Ceremony in Death (In Death #5)(20)

He’d tagged onto the police scanner and knew exactly what she’d been dealing with. “Come here,” he repeated, and closed his hand over hers when she reluctantly obliged. “Are the calls going to make any difference if you make them an hour from now?”

“No, but — “

So he tugged until she tumbled onto the sofa with him. Because her struggle was only halfhearted, he managed to snuggle her down beside him quickly. And wrapping an arm around her, he kissed her hair. “Sleep a little,” he said quietly. “There’s no need to exhaust yourself.”

“She was so young, Roarke.”

“I know. Close it off, just for a little while.”

“The data? Frank’s log. Did you find anything?”

“We’ll talk about it after you sleep.”

“An hour. Just an hour.” Linking her fingers with his, she let herself go under.

CHAPTER FIVE

Sleep helped. So did the hot shower and the food Roarke ordered up. Eve shoveled eggs into her mouth as she studied the data he’d unearthed on-screen.

“More like a diary than an investigative log,” she decided. “Lots of personal comments, and obviously he was worried about Alice. ‘I’m not sure how deeply they’ve influenced her mind, or hurt her heart.’ He was thinking like a grandfather, not like a cop. You got this off his home unit?”

“Yes. He had it coded and passkeyed. I suspect he didn’t want his wife stumbling across it.”

“If he had it coded, how did you access?”

Roarke took a cigarette from a carved box, studied it. “You don’t really want me to explain that, do you? Lieutenant?”

“No.” Eve forked up more eggs. “Guess not. Still, his personal thoughts and worries aren’t going to be a lot of help. I need to know what he found out, and how far his private investigation went before he died.”

“There’s more.” Roarke scrolled over dates. “There, he talks about tailing Selina Cross, and lists some of her… associates.”

“But there’s nothing there. He suspects she’s dealing illegals. He believes she’s holding unacceptable ceremonies in her club and perhaps her home. He observes suspicious characters coming and going, but he bases it all on emotion. No facts. Frank had been off the streets too long.” Eve set her plate aside and rose. “If he didn’t want to involve cops, why the hell didn’t he at least hire a PI to handle the leg-work? What’s this?”

Frowning, she stepped closer to the screen.

I think she made me. Can’t be sure, but it’s almost as though she’s leading me along now. I’m going to have to make a move soon. Alice is terrified, begging me to stay away from Cross, and from her. The poor kid spends too much time with that Isis character. Isis may be a harmless weirdo, but she can’t be a good influence on Alice. I’ve told Sally I’m working late. Tonight, I’m going in. Cross spends Thursday nights at the club. The apartment should be empty. If I can get inside and find anything, anything at all to prove Alice saw a child murdered, I can report to Whitney anonymously. She’s going to pay for what she and her filthy lover did to my little girl. One way or the other, she’s going to pay.

“Christ, nighttime breaking and entering, illegal search and seizure.” Frustrated, Eve dragged both hands through her hair. “What the hell was he thinking? He had to know that anything he found would get tossed out in court. He’d never nail them this way.”

“I have a feeling he wasn’t worried about court, Eve. He wanted justice.”

“And now he’s dead, isn’t he? And so’s Alice. Where’s the rest?”

Roarke scrolled to the last entry.

Security’s too tight on the building, couldn’t get through it. I’ve been off the streets too damn long. I may have to tag someone to help me on this after all. I’m going to see that witch pays if it’s the last thing I do.

“That’s all on this — that entry was logged on the night before he died. There may be more, under a different code.”

So, he hadn’t made her pay, Eve thought. And he hadn’t had time to get help. Not enough time, she thought again with twin surges of relief and sorrow. The entries went a long way toward clearing both Frank and Feeney.

“But you don’t think so. You don’t think there’s anything else.”

“No, I don’t. There’s the timing, of course. And he wasn’t that clever with electronics,” Roarke explained. “It was child’s play to find this. Still, we’ll look. It’ll take some time to break through if there’s anything there. And it’ll have to be later. I have several meetings this morning.”

She turned to him. Odd, she realized, she’d forgotten for a moment he wasn’t working with her. His business and the direction of it was in a much different sphere from hers. “So many billions, so little time.”

“How true. But I should be able to fiddle a bit more this evening.”

She knew he hadn’t so much as glanced at the stock reports or taken the morning calls that never failed to come in daily. “I’m taking up a lot of your time.”

“You are, indeed.” He came around the console, leaned back against it. “And the payment will be your time, Lieutenant. A day or two away when we can both manage it.” Then his smile faded. He took her hand, ran his thumb over the carving on her wedding ring. “Eve, I don’t like to interfere with your work, but I’ll ask you to be particularly careful in this matter.”