Vendetta in Death (24 page)

“Zoom. Get as much of the interior as you can.”

“I’m not going to be able to get you much.”

It was enough for Eve to see a pair of crossed female legs as Brinkman hesitated. Then a hand reach out to shake his as he slid inside.

“That’s how she does it. She just dosed him. Closer on the hand, enhance and freeze. See it? In her palm.”

“Mini pressure syringe,” Roarke said. “I doubt he even felt it.”

“I need the make and model, the year of the car. I need the license plate.”

“It’s a Vulcan, a Town Coach, luxury model. Last year’s. We make them,” Roarke told her.

“Capture that plate,” she ordered Darren as the car pulled away. “Echo, Charlie, Zulu, eight, four, three, eight. Print out those close-ups, and get me a copy of the feeds inside and out.” She turned away, pulled out her PPC to run the plates.

“Bogus name and address—had to figure it.”

“Give me two minutes,” Darren told her, “and I’ll have what you need. Still, it’s damn near impossible to program a droid to do any harm to a human.”

“Damn near isn’t impossible. I’ve got Baxter and Trueheart sitting on the house,” she told Roarke. “And Peabody by this time. McNab’s coming in with the van. I’ve got to use what we got here to fast-talk a
warrant. I’m going to need Reo and a really cooperative judge because nothing I’ve got ties her to it. I’ve got nothing that wraps her in it.”

She checked her wrist unit. “She has to wait until the nurse leaves. She has to get her out, then find a way to get her grandmother down for the night. It’s too early, but she knows I’m sniffing. She knows, so she’s going to want to get started soon.”

She paced as she worked it out. “She grabbed him early, broke pattern enough for that. I’m looking at tonight, and she beats me to him. Gives me the car, the plate, the fricking droid because I can’t tie those to her—yet.

“I need a goddamn warrant. I need to get into the garage, into the house, into the basement. Goddamn it, she got him in there right under my nose. The grandmother thought she was still out getting a damn manicure. She got one, too. Covered her ass with that. She’d just gotten him in the fucking house and I’m right there. Right there.”

“You can blame yourself for that,” Roarke suggested, “if you want to be an eejit.” He clamped a hand on her shoulder, as she looked entirely capable in that moment of punching him. “Which you’re not, as an eejit couldn’t have narrowed the target to this one, had her residence already staked out.”

“Doesn’t help unless we can get inside.”

“Here you go, Lieutenant.” Darren handed her a packet. “Printouts and copy. I sure as hell hope you get to him in time.”

“Yeah, thanks. You drive, okay?” she said when they started out. “I have to figure out how to box Reo on this one.”

“I’ve no doubt you will. The name she’s used to register the car? Maybe it’s somehow connected. To the support group perhaps.”

“Maura Fitzgerald isn’t on the list. So far.”

She gestured to where she’d parked the car, saw his smile spread. “What are you smiling at?”

“It pays to be a bit of a film buff, and a longtime fan of Eloise
Callahan. That’s how I know she won her first Oscar at the tender age of twenty-two for her portrayal of a young woman named Maura Fitzgerald in the classic
Only by Night
.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“Not a bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if you find the address she used features in one of her grandmother’s vids as well.”

He opened the car door for her. “Would that help with the warrant?”

“It sure as hell won’t hurt.” Elated, she broke her own rule, grabbed him, kissed him hard. “I’m going to bang you like a drum in Italy.”

“I look forward to it—and perhaps a bit of drum practice beforehand.”

“I take her down tonight, we’ll practice.”

While he drove, she did a search on the address.

“Well, for Christ’s sake, you nailed it in one. It’s the address used in
Apartment 8B
, starring Eloise Callahan. All right, Reo, I’m putting you to work.”

Eve made her pitch; ADA Cher Reo listened, then pushed at her pretty blond hair.

“Dallas, you want me to talk a judge into issuing a search warrant because of a name and address used in old vids, your gut, a women’s group? To search a Hollywood legend’s New York mansion because you think her granddaughter—with no previous record of bad acts—is a crazy serial killer?”

