Shadows in Death (In Death #51) - J.D. Robb Page 0,37
on each for good behavior.”
Eve shoved up, cursing. “Fucking lawyers. I gave him to you on a platter.”
“Twenty-five on each charge,” Reo agreed, “with the possibility of reduction to twenty as stated. If, and only if, the information is valid and assists in apprehension. If it’s discovered your client has withheld any information or lied about any information, the deal is voided.”
“On-planet.”
“Not a chance. Ms. Gotte, you and I both know if we go to court, your client’s never getting out. You may, on an outside chance, convince a judge and jury to lessen the sentence, but not by much more than I’m offering. And he’ll spend most of that potential reduction in prison awaiting trial, standing trial, and so on. You’re not going to get a better deal.”
“I can’t go to prison for fifty years.”
Tween began to shake now. Not from fear so much, Eve thought, but the hard cold reality.
“Give me a moment with my client.”
“Dallas and Reo exiting Interview. Record off. Goddamn it, Reo,” Eve began as she went out.
When the door shut, Eve turned. “If I went for girls, and if polygamy was legal in this state, I would fucking marry you.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet. Give me the twenty. I’ll trust you for the wine.”
Eve dug out twenty, slapped it into Reo’s hand. “You’re one hell of a cheap, lazy lawyer.”
“Hey!” Peabody hustled back up the hall. “I was just heading back in. All prepped with a shocked face and data on Cobbe.”
“She got the fifty.”
“Yes!” Peabody offered a fist bump.
“Now we see if he has anything we don’t already know.”
“He had his name,” Peabody pointed out. “It’s a good start.”
“There’s a lot of road between start and finish.” Eve jammed her hands into her pockets. “Cobbe’s the finish. How much Tween actually knows about him? That’s only part of the road.”
“It’s sinking in,” Reo pointed out. “What he’s facing. Fifty years is terrifying, but the alternative’s worse. And he’s got that dangle of knocking it to forty if he’s a good boy inside. Gotte’s making it clear he spills everything he knows or gets the alternative. How sure are you Cobbe will stay in New York?”
“He wants Roarke. It’s not a job, it’s personal.”
“Still, he had to know Roarke had his base in New York, so why now?”
Eve blew out a breath. “He’s Irish. Cobbe’s Irish.”
Reo angled her head. “And?”
“They’re—from my observation, they can be …” Pulling her hands out of her pockets, Eve waggled them in the air. “It’s not just superstitious, it’s—” She broke off again, frustrated. “I don’t have the word for it. But Cobbe takes, as far as we can track, his first job in New York in twenty years—and maybe he took it figuring he’d get a line on Roarke. But when he does, who walks on scene? Roarke. It’s like a sign to him, that’s how I see it. He’s Irish, it’s a sign. Roarke, Roarke’s cop, the successful job. The fucking universe is telling him this is the time and place.”
“That makes an odd sort of sense.”
“Perfect sense, really,” Peabody decided.
Eve pointed at her. “Free-Ager. Sort of the same deal in that area.”
She paused when Gotte opened the Interview door. “My client is ready to continue. He’d like some chilled spring water, flat.”
“Slice of lime with that?”
Gotte merely gave Eve a dour stare.
“I’ll get it. Can I get you something, Ms. Gotte?”
“Thank you, Detective. Green tea, no sweetener.”
While Peabody headed off, Eve and Reo stepped back into Interview.
“Record on. Dallas and Reo reentering Interview with Tween and Gotte.”
As she folded her hands on the table, Gotte’s face stayed dour. “My client appeals to you on behalf of his young child. My client’s son is only four years old. Serving his sentence on-planet will allow this young, innocent boy regular contact with his father.”
“I’m all he has.” Tween’s voice shook. His eyes glimmered as he tried for tears.
“Seems like you should’ve thought of that before you hired Lorcan Cobbe to gut your wife in a public park.”
“Regardless,” Gotte snapped at Eve.
“No regardless. The minor child’s mother’s dead because your client paid to make her dead. I think that disqualifies him for the Father of the Year Award.”
“He remains the child’s father and legal guardian.”
“Wrong. He sticks on the biology, but he is no longer the minor child’s legal guardian. Stefano and Tereza Modesto have legal custody, as is clearly stated in Galla Modesto’s will.”
“We can bring this before family court, of course,” Reo added. “But you know as well