gripped Eve’s hand like iron. “I don’t want anyone from the order to hurt them.”
“Are they members?”
“Oh God, no. It’s just that they might send somebody there to see if I went there, or if they know. Harley might not want me back after this, but he’ll want Gabe. Please don’t let him take my baby away from me. Please don’t—”
“Look at me.” Eve leaned forward until their eyes met on the same level. “Nobody’s going to touch your son. I’ll get protection for your family in Ohio, and I’ll let them know you’re safe.”
“Thank you, thank you. I’ve been so stupid.”
“No, Zoe, you’ve been abused, and there’s a world of difference.”
“And what a fine mother you’ve proven to be already.” Roarke stood. “Gracie’s coming down for you.”
“Thank you, so much. Lieutenant Dallas, would you tell my family I’m sorry, and I love them?”
“I will.”
The minute they stepped outside, Eve pulled out her ’link and tagged APA Cher Reo.
Reo groaned. “Come on, Dallas. It’s not even six A.M.”
“Warrants, I need them. Now. Piper, Lawrence—I’ll send you his salients—Murder One.”
“Who’d he kill?”
“His pregnant wife. Beat her to death. I need a warrant to enter, to search and seize at the crime scene.” She rattled off the address. “Where I’m heading now. And I need you to start working on warrants to get me and a team—probably NYPSD and FBI—into the Natural Order HQ.”
“Whoa, whoa.” The video popped on to show Reo jumping out of bed in red sleep shorts and a white tank. She shoved a hand through tousled blond curls. “I know you’re working on a murder with connections to Natural Order, but—”
“They’re holding a woman, Ella Alice Foxx, age eighteen. I believe Natural Order not only transported the body of Marcia Piper and sent cleaners to deal with the crime scene—eyewit on both—but that Lawrence Piper is holing up in their HQ. Accessory after the fact should get me a damn warrant.”
“I’ll get you the first two fast. The third’s going to take some doing and some time. We need to coordinate there. I’ll come into Central and we’ll start working on it.”
“Let’s work fast.”
She clicked off, then did a search on Piper.
“Lucked out. The SUV’s in his name. If he had it through the order, this wouldn’t be so easy.”
She issued an APB on the vehicle, then a BOLO on Piper.
She kept working until Roarke pulled up at the address he’d heard her give Reo.
“Quiet,” Eve observed. “Real quiet. You want to bet Zoe wasn’t the only one to hear the screaming and pounding?” She pointed across the street. “Unit on the left, that’s Gina Dawber’s. We’re getting her into Dochas, her and her kids, if she’ll go. No vehicle out front. I bet the fuck of a husband’s at the compound.”
“Could be some carpooling involved.”
“Could be. Here comes the warrant. Let’s get inside. This dead zone’s going to start waking up soon. I want a look around before the sweepers get here.”
“I’ll get your field kit.”
Once they’d sealed up, Eve tried her master on the front door. When it didn’t budge, she shrugged at Roarke.
“Over to you.”
“I can’t decide if I’m proud or revolted they use one of my systems.”
“Pretty sure they’re using your stuff at their HQ.”
“Then I’ll choose revolted.”
It didn’t take him long. When he nodded, Eve switched on her recorder. “Dallas and Roarke entering premises, duly authorized warrant.”
Because you never assumed, she drew her weapon. She shoved the door, swept.
“This is the police. We are authorized to enter. Lights on full.”
They flashed on to the same pristine foyer she’d seen before. She’d expected that—had already smelled the chemicals and solutions used to clean.
“There was a vase of flowers there. Gone now, probably fell over and broke. Small table missing from there. Lamp missing, a couple of pictures in frames. That’s the shared wall.”
She crossed to it, frowned. “I think that’s fresh paint, and something else.”
Curious, Roarke stepped up, sniffed as she did. “I don’t smell anything but the paint.”
“No, more this way.”
He shifted, sniffed. “Ah, that’s drywall compound, fast-drying compound. Someone patched this wall, very quickly, very efficiently.”
“Yeah, she’d hit—her head would hit—right about here. Wham, wham, wham.” Eve mimed banging someone against the wall. “Head wound, lot of blood. And from the pieces that are missing, probably a lot across the floor as he punched, shoved, smacked her from one end of this room to the other. Ending here. Here’s where she dropped. Either dead, or he finished her. Maybe strangled her. She’d