“Not think, know. It’s circumstantial, Reo, but it piles up and it adds up. And I’m telling you there’s a man, whose major crime in her eyes is dumping his wife for a younger woman, hanging naked in the basement of that house. He’ll be tortured, castrated, and bleed to death if you don’t get me in that house. Did you see the crime scene photos?”

“Yeah.” Reo blew out a breath. “Yeah, I saw them.”

“He’ll end up like that, and he’ll be on us.”

“Okay, all right, let me start pushing on it.”

Before Eve could speak again, Reo clicked off.

“She’ll get it,” Eve stated.

“She knows you,” Roarke said. “She knows you don’t bullshit on something like this. She’ll get it, yes.”

“You need to pull up out of range of the gates,” she began. “There.” She gestured. “That’s Baxter and Trueheart, get behind them.”

He maneuvered, hit vertical to cross the avenue, and dropped down behind the police issue.

Eve leaped out, hustled down to the passenger window Trueheart had already lowered.

“No movement, Lieutenant.”

“Peabody’s heading back. McNab’s bringing the EDD van. Reo’s working on a warrant. We’re going to … Gates are opening. That’s the nurse, on foot. Hold on.”

Striding along, chatting on her ’link, Donnalou didn’t spot Eve until they were nearly face-to-face. “Oh, Lieutenant Dallas. I didn’t expect to see you. No, Harry, I’m heading home now. I’ll pick something up. See you soon. Sorry,” she said to Eve as she slid the ’link away. “Just letting my husband know I’m on my way home. Are you going back in?”

“What’s the status in the house?”

“Status? I’m not sure—”

“Where is Darla?”

“Oh, the soother and a little lie-down helped. She’s feeling better so she and Miss Eloise are going to have their little tea party after all.”

She looked from Eve to Roarke to the second car. “Is something wrong?”

“Where are they having their tea party?”

“I really don’t understand, but up in Miss Eloise’s parlor.”

“Does the house have a basement?”

“I—not as such. There’s a lower level. That’s Ms. Darla’s workshop—off-limits,” she added with a puzzled smile. “She only spends time down there when I’m looking after Miss Eloise.”

“You haven’t been down there?”

“Well, no. I wouldn’t have any reason to. Could you please tell me what this is about? You’re scaring me a little.”

“I’m going to call for a police car to take you home. You are not to contact anyone in the Callahan residence, or have anyone else contact anyone in the Callahan residence. If you do, I’ll have to charge you with obstruction of justice.”

“Well, my God!”

“Look at me. Who and what are your priorities in that house?”

“Miss Eloise and her health and well-being, of course. She’s my patient.”

“And what I’m telling you is for her health and well-being. Keep looking at me,” Eve insisted. “Give me, as a medical professional, your evaluation of Darla Pettigrew.”

“I don’t think that’s my place. I—”

“I’m making it your place.”

“I— She’s devoted to Miss Eloise. I’d say she can be a little secretive, and has periods of excitement, periods of depression. She’s had a difficult couple of years, with the divorce, the loss of her business, and now all this. She—she’s working on a new project downstairs, she says. It keeps her busy and happy from what I can see.”

“I’m going to call an escort for you.”

“I—I won’t call Miss Eloise or Miss Darla. I don’t want to get in trouble with the police, and if you’re telling me the truth, I don’t want to do anything that hurts Miss Eloise. But if she needs me, I need to know she can reach me.”

“If she needs you, I’ll contact you myself. My word on it.”

Peabody jogged up just as
D
onnalou got in the cruiser
.

“We’re waiting on McNab and the EDD van,” Eve told her.

“Got it. Was that the nurse?”

“Yeah, she’ll hold. Reo’s working on a warrant, and according to the nurse, Darla’s feeling better and having a tea party with Eloise.”

“That’s when she’ll slip her a sedative.”

Eve nodded. “Yeah. She’ll get her grandmother in bed, make sure she’s out, then she’ll head down to what the nurse calls her workshop in the basement. Off-limits, working on a new project.”

“You handled the nurse quite well,” Roarke commented.

“She’s a pro, somebody who has a calling—that’s my take of her. Eloise is hers, Darla’s not. Can you take a look at the gate security without getting in cam range?”

Roarke merely cocked an eyebrow and strolled toward the gate.

