Celebrity in Death (In Death #34)(35)

“Byplay.” Eve studied Kyung as he programmed coffee for all. “That’s a good one. Quick spin.”

“Good, quick—and plausible—spins are my job. I’m good at my job, Lieutenant, as I know you and your partner are at yours.”

He smiled, winningly. “You don’t, like, even resent all of this. I don’t blame you. You’re not required to like the media maze, which is why you’ll do well to let me guide the direction.”

He smiled again as he set the pot of coffee on the table. “I do like it. We do better at our work if we enjoy it, don’t we?”

No, not a dick, but a manipulator. A smooth one. That she could respect. “Okay, Kyung, here’s how it went.”

She gave him the “byplay” essentially word for word.

“An appropriate response to an inappropriate statement,” Kyung commented. “Was anything else said?”

“Not between us. I figured she had a problem with members of the cast, and that problem was enhanced by her drinking. As I didn’t know she’d end up dead, I didn’t pay much attention to her.”

“She called you a bitch.” Peabody hunched her shoulders when eyes shifted to her. “After everybody started talking again, she muttered ‘bitch’ under her breath. McNab told me later. He was sitting next to her. It pissed him off, but he said he ignored her because he figured you didn’t want any more, um, byplay.”

“He was right. Plus, if somebody doesn’t call me a bitch once a day, I figure I’m not doing my job.”

Kyung smiled at that. “I think you’ll do very well with the media, with just that tone and attitude.”

Eve eyed him. “The liaison usually pushes me to play nice, be diplomatic. And wear lip dye.”

“Different circumstances, different styles.” He merely shrugged. “I believe you should be just as you are, just have responses ready for questions we expect will be asked. And when you’re asked about this incident at dinner—and you will be—you should respond as you did to me. Argument is inaccurate. Ms. Harris made an inappropriate comment to which you casually responded. This byplay was the only time you and Ms. Harris spoke during the evening. If you would say this in a matter-of-fact, unhurried way, then take another question, it should do well enough.”

He lifted his hands, palms up, cuff links glinting. “If the point is pressed, repeat, expand only that you and Ms. Harris had only met twice, briefly, and simply didn’t know each other. At this point you are focused on finding the person responsible for her death. I’ve heard you say in other statements involving murder that the victim belongs to you now. If this feels right and suitable, say that.”

“She does belong to me now.”

“Yes, keep the dialogue on that point, on the investigation insofar as you can discuss it publicly. They will ask, and often, how it feels to investigate the murder of the woman who portrays your partner, who resembles your partner.”

“K.T. Harris was not my partner. She was an actor doing her job. My job is to find out who took her life.”

He smiled again. “I feel a bit superfluous. Is Marlo Durn a suspect?”

“Ms. Durn, as everyone who was present at the time of the murder, was interviewed. She’s been cooperative. It’s too early in the investigation to term anyone specifically as a suspect.”

“How do you feel about questioning, investigating the woman who plays you in The Icove Agenda?”

“Again, she’s not me, but okay, yeah, there’s a thread of strange. Most homicide investigations have a few threads of strange woven in.”

“Don’t you feel this unusual connection may bias you or affect your work?”

“Why would it?”

“Here, I can help.” He pressed his palms together, gestured them forward like in prayer. “If you follow up that natural question with the statement that if you believed the investigation would in any way be affected by the fact the actors in The Icove Agenda are portraying you, your associates, you would not head the investigation.”

“Because I’m standing for K.T. Harris now,” Eve finished. “And identifying the individual who caused her death, bringing that individual to justice is what I’m sworn to do as an officer of the NYPSD. Period. Now f**k off so I can do my job.”

“Perfect. If you’d just think that last part rather than verbalizing it, perfect.” He gave her his big, white-toothed smile. “I’m having a hard time understanding why you’re considered such a difficult assignment by my colleagues.”

“Because most of them are ass**les. So far, you’re not.”

“Hopefully that will continue. Now, Detective Peabody, let’s go over potential questions and responses.”

“I have to talk to the media?”

She didn’t squeak it, but came dangerously close.

“Harris played you, you were present at the dinner party, there when Harris was killed. You are second lead on the investigation. It’s best to handle this through this media conference rather than piecemeal.”

Eve watched him coach Peabody. He seemed satisfied with her responses as well, tweaking them here and there, helping her stay brief and on point.

“You’ll be fine,” he decreed. “Let me say the media will continue to squeeze every ounce of juice out of this story, then find a way to make more. Lieutenant, I understand your husband will have his own media team, and that someone in his position knows how to handle the media. But, in this case, I’d like to coordinate with his people.”