Devoted in Death (In Death #41)(108)

“Don’t know those people,” Darryl said with the same stubborn stupidity. “You saying so don’t make it true.”

“We can prove all that, prove all these people died at your hands. You need to understand, Darryl, we’re just giving you a chance to help yourself now and protect Ella-Loo. You don’t tell us what you did, it’s likely you won’t see her again. It’s likely they’re going to put her someplace where somebody’s going to hurt her ’cause you’re not there to look out for her.”

Darryl leaned forward, fists clenched. “I won’t let you do that.”

Eve pushed up, out of the chair, changed the focus. “We’ll do what we want. Buy a clue, *. Think about it, think about Ella-Loo being in that cage where you can’t get to her, can’t touch her, can’t help her. Think about it,” she repeated, tapping the table, the photos. “And see if you remember any of these people when we come back. Dallas and Banner exited interview, record off.”

She stepped out. “Not bad,” she said to Banner, “not bad at all.”

“I wanted to reach over, take him by the throat, ram his face into the table until it was nothing but blood. I never felt that kind of violence in me before.”

“Killers can bring it out.” He’d gone a little pale, Eve noted, as he leaned back against the wall. “Why don’t you take a break?”

“I think I will. I’ll come into the observation place, but I’m going to take a break first.”

She watched him go, then went back to her office, generated another set of photos before tagging Peabody on her comm. “Heading for Parsens now.”

“I’m on the door.”

Different strategy, Eve decided, and said the same to Peabody. “We hit her hard. No good cop.”

“Hot damn.”

“Put on your bitch face, Peabody.” Eve opened the door, noted orange didn’t do much for Parsens, either. “Record on. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, and Peabody, Detective Delia, entering Interview with Parsens, Ella-Loo.” She fed in the case numbers, talking steadily as Ella-Loo bitched.

“You can’t push me around this way! I’m all cut up. I want to go to the hospital. You molested me, you grabbed my tits. I don’t want to talk to you.” And finally. “What did you do with Darryl? I want my Darryl!”

“Have you been read your rights, Ella-Loo?”

“Fuck you and your rights. I want to go to the hospital. I want Darryl.”

“You’ve been medically cleared, and seeing Darryl’s not going to happen. Probably ever.”

Pure shock leached color from her face. “What do you mean ‘ever’? He’s the husband of my heart and I got every right to see him.”

“The only rights you have are these: You have the right to remain silent.”

She continued to read out the Revised Miranda over Ella-Loo’s shouts and demands. “Do you understand your rights and obligations?”

“I understand you’re a titless bitch.”

“I can read them off again, and keep reading them off until you say, for the record, whether or not you understand them. Or we can go, leave you alone here to think about it for a few hours.”

“I understand them just fine. I want my own clothes, and I want Darryl, and I don’t have to say nothing to some dyke cop.”

“We don’t give much of a shit about what you want,” Peabody said, made Eve proud with the grinding, vicious tone she used. “The only clothes you’re going to be wearing from now on are what you’ve got and prison blues. You look like an overbaked pumpkin in orange, but I bet the women at Riker’s are going to eat you right up.”

“I don’t know what Riker’s is, and I’m not going.”

“Just temporarily,” Eve continued. “After a short stay I’m betting on Omega. That’s off-planet. Jayla Campbell and Reed Mulligan – the two you were torturing when we met? They have a lot to say about you and Darryl.”

“They’re liars. We were partying. No law against doing what you want to do in your own home. Consenting adults.”

“They consented to being bound, cut, burned, beaten, raped?”

“They’re sick, that’s what. Darryl and me were just going along, just experimenting. But we’d had enough and were going to make them get out of our place.”

“Your place?” Peabody roared it, grabbed the file, dumped the photos, found Samuel Zed. “His place, you twisted twat. Are you so stupid you think cutting off his fingers meant we couldn’t ID him? Look what you did to him.”

When Peabody shoved up, rushed around the table, pushed the photo in Parsens’s face, Eve just sat back, let her ride.

Go, Peabody, she thought.

“Get away from me!” Ella-Loo shrieked it. “Don’t touch me. You’re not allowed to put hands on me.”

“I’m allowed to do whatever the hell I want to sick, psychopathic sluts.”

“Are not! Darryl! Get her off me! I’ll tell!”

“Tell who?” Eve wondered. “Who’s going to believe you over cops? And things happen to recordings all the time. Glitchy equipment. How about we unlock her restraints, Peabody? You can do what you did to the last one. I’ve got your back.”