In Death 06 - Vengeance in Death

relationship, the trust, with your employer, to have gained unconditional access to his personal and professional dealings, and then, using that relationship, that trust, that access, attempt to connect him to murder?''
    Summerset's chair dug into the aged linoleum as he shoved back from the table and sprang to his feet. "You dare speak to me of using. You dare? When you'd use an innocent young girl in this filthy business? And you would stand there and point your finger at the man whose ring you wear and say that he was responsible for the horrors she endured? They were children. Children. I'd gladly spend the rest of my life in a cage if it makes him see you for what you are."
    "Summerset." Roarke stayed seated, but laid a hand on Summerset's arm. His eyes were flat and cool as they met Eve's. "He needs a moment."
    "Fine. This interview is broken at this time at the request of the subject's representative. Record off."
    "Sit down," Roarke murmured, keeping his hand on Summerset's arm. "Please."
    "They're the same, you see." Summerset's voice trembled with emotion as he lowered himself into a chair. "With their badges and their bullying and their empty hearts. Cops are all the same."
    "We'll have to see," Roarke said, watching his wife. "Lieutenant, I'd like to speak with you, off the record, and without your aide."
    "I won't have it," Summerset fired up.
    "It's my choice. If you'd excuse us, Peabody." Roarke smiled politely, gestured toward the door.
    Eve stood where she was, kept her eyes on Roarke's. "Wait outside, Peabody. Secure the door."
    "Yes, sir."
    "Engage soundproofing." When she was alone with Roarke and Summerset, Eve kept her balled hands in her pockets. "You've decided to tell me," she said coldly. "Did you think I didn't realize you knew more than you were saying? Do you think I'm a fucking idiot?"
    Roarke read the hurt behind the temper and bit back a sigh. "I'm sorry."
    "You would apologize to her?" Summerset snapped. "After what she -- "
    "Just shut the hell up," Eve ordered, turning on him with teeth bared. "How do I know I didn't have it just right? The equipment to jam transmissions, to bypass CompuGuard, is right there in the house. Who knows about it but the three of us? The first victim was an old personal friend of Roarke's, the second another old friend who was killed in one of Roarke's properties. You know everything he owns, everything he does and how he does it. It's been almost twenty years, but that isn't so long for you to wait for payback, to avenge your daughter. How do I know you're not willing to sacrifice everything to destroy him?"
    "Because he's what I have left. Because he loved her. Because he's mine." This time when Summerset picked up his glass, water sloshed to the rim and over onto the table.
    "Eve." Roarke spoke softly even as he felt his heart, and his loyalties, dragged in opposite directions by angry hands. "Please sit down, and listen."
    "I can listen fine standing."
    "Suit yourself." Wearily Roarke pressed his fingers to his eyes. The woman fate had handed his heart to was rarely easy. "I told you about Marlena. She was like a sister to me after Summerset took me in. But I wasn't a child," he continued, eyeing Summerset with amused affection. "Or innocent."
    "Beaten half to death," Summerset muttered.
    "I'd been careless." Roarke shrugged. "In any case, I stayed with them, worked with them."
    "Running grifts," she said tightly. "Picking pockets."
    "Surviving." Roarke nearly smiled again. "I won't apologize for that. I told you that Marlena... she was still a child, really, but she had feelings for me I'd been unaware of. And she came to my room one night, full of love and generosity. I was cruel to her. I didn't know how to handle the situation so I was clumsy and cruel. I thought I was doing the right thing, the decent thing. I couldn't touch her in the way she thought she wanted. She was so innocent and so... sweet. I hurt her, and instead of going back to her own room and hating me for a while as I'd hoped -- as I'd thought she would -- she went out. Men who were looking for me, men I was arrogant enough to believe I could deal with on my own ground, found her, took her."
    Because a part of him still mourned, and always would, he paused a moment. When he continued his voice was quieter, his eyes darker. "I would have traded my life for hers. I would have done anything they asked to spare her one moment's fear or pain. But there was nothing to be done. Nothing I