Baxter got out, leaned against the car, and watched.

“I need McNab and the van, and I need that damn warrant.
Trueheart.” She signaled to him to get out. “McNab will use the EDD magic, get us the locations of people and droids inside the house. We get that, get the warrant, we go in fast and quiet. Roarke’s going to bypass gate security.”

“I bet he is,” Baxter commented. “It’s top-of-the-line from what I can see, but I bet he is.”

“When we’re in, you, Trueheart, McNab go around to the back—there’ll be side exits on a place that size, so spread out, keep connected, and enter on my go. Any droids, shut them down. They’re also top-of-the-line, so you may need McNab for that.”

“We take the front?” Peabody asked.

“You, me, Roarke. We’ll need him to get us in quiet, and potentially to deal with any droids.”

She paused when Roarke strolled back.

“I can get us in.”

“How much time will you need?”

“It’s a very fine system. Ten to fifteen.”

Baxter let out a laugh. “If only we’d met in my misspent youth.”

Roarke returned the grin. “If youth isn’t misspent now and then, it’s not youth. Would you like me to get started, Lieutenant?”

“Yes, but no. Have to wait for the warrant. There’s the van.”

It shouldn’t have surprised her to see Feeney hop out. Her old partner and current EDD captain wore one of his shit-brown suit jackets with a wrinkled beige shirt and dirt-brown tie. His silver-threaded ginger hair sprang out around a droopy, hangdog face.

“I didn’t expect to get the brass.”

“You think I’d miss a chance to get inside Eloise Callahan’s? I grew up on her vids, kid. She was—probably still is—my old man’s hall pass. He’s going to be pretty down if I help arrest her.”

“He’s safe. I don’t see her in this except as a dupe. McNab, I want people, droids, locations, movement.”

EDD Callendar hopped out of the van. “You got it, LT.”

“She was right there,” Feeney said. “We’ll get it done faster with the pair of them.”

“Just as well. Once Roarke gets us through the gates, we need to surround the house, EDD man on each team to get through the doors if the master’s no good, to deactivate superior droids. Vic and suspect are going to be in the lower level. I haven’t been through the house, so I don’t know, as yet, how to access.”

With her hands on her hips, Eve looked back at the gates. “She has to keep an eye on the grandmother. She probably has house monitors.”

Feeney rubbed his chin. “We can shut them down, but she’ll likely notice when her monitors go blank.”

“Can’t be helped. Better that than her spotting a bunch of cops swarming the house.” She checked the time, strained against impatience. “We get in, we find the basement access. The house has elevators. Must have one that goes down. Lock that down, that’s what she’d do, right?”

Feeney nodded. “Wouldn’t want an unexpected visitor while she’s slicing off some poor bastard’s balls.”

“Yeah, well, we unlock. One team goes down that way, another by the steps. If there’s outside access, we cover that, too. She’ll be armed—she’s never used a stunner on a victim, but she’ll have an electronic prod. Christ knows she’s dangerous. And I hate to say it, I fucking hate to say it, but she’s insane. Not just garden-variety. She’s going to hit the legal bar there.”

“That’s a goddamn shame,” Feeney commented.

“Tell me.”

When her ’link signaled, she had it in her hand in a finger snap. “Tell me what I want to hear, Reo.”

“Warrant coming through. I need a damn drink—and you owe me a whole bunch of drinks.”

“I’ll pay up. You may want to stay on tap. I’m going to be bringing you a serial killer, real soon.”

“I’ll hold off on the drink until I hear from you. Take her down, Dallas.”

“Fucking A. Roarke, get started.” She pivoted to Feeney. “Get me some numbers, locations.”

He jerked a thumb toward the van, where McNab and Callendar started the scan.

“Need a minute, Dallas, to work the angles,” McNab told her. “Callendar, how about you set up a remote?”

“All over it. They move, we’ll know it.”

Eve nudged around Callendar, kept her focus on the van’s main monitor.

“Coordinate heat and e-sensors,” Feeney ordered.

