J. Robb: Kindred In Death

Charity stood where she was, smiling at him. “How’s your mama doing?”

“Oh, she’s fine. I wish she didn’t work so hard. Wish I could do more for her.”

“I bet you’re doing more than she’d ever think to ask,” Charity said, and Eve hoped she was the only one who heard the underlying ice in the tone. “And won’t she be surprised when you play for her? I don’t know another boy your age who’d go to so much trouble to please his mama.”

“I owe her everything. I bet your family feels the same about you. Especially your kids. Are you sure you’re going to be all right here on your own? Alone until Sunday, didn’t you say?”

“Oh, I’ll be fine, and happy to have the place to myself until Deke and the boys get back Sunday. Now you have a muffin while I go put these pretty daisies in water. I won’t be a minute.”

“Okay.”

Charity strolled out of the room, didn’t break stride even when she sent one fiercely satisfied glance in Eve’s direction.

As her footsteps echoed away, Darrin took a small vial out of his pocket, tipped the contents into her glass.

“Go. All positions, go.”

Weapon drawn, Eve rushed the room only seconds before a half-dozen cops did the same.

“Hello, Darrin,” Eve said. She smiled as he stared at her. “Hands behind your head. Now. On your knees.”

“What’s this about?” He obeyed, but turned his head side-to-side, with the perfect mix of fear and confusion on his face. “My-my name’s Denny, Denny Plimpton. I have identification.”

“I bet you do. Darrin Pauley, aka Denny Plimpton, among others, you’re under arrest for murder, two counts.” Eve gripped his wrist, yanked his arm behind his back.

She looked up and into MacMasters’s eyes. “Captain, would you read this son of a bitch his rights?”

“I…” MacMasters cleared the rust from his voice. He looked down at the weapon in his hand, then slowly holstered it. “You have the right to remain silent,” he began as she secured Darrin’s wrists in restraints.

“Thought you were playing her, didn’t you, Darrin?” Eve hauled him to his feet. “Playing an old woman. But she played you. She played you like a piano. This time? You’re the mark.”

The frightened boy fell away, and he smiled. And when he smiled, turning his face toward MacMasters, the shadow of the monster slouched behind his eyes. “Maybe you’ll get intent to rob, but that’s all you’ll get.”

Eve jerked him around so he faced her. “Keep telling yourself that, Darrin.”

“Look what I found.” Baxter held up a pair of the cutaway restraints bailiffs carried in courtrooms. “There’s a recorder here, too, a can of Seal-It, and hmmm.” He held up another vial and a small package of pills. “I bet these contain illegal substances.”

“Bag it, log it, bring it. And the contents of Mrs. Mimoto’s glass. Transport this thing into Central, book him. I’ll be in real soon, we’ll chat.

“Get him out.” She shoved Darrin toward Jenkinson, then walked up to MacMasters. “You did the job. You maintained. We’ve got him now. You should go home, tell your wife we’ve got him now. Be with her.”

“I’d like to observe your interview.” His face was like stone, pale and sharply carved.

“We’ll let him sweat a while. You’ve got time to go home, tell your wife. She needs to hear this from you.”

“Yes, you’re right.” He held out his hand. “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

“Captain.”

He started for the door, stopped, turned. “I thought about it, even after what we talked about. I could have taken him out. Clean line, one stream. I could have done it. Now I have to think about that.”

“Bastard did his job there,” Eve murmured. “Cracked the foundation of a damn good cop.”

“I think, with some time, the foundation’s going to prove solid. He did the job, like you said,” Peabody pointed out. “It was good, you having him read the bastard his rights.”

“Yeah. Contact the judge, assure her that her mother’s safe, and it’s done. We can contact her father, but I assume she’ll want to do that herself.”

She turned away. “All right, boys and girls, good work. Let’s close it down.”

At Central, Eve formally notified her commander, the PA’s office, contacted Mira with a request she observe. She wrote her report.

She sat, her boots on her desk, and drank a cup of coffee.

Peabody tapped on the doorjamb. “He’s been booked and processed, and he’s been sitting in Interview for an hour.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Reo and the commander are here, MacMasters just came in, and Mira’s on her way.”

“I’m up on that.”

“Don’t you think we ought to start working him?”

“Feeling twitchy?”

“No. Yes. Well, Nadine’s chomping to break the story.”

“Not yet. Nothing yet.”

“Well… we’re supposed to be back, you know, with the rehearsal. I know they’re using stand-ins, but if we wrapped this, we could still…”

Eve merely turned her head, stared.

“And ah… We should talk about how we’re going at him,” Peabody decided on the spot. “And if we leave him sitting too long, he might start thinking lawyer.”

“He’s not going to lawyer. What name is he going to use? What address? His ID’s bogus. Besides, what good did a lawyer do his mother? That’s what he’s thinking. Fuck lawyers, fuck all of us. He’s too smart to go down. Or, if we get lucky, he’ll go down a hero in his own mind.”

“Well, how do we work him? Oh, let me guess.” Peabody rolled her eyes. “I’m good cop.”

“No good cop.”

A quick, almost childish delight bloomed on Peabody’s face. “I don’t have to be good? I can be bad?”

“We hit, hit hard. Getting the confession isn’t the tricky part.”

“It’s not?”

“He’ll want to confess after he understands we’ve got him cold. He’ll want the hero badge. The tricky part? Getting him to flip on his father.” She dropped her feet to the floor. “Let’s do it.”

Eve walked into Interview, dropped her file on the table, took a seat. Peabody took the chair beside her.

“Record on,” she said and read in all the data, including every known alias she’d discovered.

She noted the quick jump of a muscle in Darrin’s jaw, and knew the depth of her knowledge caught him off guard.

“Legally, I’m covered using the name on your birth records,” she said conversationally, “but I like to be thorough, seeing as you’ve used so many names, including the two used when you murdered Deena MacMasters and Karlene Robins. So, which name do you want me to use in this interview? Your choice.”

“Fuck you.”

“For the record, would fuck be your first name or your last? Never mind. The courts frown on my using that sort of profanity to address interview subjects. Though, personally, I think it fits.”

“To the ground,” Peabody agreed.

“I’ll stick with Darrin. We’ve got you cold, Darrin. You’re a smart guy, so you know this. Well, maybe not so smart as you were set up and knocked down by a ninety-year-old woman. One you intended to incapacitate with an illegal substance, bind, beat, rape, sodomize, and murder.”

“Give me a break.” His sneer struck her as both young and arrogant. “She’s old. I couldn’t even get wood up to do some dried-up old woman. Makes me want to puke to think about it.”

“The stiffie pills in your backpack would’ve helped with that, but you’d have gotten it up, Darrin. Even though I suspect you’ve got a twig in your pants instead of a decent bat. Because it’s all about the hurting for you, the torment, the fear, the pain. That’s what turns sick fucks-oops, I said fuck-like you on.”