In Death 18 - Divided in Death

that knocked her out. She doesn’t strike me as the fainting type.”
    “I wouldn’t think so.”
    Still sipping, she looked at him over the rim of her mug. “You’re going to get in my face on this again?”
    “I am, yes.” He touched her arm, ran his hand down it, then let her go. “Both Caro and Reva are important to me. I’ll ask you to let me help. If you refuse, I’ll go around you. I’ll be sorry for it, but I’ll do it. Caro isn’t just an employee to me, Eve. She’s asked me for help, and she’s never asked me for anything before. Not once in all the years she’s been with me. I can’t step aside on this, not even for you.”
    She took another contemplative sip. “If you could step aside on this, even for me, you wouldn’t be the man I fell for in the first place, would you?”
    He set his coffee down, stepped over to frame her face in his hands. “Remember this moment, won’t you, the next time you’re furious with me? And I’ll do the same.” He lowered his head to press his lips to her forehead. “I’ll send you my files on both Caro and Reva, which contain considerable personal data. And I’ll get you more.”
    “That’s a good start.”
    “Caro asked me to do so.” He eased back. “I would’ve done it anyway, but it’s easier all around that she asked. You’ll find, in your dealings with her, she is scrupulous.”
    “How’d she get that way working for you?”
    He grinned now. “A paradox, isn’t it? You’ll call Feeney in?”
    “I’m going to need ace EDD men, so yeah, it’ll be Feeney—and he’ll bring in McNab.”
    “I could help with the electronics.”
    “If Feeney wants you, he can have you. I’ll clear it with the commander. But you know it’s going to be touchy, your connection to the suspect. If I don’t convince Commander Whitney this is a frame, he’s not going to go along, even unofficially.”
    “My money’s on you.”
    “Let’s take it a step at a time. Get Caro home.”
    “I will. I’m going to clear my calendar as much as possible until this is finished.”
    “You paying for the lawyers?”
    “She won’t let me.” A shadow of annoyance rippled over his face. “Neither of them will budge in that particular area.”
    “One more. Did you and Reva ever tango?”
    “Do you mean were we ever lovers? No.”
    “Good. Slightly less sticky that way. Clear out,” she ordered. “I’ve got to round up my partner and drive to Queens.”
    “Could I ask a question first?”
    “Make it snappy.”
    “If you’d walked into that scene tonight, and there’d been no connection, would you have looked at it the same way?”
    “There was no connection when I walked onto the scene,” she told him. “That’s how I could see it for what it was. I couldn’t take you in with me, not literally, not in my head. You’d’ve done the same.”
    “I like to think so.”
    “You would have. You know how to be cold when you have to be. I mean that in a good way.”
    “I believe you do,” he said with a half laugh.
    “I did let you in a minute after I stepped out of it.”
    “Did you?”
    “I thought: If Roarke had set this up, nobody would’ve seen the frame. Whoever did it should’ve taken lessons.”
    This time he did laugh, and she was pleased to see some of the worry warm out of his eyes. “Well now, that is high praise.”
    “Just calling them as I see them, and another reason I’ve agreed to use you. I want to find out the how and why of a classy frame, I might as well make use of somebody who’d know the hows and whys. Start thinking about what Reva’s working on for you—or what she has been working on, or will be.”
    “I already am.”
    “See, just one more reason. You’re going to want a bodyguard for Caro, just in case. She’d prefer private to a cop.”
    “It’s already done.”
    “And the reasons just keep on ticking. Beat it.”
    “Since you ask so nice.” He kissed her first, a soft touch of mouth to mouth. “Get something decent to eat,” he called out as he left.
    And though her gaze went to the ceiling tile where she was currently hiding her candy stash, she didn’t think that was quite what he had in mind.

Chapter 3
    She was expecting a midlevel suburban house. The Ewing-Bissel place was several steps up from mid. It was a very contemporary streamlined white box-on-box behind a recycled-stone riot fence. Lots of one-way glass and sharp angles.
    The entrance area was that same recycled stone, tinted a