by J. D. Robb
“You take on the job, you take on the risks. Someone’s always reminding me of that.”
She opened her eyes now, looked at him. “Must be tempting to smack her back for being such a tight-ass know-it-all.”
“Oh, infinitely.” He played his fingers lightly over her cheek. “But someone’s always beating me to it.”
She smiled now. “I don’t get hit in the face every couple weeks anymore, I don’t feel right. I’m okay.”
“Yes, you are.”
She was steady again when she strode into the hospital admission’s lobby. Steady enough to snap like a wolf at the dozen reporters already camped out and trying to sniff out a story.
“No comment.”
“Your name was brought up as part of the negotiation team that brought about Captain Ryan Feeney’s release. Why was Homicide part of this team?”
“No comment.”
“A police source has stated that Detective Kevin Halloway fired on several other detectives, took Captain Feeney hostage within the Electronic Detectives Division of Cop Central and subsequently was killed during the incident.”
She shoved her way through the encroaching reporters, and—oops—knocked over a camera. “Perhaps you didn’t hear the no portion of the phrase ‘no comment.’ ”
“Did you terminate Detective Halloway in your efforts to obtain Captain Feeney’s release?”
She turned at that, her eyes flat as a shark’s. “Commander Whitney, along with the chief of police and the Mayor of New York will be briefing the media on today’s events within the hour. If you want to feed, go chew on that bone. I’m just here to visit a sick friend.”
“Why’d he do it?” someone shouted as she bullied her way to the elevators. “What kind of cops do you have working down there?”
“The kind who lay it down to serve and protect, even when it involves vultures like you. Goddamn it,” she muttered the minute she was inside the elevator. She punched the wall, causing the elderly woman half-buried in a flower arrangement to try to melt into the corner of the car. “That’s going to be tonight’s revolving sound bite. I know better, better than to let them get under my skin.”
“It would have to be made of reinforced steel not to get pricked now and then, Lieutenant. And as sound bites go, I thought it a strong and pithy one.”
“Pithy, my butt. Damn it, I didn’t get what floor he’s on.”
“I did. Twelve. Madam.” Roarke smiled winningly at their elevator companion. “Your floor?”
“I can get off anywhere.” She noticed the weapon peeking out from under Eve’s jacket. “Anywhere at all.”
“It’s all right.” Smooth and handsome in his business suit, he kept his voice light, friendly. “She’s the police. That’s a beautiful flower arrangement.”
“Yes. Well. My granddaughter just had a baby. A boy.”
“Congratulations. You’d like Maternity, I imagine. Ah, six.” Once he had their destinations, he turned back to her, careful to keep his body blocking Eve’s gun. “I hope mother and son are doing well.”
“Yes, thank you. It’s my first great-grandchild. They’ve named him Luke Andrew.”
She slid her gaze cautiously toward Eve when the elevator doors opened to six. Holding the flowers like a shield, she scurried out.
“What? Do I look like I stomp on old ladies for recreation?”
Roarke angled his head. “Actually—”
“Just keep that silk tongue of yours still.”
“That’s not what you said last night.”
And because he made her laugh, she was able to head down to McNab’s room with less weight on her shoulders. It dropped right back on when she stepped in, saw Peabody sitting by the bed, and McNab in it.
He looked too young, lying there with his eyes closed, face white, so white against white sheets. They’d taken his body adornments, she thought. He looked naked, vulnerable, wrong without his complement of earrings.
Skinny shoulders, Eve thought with a wave of worry. The guy had skinny shoulders and they didn’t belong under some drab hospital gown. He needed something bright, bold, silly over that half-assed body of his.
His hair was loose so that all that sunny blond looked too shiny, too healthy against the rest of him.
She hated hospitals. They stripped you down to flesh and bone, left you weak and alone in some narrow bed where machines clocked your every breath.
“Can’t we get him out of here?” she heard herself say. “Can’t we—”
“I’ll arrange it,” Roarke whispered in her ear.
