In Death 13 - Seduction in Death by authors_sort Read Free Book Online Page B

lamp just in case she was. "He could tell me about this stuff, couldn't he? He could keep me in the loop so I wouldn't go into this sort of situation and come out feeling like an idiot."
    Peabody looked back at the clinic, her soft heart going to goo stage. "I think it was a beautiful gesture."
    "Don't contradict me, Peabody. Do you forget I am the supreme bitch cop?"
    "No, sir. And as your vehicle is in the same spot and the same condition as you left it, the neighborhood didn't forget that either."
    "Too bad." A bit wistful, she looked around. "I'd've enjoyed busting some ass."
    Back at Central, Eve snagged a candy bar in lieu of lunch, brooded, called up data on the chemicals pertinent to the Bankhead homicide, brooded some more, then called to harass McNab.
    "I want an address."
    "Would you settle for twenty-three of them?"
    "What the hell does that mean?"
    "Look, I'm going to snag a conference room, your office is a box. Your level," he said, working a keyboard to his left manually as he spoke. "Ah... Room 426. I'm using your name to finesse it."
    "McNab -- "
    "Easier, quicker to explain this face-to-face. Give me five."
    He broke transmission on her snarl, which gave her no choice but to finish her snarl at Peabody. "Conference room 426. Now," she ordered.
    She stormed out of her office, through the detective's bullpen where the kill lights in her eyes discouraged any of her associates from speaking to her. By the time she shoved into the conference room she'd worked up a fine head of steam and only required a handy target to spew it on.
    To his misfortune, Feeney strolled in first.
    "What the hell kind of division are you running up there?" she demanded. "McNab's giving me orders now? Hanging up on me? Booking rooms in my name on his own initiative, and... and refusing to give me data when ordered."
    "Hold on now, Dallas. I'm an innocent bystander."
    "Too bad, 'cause they're the ones who usually end up bloody."
    With a little shrug, Feeney rattled the bag of nuts weighing down his pocket. "All I know is the kid tagged me, asked me to swing by here so he could fill us both in at once."
    "I'm primary on this case. EDD was requested to assist and consult. I have not yet formed a task force in this matter, nor have I been authorized by the commander to do so. Until I say different McNab's a drone and nothing more."
    Feeney stopped rattling the bag, angled his head. "That go for me, too? Lieutenant?"
    "Your rank doesn't mean dick when I'm primary. If you can't teach your subordinates proper pecking order and procedure, then maybe your rank doesn't mean dick in your own division."
    He stepped in until the tips of his shoes bumped her boots, leaned in until the tip of his nose bumped hers. "Don't you tell me how to run my division. I trained your ass and I can still kick it, so don't you start thinking you can tear a strip off mine."
    "Back off."
    "Fuck that. Fuck that, Dallas. You got a problem with my command style, you spit it out. Chapter and verse."
    Something in her head wanted to explode. Why hadn't she felt it? Something in her heart was screaming. But she hadn't heard it. So it was she who backed off, one cautious step. "He drugged her with Whore and Rabbit. He covered the bed with rose petals and fucked her on them until she died. Then he tossed her out the window so she lay broken and naked on the sidewalk."
    "Oh Jesus." Pity edged his voice.
    "I guess it's been stuck in my throat since Morris told me. I'm sorry I slapped at you."
    "Forget it. Sometimes you catch one that hits you harder than others. You gotta slap at somebody."
    "I've got his face, I've got his DNA, I've got his transmissions. I know the table in the club where he fed her the first of the Whore in drinks that she paid for with her own debit card. But I don't have him."
    "You will." He turned as Peabody strode in a step in front of McNab. Both of them had flushed faces. "Detective, did you request permission from the primary to convene in this