Vendetta in Death (In Death #49)(103)

Baxter let out a laugh. “If only we’d met in my misspent youth.”

Roarke returned the grin. “If youth isn’t misspent now and then, it’s not youth. Would you like me to get started, Lieutenant?”

“Yes, but no. Have to wait for the warrant. There’s the van.”

It shouldn’t have surprised her to see Feeney hop out. Her old partner and current EDD captain wore one of his shit-brown suit jackets with a wrinkled beige shirt and dirt-brown tie. His silver-threaded ginger hair sprang out around a droopy, hangdog face.

“I didn’t expect to get the brass.”

“You think I’d miss a chance to get inside Eloise Callahan’s? I grew up on her vids, kid. She was—probably still is—my old man’s hall pass. He’s going to be pretty down if I help arrest her.”

“He’s safe. I don’t see her in this except as a dupe. McNab, I want people, droids, locations, movement.”

EDD Callendar hopped out of the van. “You got it, LT.”

“She was right there,” Feeney said. “We’ll get it done faster with the pair of them.”

“Just as well. Once Roarke gets us through the gates, we need to surround the house, EDD man on each team to get through the doors if the master’s no good, to deactivate superior droids. Vic and suspect are going to be in the lower level. I haven’t been through the house, so I don’t know, as yet, how to access.”

With her hands on her hips, Eve looked back at the gates. “She has to keep an eye on the grandmother. She probably has house monitors.”

Feeney rubbed his chin. “We can shut them down, but she’ll likely notice when her monitors go blank.”

“Can’t be helped. Better that than her spotting a bunch of cops swarming the house.” She checked the time, strained against impatience. “We get in, we find the basement access. The house has elevators. Must have one that goes down. Lock that down, that’s what she’d do, right?”

Feeney nodded. “Wouldn’t want an unexpected visitor while she’s slicing off some poor bastard’s balls.”

“Yeah, well, we unlock. One team goes down that way, another by the steps. If there’s outside access, we cover that, too. She’ll be armed—she’s never used a stunner on a victim, but she’ll have an electronic prod. Christ knows she’s dangerous. And I hate to say it, I fucking hate to say it, but she’s insane. Not just garden-variety. She’s going to hit the legal bar there.”

“That’s a goddamn shame,” Feeney commented.

“Tell me.”

When her ’link signaled, she had it in her hand in a finger snap. “Tell me what I want to hear, Reo.”

“Warrant coming through. I need a damn drink—and you owe me a whole bunch of drinks.”

“I’ll pay up. You may want to stay on tap. I’m going to be bringing you a serial killer, real soon.”

“I’ll hold off on the drink until I hear from you. Take her down, Dallas.”

“Fucking A. Roarke, get started.” She pivoted to Feeney. “Get me some numbers, locations.”

He jerked a thumb toward the van, where McNab and Callendar started the scan.

“Need a minute, Dallas, to work the angles,” McNab told her. “Callendar, how about you set up a remote?”

“All over it. They move, we’ll know it.”

Eve nudged around Callendar, kept her focus on the van’s main monitor.

“Coordinate heat and e-sensors,” Feeney ordered.

“Getting it, Cap.” McNab’s forest of rings on his earlobes danced as he ticktocked his head, bopped his shoulders to the e-nerd’s internal beat. “Coming up now. And there we are. Two droids on the main floor, at the rear, north. No readings on the second floor. One e-reading on the third floor, one human type.”

“In bed,” Eve said. “She’s down, lying down. That’s the grandmother, with a droid on watch. And that’s Pettigrew, lower level, that’s east, and that’s going to be Brinkman—he’s vertical, arms over his head. She’s got him hanging from the ceiling. That’s center of the area. Is that an e-reading with him?”

“Yeah, one droid down there.”

“Got the remote up—got them on there,” Callendar said.

“Strap it on,” Feeney ordered as he opened a drawer, took out earbuds. “McNab, you man the van, Callendar can team with Baxter, I’ll take Trueheart. You, Peabody, and Roarke take the front. That suit you?” he asked Eve.

“That’ll work.”

She took the earbuds Feeney handed her, climbed out of the van. “Trueheart, you’re with Feeney—take the west side, find a hole, get inside. Baxter, you and Callendar peel to the east side. Lock down any exits on the east side, continue to the rear. Two droids on the north side. Take them down if Peabody and I haven’t reached that point. I need the elevators shut down.”

“Can do,” Callendar assured her.

“We close off all exits to that basement. We close her in.”

She passed out earbuds as she worked it out. “Big house. She may have more droids, have them shut down. Could she activate by remote?”

“If they’re programmed for it,” Feeney said.