In Death 06 - Vengeance in Death

utterly confident gleam in her eyes that stopped him. He turned away and braced both fists on the desk. "I don't care for the fact that you have a point."
    "In that case I'll just finish it out so you can swallow it all in one lump. I love you, and I need you every bit as much as you love and need me. Maybe I don't say it as often or show it as smoothly, but that doesn't make it any less true. If it pricks your ego to know that I'd protect you, that's just too bad."
    He lifted his hands, dragged them up through his hair before he turned to her. "That's a hell of a way to defuse an argument."
    "Did I?"
    "Since any argument I could attempt would make me sound like a fool, it would seem you have."
    "Good thinking." She risked a grin at him. "So, if you're finished being mad at me, can I run a few things by you?"
    "I didn't say I was finished being mad, I said I was finished arguing with you." He sat on the corner of his desk. "But yes, feel free to run a few things by me."
    Satisfied with that, she handed him a disc. "Put that in. I've got a still on it you can project on screen. Enhance it to full."
    He did as she requested, then studied the image. He could see the fingers of a gloved hand wrapped around a wand-shaped device. The hilt was blocked from view but the pattern of notches and buttons on the stem were clear. A light at the tip glowed green.
    "It's a jammer," he said. "More sophisticated and certainly more compact than anything I've seen on the market." He stepped closer to the screen. "The manufacturer's ID -- if there is one -- is likely on the hilt and hidden by his hand, so that's no help. One of my R and D departments has been working on a smaller, more powerful jammer. I'll have to check the status."
    That caught her off guard. "You're manufacturing this kind of thing?"
    He caught the tone, smiled a little. "Roarke Industries handles a number of contracts for the government -- for a number of governments, as it happens. The Defense and Security Department is always looking for new toys such as this. And they pay well."
    "So a device like this might be in the works in one of your departments? Brennen was in communications. One of his research arms could have been working on one."
    "It's easy enough to find out. I'll check which one of my particular arms has something along these lines on the boards, and have one of my moles check Brennen's organization."
    "You have spies?"
    "Data gatherers, darling. They object to being called spies. Have you got the rest of your man on here?"
    "Click one back."
    "Computer, display previous image on screen."
    Roarke frowned at the picture and, using the vehicles for points of reference, speculated. "About five-ten, probably about one-sixty by the way that coat hangs on him. He's very pale from the looks of that swatch of skin you can see. I wouldn't say he spends a lot of time outdoors, so his profession, if he has one, is likely white collar."
    Roarke tilted his head and continued. "No way to tell age, except he... holds himself youthfully. You can see part of his mouth. He's smiling. Smug bastard. His taste in outerwear is miserably inferior."
    "It's a beat cop's topcoat," Eve said dryly. "But I'm inclined away from thinking he's got a connection with the department. Cops don't wear air treads, and no beat cop's going to have access to the kind of knowledge or equipment this guy has or EDD would have snatched him up. You can pick up one of those coats at a couple dozen outlets in New York alone." She waited a beat. "But we'll run it anyway."
    "The van?"
    "We're checking. If he didn't boost it, and it's registered in the state of New York, we'll narrow the field considerably."
    "Considerably's optimistic, Eve. I probably have twenty of these vans registered in New York to various outlets. Delivery vans, maintenance units, interstaff transpos."
    "It's more than we started with."
    "Yes. Computer, disengage." He turned to her. "Peabody and McNab can handle a great deal of the legwork on this for the next day or two?''
    "Sure. Then Feeney's back pretty soon and I'm grabbing him."
    "They're finished with Jennie's body. It's being released this afternoon."
    "Oh."
    "I need you to come with me, Eve, to Ireland. I realize the timing might not be convenient for you, but I'm asking you for two days."
    "Well, I -- "
    "I can't go without you." The impatience surfaced, glowed in his eyes. "I won't go without you. I can't take the chance of being three thousand miles away if this