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“I had some good ones stockpiled. They’ll come back to me. But my head’s crowded with this business, and the case. Then there’s Peabody driving me over the edge.”
“It’s tomorrow for her, isn’t it?”
“Thank God. I’ll hit Fortney and Breen tomorrow while she’s in exam. I can get Feeney to team with me. And then . . . oh, speaking of hitting, Fortney socked Pepper.”
“Excuse me?”
“Blackened her eye. She came in, filed charges, so that smooths the way to holding him. I’ve shuffled things so he won’t be able to whine for bail until tomorrow. I already had round one with Breen today. He started out smirky, but I wiped that off his face. I’ve got him shadowed until our scheduled interview tomorrow. Renquist is reportedly out of the city on business. I thought I might tug on one of my connections and see if that’s the case or just a runaround.”
“Would it be my ego talking again if I assume I’m that connection.”
She gave him a quick, toothy grin. “You’re pretty handy to have around, even after sex.”
“Darling, that’s so touching.”
“I’ve got Smith locked down, too. I want to know where all of them are 24/7 until I can push for a warrant.”
“And how do you know which of the four is your man?”
“I recognized him,” she replied, then shook her head. “But that’s gut, and you can’t arrest on gut. There’s only one who fits the profile, right down the line. Only one who’d have needed to feed himself by writing the notes. I need to eliminate the other three, build the case on the one. Once I tie the travel to the other murders, I’ll have enough for a search warrant. He’s got stuff—the paper, the tools, the costumes. He’s kept all that. Tomorrow, the next day, I’ll get in. And I’ll have him.”
“Are you going to tell me who it is?”
“I think we’ll work on the elimination process, do the travel and murder dates. See if you start leaning in the direction I’ve taken. You’ve got a pretty good gut yourself. For a civilian.”
“Such flattery. Then it appears we’re going to work.”
“Yeah, I—Shit.” Her pocket ’link beeped. “I’ve got it,” she said, leaping up to scramble to the platform where the bed stood and grab her trousers from off of the floor.
She dragged it out of a pocket, flipped it on. “Dallas.”
“Lieutenant.” Sela Cox’s tear-streaked face filled the screen and had Eve’s heart dropping to her knees.
“Mrs. Cox.”
“She’s awake.” The tears kept falling even as she smiled. Brilliantly. “The doctor’s with her now, but I thought I should tell you as soon as I could.”
“I’m on my way.” She started to click off, stopped herself. “Mrs. Cox. Thank you.”
“I’ll be waiting for you.”
“I just got a miracle,” Eve told Roarke and dragged on her trousers. Then she found she had to sit, just give into weak legs for one moment. “I saw her face. In my dream tonight. Hers, and the others, my own. I saw her face, and I thought she was dead. That I’d been too late for her, and she was dead. I was wrong.”
She took a deep breath as Roarke came over to join her. “I saw him, too. My father, standing on the other side of the hospital bed. He said it never ended anyway. There’s always another victim and I might as well give up before I was dead, too.”
“And he was wrong.”
“You’re damn right.” She pushed to her feet. “I’m not tagging Peabody. I want her fresh for the exam. Want to stand in?”
“Lieutenant, I already am.”
Chapter 21
She strode down the hospital corridor. She’d hooked her badge on her belt to stop any medicals from getting in her way. Roarke wanted to tell her the fire in her eyes would have done the job, but he was afraid it might dim that fierce light.
And he enjoyed seeing it too much to take the chance.
The guard she’d placed at the door to ICU was at attention when she turned the corner. In Roarke’s opinion, the uniform had likely scented her energy and whipped himself on alert.
