Vengeance in Death (In Death #6)(21)

“Mmm. Made in Rome.”

“Maybe we can run it.”

Roarke shook his head. “You’re going to find that thousands of these were sold in the last year alone. The shops near the Vatican do a bustling business on such things. I have interests in a few myself.”

“We’ll run it anyway.” Taking his arm, she led him outside. It wouldn’t help for him to watch the body bagged and readied for transport. “There’s nothing for you to do here. I have to go in, file the report, do some work. I’ll be home in a few hours.”

“I want to talk to his family.”

“I can’t let you do that. Not yet. Not yet,” she repeated when his eyes went narrow and cold. “Give me a few hours. Roarke…” Helplessly she fell back on the standard line. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

He surprised her by grabbing her close, pressing his face into her hair and just holding on. Awkwardly she smoothed her hands over his back, patted his rigid shoulders.

“For the first time since I met you,” he murmured so she could barely hear, “I wish you weren’t a cop.”

Then he let her go and walked away.

She stood out in the freshening wind, smelled hints of the winter to come, and bore the miserable weight of guilt and inadequacy.

Roarke was closed in his office when she arrived home. Only the cat greeted her. Galahad twined affectionately between her legs as she shrugged out of her jacket, hitched her bag more securely on her shoulder.

It was just as well she was alone, Eve decided. She still had work. Since she was obviously pathetic at comforting her husband, she’d be a cop. There, at least, she knew her moves.

Galahad came with her, bounding up the steps despite his girth as she headed for the suite of rooms where she often worked and sometimes slept when Roarke was away from home.

She got coffee from the AutoChef, and as much because Galahad looked so hopeful as for her own appetite, ordered up a tuna sandwich. She split it with the cat, who fell on it as if he hadn’t eaten in a month, then carried her own to her desk.

She studied the door that connected her office with Roarke’s. She had only to knock, she knew. Instead she sat behind her own desk.

She hadn’t saved his friend. Hadn’t been fast enough or smart enough to prevent death. Nor would she be able to keep Roarke out of the investigation. There would be questions she would have to ask, statements she would have to take.

And the media would know by morning. There was no way to block them out now. She’d already decided to call Nadine Furst, her contact at Channel 75. With Nadine she would get fair coverage. Though Nadine was annoyingly persistent, she was without doubt accurate.

Eve looked at her ‘link. She’d arranged for McNab to program her office ‘link to transfer transmissions to her home unit for the night. She wanted the bastard to call.

How long would he wait? And when would he be ready to play the next round?

She drank coffee, ordered her mind to clear. Go back to the beginning, she told herself. Replay first round.

She shoved a copy of the initial contact call into her machine, listened to it twice. She had his rhythm, she thought, his tone, his mood. He was arrogant, vain, smart, yes, he was smart and skilled. He was on a holy mission. But conceit was his weak point. Conceit, she mused, and his skewed faith.

She’d need to exploit it.

Revenge, he’d said. An eye for an eye. Revenge was always personal. Both men who were dead had a connection to Roarke. So, logically, did their killer. An old vendetta, perhaps.

Yes, she and Roarke had quite a bit to discuss. He could be a target. The thought of that turned her blood cold, scattered her heartbeat, froze her brain.

She shoved it aside. She couldn’t afford to think like a wife, like a lover. More than ever, she needed to be pure cop.

She gave Galahad most of the second half of the sandwich when he came begging, then took out the copies of the security disc for the Luxury Towers.

Step by step, she ordered herself. Every disc, every area covered, no matter how long it took. In the morning she would have Roarke view them as well. He might recognize someone.

She knocked her coffee cup over when she did.

“Stop,” she ordered. “Replay from zero-zero-five-six. Jesus Christ. Freeze, enhance section fifteen to twenty-two by thirty percent, shift to slow motion.”

She stared as the figure in the trim black suit and flowing overcoat enlarged, as he walked across the sumptuous lobby of the apartment complex. Checked the expensive timepiece on his wrist. Smoothed his hair.

And she watched Summerset step into the elevator and head up.

“Freeze screen,” she snapped.

The time at the bottom read twelve p.m., the afternoon on Thomas X. Brennen’s murder.

She ran the lobby disc through, fast-forwarding through hour after hour. But she never saw him come back out.

CHAPTER FIVE

She didn’t bother to knock, but simply shoved open his door. Her blood was hot, her mind cold.

Roarke could clearly see both temperatures in her eyes. Deliberately and without haste, he flipped his computer manually to hold, closing off his work.

“You’re overdoing again,” he said easily, remaining seated as she stalked — a single posse closing in on her man — to his desk. “Fatigue always steals the color from your face. I don’t like seeing you pale.”