by J. D. Robb
Not too friendly, she decided. It should be grudging, with underlying urgency. If she was right about him, he’d love the fact that she needed him, and that he could use her to pump up his own airtime.
Then again, if she was right about him, Nadine could already be dead.
Eve blocked that out. It couldn’t be changed, and regrets could come later.
“Looking for something?”
Eve glanced down. The woman was so perfect, Eve might have been tempted to check for a pulse. Her face could have been carved from alabaster, her eyes painted with liquid emerald, her lips with crushed ruby. On-air talents were often known to leverage their first three years’ salaries against cosmetic enhancement.
Eve figured unless this one had been born very lucky, she’d bet the first five. Her hair was gold-tipped bronze swept up and away from that staggering face. Her voice was trained to a throaty purr that transmitted competent sex.
“Gossip line, right?”
“Social information. Larinda Mars.” She offered a perfect, long-fingered hand with tapered scarlet tips. “And you’re Lieutenant Dallas.”
“Mars. That’s familiar.”
“It should be.” If Larinda was irked that Eve didn’t place her instantly, she hid it well behind a dazzling white-toothed smile and a voice that held the faintest whiff of upper-class Brit. “I’ve been trying for weeks to nail down an interview with you and your fascinating companion. You haven’t returned my messages.”
“Bad habit of mine. Just like thinking my personal life is personal.”
“When you’re involved with a man like Roarke, personal life becomes public domain.” Her gaze skittered down, latched like a hook on a point between Eve’s breasts. “My, my, that’s quite a little bauble. A gift from Roarke?”
Eve bit off an oath, closed her hand over the diamond. She’d taken to playing with it while she was thinking and had forgotten to shove it back under her shirt.
“I’m looking for Morse.”
“Hmmm.” Larinda had already calculated the size and value of the stone. It would make a nice side piece to her broadcast. Cop wears billionaire’s ice. “I might be able to help you with that. And you’ll return the favor. There’s a little soiree at Roarke’s tonight.” She fluttered her incredible two-layer, two-toned lashes. “My invitation must have been lost.”
“That’s Roarke’s deal. Talk to him.”
“Oh.” An expert on button pushing, Larinda leaned back. “So, he runs the show, does he? I suppose when a man’s so used to making decisions, he wouldn’t consult the little woman.”
“I’m nobody’s little woman,” Eve shot back before she could stop herself. She took a breath for control, reevaluated the eerily beautiful face. “Nice one, Larinda.”
“Yes, it was. So, how about a pass for tonight? I can save you a lot of time looking for Morse,” she added, when Eve sent a new narrow-eyed stare around the room.
“Prove it, and we’ll see.”
“He left five minutes before you walked in.” Without looking, Larinda punched the call coming in on her ’link to hold. Practically, she used a slim pointer rather than her expensive manicure. “In a hurry, I’d say, as he nearly knocked me off the ascent. He looked quite ill. Poor baby.”
The venom there had Eve feeling more in tune with Larinda. “You don’t like him.”
“He’s a puss ball,” Larinda said in her melodious voice. “This is a competitive business, darling, and I’m not against stepping on someone’s back now and then to get ahead. Morse is the kind who’d step on you, then sneak in a nice kick to the crotch and never break a sweat. He tried it with me when we were on the social beat together.”
“And how did you handle that?”
She rolled a gorgeous shoulder. “Darling, I eat little weenies like him for breakfast. Still, he wasn’t altogether bad, a whiz with research, and a good camera presence. Just thought he was too manly to scoop up gossip.”
“Social information,” Eve corrected with a thin smile.
“Right. Anyway, I wasn’t sorry to see him shift over to hard news. You won’t find that he’s made many friends there, either. He’s cut Nadine.”
“What?” Bells rang in Eve’s head.
“He wants to anchor, and he wants it solo. Every time he’s on the news desk with her, he pulls little shit. Steps on her lines, adds a few seconds to his own time. Cuts her copy. Once or twice the TelePrompTer’s been screwed up on her copy, too. Nobody could prove it, but Morse is the boy genius with electronics.”
