by J. D. Robb
“You are aware that Lieutenant Oberman is a decorated and ranked officer with a service of nearly eighteen years in the department.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You are further aware that she is the daughter of former Commander Marcus Oberman.”
“I am, sir.”
“And you are willing to swear to these statements in an internal investigation of these officers, possibly in a criminal trial?”
“Yes, sir. I am willing and eager to do so.”
“Eager, Detective?”
“Eager to do my duty as a member of the NYPSD, as an officer who has sworn to protect and serve. I believe—correction, sir—I know these individuals have used their position and authority, have used their badges unethically, immorally, and illegally, and I am eager, Commander, to do whatever I can to stop them from continuing to do so.”
He said nothing more for a moment, then—very quietly—sighed. “Sit down, Detective. Leave her be,” he ordered McNab when the e-man started to go to her. “She doesn’t need you hovering and clucking like a mother hen. She’s a cop, and she’s sure as hell proved it.
“Lieutenant.”
Now Eve stood at attention. “Sir.”
“You waited nearly eight hours to report this matter to command.”
She’d expected this, had her response ready. “Six, sir, as it took time to acquire Detective Peabody’s full and detailed statement, and to determine that the individuals she overheard were, in fact, NYPSD officers. At which time it was my judgment that this matter was best served by attempting to corroborate that statement and those details by locating Keener, and gathering all information possible to present to you.”
She paused a moment, not a hesitation, but a beat to punch a point. “My detective had informed me of a possible homicide. I felt it imperative that I verify.”
“That could work,” Whitney murmured.
Would, she corrected in her head. She’d damn well make it work.
“All actions are on record, sir, for your review. I further determined after the body of Rickie Keener was located, both the scene and the body monitored, to wait approximately oh three hours before so informing you rather than contacting you with this information at three hundred hours. This is a delicate and disturbing process, Commander. I didn’t feel it could be, or should be, rushed.”
He nodded, then he, too, sat. “At ease, Dallas, for Christ’s sake.” He kneaded his brow, then dropped his hands. “Marcus Oberman is one of the finest cops I’ve ever served with. This process, as you call it, will smear his record, his reputation, and his name. And very likely break his heart.”
And here, she thought, may be the stickiest of the sticking points. “I regret that, sir. We will all regret that. However, the daughter isn’t the father.” Her entire life, in many ways, had grown on that single fact.
“I’m aware of that, Lieutenant. I’m aware of that as Renee Oberman has served under me for several years. She is not the cop her father was, but few are. Her record has, so far, been excellent, and her work perfectly acceptable. Her strengths include a forceful personality, an ability to select the right person for the right job, and she’s adept in accessing the details of a situation and streamlining them into a logical pattern. She is, I feel, better suited for administrative and supervisory duties than the street, and—in fact—prefers those duties. She runs her squad with a firm hand and gets results.”
“A lieutenant running a squad should do work that’s more than perfectly acceptable. In my opinion, sir.”
He nearly smiled. “You would home in. In a department the size and scope of the NYPSD, it’s often necessary to—accept the acceptable. There have been no signs, no forewarnings, no leading indicators of this corruption. Lieutenant Oberman is ambitious and has structured her career, has situated herself on a path to a captaincy. I have no doubt she has her eye on my seat, and very likely has a time line for when she’d drop her ass into it.”
“She’s going to be disappointed.”
He did smile now, huffing out a half laugh. “Even prior to this, I’d have done whatever I could to keep her out of the commander’s chair. She doesn’t have the temperament for it. For the politics, for the grips and grins, for the paperwork and public relations, yes. She’d do well. But she lacks compassion, and she sees her men as tools, and the job as a means to an end.”
He doesn’t like her, Eve realized, and wondered if that made his part of the situation easier or more difficult.
“All that said,” he continued, “we have an explosive situation, with the fuse already lit.” He glanced over as Roarke stepped into the room.
“Jack,” Roarke said with a nod.
“At this time only the five people in this room are aware of this situation. Correct?”
“Yes, sir,” Eve agreed. “At this time.”
“Show me the body. More detail.”
“Monitor on-screen,” Eve ordered, and the image flashed.
Whitney sat back, studied. “You chose not to establish TOD or secure any evidence.”
“ID only, Commander. My thoughts were—”
“I know what your thoughts were,” he interrupted. “Run the record, start to finish, on this location.”
Eve followed orders, her face impassive as it played on-screen. Her recorder caught part of the scuffle between Roarke and the street thug.
“Prime move!” McNab’s enthusiasm got the better of him. “Sorry, sir.”
“No need. It was a prime move.” Whitney nodded at Roarke. “Did you break that elbow?”
“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 c
hair, 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.”