Devoted in Death (In Death #41)(71)

She took the elevator down to the holoroom, working out the strategy in her head on the way.

“How many rooms in this place?” Banner wondered.

“I don’t have a clue. I keep finding ones I’d swear weren’t there before.”

“How long you lived here?”

“Three years. Three years,” she repeated with some wonder of her own. “Jesus, how did that happen?”

“You mind me asking something?”

“Didn’t you just?”

“Another something. Was Roarke really… well, what you’d call a thief?”

Eve kept her voice mild, her face inscrutable. “I never caught him stealing anything.”

Humor danced into Banner’s eyes. “Neither did anybody else from what I hear.”

He stepped out with her into the blank slate of the holoroom.

“I thought he’d be different.”

“Different than what?” Eve asked as she puzzled over how to program what she needed.

“Than he is. I didn’t expect him to be so amiable.”

“  ‘Amiable.’  ” She glanced back with a half laugh.

“I figured he’d be more… stiff, I guess. And what you’d call highfalutin. Not somebody I’d be easy having a beer with. Can I ask what you’re looking to do here?”

“He’s got it in here,” Eve muttered. “He would. I want one of my interview rooms. We’re going to pull Jambo into it.”

“Jimbo.”

“Right – why would anybody tolerate being called Bubba or Jimbo?”

“It’s geography, I reckon.”

“We’re going to haul him in once his father’s busy being arrested for assaulting an officer, and the lawyer’s busy trying to say Santiago incited his client and blah-blah-bullshit-bollocks. We get him in here, and if Santiago’s right, and he will be, we’ll crack Benjo like an egg.

“There! I knew he’d have it programmed.”

It still took her twice as long as it would’ve taken Roarke, but she keyed it all in.

And the familiar dull walls, the scarred table, creaky chairs and long two-way mirror of a standard Cop Central interview room shimmered into being.

“Whoa.” Eyes wide, Banner turned a circle. “Never did one of these officially. Just at carnivals and such. And once at a… never mind about that.”

Sex club, Eve deduced. “They have those never minds in Silby’s Pond?”

“They got them in Little Rock.”

“I need to check in, but when this goes down, we go fast, so I want you to play sympathetic, to a point. That good-old-boy bit, yeah, that’ll work.”

She put the file she’d brought in with her on the table. “You’re going to soften him up. I’m going to scare the shit out of him, and what’s in this file will finish it.”

She pulled out her ’link. “Carmichael.”

“Working on it,” Carmichael muttered, looking away rather than into the screen. “Santiago’s just… ouch.” She hissed through her teeth, and Dallas heard the shouting off screen. “That’s going to leave a mark. Give me five minutes to go to my partner’s assistance, and I’ll be back at you.”

“Fast work.”

Eve nodded at Banner. “Faster the better. However this is set up, Banner, it’s f*cking serious. It’s all going on record. There are three smart geeks up in the lab sweating to get us something we can use, and they will. Meanwhile, these two bozos knew something that might have led to the unsubs, might’ve saved lives. They knew since Jansen’s body was found, and they kept it shut to cover their own asses. That doesn’t sit with me.”

“Doesn’t sit with me, either. It ain’t right. Ain’t none of it right.”

“Then give me some room, and step in when you think you can do some good.”

Gauging the time, she contacted Mira.

“Sorry it’s so early, and I’ve only got a couple of minutes. I sent you a report.”

“I haven’t read it yet. I’m just —”

“Soon as you can,” Eve interrupted. “They grabbed another last night. Male, twenty-one. About midnight. Probability’s going to go by the pattern, and give me strong odds Campbell’s dead. I want your take.”

“Give me a second. They could have gone too far, too fast, or her body simply gave out. We can say with absolute certainty this hasn’t happened before, so, yes, the probability is high she’s dead.”

“What are the chances they decided they wanted to try two at once? A dump and snatch, the same night? Maybe. But a snatch, maybe impulse, it plays, too.”

“It would be a logical escalation. It’s certainly possible, but —”

“Would you read the report as soon as you can? I’ve got some scenarios in there, some speculation. We’ve got a couple of good leads working now. I have to go deal with one, but I’d like some input once you’ve read the report.”

“I’ll go over it now, and I’ll give you what I can before I go to Dr. DeWinter.”

“Thanks. That’s my lead,” she said as her ’link signaled an incoming. “Later. Dallas.”