“Getting it, Cap.” McNab’s forest of rings on his earlobes danced as he ticktocked his head, bopped his shoulders to the e-nerd’s internal beat. “Coming up now. And there we are. Two droids on the main floor, at the rear, north. No readings on the second floor. One e-reading on the third floor, one human type.”

“In bed,” Eve said. “She’s down, lying down. That’s the grandmother, with a droid on watch. And that’s Pettigrew, lower level, that’s east, and that’s going to be Brinkman—he’s vertical, arms over his head. She’s got him hanging from the ceiling. That’s center of the area. Is that an e-reading with him?”

“Yeah, one droid down there.”

“Got the remote up—got them on there,” Callendar said.

“Strap it on,” Feeney ordered as he opened a drawer, took out earbuds. “McNab, you man the van, Callendar can team with Baxter, I’ll take Trueheart. You, Peabody, and Roarke take the front. That suit you?” he asked Eve.

“That’ll work.”

She took the earbuds Feeney handed her, climbed out of the van. “Trueheart, you’re with Feeney—take the west side, find a hole, get inside. Baxter, you and Callendar peel to the east side. Lock down any exits on the east side, continue to the rear. Two droids on the north side. Take them down if Peabody and I haven’t reached that point. I need the elevators shut down.”

“Can do,” Callendar assured her.

“We close off all exits to that basement. We close her in.”

She passed out earbuds as she worked it out. “Big house. She may have more droids, have them shut down. Could she activate by remote?”

“If they’re programmed for it,” Feeney said.

“Clear the house, floor by floor. Main, second, third. Find any more droids, take them out. Roarke?”

“Another minute or two.”

“Roarke goes in the front with me and Peabody, then heads up to the third level. He’ll take out the droid there, determine the grandmother’s status.”

Impatient, she rolled to her toes, back on her heels. “Once we’re through the gate, we need to shut down any exterior cams. We’ll wait until we go through the door to shut down interior.”

“She’s moving into the center of the basement level, Dallas,” McNab said in her ear.

“Roarke!”

“And there we are,” he said, cool as ice. “Two seconds and…” The gates quietly slid open. “I assumed you didn’t want everyone to climb over.”

“Good thinking.”

“Slick work” was Baxter’s opinion.

“Move fast,” she said as she passed Roarke the last earbud. “If she notices the monitors shut down, she could just take the vic out. She may have other weapons. Move fast, deactivate any droids who may
be hostile or programmed to alert her. Find the access to the basement. Let’s go.”

She took the short drive at a jog, watched her teams peel off. “Roarke, take the stairs to the third level once we’re in. You’ve got one known droid to take out, and the grandmother to check on.”

“Do you want the MTs if she’s in distress?”

“Life-or-death, yeah. Otherwise check the house ’link or Eloise’s personal. The nurse is bound to be on there. Donnalou Harris, contact her.”

She stopped at the entrance door. “Alarms, locks.”

“A moment or two,” he said, and got to work.

“Hold for security system shutdown,” Eve warned the teams. “Wait for my go.”

The light had changed, softening toward dusk. A fresh spring breeze kicked up, making the bulging tips of ready-to-pop blooms shiver and sway. Eve listened to the teams’ chatter in her ear, and thought of the man hanging by his wrists a floor below.

“Very clever,” Roarke muttered, “but expected. Here we are now, aye, here we are. Time to go to sleep, and … done.

“System’s down,” he told Eve. “All exterior locks down.”

“All?”

“Well, we do like to be thorough.”

She only shook her head, shifted the weapon she’d already drawn in her hand. “Hear that? You’re go. Move in, move in!”

She heard Baxter’s admiring “Slick work” as she went in low with Roarke and Peabody going high beside her.

Absolute silence. That struck her first, how silent a wealthy house could be. She signaled to Roarke to take the grand stairs, pointed Peabody in the opposite direction.

“We need to find the basement access. Callendar, elevators.”

“Got it going now.”

“Movement?”

“Just basement level, both humans still in the center area, but movement from both.”

“She’s circling him, Dallas,” McNab added. “He’s jerking. Still upright, jerking and swaying. Fuck.”

Bad for Brinkman, Eve thought, but Darla seemed too busy to notice blank monitors.

“Two droids down,” Feeney said. “Two damn nice droids.”

