Memory in Death

Chapter 21

IT WAS IN HER EYES, JUST FOR AN INSTANT.

Not just shock, Eve thought, but excitement. Then they rounded again, innocent and wholesome as a baby’s.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. I don’t want to be here anymore.” The lips she’d liked too much to change trembled. “I want Bobby.”

“Did you ever?” Eve wondered. “Or was he just handy? But we’ll get to that. You’re going to want to drop the act now, Marnie. We’ll both be happier, as I can’t imagine you found someone as boring as Zana fun to cart around.”

Marnie sniffled pitifully. “You’re being so mean.”

“Yeah, I get that way when somebody lies to me. You’ve been having some fun with that. But you also got a little sloppy in the room next to Trudy’s, where you cleaned up. Left some blood. Better, left your prints.”

Eve rose, walked around the table to lean over Marnie’s shoulder. She caught the subtle floral scent and wondered if Marnie had dabbed on Trudy’s new perfume that morning. How she’d felt spritzing on a dead woman’s choice.

Probably just fine, Eve decided. Probably giggled while she sprayed.

“You did a good job on the identity switch,” she said quietly. “But it’s never perfect. Then there’s Trudy’s ‘link. Little things, Marnie, it’s always the little things that trip you up. You just couldn’t resist lifting a few things from her. You’ve got sticky fingers, always did.”

She reached over, flipped open the file on the table, exposed the split-screen photos she’d generated, along with Marnie Ralston’s data and criminal record.

“Busy, busy girl. That’s what I saw in you, I think, the first minute, outside Trudy’s room. The busy, busy girl inside the housewife.”

“You didn’t see anything,” Marnie said under her breath.

“Didn’t I? Well, in any case, you shouldn’t have kept the perfume, Marnie, shouldn’t have taken that pretty sweater, or that really nice purse.”

“She gave me those. Mama Tru—”

“That’s crap, and see now you’re lying stupid. Smarter, smarter if you worked up those tears again and told me you took them, just couldn’t help yourself. You’re so ashamed. You and I both know Trudy never gave anybody a damn thing.”

“She loved me.” Marnie covered her face with her hands and wept. “She loved me.”

“More crap,” Eve said easily. “More lying stupid. The problem is you ran into a cop who knew her, who remembers her. You didn’t count on me showing up that morning before you finished setting things up, cleaning things up. You didn’t count on me heading the investigation.”

She gave Marnie a pat on the shoulder, then eased a hip on the table. “What were the odds of that?” Eve glanced over at Peabody. “I mean, really.”

“Nobody could’ve figured that one,” Peabody agreed. “And it’s a really great purse. Shame to let it go to waste. You know what I think, Lieutenant? I think she overplayed it with that faked abduction. She’d‘ve been smarter to stay in the background. But she just couldn’t resist grabbing a little spotlight.”

“I think you’re right. You like being in the shine, don’t you, Marnie? All those years you had to play the game. Cops, Child Protection, Trudy. Busted out awhile, got your own back. Never enough. But you’re smart. Opportunity plants a boot in your ass, you know how to turn around and grab it.”

“You’re just making things up because you don’t know what happened.”

“But I do know. I admire you, Marnie, I have to say. All the planning, all the playacting. You really know how to pull it off. Of course, she walked right into it. Coming here, going after me. Then following her old pattern of messing herself up so she could blame somebody else. It might’ve taken you months more of being the good little wife, the sweet little daughter-in-law, before you could wrap it up. Come on, Marnie.” She leaned forward. “You know you want to tell me. Who’d understand better than somebody who’d been through it? She make you take those cold baths every night? Scrub up after her? How many times did she lock you in the dark, tell you that you were nothing?”

“What do you care what happened to her?” Marnie said softly.

“Who says I do?”

“I don’t think you have anything. Those things?” She gestured to the evidence bag. “Mama Tru gave them to me. She loved me.”

“She never loved a soul on or off planet but herself. But maybe you can swing that with a jury. You think, Peabody?”

