In Death 14 - Reunion in Death

ignored her, froze. Then her hand whipped out and latched on the end of Summerset's polishing rag. "That's my shirt."
    "I beg to differ." He'd counted on her making the ID. "While this may, at one time very long ago, have masqueraded as an article of clothing, it is now a rag. One which had somehow found its way into your bureau and has been removed and put to its only possible use."
    "Give me my goddamn shirt, you pruny, skinny-assed cockroach."
    She tugged. He tugged back.
    "You have a number of perfectly respectable shirts."
    "I want this shirt."
    "This is a rag." They yanked at opposite ends, and the cloth ripped handily down the middle. "Now," he said with satisfaction, "it's two rags."
    Eve snarled, and balling what was left of an ancient NYPSD T-shirt in her fist, stomped up the stairs. "Stay out of my drawers, you pervert, or I'll bite your fingers off at the knuckles."
    "There now," Summerset addressed to the cat. "Isn't it nice to know the Lieutenant will go off on this difficult trip in a good frame of mind?"
    She stormed into the bedroom, heaved the ripped cloth just as Roarke stepped out of the elevator. It hit him right on the chin.
    "Well then, it's lovely to see you, too."
    "Look what that son of a bitch did to my shirt."
    "Mmm." Roarke examined the tattered scrap of material. "Is that what this was?" Idly, he poked a finger through an old hole. "Pity. I heard you and Summerset exchanging your usual words of affection. At the top of your lungs."
    "Why the hell did you tell him to pack for me?"
    "I could say because you have enough to do, which is true. But let's be frank, darling Eve; you're a miserable packer and never take what you end up needing if left to yourself."
    "I bet he sniffs my underwear."
    Roarke's lips trembled. "Now that's quite the image you've put in my brain." He crossed to her, cupped her face in his hands. "You made it up with Sam. I saw you out the window."
    "He was so busy beating himself up I had a hard time getting a shot in."
    "Softie."
    "Watch it, pal."
    He bent down and kissed her scowling mouth. "It'll be our little secret. Believe me, no one watching you in that interview with Nadine would suspect you've a soft center in there. You looked formidable, Lieutenant. Diamond bright and just as hard. But she still won't come after you."
    "I don't know what you mean."
    "Aye, you do."
    She shrugged, started to step back, but he simply tightened his grip. "It's worth a shot."
    "You won't stand in front of me on this, or anything else."
    "Don't tell me my job."
    "Fair enough. Don't tell me mine. I've one question to ask you, then we'll let this matter go for a bit. I want the truth, Eve, and I'll see the truth in your eyes whatever the words are."
    He would, she thought. He was better at sifting out lies than a Truth Tester. "Why don't you ask the damn question instead of putting me on the defensive and irritating me?"
    "Are we going to Dallas tomorrow to get me out of Julianna's way?"
    "No. That's not the reason, but it's a side benefit and buys me some time. It's not the reason. Ease back a little, will you?"
    He let his hands stroke down her cheeks, her shoulders, her arms. Then he let her go.
    "I could ask Feeney to go. He could handle the interview with Parker. I nearly did ask him. Either one of us could make the trip, and I started justifying asking him to do it by telling myself he might get more out of Parker. Man to man, that kind of thing. Which is bullshit, because when it's cop to witness gender better not have dick to do with it. You're the badge, and that's that. I was on the point of asking him to take it because I wanted to save myself."
    "There's no shame in that, Eve, if you're not ready."
    "When will I be ready?" It burst out of her, bitter and bright. "Tomorrow, a year from tomorrow? Never? If I let this interfere with standard investigative procedure, where does that leave me next time I ram into something that scares me on a personal level? I won't be a coward. So I'm going to do my job. That's number one. Number two, I get you out of the way for a day or two so I can think it through. The rest... I'll deal with it when I get there."
    ...
    She buried herself in work. Peabody had come through with a reasonably workable list of disbarred doctors who fit the basic criteria, and maintained a residence in New York.
    "What are you looking for here to link one of these hundred and twenty disgraced physicians with Julianna?"
    "A possible connection to her original