Calculated in Death

of that, I wanted to ask you a favor.”
    “Okay.”
    “Matthew and I are going to have a small, private wedding at Mason’s and Connie’s here in New York, the day after tomorrow. Will you stand up for me?”
    “What?”
    “Will you come—you and Roarke—and will you stand up for me? If you can. If you’re not working.”
    “Marlo, you have to have people, friends you’re tight with, someone—”
    “I do, and I thought about it.” Reaching out a hand to take Eve’s, Marlo flashed her megawatt smile. “I want you, if you will, if you can. When I make promises to Matthew, I want someone beside me who really understands how important those promises are. We want to keep it simple, private. Later we’ll have some big, crazy party back home, but this part—the promises—we want to keep the rest out of it.”
    Eve remembered when she’d understood, really understood that’s what marriage meant. Promises, making them and keeping them.
    “All right. Sure, if—”
    “I know the ifs.” Marlo looked back at the board. “And if one comes up, that’s okay. Thank you, so much.” She gave Eve’s hand a grateful squeeze. “I was nervous to ask you. I feel much better now. Any time you need a favor, just ask.”
    “I could use two VIP tickets for tomorrow. I had to bribe someone.”
    “I’ll take care of it. Just let me—and hello.” The flirt went back on as Roarke stepped into the doorway. Then Marlo laughed, moved to him for a friendly kiss. “I didn’t expect to be able to see both of you when I came in. This is an extra treat.”
    “How are you, Marlo?”
    “I’m just about perfect. Dallas will fill you in as I’ve interrupted her work long enough. We’re all looking forward to the after-party tomorrow. Plenty of time to catch up there.”
    “I’m sorry to interrupt. Marlo! How nice to see you.”
    When Mira came in, Eve thought:
What
next? A brass band?
    Now she had to wait for all the
how are you
s
, you look wonderful
s, and blah, blah, blah with people crowded into her office sucking up her oxygen.
    Roarke sent Eve an amused look over Mira’s head. “Marlo,” he began, “I was about to go up to EDD. Would you like to come along, have a little look around?”
    “I’d love to, and then I can fill you in myself. I’ll see both of you tomorrow. And thank you, Dallas. Again. I’ll take care of those tickets.”
    “Thanks.”
    When Roarke led Marlo out, quietly closed the door, Eve let out a huge breath. “God! Why are there so many people?”
    “She looks happy,” Mira commented. “You look impatient.”
    “She is. I am. I was coming to you as soon as I updated my book and board.”
    “I read the reports, studied the recording Peabody sent me, and I wanted to speak with you right away. He’s evolving, Eve.”
    “I got that much.”
    Mira shook her head. “Update your board. Put this morning’s victims and crime scenes up.”
    “Okay.” She went to her unit to load the recorder, make the prints.
    “I’m programming coffee,” Mira told her.
    “I’ve got some of that tea stuff you like stocked in there.”
    “I want coffee.” While Eve worked, Mira programmed two cups.
    “You see the first victim,” Mira began. “A clean, quick kill, and the attempt to disguise murder as mugging.”
    “It was a job. He didn’t know her. Business.”
    “I agree, as we discussed before. The second murder is unnecessarily cruel, would have caused suffering, and was done face-to-face.”
    “More personal. I get it,” Eve repeated. “He knew the guy, and he’s got a little taste for it.”
    “Face-to-face,” Mira said again, “but a victim in a drugged state, and the restraints. You believe the killer is a big man, a strong man, yet he restrained the smaller, weaker man.”
    “He’s a coward at the bottom of it.”
    “Yes, he is. The third victim, all but on the heels of the second, fast work, and in the last case, extremely violent. You believe the victim was stunned prior to the bludgeoning.”
    “Confirmed by Morris, yes.”
    “And that he lay in wait, lured the victim in, incapacitated him, then beat him violently. It’s a very quick escalation, an experimentation in methods, perhaps, but more it’s an embrace of that violence, one that, to escalate so quickly, has always been there. A big, strong man, capable of snapping a woman’s neck, both physically and mentally. And yet a coward, and the cowardice, even more than the strength and violence, makes him