Peabody pursed her lips as if considering. “She’s got a shot, especially if she turns on the waterworks. But when you put them with the rest, chances drop sharply. You know, Lieutenant, there’s the case for lying in wait—the big picture. Assuming a false identity—not a big hit, but added up.” Peabody lifted a shoulder. “Assuming it’s for the purposes of murder. Man, you give the jury that, the fact that she married the victim’s son just to get in position to kill her former foster mother. ‘Cause that’s fricking cold. Then factor in the money, murder for gain. She’s looking at life, off-planet facility. Hard time.”

Peabody looked at Marnie. “Maybe you can convince us the actual murder was unpremeditated. Maybe you could make a case of self-defense for yourself. While you’ve got our sympathy.”

“Maybe I should call a lawyer.”

“Fine.” Eve pushed off the table. “No skin off mine, ‘cause I’ve got you. You spring the lawyer, Marnie, that’s your right. Once you do, it cuts deep into my sympathy and admiration. You got a name?” Eve asked easily. “Or do you want court-appointed?”

“Wait. Just wait.” Marnie picked up her fizzy, sipped. When she sat it down again, the guilelessness was replaced by calculation. “What if I tell you she was going to rake you to the bone, you and your man? I stopped her. That’s got to be worth something.”

“Sure it is. We’ll talk about that.” Eve sat back down. “But you’re going to want to lay it out for me. Why don’t we start at the beginning?”

“Why not? God knows I’m sick to death of Zana, you hit on that one. You got my sheet, there. Juvie, the works?”

“Yeah.”

“It doesn’t tell the whole story. You know how that goes. I got kicked around, since I was a kid.”

“I saw your medicals. You had it rough.”

“I learned to kick back. I looked after myself, because nobody else was going to.” In disgust, she shoved the remainder of the fizzy aside. “Can I get some coffee? Black.”

“Sure, I’ll take care of it.” Peabody walked to the door, slipped out.

“The system blows,” Marnie continued. “Beats me to hell and back how you can work for it, after what it did to you.”

Eve kept her gaze level. “I like being in charge.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get that. Got yourself a badge, that frosty weapon. Kick some ass regular. I can see how that could work for you, how you get some of your own back.”

“Let’s talk about you.”

“My favorite subject. So, they finally get me clear of my bitch of a mother, and what do they do? Dump me with Trudy. First, I figure, Hey, I can work this. Nice house, nice things, do-gooder and her boy. But she’s worse than my mother. You know.”

“I know.”

“She was strong. I was puny back then, and she was strong. Cold baths every night—every fucking night—like it was her religion. Locked up in my room every night afterward. I didn’t mind that, it was quiet. Plenty of time to think.”

Peabody came in with the coffee, set it on the table.

“You know, she put something in my food once to make me sick after I took a pair of her earrings?” Marnie sipped the coffee, made a face. “Been awhile since I’ve been in a cop shop. You guys still can’t come up with decent coffee.”

“We suffer in our fight against crime,” Peabody said dryly, and made Marnie laugh.

“Good one. Back to me. So, the second time the bitch caught me, she cut my hair off. I had nice hair. Wore it shorter back then, but it was nice.”

She lifted a hand to it, shook it back. “She cut it off to the scalp— like, I don’t know, I was some kind of war criminal or something. Then she told the social worker I’d done it to myself. Nobody did a damn thing about it. That’s when I knew there’d be payback. One day, somehow. She cut my damn hair off.”

Eve allowed herself a trickle of sympathy. “You ran away.”

“Yeah. Thought about setting the house on fire, with her inside, but that wouldn’t‘ve been smart. They’d come after me harder if I’d done that.”

And the trickle went dry. “Arson, murder, yeah, they’d‘ve come after you hard.”

“Anyway, I was young. Plenty of time for payback. But they came after me anyway. You cops ever think about just letting somebody be?”

She shook her head, took another sip of coffee.

“You got away from her when you were thirteen. That’s half a lifetime ago for you, Marnie. Long time to hold a grudge.”

Mamie’s voice was as bitter as the coffee. “What good’s a grudge if you don’t hold it? She told me I was a whore. Born a whore, die a whore. That I was ugly, useless. That I was nothing. Every day I was with her, she told me. She wanted new living room furniture, so she busted it up, said I did it. The state wrote her a check and put me on restriction. She made my life hell for damn near a year.”

