In Death 18 - Divided in Death

botched burglary at his office. Two weeks ago. His patient records have not been retrieved as his data unit was damaged.”
    “Damaged?”
    “According to the report. Jorgannsen, that was his name, had his throat cut. His drug supply was taken, and his data unit damaged. I’m figuring infected, but there’s no way to verify without seeing the unit.”
    “See if you can play nice with your counterpart in Sweden, maybe they’ll transport it to us.”
    “Give it a shot.”
    “Shoot fast.” She pushed to her feet. “I’ve been called to the Tower at the request of the fucking HSO. I’m taking steps to cover all of our asses because this isn’t going to be neat and pretty. The shit’s going to hit the fan, and if it blows the way I’m hoping, the spooks are going to be up to their knees in it. But there’s bound to be some backdraft. For the duration of this area of investigation, we bunker down here.”
    “God.” McNab grinned like an idiot. “How will we stand it?”
    “And work twenty-four/seven,” Eve added and watched the grin turn to a wince. “In shifts. Let’s get started. Peabody.”
    “Yes, sir. I’m with you.”
    “Communication by secured lines only,” she added as she walked out the door and nearly into Roarke.
    “Lieutenant, a moment of your time.”
    “Walk and talk. I don’t have any moments to spare.”
    “I’m just going to ah . . .” Be somewhere else, Peabody thought, and hurried past them.
    “If you’ve got a beef about the way I handled your people, you’ll have to save it. I’m in a hurry.”
    “It would take more than a moment to discuss the areas of your sensitivity and people skills. I realize you’re not looking at Reva and were, in your way, establishing her alibi.”
    “So?”
    “I won’t work in the dark, Eve. If you want my help you can’t give me tasks to perform one moment, then close me out the next. I expect you to trust me with the details.”
    “You know all you need to know. When you need to know more, I’ll tell you more.”
    He grabbed her arm, spun her around. “Is this your way of slapping at me because I refuse to stand on the same elevated moral ground as you?”
    “If I slap at you, pal, believe me, you’ll feel it. This, and that, are two separate issues.”
    “Bollocks.”
    “Oh, fuck you and the big-ass dick you rode in on.” She jerked away from him and lost control long enough to shove him back.
    She saw his eyes fire, but he didn’t shove back, didn’t touch her. She hated herself for resenting that he could keep that violence in line when she couldn’t.
    “This is my work, goddamn it, and I don’t have the time or the luxury to think about anything else right now. You don’t like the way I’m running this investigation and this team, then step out. Step the hell out. You don’t know what I’m dealing with.”
    “You’ve just made my point. I’ve some concerns, reasonable concerns, about having my wife go up against the HSO. This isn’t just a murderer, or even organized crime. It isn’t some wild-eyed group of terrorists. This is one of the most powerful organizations in the world. If they’re involved in this, as it seems they must be in some aspect, it logically follows that they’d have little compunction about harming a New York City cop who got in their way. Personally or professionally harming that cop. My cop.”
    “Deal with it. That’s part of the package you took on. You want to keep my ass out of the sling on this, get me the information. That’s what you can do. That’s all you can do.”
    “It’s part of the package I took on,” he agreed in a tone that was dangerously soft. “You’d do well to remember the whole of the one you took on. The whole of it, Eve. You have to live with that, or without it.”
    She stood, shocked to the bone, when he turned and walked away from her. Her skin went cold with it, and her stomach cramped and twisted as she rushed down the stairs out of the house. Something of it must have shown on her face as Peabody turned to her when she climbed into the car.
    “Dallas? You okay?”
    She shook her head. She wasn’t sure she could get out words. Her throat was burning. Punching the accelerator, she sent the car speeding down the drive, which was flanked by lovely trees and bushes beginning to fire with the first hints of autumn.
    “Men are tough nuts,” Peabody said. “The more I’m around them, the tougher they get. It seems to me that one like Roarke