Survivor In Death (In Death #20)(40)

“Gosh, Dallas, a blush rises to my cheeks. Unless that, too, is the soy dog.” She thumped a fist on her chest, gave a small, somehow ladylike belch. “Guess it was the dog.”

“Now that we've established that, let's have the next on the list.” Peabody called up the list, the next name, the location, and the directions from the dash menu. Then leaned forward, stroking the dash and crooning. “Nice vehicle, pretty vehicle. Smart vehicle.” She slid her gaze toward Eve. “And who got the nice, pretty, smart vehicle for us?” “You've already milked that one, Peabody.” “Yeah but-- Aww, and see, look at its little 'link beeping.” Shaking her head, Eve answered the beep. “Dallas.” “A little tit for tat coming your way,” Nadine said, “so don't forget it. Scanner picked up a snatch-and-grab report. Female on Avenue B, tossed in the back of a van quick as a wink.” “Unless she's dead, she's not my table. Sorry.” “Cold, cruel, true. Thing is, one of the witnesses recognized her, and actually bothered to say so to the uniforms responding. Said she was a social worker named Meredith Newman. I get wind of that and I think, hey, isn't that the name of--”

“The GPS drone on the Swisher case.”

“I'm heading down there, to do some interviews. Thought you'd want to know.”

“We're on our way. Don't talk to anybody on scene, Nadine. I need a shot first. You're going to give me tit,” she added when Nadine's mouth opened. “Don't be stingy with it.”

She broke off, whipped around a corner, and headed south.

8

EVE SPOTTED THE CHANNEL 75 VAN PARKED IN a loading zone on Avenue B. She whipped by it, then double-parked beside the black-and-white already at the curb.

She spotted Nadine as well--it was hard not to when the perfectly streaked hair and the vivid royal blue of the reporter's on-air suit sprang out like an exotic bloom against the faded forest of dingy shirts and smudgy concrete.

She was cozied up with a trio of the daily doorway lurkers but peeled off toward Eve.

“I never said I wouldn't ask questions,” Nadine said immediately. “But I've kept it off record. For now. Your uniform's inside with the woman who claims to have seen the grab and recognized the grabee. Hi, Peabody. How are you feeling?”

“Better and better, thanks.”

Eve sent a hard stare at the van. “Keep the cameras off.”

“Public street

,” Nadine began. “Public--”

“Nadine, do you know why I often give you an inside track? Because it's not just the story with you. You actually give more than a passing thought to the people in the story. And you wouldn't, not even for ratings, sacrifice those people to get your pretty face on air.”

Nadine blew out a long breath. “Shit.”

“Keep the cameras off,” Eve repeated and strode toward the lingering lurkers. “What did you see?” she began. “What do you know?”

The skinniest of the lot, a mixed-race stick with a pitted complexion, grinned--illustrating that his dental care was slightly below the standard of his skin care--and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together.

“Detective Peabody.” Eve spoke in mild tones, her eyes cold as a shark's. “In your professional opinion, did this individual, who has possibly witnessed a crime, just solicit a member of the NYPSD for a bribe in exchange for information regarding that crime?”

“That does appear to be the case, Lieutenant.”

“Me and my 'sociates need some jack. You give, you gets.”

“And, Detective, what would be my most usual response to such a solicitation?”

“Your response, Lieutenant, would be to haul said individual, and possibly his associates, into Central, possibly charged with obstruction of justice and impeding a police investigation. You would also determine if subject and/or his associates had sheets. If so, you would then spend considerable time ruining their day and potentially making their lives, for the short-term at least, a stinking hell.”

“That's exactly correct, Detective. Thank you. You catch any of that, ass**le?”

He actually looked hurt. “No jack?”

“That is also exactly correct. Now I'll repeat: What did you see, what do you know?”

“You gonna take me in I don't say?”

“Two correct answers in a row. Want to try for three?”

“Well, shit. I seen the big nose shuffling along, coming along looking like she smell something she don't like. Ain't worth two looks, but we just hanging, so I start to give her a blow. Then the van thing, it flies up. Fast! And the two dudes, they pop out the back. Got one on each sida her. Lifts her up, toss her in, slam, bam, gone. We and my 'sociates, we'da taken them on but they was rat fast, man. You gets?”

“Yeah, I get. What did they look like? The men who popped out the back?”

“Like ninjas, man.” He looked at each of his pals for nods of agreement. “Like a coupla kick-face ninja dudes in black threads with the mask thing.”

“How about the van?”

“Black, too.”

“Make, model, plate?”

“Hell, what I know? I don't drive no van. Big and black, and moved slick as goose shit. Musta been a dude in the front, but I didn't see nothing. Wasn't lookin'. And the big nose? She don't even squeak. Got her grabbed and stashed so fast, she don't even squeak. We chill now?”