“You waited a long time to pay her back for it.”

“I had other things to do. Kept my eye on her, though, just in case opportunity knocked. Then it did.”

“The night of the bombing in Miami.”

“Sometimes fate just drops it in your lap, what can I say? I was sick that night, got somebody to cover for me. Nobody gave a shit, joint like that. Had to give her my ID and pass code so she could get in the back, into my locker for costumes. Then I hear about it on-screen. Place is blown up, nearly everybody’s dead, and in pieces. Well, Jesus, lucky break for me, wasn’t it? I’d gone in, I’d be in pieces. Shook me up, let me tell you. Really made me think.”

“And you thought, ‘Why not be someone else?’”

“Well, here’s the thing. I owed a little money here and there. Can’t pay if I’m dead. I took the dead friend’s ID, what money we had between us, and lit out. She had a nice stash.”

“You got a name on her?”

“Who? Oh, shit, what was her name? Rosie, yeah. Rosie O’Hara. Why?”

“She might have next of kin looking for her.”

“Doubt it. She was a street LC with a funk habit.” She dismissed the woman who’d died in her place as callously as she’d dismissed the coffee. “Her ID wasn’t going to hold me long, so I knew I needed to ditch it, get fresh. That’s when I came up with the idea for Zana. It’s not so hard to get fresh ID and data if you know where to go, whose palm to grease. Had some work done, face work. Off the books. Good investment, the way I looked at it. Especially when I checked out Bobby.”

“Nice-looking guy, single, ambitious.”

“All that, and still tight with Mama. I wasn’t figuring on killing her, let’s get that straight.” She lifted both hands, pointed the index fingers across at Eve. “Let’s get that real clear. None of this ‘lying in wait’ crap. I just figured on stealing her boy, then making her life a misery, like she’d done to me. Maybe getting a nice nest egg out of it.”

“Just a long con,” Eve supplied.

“That’s right. Bobby was easy. He’s not a bad guy all in all. Boring, but he’s okay. Plus he’s got some moves in the sheets. And Trudy?”

Marnie sat back, grinning ear-to-ear. “She was a pleasure. Figured she had a new slave, meek little Zana. Oh, Mama Tru, I’d be happy to do that for you. You got dirty work needs doing, I’m your girl. Then I get the big surprise. She’s got money tucked away. Pretty big money, too, so why shouldn’t I get some of it? I’ve got the run of her house, seeing as I’m her little helper. She’s got good stuff in there, stuff that costs. Now where’s this coming from? Just takes a little research, a little detecting. Blackmail. I can turn the tables on her with this. Just need a little time, need to figure it all out.”

Propping an elbow on the table, Marnie set her chin on her fist. “I was looking for the best way to siphon off some of the money, then expose her. They’d lock her up, like she’d locked me up.”

Enjoying this, Eve thought, enjoying every minute of this.

“Then she sees you on that media report, and gets all worked up about going to New York. I was going to wrap this up in shiny paper, drop it right in your lap. Then I’d stand back, big wide eyes, horrified that my husband’s mother turned out to be a blackmailer. I’d be laughing my ass off.”

“A good plan,” Eve acknowledged, “but opportunity jumped out at you again.”

“If you’d fallen in, it would’ve turned out differently. You want to think about that,” Marnie said, and gestured with her drink. “I figured you’d pay her off, or at least take a couple days to think it over. Then I’d come to you, all dewy-eyed and upset, tell you what I’d found out about my darling husband’s mama.”

Marnie nudged the coffee aside. “You and me, we’d both have gotten something out of that. Every kid she ever screwed with would’ve gotten something out of that. But you pissed her off good. Roarke? He shot her through the ozone. She was going to make you pay, and pay big. That’s all she could think about. Somebody screwed with her, she’d do anything to screw them back, and bigger. You saw what she did to herself.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

“Not the first time, like you said. You ask me, that woman had some serious issues. She’d already bunged herself up good when she called me. Not Bobby—he wouldn’t put up with what she wanted to do. He’d have stopped her, or tried. But me? Her sweet, biddable daughter-in-law? She knew she could count on me, she knew she could bully me. It wasn’t much of a stretch to act stunned when I went into her room. Her face was a freaking mess. You know what she told me? You want to know?”

