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“Real good.” Catching Eve’s hairy eyeball, Peabody grabbed the box, got going. “See you!”
Nadine tossed the coat on the conference table, set a purse in zebra stripes the size of a cargo freighter—a Christmas gift from Eve—beside it. “Got any real coffee in there?” she asked, gesturing to the AutoChef.
“No.”
“Hell.”
“Where’s Bruno?”
“Sulking. It may be time for a tasteful parting gift there. He’s a really nice distraction while I’m deciding if I want more distractions or a long haul. I’m pretty sure I’m still in distraction mode. Anyway, enough about me. What’s your status?”
“There wasn’t any need for you to come back here.”
Nadine reached into the enormous zebra, pulled out a file case. “Here I have correspondence to me regarding the book and the vid. I’ve already culled through it, eliminated those who couldn’t possibly be involved—such as a fourteen-year-old boy, a woman who recently celebrated her centennial by skydiving, and a scientist currently doing research in the Aleutians. Among others. I know how to do this, Dallas.”
“Okay. You still didn’t need to cut your sexcation short and come back.”
“Sexcation—I’m stealing that. As fun as that sexcation might have been, you’re my friend. And you’re a damn good cop. Put those in whichever order works for you. Then add, extremely big story when it hits. It’s going to hit, and soon.”
“I know it.”
“I help you, you help me. It’s what friends do. And really good cops and really good reporters. Tell me what you can, and I’ll work on it—on my own,” she added. “I may not be on sexcation, but I’m not back at work, officially. Just me—no team.”
Eve thought longingly of the real coffee in her office—but she wasn’t taking Nadine there. Not this round.
“We have a second vic.”
“Another?” Nadine dived in the zebra again, pulled out a notepad and pencil. “No recorder—pen and paper—and nobody can read my notes. Name?”
“Ledo, Wendall.”
“Connection to Bastwick?”
“None known. Smallest of small-time illegals dealer. Lived and worked in the Square.”
“As far away from Bastwick as it gets. How was he killed?”
“A really good reporter could find that out.”
“Fine. Connection to you—unless you want me to dig for it.”
“Occasional source, largely unwilling. Last altercation he accidentally smacked me with his cue stick—which I’d broken over some other asshole’s skull.”
“I see, just another day in the life.” Nadine raised her eyes. “Are you telling me somebody killed him because he knocked you with a cue stick?”
“That’s how it reads.”
“Did the killer leave another message?”
“Yeah.”
“What did it say?”
“It’s enough for you to know it ran along the same lines as the first.”
“I can help more if— Hang on.” Once again she reached in the bag, pulled out her ’link. Hissed, then looked back at Eve. “I set an alert. It just blew.”
“Shit.”
