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“Guilt’s oozing out of the son – name’s Jimbo, and I’m sorry about that. And Bubba’s getting sweaty. The mother – she’s Maizie, and bakes one hell of an apple pie – we think she’s clear. But Bubba and Jimbo, they’re lying, Dallas. They know something, and they’re lying. Any of us could get Jimbo in the box for twenty minutes, he’d fold like an accordion.”
“Is that a colorful metaphor?”
He flashed a grin. “I’m working on them.”
“Take one for the team, Santiago.”
The grin faded fast. “Ah hell, Dallas, Bubba’s got hands like sides of beef. That’s not just a colorful metaphor, it’s next
to literal.”
“Toughen up. Get him to take a swing at you, in front of witnesses if you can manage it. And have Carmichael stay on this Jumbo.”
“Jimbo.”
“Whatever. Keep the lawyer and the law centered on Bubba, and I’ll get the son into the box. Holographically speaking.”
“I’m going to get punched in the face, and you guys are going to have all the fun.”
“Make it look good,” Eve advised, and ended transmission.
Instead of Mira, she woke up APA Cher Reo.
“I had ten more minutes coming, damn it.”
“I need you to strong-arm whoever you know who can strong-arm somebody in Monroe, Arkansas. I need a search warrant for a place called Bubba’s Body Shop, Towing and Pies.”
“Is this just a bad dream?”
“Fast, Reo. For the facilities, for the books, for the works. It ties in with the spree killings, and they got another last night.”
The rustling signaled Reo was pulling herself out of bed. “Give me the data again, and give me some probable cause.”
“Bubba’s about to assault one of my detectives.”
“??‘About to’?”
“Anytime now. If you have to wait until that happens, you could get the rest set up. The latest vic turned twenty-one the day after Christmas.”
“Don’t hang that on me. Hell. Give me a few minutes. I used to sleep with a guy who knows a guy.”
Eve smiled when Reo clicked off.
“It doesn’t work so different,” Banner commented. “Where I’m from? Smaller scale, that’s for sure, but it doesn’t work so different from here.”
“Cops are cops. Peabody, hold the fort here. Banner, you’re with me. It might be handy to have you on the interview.”
“You’re going to be good cop,” Peabody warned him.
“With a little good old boy tossed in?”
Eve nodded. “That’ll work.”
She took the elevator down to the holoroom, working out the strategy in her head on the way.
“How many rooms in this place?” Banner wondered.
“I don’t have a clue. I keep finding ones I’d swear weren’t there before.”
