Read Online In Death 23 - Born in Death by authors_sort - Free Book Online Page B

“Like, Look what I found. ”
    The next was a day later, an incoming.
    Hey, babe. I’m trying to move this dinner meeting along, but it’s dragging. Do you want me to come by after?
    No, no, that’s okay. I’m working. Bick, I’m finding more. I think a lot more. I’ll fill you in tomorrow. Meet me for breakfast maybe? Our spot.
    I’ll be there. Seven-thirty good?
    Perfect. God, Bick. I just can’t believe all this. We have to find it all. It has to be stopped.
    We could go to the cops.
    Not yet. We have to be absolutely sure. We don’t know who’s involved, not on this end. Not for certain. We have to be careful. I’ll tell you about it in the morning.
    Don’t work too late. Love you.
    Love you right back.
    There were a handful of others, increasingly tense, equally cryptic, ending with one near midnight, only a couple of hours before the first murder.
    Just wanted to talk to you. See your face.
    Nat, listen, I’ll just come over.
    It’s late, and you had such a long day. I’m fine, really. Just edgy, I guess. And Palma will be here later. I always feel so odd having you sleep here when she’s staying over.
    You puritan.
    Guess I am.
    But she laughed a little.
    I’m going to tell her, Bick, talk it through with her.
    I don’t like the way you were approached. Nat, they tried to bribe you.
    And as far as they know I’m thinking about it.
    It was more ultimatum than bribe. They might try to hurt you.
    I asked for forty-eight hours to think about it. I’ve got time. There’s no reason for them to try anything before I give them my answer. I’ve got the new lock, the security peep, Palma’s coming. I’m in this now, Bick. I want to finish it. I just want to put it all together, talk to Palm. Tomorrow, we’ll take everything to the authorities.
    I’ll come over in the morning. We’ll go together.
    Don’t bring your file copies. Let’s just…like insurance, you know. If cops don’t work, we’ll go to the media. This has to be exposed.
    One way or the other, Nat. We’ll fry their asses.
    And get back to our lives. I can’t wait to marry you.
    Crazy about you. Sleep tight, babe. This’ll be over tomorrow.
    I can’t wait for that either. Love you. Night.
    “Civilians,” Eve said with a churning mix of pity and anger. “Playing detective. They’d gone to the cops, they’d be alive.”
    “Had something hot,” McNab agreed. “Bribes and threats, ending in bloody murder. I’ll push back further, maybe she dropped more detail earlier in the game. Seems pretty clear it was something she came across at her work.”
    “Still waiting for the fucking warrant for her files. Lawyers. Damn it. Somebody wants to, they’ve had plenty of time to pull incriminating, do some major covering up.”
    “Everything leaves a trail. EDD bloodhounds will sniff it out.” He pulled out the disc, passed it to Eve. “Damn shame about them. You could see they had the real thing going.”
    “They’d stuck with numbers, left the bad guys to us, they’d still have it going.”
    But she was heavy with that pity as she pushed out of the booth.
    “Go back,” she said to McNab. “Keep going back. Seems to me if someone had contacted her via ’link on this thing, she’d have kept a record of the transmission. She thought she was setting up a case. Accountants, they’re all about columns and balancing things out, keeping records. If there was electronic contact, she’s got it somewhere.”
    Or had it, Eve thought as she gratefully headed out of Club EDD. She’d have told her killer anything he wanted to know before he was done with her.
    Eve hit the lab on her way home. Her goal was to pin down Dick Berenski, chief lab tech, into passing on whatever they had to this point. But as she moved through the tunnels and glass-walled labs and cubes, she spotted Harvo, a tech she’d worked with before.
    Harvo’s short, spiked red hair was covered with a protective cap painted, Eve noted, with naked men. “Nice