Treachery in Death (In Death #32)(110)

“What if she’s not alone in the garage?” Palmer asked.

“If she’s with her partner or one of her men, you take them both. Tulis will keep an eye on her, contact Armand when she heads down.”

She looked at Tulis, got his nod.

“Armand will handle the cams and elevators. He’ll give you the window, you’d better damn sight go through it. Until then stay clear of her. No contact, no connection.”

“Consider it done.”

“When it is, go to Samuels at Five-O. He’ll cover you. He’s closed the place so you could hold vigil for Strong, wake Garnet.” She checked her wrist unit. “My sources say Dallas rarely if ever leaves end of shift, which makes it easier to grab her alone. You’ve got some time, and I’ll toss her something to hang her up here to make sure of that.”

“What about Bix?” Marcell asked her.

“Armand’s going to hack her comp, plug in some data that takes the heat off Bix, makes it clear the bitch was on some sort of vendetta against me and mine.”

Destroying her sterling rep as well as her life would almost, Renee thought, make up for the trouble she’d caused.

“Meanwhile, IAB’s got Bix so he’ll be in the clear when Strong and Dallas go down. With her and Strong out of the way, everything goes back to normal. We have a moment of silence for our fallen comrades. In a week, we clear the Giraldi case and have a nice payday.

“Now.” She paused, smiled. “I’ll get Dallas busy being supercop, then pay another visit to IAB to express outrage over this business with Bix before heading out to check on Strong and express my deep concern there. Everybody does their job, this ends tonight, and we move on.”

They worked on refining details, coordinating timing. After, alone at her desk, Renee sat, stared at her father’s portrait, blinked until her eyes watered. Then used her ’link.

“Dad.” She pressed her lips together as if struggling to control herself. “I know you’re disappointed in me.”

“Renee—”

“No, I know I’ve let you down. Let myself down. I should never have let things with Garnet get out of hand. I should’ve been stronger. And I’m going to be. I need to talk to you, Dad, to ask your advice. I have to go by the hospital and check on one of my people. She had an accident today. After that, can I come by and see you?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks, Dad. I know I let my personal feelings get in the way of my job, of my responsibilities. My feelings about Garnet, and about Dallas, too. I see that now. She’s so much more the kind of daughter you wanted. I resented her for that.”

“She’s not my daughter, Renee. You are.”

“I know. I know, Dad. I’ll see you soon.”

She clicked off, stared with icy eyes at the portrait. “I’m your daughter? Too bad for us both you wanted a son, isn’t it? Too damn bad I could never measure up to your lofty standards. Would you be proud of me, you f**ker, if you knew just how much I command?”

“Daddy issues,” Eve commented as she watched the monitor. “Definite daddy issues.”

“That’s one cold, f**ked-up woman.” Feeney shook his head. “A cop briefing other cops on how to kill cops.”

“I was starting to worry she wouldn’t go for me. I’d have hated to miss that opportunity.”

“She plans to eliminate you because you’re a threat.” Mira had come in to observe, and now looked at Eve. “But only partly. What she said to her father was truth, as she sees it. You’re more what he would’ve wanted in a daughter than she. And that’s just as much a motivation to eliminate you.”

“We’ll worry about her motivations later. I’ll need the e-team to handle the glitch she plans. They’ll need to think it worked. Peabody, check on Strong. I need to talk to Louise the minute she’s clear. I don’t want Louise or any of the docs to talk to anyone else, even Strong’s mother, the boyfriend. Nobody.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“What are you doing?” Roarke asked as Eve took out her own ’link.

“Setting up my counter op. I’m texting Jacobson, then I’ve got to go be seen by her man. We want her plan to move right along.”

“You’re building a bigger box,” Feeney said with some pride.

“Jumbo size. And when we’re done, it’s still going to be crowded in there. Oh look. I believe I’m getting an anonymous tip from an unregistered’link. Check records and reports for Garnet, initialed by Strong, incl all expenses. Proof Garnet & Strong did Keener.

“Set them up for Keener.” Feeney pursed his lips. “Being dead they can’t argue about it.”

“She’ll take a hit on Garnet, but she’s got her notes and evals on Strong. It’s not bad for seat-of-the-pants,” Eve decided. “And it’s enough to keep me busy here through end of shift. Can you redirect this hack they’re going to pull on my comp?”

“Redirect,” Roarke told her, “track to the source and deal with this busywork of records and report searches so the source confirms you took the bait.”

“All that?” Eve smiled at him. “Handy. Gives me time to tag Janburry and Delfino, put them on Bix so they can wrap him up. They’ll need to time it.”