Of course he would. He’d arrange everything while she stood here, stuck in the damn doorway. Annoyed with herself, Eve stepped inside. “Peabody.”
Peabody’s head snapped up. Eve could see she’d been crying. Her hand slid across the sheet, covered McNab’s.
“He’s out. The doctor says he’s doing okay. He took a pretty hard hit, but . . . I appreciate you letting me leave the scene to ride with him.”
“I heard he’d come out of it.”
“Yeah, he . . .” Peabody stopped, took one long breath, and seemed to draw herself in. “He went in and out a few times. He was vague on what happened, but he was coherent. They didn’t find any brain damage. It gave his heart a pretty bad punch, and I think they’re a little worried because the beat’s still irregular. And his, um, his right side’s numb yet. They think that’s temporary, but right now he can’t move his arm or leg on that side.”
“Gonna walk funny.” The voice was a bit slurry, but brought everyone’s attention to McNab’s face. His eyes were still closed, but his mouth curved up, just a little, in an attempt to smile that ripped at Eve’s belly.
“You in there, McNab?”
“Yeah.” He tried to swallow. “Yeah, Lieutenant, all present and accounted for. She-Body?”
“Right here.”
“I could use some water or something. A brew’d be nice.”
“You get water.” She snatched a covered cup, brought the straw to his lips. After two shallow sips, he turned his head away. “I don’t smell any flowers. Guy ends up in the hospital, people are supposed to bring him some damn flowers.”
“I got a little distracted on my way to the gift shop.” Eve moved over to the right side of the bed. “Had to kick a few reporters.”
He opened his eyes. They were green, and they were clouded. From drugs or pain she couldn’t be sure, but to Eve’s mind one was as bad as the other.
“Did you get the captain out? I can’t remember—”
“He’ll be coming by to see you as soon as he gets out from under the paperwork. He’s fine.”
“Halloway.”
“He didn’t make it.”
“Jesus. Jesus.” McNab closed his eyes again. “What the hell happened?”
“You tell me.”
“I . . . I can’t get it clear.”
“Take it easy for a while, then we’ll talk about it.”
“You laying off me that fast? I must be in pretty bad shape. Peabody, if I croak, you get my vid collection.”
“That’s not funny.”
“Okay, okay, you can have all the earrings, too. But my cousin Sheila’s going to be pretty pissed. Can somebody help me sit up some here?”
“The doctor said you were supposed to rest.” But Peabody was already bringing the bed up to a reclined sitting position.
“If I croak—”
“Will you stop saying that.”
He managed a grin while Peabody scowled with her face close to his. “How about you lay one on me?”
“I’ll lay one on you.” She muttered it, then pressed her mouth gently to his.
When she glanced over, she noted Eve was staring fixedly at the ceiling. “Sorry,” Peabody murmured. “Just indulging the dying guy.”
“No problem.” She looked around when she heard Roarke come in. He nodded, then walked to the foot of the bed. “There seems to be an inordinate amount of attractive female medical personnel o
n this level, Ian. But I don’t suppose you’ve noticed.”
“Blast didn’t screw up my vision.”
“That being the case, you may not want to change locations. Summerset, while efficient, isn’t quite so pretty.”
“Sorry. Huh?”
“The lieutenant thought you’d be happier recovering elsewhere. We’ve a room for you at home, but it lacks attractive female medical personnel.”
“You’d spring me?” The faintest hint of color crept into his cheeks. “To your place?”
“Your doctor wants another look at you first, but we should be able to transport you in an hour or two. If that suits you.”
“I don’t know what to say. That’s so solid. Lieutenant—”
“Yeah, yeah.” Eve shifted her feet. “Let’s see how grateful you are once Summerset’s poking at you. I’ve got stuff to do.”
“He looked sick,” McNab said and stopped Eve before she turned for the door.
“Halloway?”
