Vendetta in Death (In Death #49)(101)

“That’s how she does it. She just dosed him. Closer on the hand, enhance and freeze. See it? In her palm.”

“Mini pressure syringe,” Roarke said. “I doubt he even felt it.”

“I need the make and model, the year of the car. I need the license plate.”

“It’s a Vulcan, a Town Coach, luxury model. Last year’s. We make them,” Roarke told her.

“Capture that plate,” she ordered Darren as the car pulled away. “Echo, Charlie, Zulu, eight, four, three, eight. Print out those close-ups, and get me a copy of the feeds inside and out.” She turned away, pulled out her PPC to run the plates.

“Bogus name and address—had to figure it.”

“Give me two minutes,” Darren told her, “and I’ll have what you need. Still, it’s damn near impossible to program a droid to do any harm to a human.”

“Damn near isn’t impossible. I’ve got Baxter and Trueheart sitting on the house,” she told Roarke. “And Peabody by this time. McNab’s coming in with the van. I’ve got to use what we got here to fast-talk a warrant. I’m going to need Reo and a really cooperative judge because nothing I’ve got ties her to it. I’ve got nothing that wraps her in it.”

She checked her wrist unit. “She has to wait until the nurse leaves. She has to get her out, then find a way to get her grandmother down for the night. It’s too early, but she knows I’m sniffing. She knows, so she’s going to want to get started soon.”

She paced as she worked it out. “She grabbed him early, broke pattern enough for that. I’m looking at tonight, and she beats me to him. Gives me the car, the plate, the fricking droid because I can’t tie those to her—yet.

“I need a goddamn warrant. I need to get into the garage, into the house, into the basement. Goddamn it, she got him in there right under my nose. The grandmother thought she was still out getting a damn manicure. She got one, too. Covered her ass with that. She’d just gotten him in the fucking house and I’m right there. Right there.”

“You can blame yourself for that,” Roarke suggested, “if you want to be an eejit.” He clamped a hand on her shoulder, as she looked entirely capable in that moment of punching him. “Which you’re not, as an eejit couldn’t have narrowed the target to this one, had her residence already staked out.”

“Doesn’t help unless we can get inside.”

“Here you go, Lieutenant.” Darren handed her a packet. “Printouts and copy. I sure as hell hope you get to him in time.”

“Yeah, thanks. You drive, okay?” she said when they started out. “I have to figure out how to box Reo on this one.”

“I’ve no doubt you will. The name she’s used to register the car? Maybe it’s somehow connected. To the support group perhaps.”

“Maura Fitzgerald isn’t on the list. So far.”

She gestured to where she’d parked the car, saw his smile spread. “What are you smiling at?”

“It pays to be a bit of a film buff, and a longtime fan of Eloise Callahan. That’s how I know she won her first Oscar at the tender age of twenty-two for her portrayal of a young woman named Maura Fitzgerald in the classic Only by Night.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“Not a bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if you find the address she used features in one of her grandmother’s vids as well.”

He opened the car door for her. “Would that help with the warrant?”

“It sure as hell won’t hurt.” Elated, she broke her own rule, grabbed him, kissed him hard. “I’m going to bang you like a drum in Italy.”

“I look forward to it—and perhaps a bit of drum practice beforehand.”

“I take her down tonight, we’ll practice.”

While he drove, she did a search on the address.

“Well, for Christ’s sake, you nailed it in one. It’s the address used in Apartment 8B, starring Eloise Callahan. All right, Reo, I’m putting you to work.”

Eve made her pitch; ADA Cher Reo listened, then pushed at her pretty blond hair.

“Dallas, you want me to talk a judge into issuing a search warrant because of a name and address used in old vids, your gut, a women’s group? To search a Hollywood legend’s New York mansion because you think her granddaughter—with no previous record of bad acts—is a crazy serial killer?”

“Not think, know. It’s circumstantial, Reo, but it piles up and it adds up. And I’m telling you there’s a man, whose major crime in her eyes is dumping his wife for a younger woman, hanging naked in the basement of that house. He’ll be tortured, castrated, and bleed to death if you don’t get me in that house. Did you see the crime scene photos?”

“Yeah.” Reo blew out a breath. “Yeah, I saw them.”

“He’ll end up like that, and he’ll be on us.”

“Okay, all right, let me start pushing on it.”

Before Eve could speak again, Reo clicked off.

“She’ll get it,” Eve stated.

“She knows you,” Roarke said. “She knows you don’t bullshit on something like this. She’ll get it, yes.”

“You need to pull up out of range of the gates,” she began. “There.” She gestured. “That’s Baxter and Trueheart, get behind them.”