Read Online In Death 25 - Creation in Death by authors_sort - Free Book Online

that morning?—when they’d left the house for the crime scene.
    She realized he looked more like a member of the team than the emperor of the business world.
    “Need a minute,” she told him, then stepped a few feet away.
    “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?”
    “Feeney’s got work for you. He’ll fill you in. I’m heading out with Peabody. I just want…look, don’t go buying stuff.”
    He lifted his eyebrows, and the amusement showed clearly on his face. “Such as?”
    “E-toys, new furniture, catered lunches, dancing girls. Whatever,” she said with a distracted wave of her hand. “You’re not here to supply the NYPSD.”
    “What if I get hungry, then feel the urge to dance?”
    “Suppress it.” She gave him a little poke in the chest that he interpreted—correctly—as both affection and warning. “And don’t expect me to kiss you good-bye, hello, and like that when we’re on the clock. It makes us look—”
    “Married?” At her stony stare he grinned. “Very well, Lieutenant, I’ll try my best to suppress all my urges.”
    Fat chance of that, she thought, but had to be satisfied. “Peabody,” she called out, “with me.”
    On the way out, Peabody hit Vending for a Diet Pepsi for herself, a regular tube for Eve. “Gotta keep the caffeine pumping. I’ve never been on something like this, not when you catch a case and a few hours later you’ve got a task force, a war room, and a pep talk from the chief.”
    “We work the case.”
    “Well, it’s this case, and the ones from nine years ago, and even the ones between that went down elsewhere. That’s a lot of balls in the air.”
    “It’s all one,” Eve said as they got into the car. “One case with a lot of pieces.”
    “Arms,” Peabody said after a minute. “It’s more like arms. It’s like an octopus.”
    “The case is an octopus.”
    “It’s got all these tentacles, all these arms, but there’s only one head. You get the head, you get it all.”
    “Okay,” Eve decided, “that’s not bad. The case is an octopus.”
    “And say, okay, maybe you can’t get to the head, not at first, but you get a good hold on one of those tentacles, then—”
    “I get it, Peabody.” Because she now had an image of a giant octopus swimming in her head, Eve was relieved when her dash ’link signaled. “Dallas.”
    “So, what’s up?”
    “Nadine.” Eve let her glance shift down to the screen where Nadine Furst, a very hot property in media circles, beamed out at her.
    “Media conference, you as the department’s spokesperson—I know you love that one.”
    “I’m primary.”
    “I got that.” On screen, Nadine’s cat eyes were sharp and searching. “But what gives this one enough juice? A dead woman in the park, identity yet to be given.”
    “We’ll give her name at the conference.”
    “Give me a hint. Celebrity?”
    “No hints.”
    “Come on, be a pal.”
    The trouble was, they were pals. Moreover, Nadine could be trusted. And at the moment, Nadine had plenty of juice of her own. She could, Eve mused, be useful.
    “You’re going to want to come to the media conference, Nadine.”
    “I’ve got a conflict. Just—”
    “You’re going to want to be there, and when it wraps, you’re going to want to find your way to my office.”
    “Offering me a one-on-one after a media announcement takes off the shine, Dallas.”
    “You’re not getting a one-on-one. Just you, just me. No camera. You’re going to want to do this, Nadine.”
    “I’ll be there.”
    “That was smart,” Peabody said when Eve clicked off. “That was really smart. Bring her in, bargain, and get her resources and contacts.”
    “She’ll keep a lid on what I ask her to keep a lid on,” Eve agreed. “And she’s the perfect funnel for any departmentally sanctioned leaks.” She parked, rolled her shoulders. “Let’s go harass Dickhead.”
    Dick Berenski had earned his nickname. Not only did he have a head like an egg covered with slick