Secrets in Death (In Death #45)(95)

She stepped out as Peabody came in. “Get Jenkinson and Reineke up here.”

“Okay, but…” Peabody looked in the vault. Her jaw dropped; her eyes went wide and dazed. She said, “Ooooh, shiny.”

“Never mind.” Eve pushed by to get her detectives herself. As she strode out, she heard McNab.

“He opened it in like eighteen minutes.”

She just shook her head and kept going.

Roarke wandered down with his coat and kit while she called in for additions to the search team, an armored vehicle, guards.

“The commander’s taking over the transfer details, thank God,” she told Roarke. “Thanks for the assist.”

“My very genuine pleasure.” He smiled at the steady look she aimed at him. “Should I turn out my pockets?”

“You’re too good to get caught that easy.” She shoved a hand through her hair as she looked around the cluttered foyer. “Plus, you stopped. Could stop. She couldn’t. Not the digging, the knowing, the taking, the using, and the acquiring. Not evil, but sick. Seriously sick. And still…”

“You’re pissed,” he said, shrugging into his coat.

“Yeah. She has books up there. Record books of marks and potentials. You and I are in there. I need to talk to you about that, but not here. Mavis and Leonardo and the baby, them, too.”

“You’re right to be pissed. They’re family.”

She nodded. “And Nadine. I talked to Mavis, just to check if she’d gotten pushed any.”

“She’d have told you if she had.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I’m circling. I’m pissed and I’m circling. And some stupid part of me feels sorry for Mars because it’s like she had a disease.”

“It’s not stupid.”

“It’s useless. The same as being pissed is useless. The useful is to stand for her, do the job.”

“You are.”

Since there was no one to see, she didn’t resist when he pressed his lips to her forehead.

“To keep doing it I need to get to DeWinter, see if there’s any progress on that facial reconstruction. Finding out who she was before she was Larinda Mars may help.”

“Good luck with it. I’ll see you at home. Unless you find another vault for me.”

She went back upstairs where her detectives photographed and recorded every item in the vault. She heard the commentary.

“Jesus, look at the size of this rock.”

“Is something this fugly actually worth money?”

She turned to where McNab loaded up the electronics. She started to ask about Peabody, then heard her partner’s voice. From inside the vault.

“Oh! A tiara!”

“You put that thing on your head,” Eve called out, “I’ll bury you with it. Today.”

“Might be worth it! Just kidding!”

Grinning, McNab finished loading up. “I sent copies of all content to your office and home comps, LT. I’ll get started on the data after I get back, log it all in.”

“Start at the end of alpha order, work up halfway. Feeney’s standing by to work with you.” She’d tagged him to make sure of it. “You know the parameters. Get me the list of most likely first.”

“Can and will. I’ve got the listening devices. I’ve got the discs here. Want me to take them in?”

“I’ll take those.”

He patted the evidence bag, sealed and marked, on the desk. “All yours. Hey, She-Body, I’m rolling.”

She poked her head out. Eve didn’t see anything glittering on her but her eyes. “See you later. This is fun!”

He grinned, hefted his evidence box. “Cha, all. Eighteen minutes,” he repeated as he pranced out. “It’s freaking magic.”

“Peabody, with me.”

“Aw.” But she came out, grabbed her coat. “I can’t get over it. She had her own jewelry store, and she kept it all locked up.”

“Because having was the thing.” She took the evidence bag; the boxes of books would go straight to Central. “We’re swinging by to see if DeWinter has any answers.”

“Maybe she grew up in poverty,” Peabody speculated as they walked down and out. “On the streets, maybe. You know how sidewalk sleepers can hoard things. It’s a kind of survival, and security. It could’ve grown out of that.”

“Maybe. Where’s my vehicle?”

“Oh. Two blocks down, around the corner.”

That being the case, Eve pulled her snowflake hat out of her pocket, dragged it on.

“You know,” Peabody said conversationally, “it’s a real advantage that Roarke designs and manufactures security devices, safes, vaults, like that. The guys and I were saying how otherwise we’d have had to call in a specialist, and probably still be waiting. But we already had one.”

Eve flicked a glance at Peabody’s innocent smile. “You and the guys decided that?”

“Yeah. All of us agreed. A real advantage for the department, and how it fits with our squad slogan, how we protect and serve no matter, blah-blah—even our expert consultant, civilian—even when the one who got dead was an asshole. And she pretty much was.”

“Yeah, that works all around.” Touched, as she’d intended to write it up exactly that way—minus the slogan and the asshole—Eve kept walking.