“I’m riveted,” Eve answered.

“She said you’d done it.”

Eve sat back, as if stunned. “Really?”

“Oh, yeah, she put it on thick. Look what she did to me. After I took her in, gave her a home. And she’s a policewoman! So I played the part right back. Oh, my, oh, gosh. We have to get you to the hospital, tell Bobby, call the police! But she lays it out. No, no, no. A cop did this, and she’s married to a powerful man. She’s afraid for her life, see? So she gets me to make the recording. For protection, she says, and I see just how she’s wheeling it. It’s all there, subtle-like. If you don’t do the right thing, she’ll send a copy of the recording to the media, to the mayor, the chief of police. They’ll know everything. I’m supposed to make a copy—so she keeps the original—and hand-carry it to you at Cop Central. No telling Bobby. She makes me swear.”

Laughing, Marnie swiped a finger over her heart. “So I make her some soup, and I put a nice tranq in it, add some wine. And she’s out. Could’ve killed her then, you know. You want to think about that, too.”

“I’m thinking about it.”

“I searched the room, found the sap she’d made. Found a copy of the file she had on you, too. Interesting stuff. I took all of it. She called me later, but I said I couldn’t talk. Bobby was right there. I’d call her when we got back from dinner, after he was asleep. She didn’t care much for that, let me tell you. Well, you got the ‘link right there, so you’ve heard.”

“She pushed you,” Eve prompted. “Trudy didn’t like being told to wait.”

“Nope. But I’m like, Oh, let me tell Bobby. We won’t go out, we’ll come down and take care of you. I know she won’t go for that, so she takes another pill, and I go out on the town. Long night for me, but God! It was fun. Just bat my eyes, ask Bobby if we can have champagne, and he pulls out all the stops in his middle-class way. I’m so juiced, you know?”

She drew breath in her nose, letting her head fall back, closing her eyes as she relived it. “Lay him just right when we get back, give him a little something extra to make him sleep. Then I go on down the hall to have my talk with Trudy.”

“You took the weapon with you?”

“Sure. Not to use it,” she added quickly. “Get that straight. I’m putting that on record. What I figured was I’d show it to her, stay in character at least awhile. What have you done? You lied to me! I’m going to tell Bobby. I’m going to the police!”

Marnie laid her hands on her belly and laughed. “God! You should’ve seen her face. She never expected it. So, she slapped me. Told me I was hysterical, and slapped me. Said I was going to do just what she told me, and no back talk. If I wanted to keep my cozy nest, I’d shut my mouth and do what she said. Otherwise I’d be out on my ass, she’d see to it.”

Her face was grim now, and full of hate. “She said I was nothing, just like she did when I was a kid. ‘You’re nothing,’ she said, ‘and you’d better remember who’s in charge.’ Then she turned her back on me. I still had the sap in my hand. I didn’t think about it, didn’t even think. It just happened. I let her have it good. And she went down, right down to her knees, and I let her have it again. Nothing in my life ever felt better. Who was nothing now?”

She held up her coffee. “Hey, can I get another? It’s crap, but it gives you a buzz.”

“Sure.” Eve signaled to Peabody, then rose herself to get water from the jug kept in the room.

“I didn’t plan it,” Marnie continued. “But sometimes you can’t stick to the plan. You got anybody behind the mirror?”

Eve studied her own reflection. “Does it matter?”

“Just like knowing if I have an audience. I didn’t murder her. I just lost my head for a minute. She slapped me, right across the face.”

“Open palm,” Eve murmured, remembering. “Quick sting, not hard enough to leave a mark. She was good at it.”

“She liked pain. Liked to give it, liked to get it.” Marnie scooted around in the chair, facing Eve so their eyes met in the mirror in a gesture of intimacy.

Inside Eve, something twisted. She understood what it was to find a weapon in her hand, and to use it. Blindly, ferociously.

