the current situation.

  “We’re getting married!” Mavis sang out.

  “No shit?” Eve responded.

  “Absolutely none. We’re going to be totally hitched.”

  “I’ve been asking her for months.” Leonardo’s face shone like a copper moon. “And finally! I’m going to design you the most fantastic wedding gown.”

  “Oh, but no. Honey-pie, we have to do it now. Before the baby comes.”