“Yeah, I was coming in from a field assignment, and he was by the cooler. He got really pissy. Mean and aggressive. Not like him. He could be a pain time to time. Full of himself, but we got along. We were in the squad together two years.”
He closed his eyes again. “Jesus. I don’t get it. He came down on me like he wanted to taste some blood. Wasn’t just what he said—you ride each other just for kicks half the time. You know how it is.”
“Sure.” Eve moved back to the bed. “But this wasn’t just riding.”
“No. It was how he said it, how he looked at me when he did. Got me hot enough to suggest we go down to the gym and pound on each other, but the captain came in and broke it up. He didn’t look good. Halloway. All sweaty and his eyes were blown. Your eyes get fucked sometimes with all the data, but his were bad. I went back to my cube, he went to his. I forgot about it.”
“Did you speak with him again? See him speak or have an altercation with anyone else?”
“No. I had to get this report out. And there was a search and scan on a couple ’links I’d been putting off because they promised to bore my brains out. I got some coffee, bullshitted with Gates. Got stuck with a transmission from some woman who thinks her computer’s possessed by aliens. We get those all the time. We’ve got this routine we walk them through to. . . Doesn’t matter. I’m just off that call, and I hear somebody yell. Somebody’s yelling in EDD half the time, but this was different. This was trouble. I swung around to see what the hell was going on.”
He stopped there. Eve could hear the monitor’s rapid beeps. His heart rate was up, she thought. Time to back off.
“Okay, we’ll get the rest tomorrow.”
“No. No, I remember how it went. I saw him coming at me. It didn’t click through all the circuits at once. I mean, jeez, why would Halloway be charging at me with his weapon out? Doesn’t compute. His face . . .He looked crazy, and he was already sweeping out streams like some combat cop laying down suppressive fire. Somebody screamed. I jumped up . . . started to jump up. I didn’t have my weapon on. Hardly any of us wear it when we’re working. I think maybe I was going to dive for cover. I think maybe I started to. Then bam—a couple of elephants plowed into my chest, and I was gone. How many of us did he take out?”
“Three others took jolts, and were treated and released on-scene. You got the worst of it.”
“Just my luck. Halloway, he was okay before this. We’d rag on each other now and again, but just the way you do. We didn’t have bad blood between us. He liked his work, and there’s this skirt he was gone enough over that they were going to get married. He bitched about Feeney sometimes. Thought the captain was old-fashioned or something, but everybody bitches about the ranks off and on. It doesn’t make sense he’d come at me that way. Something’s wrong about this.”
“Something’s wrong about it,” she agreed.
“I need to be in on the investigation.”
Yeah, she thought, he did. In his place, she’d have needed it. “There’ll be a full briefing tomorrow, nine hundred, my home office. Meanwhile, you’d better get back in shape because I don’t have time to carry you around.”
“Yes, sir. Thanks.”
“We’ve got to go stock the AutoChef with gruel and other tasty invalid food. See you around.”
“The gruel was a nice touch,” Roarke told her as they walked down the hall.
“I thought so.”
“Put a nice happy glow on his face.”
“Lieutenant! Dallas!”
She turned to see Peabody hustling down the hallway, then took a staggering step back when her aide caught her in a fierce embrace. “Thanks. Thank you.”
“Oh, jeez.” Mortified, Eve lifted a hand, patted Peabody awkwardly on the back. “Okay.”
“His heart stopped. During the transpo. They had to zap him. It was only a few seconds, but I thought: What’ll I do? What’ll I do? He’s such an asshole,” Peabody said and burst into tears.
“Man. God. Roarke.”
“An interesting and flattering lineup,” Roarke said to his wife’s strangled call for help. “Here now, darling.” Gently, he eased Peabody’s death grip on Eve and with his arm around her led her into a small waiting area. He sat her down and dabbed at her cheeks with a handkerchief.
Eve shuffled her feet, then sat. Then rubbed a hand over Peabody’s thigh. “You’re just going to puff up his ego if he finds out you’re crying over him. He’s already hard to live with.”
