In Death 24 - Innocent in Death

uniforms to the school.”
    “Nice touch. Scary, but it’s like you’re saying you don’t have time to go get him yourself.”
    “We’ll book Interview Room B. Baxter and Trueheart are bringing in a suspect. We’ll leave A for them.”
    “I know a couple of uniforms who’d be perfect for the pickup.”
     
    127
    “Get it done.” Eve frowned down at the candy. “These things make you feel a little nauseous?”
    “Oh, yeah, that’s part of the thrill.”
    Eve handed the last half of her Goo-Goo to Peabody. “Go wild. Meanwhile, I’m going to try to broker us another warrant to go through Williams’s residence, all his e-toys.”
    Eve contacted APA Cher Reo, and learned the pretty blonde was already in the building.
    They met in Eve’s office where the coffee, at least, was prime.
    “You know,” Reo began, “you’d think things would slow down in this kind of weather.
    But despite the cold, the ice, the wind, people are still raping and robbing and ripping at each other.” Reo took an appreciative sip of coffee. “Kind of makes me proud to be a New Yorker.”
    “We don’t let winter get in the way of our mayhem. So, about my dead teacher.” Eve brought her up to date, made the pitch for a search warrant.
    “Will Sanchez file a complaint?”
    “Can’t say. Right now she’s worried if her husband clues in he’ll perform mayhem on Williams. But she came in, and she told it straight. This guy’s hunting on school grounds.”
    “Do you suspect he’s hunting students?”
    “I’ve got nothing that points that way, but it’s not out of the question. It looks to me like the vic had a come-to-Jesus talk with him. No reason for Williams to back off on Sanchez otherwise. Other statements indicate Craig saw him in a compromising position with someone he shouldn’t have been compromising with. The school’s not only a good gig-pays well, nice bennies, clean and shiny, but it’s an all-you-can-screw buffet for someone like Williams.”
    “Gee.” Reo downed coffee. “Why can’t I ever get a nice guy like that?”
    “Maybe you’ll prosecute and convict him, then you could be penpals.”
    “Oh, if only.”
    “So. If the vic threatened Williams’s standing, he may have decided to eliminate the threat.”
    “No history of violence, no criminal record, no civil suits?”
    “No, but you’ve got to start somewhere. It’s enough for a warrant, Reo.”
    128
     
    “Maybe. I can work it,” she decided. “But the fact that the guy’s a pig doesn’t make him a murdering pig. Find me something that says he is.”
    As Reo headed out, she glanced back. “By the way, looking forward to seeing you and Nadine tonight.”
    Eve only sighed and rested her head in her hands. Then she shook it, and contacted Feeney, her friend and the captain of the Electronic Detectives Division.
    His face came on screen-comfortably lived in, baggy at the eyes, topped with wiry ginger and gray hair that went in any direction it chose.
    “Yo,” he said.
    “Need a man in the field. Since Peabody hasn’t irritated me today, I’d like McNab if you can spare him. On-scene e-work. Warrant’s coming through.”
    “Who’s dead? Anybody I know?”
    “Teacher. Private school. Ricin poisoning.”
    “Yeah, yeah, got wind of that. Education’s a risky business. You can have my boy.”
    “Thanks. Ah…Hey, Feeney, did your wife ever give you any grief about…other women.”
    “What other women?”
    “Yeah, there’s that. But like, when you were training me, and we partnered up, we worked pretty tight.”
    “Wait a minute. You’re a woman?”
    It made her laugh and call herself a fool. “Turns out. McNab can meet us in fifteen, in the garage. Appreciate it.”
    McNab was a fashion plate from the tips of his long, shiny hair to the stacked soles of his purple airboots. His calf-length parka was in eye-watering orange, and his watch cap had zigzags of both colors. His earlobes were studded with a multitude of tiny silver balls.
    Despite what Eve considered his questionable wardrobe choices, he was a solid EDD
    man. His fingers were nimble, his green eyes sharp.
    He stretched out on the backseat on the drive, and from the movements Eve caught in the rearview, and Peabody’s muffled giggles, he was snaking his hand between the front seat and the passenger door to tickle his cohab.
    129
     
    “You want to retain use of that hand, Detective, you’ll keep it off my partner until your personal time.”
    “Sorry.