“She was one of those S and M types, without the kick of sex,” Marnie went on. “That’s what I think. She was one sick bitch. But I didn’t set out to kill her. I didn’t even get a chance to tell her who I was. Watch her face when I did. Too damn bad. I used to dream about doing that.”

“That must’ve been a disappointment.” Eve turned back as Peabody came in with fresh coffee, kept her face neutral. “You had to think fast after it was done.”

“Thought about just running. But I kept my head. Probably shouldn’t have taken the sweater and stuff.” Marnie glanced down at the sweater, smiled. “But I couldn’t resist. Should’ve waited, gotten them later. But it was spur of the moment.”

“You knew the room next door was empty.”

“Yeah. The maid mentioned it. Thought we might want to take that room so we could be next door to each other. No, thank you. The window wasn’t locked on it, otherwise I’d have had to clean up on the escape platform, change, and walk around, go in the front. Crappy hotel, crappy security. Didn’t figure anyone would look next door. I left a trail leading down the escape. Open window, dead woman, blood trail. I was careful.”

“Not half bad,” Eve agreed. “You shouldn’t have pushed it. You should’ve let Bobby find her.”

“It was more fun the way I did it. You’ve got to get in a few kicks. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather when you and Roarke showed, though. Last people I expected to see come knocking on the old bitch’s door. Had to improvise.”

“You must’ve sweated some, having to leave the ‘link, the weapon, the bloody towels next door while we went over the scene.”

“Some, yeah. But I figured if you found them, you still didn’t have reason to look at me. The business the next day was a little insurance. I get the stuff, head out, dump everything in different recyclers while I walk around, find the right spot. I used to live in New York. I knew that bar.”

“I knew that.”

Marnie snorted. “Come on.”

“You slipped up with the dogs, made the wrong comment. I had a homer on both of you that day. A little insurance for me.”

Marnie’s face went blank, then there was a snap of irritation before she shrugged. “Bobby slipped.”

“You’re in it this far, Marnie, and you’re going to get points for cooperating. Don’t start bullshitting me now. Trudy’s dead, and she’s got all that money. Bobby’s sitting between you and it. Boring Bobby.”

“You think this was about money? Money’s a little icing, but it’s not the cake. It’s payback. She deserved it, you know damn well she deserved it. Bobby’s an idiot, but he’s okay. If I gave him a little nudge, it was impulse, that’s all. Just a little something to keep you looking for the invisible man. And I tried to pull him back. I got witnesses.”

She sulked over her coffee. “Tally it up, why don’t you? You’ve got one dead blackmailer. And she hit me first. I destroyed the discs of the recording she had me make. All of them: I destroyed the copies of your file—as a favor. If I was after money, I could’ve come after you with them. But I didn’t, ‘cause the way I saw it, she put us in the same boat back then. I could’ve waited, and screwed with Bobby when we were back in Texas. I’ve got nothing but time.”

“But you aren’t going back to Texas. Bali, isn’t it?”

A smile glimmered again. “I’m thinking about it. A lot of people she screwed with are going to be glad I took care of her. You ought to thank me. She messed with us, Dallas. Preyed on and played with us. You know it. You know she got what she deserved. We come from the same place, you and me. You’d have done the same thing.”

Eve thought of the way their eyes had met in the mirror. What she’d seen in Marnie’s. What she’d seen in her own. “That’s how you figure it.”

“That’s how it is. I’m not going down for this. Not when it comes out what she was, what she did. Assault, maybe. I do a couple years for that and the ID gambit. But murder? You can’t make that stick.”

“Watch me.” Eve pushed to her feet. “Marnie Ralston, you’re under arrest for the murder of Trudy Lombard. Further charges are attempted murder of Bobby Lombard. We’ll toss in the ID fraud, giving false statements to the police. You’ll do more than a couple years, Marnie. You’ve got my word on it.”

“Oh, cut the crap,” Marnie insisted. “Turn off the record, shove your partner out so it’s just you and me. Then tell me how you really feel.”

“I can tell you how I feel, Marnie, on or off record.”

“You’re glad she’s dead.”