“One on the third level,” Roarke reported. “Medical type. It’s down. Ms. Callahan seems to be sleeping peacefully.”

“Hold off on medical for now. Clear third level.”

“We’re clear,” Baxter reported. “And I think we’ve got your access door.”

“Got one here, too,” Feeney said. “Kind of a fancy pantry deal off the main kitchen.”

“We’re heading back. Clear as we go, Peabody.”

“It’s so quiet.” Peabody swung, weapon first, into another doorway.

“Serious soundproofing. Clear.”

“I’ll say. Clear.”

“Another droid, shut down, now locked down,” Roarke said. “Closet in what I’d say is Pettigrew’s suite of rooms. So we’re clear on the third. I’m coming down.”

“Sweep the second on the way.”

“How about Baxter and Trueheart take that,” Feeney said as she and Peabody finally reached the kitchen. “We could use another e-man on these doors. I’ve seen fricking vaults with less cover.”

“Baxter, Trueheart, clear second level. Roarke, main level, rear. What’s with the door?” she asked Feeney.

“Scanned it,” he told her. “She’s got it locked down, alarmed, and with a couple of fail-safes to kick it off. We gotta take it in layers. If
we try a straight bypass, try to take it down, you’re going to set off secondary alarms and seal it.”

“It’s the same deal with mine.” Both frustration and admiration tinged Callendar’s voice. “Maggest of the mag.”

“Shit, shit. McNab, secure the van and get in here. Work with Callendar. What can we do?”

“Give me room,” Feeney told her.

He ran a scanner over the door, tapped his shit-brown shoe, tapped a few commands. “Not that way,” he muttered. He glanced over as Roarke walked in.

“We got a trip lock, motion lock, both with internal alarms and panic lockdown.”

“Is that so?” Roarke’s smile read challenge accepted. “I’ve worked with those.”

“Yeah, me, too, but we’ve got a fail-safe running between the alarm and lockdown, and another threaded through a secondary seal.”

Feeney narrowed his eyes. “What do you look so smug about?”

“It’s one of my systems. I helped design it. It’s really quite good. But if one knows the ins and the outs…”

Feeney held out his scanner.

“Thanks, but I have my own.”

“Can you walk my boys through it?”

“We’ll see. A bit of room, Lieutenant,” he added as Eve breathed down his neck.

“There’s a man being tortured on the other side of that door.”

“I’m aware, but this is going to require some delicacy.”

Eve stepped back. “Maybe we can lure her out,” she said to Peabody. “Maybe we turn the third-floor monitors back on and—”

“And quiet,” Roarke snapped.

Eve hissed at him, but signaled Peabody out of the room. “If we can get her out.”

“We’re made if we turn on the main floor, and she could panic, kill Brinkman, like you said.”

“I know. I know.” Eve circled and paced. “There’s got to be a way. She’s going to check the monitors at some point, likely soon, and she’ll wonder. Maybe that would send her out, but … No.”

Frustrated, impatient, Eve raked her fingers through her hair. “She’d have some way to check, she knows this stuff. She’d cop to them being shut down.”

“Well, son of a bitch.”

She heard Feeney, so edged back closer.

“You got that, McNab?”

“We’re right with you—okay, maybe a step or two back, but we’re getting it. Super frosted goodness.”

“You don’t override now,” Roarke said. “She’s too clever for that. So you back off, and slide around the corner, slow and easy. One click up, two back, one left, two right.”

“Roger that.” Callendar’s voice came cheerfully. “Maggier than the maggest of the mag. It’s just melting off.”

“A bit more. She’ll raise a shield, so now it’s going under. Do you see it?”

“Got her.”

“It’s kind of sexy,” Peabody commented. “The sexy nerds.”

Eve only closed her eyes. “Any movement below?”

“Same type,” Callendar told her. “Both are in the central area.”

“And so will you be now.” Roarke flexed his fingers. “Do you have it, McNab?”

“Just doing the last … Whee! There she goes.”

“On my go. Let’s keep this guy alive. Baxter, Trueheart, e-team behind. Peabody, with me.”

Peabody stepped beside Eve, took a breath in, let it out. “Let’s take this bitch down.”