“I know. Sorry. It was, I guess it was hearing him say how it went down. It’s got my brain all scrambled up.”
“There’s a lot of that going around.”
Peabody managed a watery laugh and laid her head on Roarke’s shoulder. Such was her state of mind that the physical contact didn’t cause her to experience the usual sexual tingle. “You guys are the ult. Seriously. Taking him in for a few days while his system levels out.”
“Well.” Eve sighed. Friendship, she thought, could be so damn inconvenient. “He’s bound to be pretty demanding. I’m sure as hell not going to be his private nurse. You’re going to have to come along and take that duty.”
Peabody’s lips trembled. Her eyes filled again.
“Don’t! Don’t do that again. That’s an order.”
“Yes, sir.” She let out an enormous sigh. “I’m going to go stick my head under a faucet before I go back in with him. I’ll keep him out of your hair, Dallas.”
“See that you do.”
Eve sat where she was a moment after Peabody walked out. “Don’t make any smart comments about me being a soft touch,” Eve warned. “Or you’ll be glad we happen to be in a medical facility when you regain full consciousness.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Roarke rubbed a hand over hers. “Lieutenant Softie.”
She slanted him a look, but got to her feet without resorting to violence. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
She let him drive home because she wanted to think. Electronics weren’t her strong suit. In fact, she and technology fought an ongoing war, and so far she’d lost most of the battles.
Feeney was captain of EDD because he was a good cop, and because he not only understood the strange world of electronics, he had a lifelong love affair with it. She could count on McNab, if he was physically up to it. He brought a young, fresh, innovative hand to the field.
And, after today, she could expect the full cooperation of every cop, drone, and droid in EDD.
But she had one more weapon, and it was sitting beside her, making her clunky departmental vehicle purr like a kitten as it darted through the misery of evening traffic.
She might have been Roarke’s wife, and the wheel of the deal was his favorite pastime. Okay, second favorite, she corrected with a smirk. But electronics was his well-loved mistress.
“We need to get into Cogburn’s unit,” she began. “We need to take it apart and put every chip, every circuit, every board under a scope. And we need to do that fast, without whoever’s working on
it turning into a homicidal maniac. Any ideas?”
“I might have a few. I might take the time and trouble to refine them, if I were officially attached to the investigation. Expert consultant, civilian.”
Yeah, she thought. Always a deal to wheel. “I’ll consider it, after I hear the ideas.”
“I’ll discuss the ideas, after you consider it.”
She only scowled and tagged Morris on the in-dash ’link.
His preliminary exam on Halloway showed the same massive intercranial pressure. Unexplained.
Early test results on Cogburn’s brain tissue indicated some unidentified viral infection.
She frowned as they drove through the gates toward home. “Computers get viruses.”
“Not biological viruses,” Roarke pointed out. “A sick computer can and does infect other computers, but not its operator.”
“This one did.” She was dead sure of it. “Subliminal programming geared to mind control? We’ve dealt with that kind of thing before.”
“We have.” And he was considering it. He veered away from the house toward the garage to save Summerset the annoyance of remoting it there later. “As I said, I’ve some ideas.”
She got out in what she thought of as his vehicular toy warehouse. She’d never understand what one man needed with twenty cars, three jet-bikes, a minicopter, and a couple of all-terrains. And that didn’t count the ones he had stashed elsewhere.
“I’ll run consultant status by the commander. Temporary consultant status.”
“I really think I ought to get a badge this time.” He grabbed her hand. “Let’s have a walk.”
“A what?”
“A walk,” he repeated, drawing her outside. “It’s a nice evening, and will likely be the last we’ll have to ourselves for a bit of time. I’ve a yen to take the air with you, Lieutenant.” He lowered his head, kissed her lightly. “Or maybe it’s just a yen for you.”
Chapter 6
She didn’t mind walking. Though she preferred pacing for exercising the brain.
And really, this was more meandering, so that she had to check her stride twice to cut it back to his pace.