Connections in Death (In Death, #48)- J. D. Robb Page 0,118
it’s going to be done right.”
“He knew you planned to have her raped and beaten.”
“Shit yeah. Said to make sure they suited up, so no juice in her for the cops to find.”
“And still, after all that, Slice didn’t call for war.”
“Got no guts, got no honor. Stealing from his family.”
“Why Aimes? Was it always going to be Aimes?”
“He’s a dumb-ass, zoned out most of the time. He and Dinnie, always whining for more junk. I never killed any of them. You can’t hang that on me.”
Eve sat back. “Who’s the dumb-ass now?”
This time Eve called for a break all around—and decided to pull another Roarke.
As she sat in her office, reviewing interviews, she smelled the pizza coming her way before she heard the clomp of Peabody’s boots.
“Brought you a slice. Ah, the bullpen wants to know if you’re okay.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Sticky buns this morning, pizza this afternoon.”
“Special circumstances. You can tell them not to get used to it.”
“Being smart cops, I think they know that. Did you talk to Teasdale?”
“Yeah, and sent her the interview. Cohen’s going to be very sad when he doesn’t get witness protection—ever.”
“Instead he goes down for accessory before and after the fact, three counts.”
“I’m going to ask for on-planet.”
Peabody managed to look both surprised and disappointed simultaneously. “Why?”
“I think it’ll actually be harder on the sleazy son of a bitch. Plus, Jorgenson and his idiot team are going off. If they end up in the same facility, Cohen is a dead man. I want him to live a long, miserable life. Go eat before the wolves leave a scatter of crumbs.”
“They’re being nice to me. They said I got the first slice. Let me know when you’re ready for Jones.”
“Yeah.” Eve rolled her tired shoulders, texted Roarke.
Grand slam.
And smiled at his reply.
And the crowd goes wild. I hope to make it down to Central by four if you’re still going to be at it.
She blew out a breath.
Supposed to do stupid media conference about then. Going to bag Jones, and leave Cohen for Teasdale. Jorgenson wrapped him up in a bow.
Then I’ll try to make it down to see you tell the media and the people of New York the city’s a safer place tonight. Eat something.
She started to tell him she had pizza, then remembered she’d had pizza the day before. He’d have something to say about that.
Breaking now. See you later.
After checking the time, she ate her slice, settled for water with a coffee chaser while she continued to review.
Then calculating, tagged Nadine.
“Am I go? I need to head down to Central in a couple hours and join the rest of the media.”
“Here’s what you’re go on now. Jorgenson, Washington, Chesterfield, Cohen, all charged.”
She ran through the specific charges while she ate. “You can check with the PA’s office on when, but they’re all scheduled to be indicted today. You can add the federal charges on Cohen, but you should get confirmation from Special Agent Teasdale. If you wait about a half hour to break this, you can follow up with Pickering’s CI status. I want Jones in the box before that hits. I don’t want it to leak to him and maybe skew the interview.”
“I can do that.”
“Do me a solid—let Kyung know it’s coming. He may be a little annoyed, but he’ll get it.”
“Don’t sandbag him, got it.” Nadine looked up from her notes. “We’re going to do right by Rochelle’s brother, Dallas.”
“Counting on it. I’ll let her know it’s coming.”
She clicked off, tagged Crack. “Are you with Rochelle?”
“Yeah. I’m helping her family with plans for Lyle’s memorial. We’re at her brother’s.”
“Good. Tell her she can share with her family what I told her this morning. And you should have Channel Seventy-Five on. There’s going to be a major report in about thirty.”
“Are they bagged, Dallas?”
“The five responsible won’t see the outside again. Crack, I want to talk to Lyle’s cop because I know she’s carrying weight on this, but tell the family he wasn’t killed because he was helping the cops. They didn’t know he was helping us. They did it to punish him for leaving the gang, and to hit back at Jones for letting him. I’m sure of that.
“I’ve got to go finish this. Turn on the screen.”
“I’ll tell them. Thanks, skinny white girl.”
“See you around, big black man.”
She finished the slice, the coffee, sat for a minute studying her board.
So many lives ruined, wasted, ended, shattered. Because two men’s greed pushed them to do ugly