“Is he?”
“We all hate him,” she said cheerfully. “Except upstairs. The brass think he’s good ratings and appreciate his killer instinct.”
“I wonder if they do,” Eve murmured. “Where did he go?”
“We didn’t stop to chat, but the way he looked, I’d say home and bed. He really looked sagged.” She moved her curvy shoulders, sent some classy fragrance wafting up. “Maybe he’s still shaking about finding Louise, and I should have more sympathy, but it’s tough when it’s Morse. Now, about that invitation?”
“Where’s his station?”
Larinda sighed, flipped her call onto message mode and rose. “Over here.” She glided through the aisles, proving that her body was every bit as impressive as her face. “Whatever you’re looking for, you won’t find it.” She sent a wicked smile over her shoulder. “Did he do something? Did they finally pass a law making puss ball tendencies a crime?”
“I just need to talk to him. Why won’t I find anything?”
Larinda paused at a corner cubicle, the console facing out so that anyone sitting behind it had his back to the wall and his eyes on the room. Nice little sign of paranoia, Eve thought.
“He never leaves anything out, not the tiniest memo, the bitsiest note. He locks down his computer if he stands up to scratch his butt. Claims somebody stole some of his research on one of his other gigs. He even uses an audio enhance, so he can whisper on calls and nobody can hear. As if we all strain to catch those golden words from his throat.”
“So, how do you know he uses audio enhance?”
Larinda smiled. “Good one, Lieutenant. His console’s locked, too,” she added. “Discs secured.” She flicked up a glance from under gold-tipped lashes. “Being a detective, you can probably figure out how I know that. Now, the invite?”
The cubicle was perfect, Eve thought. Awfully perfect for someone who had been hard at work, then had dashed out, ill. “Does he have a source at Cop Central?”
“I guess he may, though I can’t imagine an actual human playing ball with Morse.”
“Does he talk about it, brag about it?”
“Hey, in the gospel according to Morse, he’s got top-level sources in the four corners of the universe.” Her voice lost a bit of its sophistication on the dig, and whispered unmistakably of Queens. “But he never scooped Nadine. Well, until the Towers’s murder, but he didn’t last long on that.”
Eve’s heart was pounding now, strong and steady. She nodded, turned on her heel.
“Hey,” Larinda called after her. “How about tonight? Tit for tat, Dallas.”
“No cameras, or you’re out before you’re in,” Eve warned and kept walking.
Because she remembered her days in uniform, and her ambition, Eve requested Peabody as her backup.
“He’s going to remember your face.” Eve waited impatiently as the elevator climbed to the thirty-third floor of Morse’s building. “He’s good with faces. I don’t want you to say anything unless I give you an opening, then keep it brief, official. And look stern.”
“I was born looking stern.”
“Maybe toy with the hilt of your stunner now and again. You could look a little . . . anxious.”
The corner of Peabody’s mouth twitched. “Like I’d like to use it, but can’t in the presence of a superior officer.”
“You got it.” She stepped off the elevator, turned left. “Feeney’s still working on data, so I don’t have as muc
h as I’d like to pressure him with. The fact is, I could be wrong.”
“But you don’t think so.”
“No, I don’t think so. But I was wrong about David Angelini.”
“You built a good circumstantial case, and he looked guilty as hell in interview.” At Eve’s casual glance, Peabody flushed. “Officers involved in a case are entitled to review all data pertaining to said case.”
“I know the drill, Peabody.” Very cool, very official, Eve announced herself through the entrance intercom. “You looking for a detective badge, Officer?”
Peabody squared her shoulders. “Yes, sir.”
Eve merely nodded, announced herself again, and waited. “Walk down the hall, Peabody, see if the emergency exit is secure.”
“Sir?”
“Walk down the hall,” Eve repeated, holding Peabody’s baffled gaze. “That’s an order.”
“Yes, sir.”
