Witness in Death (In Death #10)(93)

"I haven't filled all the gaps yet. I want to cover a few more bases, and I need to run something by Whitney. It sort of involves you."

"And what might that be?"

She shook her head. "If he doesn't clear it, it won't matter. I'll be able to reach you, right? If I need to talk to you before I get back."

"I'll be available. I thought I'd bake some cookies."

The dry tone had her snorting as she picked up her jacket. "You do that, honey." She turned to kiss him, then yelped when he twisted her earlobe. "Hey!"

"Don't work too hard, darling."

"Man." Pouting, she rubbed her ear as she walked to the door. "If I did that every time you used the W word, you wouldn't have any ears left."

She stopped at the door, looked back. "But you're beautiful when you're angry," she said, and fled.

Peabody stood outside the hospital's main doors, shoulders hunched against the brisk wind, nose red from it.

"Why the hell didn't you wait inside?" Eve demanded. "It's freezing out here."

"I wanted to catch you before you went in. Can we take a minute?"

Eve studied Peabody's set and serious face. Personal business, she decided, not official. Well, she deserved it. "All right. Let's walk, keep the blood moving." She headed away from the ramps and glides, as sirens announced another unlucky resident of New York was about to enjoy the building's facilities.

"About before," Peabody began.

"Look, I was out of line, and you were the closest target. I'm sorry about it."

"No, that's not what I mean. I figured it out. Took me a while," she added. "What you did, telling her cold like that was because you had to see how she'd react. If she knew Draco was her father, well, it bumped up her motive. Either way, if she knew it before they... you know, or if she knew it after they got going, it went to her frame of mind."

Eve watched a medi-van whip past. "She didn't know."

"I don't think so either. If you'd eased her into it, it would've given her time to think, to figure out how best to react, what to say. I should've known that right off instead of working around to it an hour later."

"I could have clued you in before we got there." With a shake of her head, she turned around, started back. "I hadn't settled myself into it yet."

"It was a hard thing to do. I don't think I'd've had the guts for it."

"It has nothing to do with guts."

"Yeah, it does." Peabody stopped, waited for Eve to turn to face her. "If you didn't have feelings, it wouldn't have been hard. But you do. Guts can be the same thing as mean without compassion. It was hard, but you did it anyway. A better cop would have realized that quicker."

"I didn't give you much of a chance since I was busy jumping down your throat. You worked it out, came around to it on your own. I must be doing something right with you. So, are we square now?"

"Yeah, all four corners."

"Good, let's get inside. I'm freezing my ass off."

CHAPTER TWENTY

They went by to see Trueheart first. At Peabody's insistence, they stopped off in the shopping mall for a get-well gift.

"It'll take five minutes."

"We've chipped in on the flowers already." The forest of goods, the wide and winding trails that led to them, and the chirpy voices announcing the sales and specials caused Eve's already abused stomach to execute a slow, anxious roll.

She'd rather have gone hand-to-hand with a three-hundred-pound violent tendency than be swallowed up in a consumer sea.

"That's from everyone," Peabody explained patiently. "This'll be from us."

Despite herself, Eve stopped at a display of dull green surgical scrubs brightly emblazoned with the hospital's logo. For ten bucks extra, you could have one splattered with what appeared to be arterial blood.

"It's a sick world. Just sick."

"We're not going for the souvenirs." Though she thought the oversized anal probes were kind of a hoot. "When a guy's in the hospital, he wants toys."

"When a guy gets a splinter in his toe, he wants toys," Eve complained but followed Peabody into a game shop and resigned herself to having her senses battered by the beeps, crashes, roars, and blasts.

Here, according to the flashing signs, you could choose from over ten thousand selections for your entertainment, leisure, or educational desires. From sports to quantum physics programs and everything in between, you had only to key in the topic of your interest and the animated map, or one of the fully trained and friendly game partners, would direct you to the correct area.

The store menu pumped out screaming yellow light. Eve felt her eyes cross.

The clear tubes of the sample booths were all loaded with people trying out demos. Others trolled the store proper, their faces bright with avarice or blank from sensory overload.

"Don't these people have jobs?" Eve wondered.

"We hit lunch hour."

"Well, lucky us."

Peabody made a beeline for the combat section. "Hand-to-hand," she decided. "It'll make him feel in control. Wow, look! It's the new Super Street Fighter. It's supposed to be majorly mag." She flipped the anti-theft box over, winced a little at the price, then noted the manufacturer.