hard to argue with.
“Okay. I have a consult with Mira. I think it might help if you made time to consult with her, too.”
He angled his head. She couldn’t claim the man made for an easy read, but she knew suspicion when it blasted her in the face.
“For?”
“Insight into Cobbe. Your insight. Direct from you instead of passed through me. I’ve got three more faces on my board, Roarke, one of them a minor. They’re twenty years gone, but they deserve justice. She may hear something you say in a way that opens something. It’s what she does.”
“All right then.”
“I’ve got to go, or her scary admin will scold me. I’ll keep you updated.”
“I’ll do the same.”
Not a lie, she told herself. Her professional reasons for pushing him to talk to Mira arrowed straight to those four faces on her board.
If her personal reasons tagged along with that, it didn’t negate the first.
If she felt a little guilty, she’d just have to get over it.
She went straight to Mira’s office, and though she was right on time, earned a scold anyway from Mira’s admin.
“You could have told me you were consulting on one of the commander’s old cases as well as a new one.”
“I didn’t know I would be when we asked for the time.”
“The doctor has cleared her schedule. You’ll have as much time as you need.” The admin tapped her earpiece. “Lieutenant Dallas is here.
“Go right in,” she told Eve.
Mira sat at her desk, her brows knitted as she scanned data on her screen. Her hair, rich and thick as mink, swept in loose waves around her face.
She wore lip dye in a popping pink. Maybe as a tribute to spring, Eve thought, or because it mirrored the color of the blouse under the white (not cream) suit.
Her eyes, a soft, pretty blue, lifted to Eve’s.
“I’m refreshing myself on the Solomen case. Twenty years can blur the memory.”
“Take your time,” Eve said, though she hoped the blur faded fast.
“I assisted on the profile. Clinton Jones, since retired, had this office then. He was very good.”
She rose, walked to the AutoChef on bright white shoes with the toes and high skinny heels in the exact shade as the shirt, as the lips.
It never failed to astound Eve anyone could think just that minutely about clothes.
She expected Mira to program her favored floral-smelling tea, so it surprised Eve to scent coffee. Good coffee.
“I stocked some of your blend,” Mira explained. “I think we both can use it.”
“I wouldn’t say no.”
“Sit. This will be difficult for the commander. I remember how much weight he took on over those three deaths.”
“Solomen was his.”
“Yes.” Mira brought over the coffee in pretty cups, sat in the blue scoop chair facing Eve’s. “And now the man responsible for those deaths is back, and has added another.”
She sipped coffee, crossed her legs. “Let’s start in the present. You seem confident—as I read your notes—you’ll break the husband of this victim.”
“I am confident. He’s weak, arrogant, self-absorbed. And the circumstantial’s already piled up past his ass.”
“He’s an egotist. His wife insulted him by having an affair. It was more about the insult to his ego and manhood than a betrayal. And the person she chose wasn’t in or of the same social and financial strata—another insult. His ego is his dominant trait, and therefore his dominant weakness.”
“It won’t be hard to poke his ego when I have him in the box.”
Mira smiled. “No, you’re good at it. Understand, too, that divorce was never an option for him. Her death protects his ego and his standing—even adds to his standing. Forgiveness or attempting to repair his marriage, simply impossible to consider. She insulted him, may even at some point would have ended the marriage if he attempted repair. She displayed, with the painting, a constant reminder of that insult, that unacceptable possibility. What choice did he have but to eliminate her?”
“At the same time, he’s too weak to confront her.”
“Yes, he is weak,” Mira agreed. “Though he would see that as strategy, even cunning. Her ending the affair changes nothing,” Mira added, sipping her coffee. “Hiring a professional killer? Efficient as he’d see it, and certainly worth the investment, as he would reap all the rewards.”
“Her money, the kid, and the kid’s money—or the authority over that. Her family’s support.”
“All of that, and he can rid himself of the housekeeper and nanny, giving him full emotional control of the child, choose replacements that suit his needs.”
Mira lifted a