The minute Peabody’s back was turned, Eve took out her master code and disengaged the locks. She slid the door open a fraction and had the code back in her bag before Peabody came back.
“Secured, sir.”
“Good. Doesn’t look like he’s home, unless . . . Well, look here, Peabody, the door isn’t fully secured.”
Peabody looked at the door, then back at Eve, and pursed her lips. “I would consider that unusual. We could have a break-in here, Lieutenant. Mr. Morse may be in trouble.”
“You’ve got a point, Peabody. Let’s put this on record.” While Peabody engaged her recorder, Eve slid the door open, drew her weapon. “Morse? This is Lieutenant Dallas, NYPDS. The entrance is unsecured. We suspect a break-in and are entering the premises.” She stepped in, signaled for Peabody to stand tight.
She slipped into the bedroom, checked closets, and skimmed a glance over the communications center that took up more room than the bed.
“No sign of an intruder,” she said to Peabody, then ducked into the kitchen. “Where has our little bird flown?” she wondered. Pulling out her communicator, she contacted Feeney. “Give me everything you’ve got so far. I’m in his apartment, and he’s not.”
“I’m only about halfway there, but I think you’re going to like it. First, the sealed juvie record—and I had to sweat for this one, kid. Little C. J. had a problem with his social science instructor when he was ten. She didn’t give him an A on an assignment.”
“Well, that bitch.”
“That’s what he figured, apparently. He broke into her house, wrecked the place. And killed her little doggie.”
“Jesus, killed her dog?”
“Sliced its throat, Dallas. Ear to floppy ear. Ended up with mandatory therapy, probation, and community service.”
“That’s good.” Eve felt the pieces shifting into place. “Keep going.”
“Okay. I’m here to serve. Our pal drives a brand-new two-passenger Rocket.”
“God bless you, Feeney.”
“More,” he said, preening a bit. “His first adult job was on dispatch at a little station in his own hometown. He quit when another reporter jogged ahead of him to an on-air assignment. A woman.”
“Don’t stop now. I think I love you.”
“All the gold shields do. It’s my pretty face. Got on air on the next gig, weekends only, subbing for the first and second string. Left in a huff, claiming discrimination. Assignment editor, female.”
“Better and better.”
“But here’s the big one. Station he worked at in California. He was making it pretty good there, scrambled up from third string, got a regular spot on the midday, coanchoring.”
“With a woman?”
“Yeah, but that’s not the big guns, Dallas. Wait for it. Pretty little weather girl that was pulling in all the mail. Brass liked her so much they let her do some of the soft features on the midday. Ratings went up when she was on, and she started to get press of her own. Morse quit, citing he refused to work with a nonprofessional. That was just before the little weather girl got her big break, a recurring bit part in a comedy. Want to guess her name?”
Eve closed her eyes. “Tell me it’s Yvonne Metcalf.”
“Give the lieutenant a cigar. Metcalf had a notation about meeting the Dumb Ass from the partly sunny days. I’d say it’s a good bet our boy looked her up in our fair city. Funny he never mentioned they were old pals in his reports. Would’ve given them such a nice shine.”
“I do love you, desperately. I’m going to kiss your ugly face.”
“Hey, it’s lived in. That’s what my wife tells me.”
“Yeah, right. I need a search warrant, Feeney, and I need you here at Morse’s to break down his computer.”
“I’ve already requested the warrant. I’ll have it transmitted to you as soon as it comes in. Then I’m on my way.”
Sometimes the wheels moved smoothly. Eve had the warrant and Feeney within thirty minutes. She did kiss him, enthusiastically enough to have him going red as a hybrid beet.
“Secure the door, Peabody, then take the living area. Don’t bother to be neat.”
Eve swung into the bedroom, two steps ahead of Feeney. He was already rubbing his hands together.
“That’s a beautiful system,” he said. “Whatever his faults, the asshole knows his computers. It’s going to be a pleasure to play with her.” He sat down as Eve started to hunt through drawers.
“Obsessively trendy,” she commented. “Nothing that shows too much sign of wear, nothing too expensive.”