“You’re wrong.” What had clutched inside of her loosened. Because Marnie was wrong. Completely. “If it was up to me, she’d be in a cage, the same as you’ll be. She’d be in a cage for what she did to me, to you, to every kid she ever abused, to every woman she ever exploited. That’s justice.”

“That’s bullshit .”

“No, that’s the job,” Eve corrected. “But you didn’t leave it up to me. You picked up that sap, and you cracked her skull open.”

“I didn’t plan it—”

“Maybe you didn’t,” Eve interrupted. “But you didn’t stop there. While she was lying there, bleeding, you stole from her. To get to that point, the point where you could exact your revenge, you used an innocent man. You left the bed where you’d made love with him, and killed his mother. Then you watched him grieve. You put him in the hospital, for kicks, for a little insurance. You did to him what she tried to do to us. You made him nothing. If I could, I’d send you over for that alone.”

She braced her hands on the table, leaned over so their faces were close. “I’m not like you, Marnie. You’re pathetic, taking and ruining lives for something that’s over.”

There were tears now, real ones, angry ones, glimmering in Mamie’s eyes. “It’s never over.”

“Well, you’ll have a long time to think about that. Twenty-five to life, I’d say. I’m nothing like you,” Eve repeated. “I’m the cop. And I’m going to give myself the pleasure of taking you down to booking personally.”

“You’re a hypocrite. You’re a liar and a hypocrite.”

“You can think that, but I’ll be sleeping in my own bed tonight. And I’m going to sleep really well.”

She took Marnie’s arm, pulled her to her feet. Pulling out her restraints, she snapped them on Marnie’s wrists. “Peabody, finish up here, will you?”

“I’ll be out in six months,” Marnie said when Eve escorted her into the hall.

“Keep dreaming.”

“And Bobby’ll pay for my lawyers. She deserved it. Say it! She deserved it. You hated her, just as much as I did.”

“You just piss me off,” Eve said wearily. “You robbed me of the chance to face her down, to do my job and see she paid for everything she’d done.”

“I want a lawyer. I want a psych eval.”

“You’ll get both.” Eve nudged her into an elevator, headed down to booking.

When she was back in her office, Mira came in, closed the door. “You did a good job in Interview.”

“I got lucky. Her ego was on my side.”

“And you recognized that. She didn’t recognize you.”

“She wasn’t off by much. I’ve killed, and I know I’ve got the violence in me that makes me capable of it. Then. Now. But murder’s got a different face. I don’t see that in my mirror.

“Thing is,” she added, “she won’t see it in hers, either.”

“But you’ll see the truth. She won’t. I know it wasn’t easy for you, to do what you did. To do it from the start of this. How do you feel?”

“I’ve got to go to the hospital and tell that poor son of a bitch what she did, and why. I’ve got to go there and break his heart, leave that scar on him. I could feel a hell of a lot better.”

“Do you want me to go with you?”

“He’s going to need something, somebody, after. It’ll be up to him. But I think I have to do this, just the two of us. I think I owe him that. What do you think if I contacted the partner, they seem to be tight. Tell him to get his ass up here.”

“I think Bobby’s lucky to have you looking out for him.”

“Friends give you a cushion for the fall, even when you think you don’t need or want one. I appreciate you stopping by here, to see if I needed one. I’m okay.”

“Then I’ll let you finish.”

* * *

An hour later Eve was sitting beside Bobby’s hospital bed, helpless and miserable as tears tracked down his cheeks.

“There has to be a mistake. You’ve made a mistake.”

“There’s not. I haven’t. And I’m sorry, but I don’t know how else to tell you but straight out. She used you. She planned it. Parts of it maybe since she was thirteen. She claims she didn’t plan to kill your mother, and that may be true. It was of the moment. It always looked that way, so it could be that way. But beyond that, Bobby, and I know it’s a punch in the face, she planned, she covered up, she used. She wasn’t the woman she pretended to be. That woman never existed.”

“She—she just isn’t capable…”

“Zana Kline Lombard wasn’t capable. Marnie Ralston was and is. She confessed, Bobby, she walked me through it.”

“But we were married, all these months. We lived together. I know her.”

