In Death 19 - Visions in Death

job he'd done?" Unable to help himself, Roarke glanced back to where Lily Napier lay on the bench. "He hears someone coming, and nips back. He'd kill them if he had to, that would be his thinking. But how gratifying it must have been to see cops find her, so quickly, so fresh, with him able to see. Then he's out, the opposite direction, with a nice bonus to his evening." As she'd speculated along the exact same lines herself, she nodded. "You're getting good at this. I want a thorough sweep of the entire park, every blade of grass, every flower petal, every tree." "He seals up, Lieutenant," Peabody reminded her. "We don't have his DNA, his blood type, his hair, nothing to match if they could find anything in an area this size." "He seals up." Eve held out a hand, turned it over so the smears of blood shone in the light. The, too. We're not looking for his DNA. We're looking for hers." Again, she stepped back, but this time she gestured to Roarke. "Let's take a little walk." "You're hoping to be able to see his direction. Where he moved, how he moved." "Anything that adds a line to his picture's good." She needed to get away from cop eyes, from cop ears, and kept going until they were out of the park again, on the sidewalk. "I think, geographically, he's closer to home here than he was with Maplewood. But it doesn't matter to him. He'll go where he needs to go." "And you didn't come all the way out here to tell me that." "No. Look, there's no point in you waiting. We're going to be at this awhile, then I've got to go into Central." "Deja vu." "Yeah. This guy likes night work." "You haven't had more than an hour's sleep." "I'll catch some in my office." She started to wipe her hand absently on her trousers, but he caught her wrist.
    "Hold on." He opened her field kit, took out a rag.
    "Right." Cleaning the blood off her hands, she stared back through the stone arch. The park was brilliant with light now.
    The sweepers, in their protective suits, moved through it like silent images on a screen. The media would pounce soon hey always did and would have to be dealt with.
    Before much longer, lights would go on in the windows of surrounding buildings. Some would glance out, see and wonder. Then civilians would have to be dealt with.
    She was going to shut down the park. So the mayor would have to be dealt with.
    The fun never quit.
    "What's on your mind, Lieutenant?" "Too many things, and I've got to start lining them up. I'm going to be calling Celina into Central, get a detailed report of her . . . vision. I'm going to have a couple of soft-clothes cops escort her in. Eight hundred." She stuck her hands in her pockets, pulled them out again when she remembered she'd wiped off the blood but hadn't cleaned off the sealant. "Here's the thing." When she said nothing else, only continued to stare into the park, Roarke cocked his head. "And that thing would be?" "She said she was home in bed when she contacted me.
    I'd just like to verify that, that's all. Just like to nail that down." "You don't believe her?" "I don't not believe her. I just want to verify, so it's off my mind. So I don't find myself wondering. That's all." "And if someone could . . . gain access to her bedroom when she was elsewhere, check her "link, you wouldn't find yourself wondering." "Yes." She looked at him then. "And I can't believe I'm standing here asking you to commit a crime. I know if she was home in bed when she contacted me, she couldn't have been here when the murder took place not when she called minutes after Napier's death. I could request a check of her "link, send an e-man to her place with her permission, but--" "It seems rude." She rolled her eyes. "I don't give a rat's ass about seeming rude, but I do about making an ass of myself. I do about potentially alienating a valuable source." "Eight o'clock then." She was torn between relief and worry. "Listen, I'll contact you when she comes in. Just to make sure it's clear. If you get caught--" "Darling Eve." There was a deliberate wealth of patience in his tone. "I love you more than life itself, and have, I believe, demonstrated that regularly throughout our relationship.
    So I can't understand why you persist in insulting me." The neither. Just in and out. Just the "link. Don't go poking around. If it checks out, don't contact me. If it doesn't, tag me on my personal." "Shouldn't we have code words?" She sent him a withering look as he grinned at her. "Yeah.
    Bite me." Laughing, he jerked