In Death 16 - Portrait in Death

Ritelink up for holo, here, and the 'link as well. I need to be clear from noon till three, and expect anything else that needs doing will have to be done from here today. Possibly tomorrow as well."
     
     
"Certainly. I'm sure Summerset will be glad to be home. You'll let us know how he's doing?"
     
     
"I will, yes. Though I don't know how glad he'll be when he's told he'll have round-the-clock care for the next few days. He'll kick at me for it, even if he breaks the other leg doing it."
     
     
"Well, you should be used to that." She smiled, turned her head. "Good morning, Lieutenant."
     
     
"Caro." Galahad leaped out of Eve's arms, pranced over to ribbon himself through Roarke's legs. The admin's tidily perfect suit, the beautifully coiffed white hair, had Eve realizing she was standing there in the sloppy gray sweats she'd slept in. "Early start for you today."
     
     
"Not if you're in Frankfurt." She glanced down, laughed a little as the cat sidled over to sniff at her image and poked his head through her calf. "So this is the culprit." She crouched, cocked her head as Galahad stared at her. "A big one, aren't you?"
     
     
"He eats like a draft horse," Roarke said. "I'm grateful, Caro, for you coming in at such an ungodly hour."
     
     
"I stopped noticing the time working for you years ago." She straightened. "I'll take care of Tibbons. Give my best to Summerset."
     
     
"I will."
     
     
"Have a good day, Lieutenant."
     
     
"Yeah. Bye." Eve shook her head when the holo vanished. "Does she ever look messed up? Hair out of place, coffee stain on the jacket?"
     
     
"Not that I recall."
     
     
"I didn't think so. What are you calling it?"
     
     
"What would that be?"
     
     
"The vehicle. You were talking about a vehicle, right? With the German guys."
     
     
"Ah, well, we're still kicking that about. Coffee?"
     
     
"Yeah," she said as he moved to the AutoChef. "Did you get any sleep?"
     
     
"A couple hours." He glanced back as he retrieved the cups. "Are you worried about me, Lieutenant? That's very sweet."
     
     
"You've got a lot on your plate. You've always got a lot on your plate," she added as he brought her the coffee. "I just don't usually notice."
     
     
"Once you've been hungry, you prefer a full plate to an empty one." He leaned down to kiss her. "How's your plate doing?"
     
     
"I've got plenty of portions left. Listen, if I can manage it, I'll try to swing home this afternoon for a bit. To-I don't know-help you out or something."
     
     
His smile was warm and gorgeous. "See there. You're acting like a wife."
     
     
"Shut up."
     
     
"I like it," he said, backing her against the door. "Quite a bit. Next thing I know you'll be down in the kitchen, baking."
     
     
"Next thing you know I'll be kicking your ass, and you'll be the one who needs round-the-clock care."
     
     
"Can we play doctor?"
     
     
She lifted her cup to hide a reluctant smile. "I don't have time for your perverted fantasies. I'm going to grab a swim before I leave." But she grabbed his chin, planted a hard kiss on his mouth. "Feed the cat," she told him, and walked away.
     
     
***
     
     
To save time, Eve swung by to pick up Peabody and headed straight for the lab. It was easier to squeeze results out of lab-tech king Dickhead Berenski in person.
     
     
Stopped in traffic, Eve studied her aide. The rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes didn't quite blend with the spit and polish of the uniform and hard, black cop shoes.
     
     
"Why are you smiling all the time? It's starting to make me nervous."
     
     
"Am I?" Peabody kept on grinning. "I guess I had a really enjoyable wake-up call this morning. That's a euphemism for-"
     
     
"I know what it's a euphemism for. Christ." Eve punched through a gap in traffic, then braked a breath away from the bumper of a Rapid Cab. "Just get your mind out of bed with the rest of you."
     
     
"But it really likes it there. It's all warm and soft and..." She trailed off at Eve's fulminating look, and studied the roof of the vehicle. "Somebody didn't get their enjoyable wake-up call this morning."
     
     
"You know, Peabody, when you started to have regular sex, if such a term can be used to describe whatever it is that goes on with you and McNab, I figured you'd stop thinking and talking about sex all the damn time."
     
     
"Isn't it nice to be surprised? But since it's making you grouchy we'll talk about something else. How's Summerset doing?"
     
     
"I'm not grouchy," Eve