“You know what she wanted you to know. She’s a pro, a manipulator with a sheet as long as my arm. Bobby. Look at me, Bobby. You were raised by a manipulative woman, primed to be taken by another.”

“What does that make me?” His hand fisted, punched lightly on the bed. “What the hell does all that make me?”

“A target. But you don’t have to keep being one. She’s going to try to play you. She’s going to cry and apologize and tell you things like she started all this before she really knew you, that she fell for you on the way. She’ll say that part was never a lie. She’ll say things like she did this for you. She’ll have all the right words. Don’t be a target for her again.”

“I love her.”

“You love smoke. That’s all she is.” Impatient, a cinder of anger burning in her belly, Eve got to her feet. “You’ll do what you do. I can’t stop you. But I’m saying that you deserve better. I figure it took guts for a twelve-year-old kid to sneak me food, to try to make things a little easier for me. It’s going to take guts for you to face what you’re going to have to face. I’ll make it easier for you if I can.”

“My mother’s dead. My wife’s in prison, charged with her murder. With maybe trying to kill me. For God’s sake, how can you make it easier?”

I guess I can’t.

“I need to talk to Zana. I want to see her.”

Eve nodded. “Yeah, fine. You’re free to go down for visitation once they spring you.”

“There’ll be an explanation. You’ll see.”

You won’t, she decided. Maybe you can’t . “Good luck, Bobby.”

* * *

She went home, hating that she’d closed a case and still carried a sense of discouragement, of failure. The man would be manipulated. Maybe the system would as well.

She’d closed the case, but it wasn’t over. Sometimes, she thought, they never were.

She walked in, glanced at Summerset. “Let’s just keep this moratorium going another few hours. I’m too damn tired to screw around with you.”

She went straight to the bedroom. And there he was, stripped to the waist, pulling a T-shirt out of a drawer.

“Lieutenant. I don’t have to ask you about your day. It’s all over your face. She slipped through?”

“No, I got her. Full confession, for what it’s worth. PA’s going with Murder Two on Trudy, reckless endangerment on Bobby. She’ll go over, and for a long time.”

He pulled on the shirt as he crossed to her. “What is it?”

“I just left the hospital. Told Bobby.”

“You would do that yourself,” Roarke murmured, and touched her hair. “How horrible was it?”

“As much as it gets. He doesn’t believe it, or part of him does. You could see part of him knew I was giving it to him straight. It’s more he won’t see it, won’t accept it. He’s going to go down there, talk to her. She claimed he’d end up paying for her lawyers, and you know, she’s going to be right.”

Roarke slid his arms around her. “Love. Who can argue with it?”

“He’s a victim.” She dropped her forehead to his. “And one I can’t reach.”

“He’s a grown man, making his own decisions. Not helpless, Eve.” He tipped her face up. “You did your job.”

“I did my job. So what am I bitching about? It didn’t tie up the way I wanted. That’s the breaks. Nice that you’re here, though. Good that you’re here.”

She turned, wandered over toward the tree.

“What else?”

“She said we were alike. We’re not, I know we’re not. But there’s a piece of me like her, and that piece knows how she could pick up that sap and whale away. There’s a piece of me that understands that.”

“Eve, if you didn’t have that piece, didn’t understand why some use it and you don’t, you wouldn’t be such a damn good cop.”

Weight simply slid off her shoulders as she turned and looked at him. “Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. I knew there was a reason I kept you around.”

She walked back to him, tugged on the sleeve of his T-shirt. “What’s this for, ace?”

“I thought I’d grab a workout, but my wife got home earlier than expected.”

“I could use one myself. Burn off some of this annoyance.” She stepped back to remove her weapon harness, then angled her head. “If you found out I’d been putting on a sham, that I’d hooked you just to get to your bottomless vault of moolah, what would you do about it?”

He gave her that wicked smile, that bolt of blue from the eyes. “Why now, darling Eve, I’d kick your sorry ass, then invest a great deal of that moolah in making the rest of your life bloody hell.”

More weight lifted, and she grinned at him. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’m a very lucky woman.”

She tossed her weapon on the chair, dropped her badge beside it. Then she reached for his hand, linked fingers, and for a little while, put the job away.