Connections in Death (In Death #48)(78)

He looked back at Eve now, but never quite met her eyes.

“I told him it was crazy. I thought he listened. After, I was afraid to say anything. Afraid he’d kill me. He needs to be locked away. He’s dangerous. You need to put him away.”

“You knew two people were going to be murdered.”

“I advised against it.”

“You knew a third person, Barry Aimes, was going to be murdered.”

“No, I swear.” He sent her a look, direct and pleading. “I didn’t know, exactly. Maybe he talked about dumping something right on Fan Ho’s doorstep, but I didn’t know.”

“Come on, Peabody. I’ve had enough of this asshole. Dallas and Peabody exiting interview.”

Peabody trotted out after her.

“He was lying about Jones,” Peabody said as she hurried toward the conference room Eve had booked.

“Yeah, he was. Good for you, Peabody.”

“Well, he wasn’t even very good at it. I just don’t get why. Why lie when that kills the deal?”

“Because he’s not just a sleazy disbarred lawyer, he’s a lousy one—which is why he doesn’t really understand what he agreed to. It’s all not going in a cage for him. He thinks with what he gave us on Jones, what he’ll give the feds, we’ll have Jones wrapped up tight. Jones denies the murders, who’s going to believe him? Why would we, in Cohen’s opinion, actually dig down and work the case? He gave us the killer, done and done.

“Get everything we have on Banger HQ and the players ready for the briefing,” she said when they reached the conference room. “Strong’s heading the Dragon end, so work in what she gets.”

“All over it and back again in a freaking bow. What about the illegals and fraud equipment Cohen claims to know about outside the HQ?”

“That’s Teasdale’s.”

“Yeah.” Peabody huffed out a breath. “Is it okay I feel a little pissy about that?”

“Yeah, then swallow it down.” Eve already had. “Because we’re going to bag a bunch of bad guys.”

While Peabody worked, Eve tagged Feeney.

He said, “Yo. Just caught me, heading out.”

“You’re going to want to head back. I need a couple of e-teams. Combat ready. We’re hitting Bangers’ and Dragons’ HQs. We’re going to have a party.”

“I’ll get my party hat.”

“Conference room two, as soon as you can get here.”

She broke off with him, texted Roarke.

It’s going down in about an hour. Going to brief the teams in about ten.

She contacted the commander, finished up as Roarke’s response came through.

I’m with you, Lieutenant.

“Yeah,” she murmured. “I know it.”

She took the photos Peabody generated to the board. Jones, Ho—primary targets. Then the lieutenants. As she arranged them, Eve studied them again.

“This one here.” She tapped a photo. “Put a ring around him.”

“Which one is that?” Peabody shifted to read the name on the ID shot. “Jorgenson.”

“He’s the one I keep coming back to.”

“Why him, especially?”

“Duff. She’s flopping with him—she’s broke, a used-up, burned-out, whiny addict. Plenty of others who aren’t as far gone as she was, but he lets her flop with him. Connections, Peabody. She’s connected to Pickering, and Pickering had a soft spot for her.”

“And still he cut her off.”

“Yeah, which made her prime to pay him back.”

“We’ll never be able to ask her,” Peabody said, “but yeah, that’s how I see it.”

“The why for Jorgenson? Could be he got wind—through our pal Cohen—about how Jones is skimming, how he’s fattening his own accounts, separate from the gang. Jones started putting some hurt on Cohen’s take, so Cohen looks to someone who’d be grateful for some information, who’d be willing to take Jones out. Not directly. Jones has too much punch and pull. But you set the cops on him, shake some of that pull. Start a war—and if the cops don’t have Jones in a cage, he ends up a casualty of war.”

“Then Jorgenson steps in—with the advantage of knowing where Jones has his money buried.”

“And Cohen ends up owning all that property. Big win for him.”

“It could play like that,” Peabody considered, “because Cohen lies and cheats like other people breathe. It’s like an involuntary reflex. But Lyle Pickering’s murder could track back to being Strong’s CI, and that getting out somehow. And then—”

Peabody broke off when Strong came in. Both she and Eve let that end of the discussion die off.

“I pulled five from my squad,” Strong told them, “and have a translator on tap in case any of the ones we pull in claim they don’t speak English. My team’s solid.”

“Good enough. You’ll have an e-team and Tactical added on. Work with Peabody on the targets. We’ll hit Ho’s headquarters. If we don’t flush him out there, we hit his residence.”

Baxter strolled in next. “Trueheart’s letting his mom know we’ll be late for dinner. Seriously,” he added when Eve frowned. “His mom invited me over for a home-cooked.”