J. Robb - Divided in Death

“Then I won’t.”

She started out, paused in front of the poster of Mavis. “Don’t ever tell her,” she said, and left the scene.

Inside the lab, Reva worked side by side with Tokimoto. They rarely spoke, and when they did it was in an abbreviated computerese only the true data jock could translate. But for the most part, there were no words between them. One thought, the other anticipated.

But Reva couldn’t anticipate how badly he wanted to speak, how the part of his mind not focused on the work formed and re-formed the words and phrases.

She was in trouble, he reminded himself. She was just widowed, and widowed by a man she’d learned was using her. She was vulnerable, and emotionally fragile. It was… ghoulish-wasn’t it?-to even consider approaching her on any personal level at such a time.

But when she leaned back on a quiet sound of exhaustion, the words simply popped out.

“You’re pushing too hard. You need to take a break. Twenty minutes. A walk in the fresh air.”

“We’re close. I know it.”

“Then twenty minutes will make little difference. Your eyes are bloodshot.”

She worked up a twisted smile. “Thanks for pointing that out.”

“You have lovely eyes. You’re abusing them.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” She shut them on a sigh. “You don’t even know what color they are other than red.”

“They’re gray. Like smoke. Or fog on a moonless night.”

She opened one eye, peered at him. “Where’d that come from?”

“I have no idea.” Though he was flustered, he decided to push on. “Perhaps my brain is as bloodshot as your eyes. I think we should take a walk.”

“Why not?” She studied him as she got to her feet. “Sure. Why not?”

Across the room, Roarke watched them step out. “About damn time,” he muttered.

“You got something?” Feeney asked, and nearly pounced on him.

“No. Sorry. I was thinking of something else.”

“You’re a little off today, aren’t you, boy?”

“I’m on right enough.” He reached for his coffee mug, found it empty, and had to struggle against the urge to just heave it against the glass wall.

“Why don’t I fill that up for you.” Feeney nipped it handily out of Roarke’s hand. “I was about to do my own.”

“Appreciate it.”

When he’d done so, Feeney came back, swiveled his chair beside Roarke’s. “She can handle herself. You know that.”

“Who would know it better?” Roarke took a tool as thin as a dentist’s probe and scraped delicately at corrosion. Then because Feeney merely sat and sipped, he set the tool aside once more.

“I gave her a difficult time before she left. She deserved it, by God, didn’t she deserve it. But I regret the timing of it.”

“I’m not getting between a man and his wife. Those who do usually come out looking like they’ve been set on by wild dogs. I will say when the wife’s in a mood to cook my brains for breakfast, I can usually save myself with flowers. Pick ‘em up from a street vendor, take them home to her-with a big sappy look on my face.” He sat, he sipped. “Flowers wouldn’t work on Dallas.”

“Not in a million years,” Roarke confirmed. “A sack of diamonds from the Blue Mines on Taurus I wouldn’t work on her, unless you knocked her in that block of wood she calls a head with them. Christ Jesus, that woman’s a frustration to me. Beginning, end, and all the middle.”

Feeney said nothing for five humming seconds. “See, you want me to agree with you. To say something like, ‘Oh yeah, that Dallas sure is a blockhead.’ If I did, you’d end up kicking my ass. So I’m just going to drink my coffee.”

“That’s a big help to me.”

“You’re a smart boy. You know what you have to do.”

“And what would that be?”

He patted Roarke on the shoulder. “Grovel,” he said, and scooted his chair out of harm’s way.

It wasn’t over. No, by God, it wasn’t over, and he was in the pilot’s seat now.

He paced and prowled his rooms-rooms he was so proud of, rooms he’d celebrated having completely to himself. No one knew about them.

Well, no one living.

They were a perfect place to strategize his moves. And to congratulate himself on yet another job well done.

The blue-haired freak had been child’s play. Absolute child’s play. He took a minute hit of Zeus to keep his energies up, keep his mind alert as he had business, very personal business, to conduct shortly.

He was protecting himself, step by stage by layer. And that, self-preservation, was paramount. The quick thrill of the kill, of outwitting those who would have erased him, was a nice benefit, but it wasn’t the point.

The point was to cover his ass, which he had done-and beautifully, if he did say so himself. The cops were up the creek now, without a body to work with.

The next was funding. And he couldn’t quite figure out, yet, how to get his hands on the money due him.

He paused to study his reflection in a mirror. He was going to have to change that face, and it pained him. He liked the face that looked back at him. Still, sacrifices would have to be made for the good of the whole.

Once he finished his work, tied up some more loose ends, he’d find a surgeon who wouldn’t ask too many questions. He had enough to pay for that, sure he did. And he’d find a way to get the rest, all the rest, when he could just think without all these complications springing up on him.

So that was level one and two. But the third level was payback, and he knew exactly how to collect that debt.

He wasn’t going to be used and betrayed, and played for a fool.

What he was going to do was take care of business.

Eve blanked everything out of her mind but the moment. She kept her sights on the goal, striding briskly toward the waiting area outside the vaulted office of Chief Tibble. And had to check that stride when Don Webster cut across her path.

“Move it. I’ve got business.”

“So do I. Same place, same business.”

Her heart tripped. Webster was Internal Affairs. “I wasn’t informed IAB was part of this. That’s a serious breach, Webster. I’m entitled to a departmental rep.”

“You don’t need one.”

“Don’t tell me what I need,” she hissed. “Somebody sics the rat squad on me, I get a rep.”

“The rat squad’s on your side.” He took her arm, then released it quickly when her eyes went to hot slits. “I’m not hitting on you, for God’s sake, Dallas. Give me a minute. One minute.” He gestured her around the corner.

“Make it fast.”

“First, let me say this isn’t personal. Or let me say this isn’t intimate. I don’t want Roarke trying to beat my brains into veggie hash again.”

“I don’t need him to do that.”

“Acknowledged. I’m here to help you.”

“Help me what?”

“Kick a little Homeboy ass.”

They had a history, Eve reminded herself as she studied his face. That history included a single night between the sheets, years before. For some reason she never quite understood, that night had gotten under Webster’s skin. He had a… thing for her, which she was fairly sure Roarke had tramped out of him before she could do so herself.

She supposed they were, in some strange way, friends by this point. He was a good cop-wasted, in her opinion, in IAB, but a good cop. And an honest one.

“Why?”

“Because, Lieutenant, IAB doesn’t like outside organizations trying to mess with what’s ours.”

“No, you like to mess with us yourselves.”

“Ease back, would you? We’re informed the HSO is looking at one of our cops, we’re obliged to take a look at that cop. That cops comes up whistle-clean-and you do-we take exception to the waste of our time and resources. Somebody outside tries to target a good cop, IAB offers a shield. Consider me your knight in shining fucking armor.”