“He’s putting all his money in his toys.” Feeney hunched over, brows knit. “This guy respects his equipment, and he’s careful. There are code blocks everywhere. Jesus, he’s got a fail-safe.”
“What?” Eve straightened up. “On a home unit?”
“He’s got one, all right.” Gingerly, Feeney eased back. “If I don’t use the right code, the data’s zapped. Odds are it’s voice printed, too. It’s not going to let me in easy, Dallas. I’m going to have to bring in some equipment, and it’s going to take time.”
“He’s on the run. I know he’s on the run. He knew we were coming after him.”
Rocking back on her heels, she considered the possibilities: leaks—human—or electronic leaks.
“Call in your best man to come over here. You take the computer at the station. That’s where he was when he ran.”
“It’s going to be a long night.”
“Lieutenant.” Peabody came to the door. Her face was impassive, but for the eyes. And the eyes were on fire. “I think you’d better see this.”
In the living room, Peabody gestured to the blocky platform sofa. “I was giving it the once-over. Probably would have missed it, except my dad likes to build stuff. He was always putting in hidden drawers and hidey-holes. We got a kick out of it, used to play hidden treasure. I got curious when I saw the knob on the side. It looks like an ordinary decorative device that simulates old-fashioned turn bolts.” She stepped around the front of the couch and gestured.
Eve could almost feel the vibrations rising from her skin.
Peabody’s voice rose slightly in octave. “Hidden treasure.”
Eve felt her heart kick once, hard. There in a long, wide drawer that slid from under the cushions lay a purple umbrella and a high-heeled red-and-white-striped shoe.
“Got him.” Eve turned to Peabody with a fierce and powerful grin. “Officer, you’ve just taken one giant step toward your detective shield.”
“My man says you’re harassing him.”
Eve scowled at Feeney’s face in her communicator. “I’m simply asking him for periodic updates.” She paced away from the sweepers who were scanning the living area of Morse’s apartment. They had the lights on high. The sun was going down.
“And interrupting his flow. Dallas, I told you this would be slow work. Morse was an expert on compuscience. He knew all the tricks.”
“He’d have written it down, Feeney. Like a fucking news report. And if he’s got Nadine, that’s on one of those damned discs, too.�
�
“I’m with you on that, kid, but breathing down my man’s neck isn’t going to free up the data any quicker. Give us some space here, for Christ’s sake. Don’t you have a fancy do tonight?”
“What?” She grimaced. “Oh hell.”
“Go put on your party dress and leave us alone.”
“I’m not going to dress up like some brainless idiot and eat canapés while he’s out there.”
“He’s going to be out there, whatever you’re wearing. Listen up, we’ve got a citywide net out on him, his car. His apartment’s under heavy surveillance, so’s the station. You can’t help us here. This part’s my job.”
“I can—”
“Slow up the process by making me talk to you,” he snapped. “Go away, Dallas. The minute I get anything, the first byte, I’ll call you in.”
“We’ve got him, Feeney. We’ve got the who, the what.”
“Let me try to find the where. If Nadine Furst is still alive, every minute counts.”
That was what haunted her. She wanted to argue, but there was no ammunition. “Okay, I’ll go, but—”
“Don’t call me,” Feeney interrupted. “I’ll call you.” He broke transmission before she could swear at him.
Eve was trying hard to understand relationships, the importance of balancing lives and obligations, the value of compromise. What she had with Roarke was still new enough to fit snugly, like a vaguely uncomfortable shoe, and lovely enough to keep wearing it until it stretched to accommodate.
So she dashed into the bedroom at a full run, saw him standing in the dressing area, and launched into the offense strategy.
“Don’t give me any grief about being late. Summerset already handled that.” She whipped off her harness, tossed it on a chair. Roarke finished securing a square of gold to his cuff, hands elegant, steady.
“You don’t answer to Summerset.” He looked at her then, a brief flick of the eyes as she tugged off her shirt. “Nor to me.”