few minutes with him, Detective.”
“Appreciate it.” Steadier, Strong picked up the coffee again. “After we took Oberman down, that bitch, and got the dirt out of the squad, I still kept Lyle on the DL for a while. I just wanted to get a good feel for the new LT, the transfers. I didn’t tell my boss about it until a few weeks ago when—between what I got from Lyle, what I was able to put together from pattern, from some buzz—I thought I hit on a fairly major illegals buy.
“We busted three Bangers, got a couple of flunkies buying up the junk for an asshole trust-fund baby on Long Island. Got him, too, but he got a deal.” On a scowl of disgust, Strong gestured with her mug. “Money talks.”
“I heard about that. Good bust. Isn’t the trust-fund asshole doing six months—minimum-security rehab palace, but six months in?”
“Yeah. The Bangers are doing a dime each, and he gets a knuckle rap. But it’s something. I thought I had enough shields up, Dallas, to cover Lyle, but if I didn’t . . .”
“He made a choice, a courageous one. Don’t take that from him.”
Strong turned her gaze to Eve. “I need to be in on this. He was mine. I need to be in on this.”
“I thought that was understood.”
Eve knew Strong to be tough, so the swirl of tears in her eyes brought some concern. “Okay, listen—”
But Strong waved a hand, battled back the tears. “I’ll copy you on all my files where he played a part. How they’d get to him?”
Eve ran it through, gave Strong a minute to absorb it.
“Yeah, yeah, he’d have let her in. It’s the first I know about her going to his place, going into his place. At least, he never told me she had. She’d hang outside the building, catching him coming or going to work. Sometimes she’d wait outside where he worked. Lately he didn’t see her as much, and he heard she started flopping with a Banger called Bolt.”
“Yeah, that sticks.”
“He’s a bad one, Dallas. Bolt, along with a female—not a Banger Bitch but a soldier—Tank, because she’s built like one, and Riot are lieutenants for a reason.”
Frowning, Strong studied her coffee before she drank. “It might be Duff hooked with Bolt to try to get more stable status with the gang. Can’t say for sure, but if she came around crying, asking for help, I see Lyle opening the door—even just to give her a couple bucks, get her gone.”
“You don’t see him being involved with her again?”
“Risk his parole, his job, the life he was building? Big no. He felt sorry for her on some levels. He saw her as caught in the same cycle he’d finally broken for himself. And they had a history, so he’d try to help her.”
At a knock on her door, Eve moved over, opened it to Santiago.
“Sorry, LT. There’s a Matthew Fenster out here. He says you asked him to come in.”
“Yeah, thanks. Ask him to wait a minute. Peabody, check and see if we’ve got an open interview room so Strong can talk to him in private. Tag me when you’re ready, Detective,” she told Strong. “Make it quick. I want his take on this.”
When she had breathing room in her office again, Eve turned back to her board. Back to Dinnie Duff.
Why would Duff have betrayed such a soft touch? Addicts like her always needed money for the next fix, and it sounded like she’d been able to whine a few bucks out of Pickering routinely.
Then again, addicts like her could and would betray anyone.
Still.
Then again, Pickering wouldn’t get high with her, have sex with her, hang out with her. All of those would be essential needs for someone like Duff.
He gave her a few bucks here and there, but otherwise, he’d cut off their connection. No banging, no partying.
Would that make him just another mark? No, she considered, more than just another. A mark, but one she wanted to pay back for casting her aside.
Maybe.
“Were you pissed off at him, Dinnie? Yeah, I bet you were. Fucker thought he was better than you with his going-straight life and asshole job. Maybe some payback in there.”
Maybe, maybe, but she could punch a dozen holes in that one, Eve mused. And the first would be if nothing turned out to be missing.
She sent a text to Rochelle.
She needed a walk-through of the crime scene.
When she got the buzz from Strong, she