J. Robb - Divided in Death

Roarke reached in his pocket, held out the scanner for Bissel’s approval.

“You’ve been dipping in Zeus, Agent Bissel,” Eve said to bring his attention back to her. “It’s not good for you. It can cloud your thinking.”

“You think I don’t know what I’m doing?” Sweat was running down his face, pooling at the base of his throat. “You think I don’t have the balls?”

“No. You couldn’t do what you do, be what you are if you didn’t have balls. Sparrow hadn’t screwed you up, you’d be fat city.”

“The son of a bitch.”

“He thought you were his dog, that he could keep you on a leash.” She didn’t look at Roarke, but sensed him at her side. “But you showed him what you were made of. I think all you wanted to do was get away after your assignment was complete. To get what was owed to you and get away, and things kept going wrong. You know, I bet Chloe would’ve gone with you. You didn’t have to kill her.”

“She was an idiot! A decent roll, but she’d irritate the hell out of you out of bed. I used her data unit to store information, to formulate plans. I know how to make my own plans. Contingencies. And what do you think I saw when I peeked in through the listening device I planted in the bedroom? She was trying to get into it, trying to break my passcode. Probably thought I was screwing around on her. Stupid, jealous little bitch.”

“What about the locket you gave her?”

He looked blank, then his jittery eyes smiled. “Passkey, drop box. Think I don’t know how to cover myself? I had drop boxes all over the damn place. Emergency funds, weapons, whatever I needed. Can’t put everything in one spot. Gotta spread out.”

“And she knew about this place. She knew, and she had that incriminating data buried on her unit, and one of your passkeys. I guess I was wrong. You did have to kill her.”

“Damn straight. It should’ve worked. It should’ve. I even got her to write the note. Just write it down for me, baby. One line, just one to say how you felt when you thought I was dead. And she was stupid enough to do it.”

“It was a good plan. So was Powell. It was just bad luck.”

“Explosive device confirmed,” Roarke said coolly. “My, my, Bissel, you certainly put all your eggs into one very volatile basket. If you discharge that, they wouldn’t be able to sweep up the pieces.”

“I told you. Didn’t I tell you? Now get me that copter. Get it now!”

“If you discharged it,” Roarke continued. “But you won’t, as I’ve just deactivated the timer. You’re clear, Lieutenant.”

“Thanks.” She aimed for Bissel’s unprotected legs. He staggered, roared, and his eyes went wild as he closed his hand into a fist to try to set off the explosive.

She hit him a second time when he reached for the side-arms, and Peabody came in from the side, bowling in mid-body to send them both flying across the now-scarred floor.

Pumping on Zeus, he backhanded her, but she held on.

McNab leaped, diving in to catch Bissel in a headlock, and, using his fist instead of his weapon, rammed three short, hard punches to the face.

Her nose was streaming blood, but Peabody grabbed her restraints. Between the two of them, they held him down and cuffed his wrists.

“Get his ankles, too,” Eve suggested, and tossed over her own restraints. “He’s still pretty hopped. This is Dallas,” she said into her headset. “Suspect is secured. Send in Bombs and Explosives to remove device.”

When Peabody panted and sat hard on Bissel’s still-bucking back, McNab offered her a polka-dotted handkerchief. “Here you go, baby. Your nose is bleeding. I mean, Detective Baby,” he added with a glance at Eve.

“Doing okay, Peabody?” Eve asked her.

“Yeah. It’s not broken.” She held the colorful cloth to her nose. “We got him, Lieutenant.”

“Yeah, we got him. Arrange to have the prisoner transported to Central. Good job, Detective Baby. You, too, McNab.”

“You held back,” Roarke said when Eve stepped out of the way to let the bomb squad deal with the sculpture. “So McNab could punch him a few times for Peabody.”

“I think Peabody might have handled it on her own, but he deserved a shot. Got a good, solid right for such a skinny guy.”

She checked her wrist unit. It looked as if she was going to be right on time for Nadine.

Screw political wisdom.

“I’m going to have to go in, do the paperwork, warm up Bissel in Interview. Going to take some time. Maybe you could fill in Reva and Tokimoto, make sure they know their assistance and cooperation have been noted and appreciated. Let Reva know I’m going to clear it so she gets five private minutes with Bissel. And maybe you could tell Caro she did a good job raising her kid.”

“You could tell her that yourself.”

“Guess I could. Meanwhile”-she jerked a thumb so he’d step with her into the relative quiet of the gallery-”you’ve been putting in a lot of time and energy as regards this investigation. Personal interest or not, that’s also noted and appreciated.”

“Thank you.”

“I guess it’s going to take you some time to get your own stuff back in order. All that universal magnate and corporate god stuff.”

“A few days. A week or so, we’ll be on balance again. I’m going to have to be out of town for a bit. Some of it needs to be hands-on.”

“Okay. But you figure you’ll be back in order in about a week?”

“More or less, why?”

“Because when you’re all set, I’m going to take you away for a long weekend. So you can relax.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Are you?”

“Yeah. You’ve been revving on all engines. You need a break. So we’ll say… a week from Friday. Where do you want to go?”

“Where do I want to go? And you’re doing this because I need a break?”

She glanced through the doorway, just to make sure nobody was paying any attention. Then cupped his face in her hands. “You do. Then there’s the fact that I intend to make you my sex slave for a couple days. So where do you want to go?”

“We haven’t been to the island in a while.” He didn’t bother to check if anyone was watching, but leaned down and kissed her. “I’ll make the arrangements.”

“No. I’ll make the arrangements. I can do it,” she said when he didn’t quite hide the wince. “I can. Jesus, I can coordinate a major op, I should be able to coordinate some damn travel. Have a little faith.”

“In you I have more than a little.”

“Then I’ll see you later. I’ve got to go let the dogs out.”

She headed out, then walked back and gave him a hard, short kiss. “Later, Civilian Baby.”

She heard him laugh as she walked out, skirted around other cops. And when she was alone, riding down alone, she tapped her finger-the one that wore her wedding ring-against the image of the badge on her heart.