In Death 28 - Promises in Death

already.”
    “You’re licensed for a civilian stunner, which is registered in your name. Maybe, since you’re being so cooperative, you’d allow me to take it with me, have it tested and examined. Since you were having a beer and watching the game when Detective Coltraine was killed.”
    Resentment lay cold on his face. “If my father was anyone else but Max Ricker?”
    “I’d still be asking for it. I can get a warrant, if you’d prefer.”
    He said nothing, only rose. He walked to a table, unlocked a drawer. It was smaller, sleeker, and less powerful a weapon than hers. One that stunned only. He offered it to her, along with its license.
    “Handy,” she said.
    “As I said, I was expecting you. I’m not my father.” He clipped out the words as Eve put the weapon and paperwork in an evidence bag, labeled it, sealed it. “I don’t kill women.”
    “Just men?”
    “I cared about her, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Now we’re done.” He accepted the receipt Eve printed out of her PPC. “I expect the cop who put Max Ricker in that cage will catch the person who killed Amaryllis.”
    He walked back to the foyer, called the elevator.
    “You know the routine, don’t leave town, stay available, blah blah.” Eve stepped onto the elevator with Roarke.
    “Yes, I know the routine. I also know if our backgrounds made us who we are, we’d all be fucked.”
    He walked away as the doors closed.
    When they hit the sidewalk, Eve stopped, turned to speak. Roarke simply shook his head, then took her arm and led her to the car.
    “What?” she said, and repeated when they were inside, “What?”
    “Drive. If I were a man who’d been expecting a visit from a cop who’d be looking at me for killing another cop, I’d have myself a plant on the street, with eyes and ears. And then I’d know just what that cop thought about me and our conversation.”
    Eve frowned as she drove. “You actually have people who walk around listening to other people?”
    He patted her hand. “We’re not talking about me, are we?”
    “Privacy laws—”
    “There, there.” He patted her hand again. “He was in love with her, and still is. To some extent, still is.”
    “People often kill the ones they love.”
    “Well, if he did, he’s either amazingly stupid about it, or damned clever. Pathetic alibi like that. You’ll be getting a warrant for his building’s security discs, to verify his coming and going.”
    “First on the list. He’d have to know that, so he’ll have come and gone pretty much as stated. He’s wide open for the time in question. Wide. And he was nervous when we got there. He lost some of the nerves as we went along because he got mad. The stunner’s not going to play out. He gave it up too easily. He could have another, unregistered, unlicensed. Hell, he could have a freaking arsenal.”
    “Max did love the weapon’s trade. He’s smoother than his father,” Roarke commented. “And yet not so smooth. Odd, really. Max wouldn’t have shown those nerves, wouldn’t have felt them come to that. Yet the son has a polish the father lacked. He doesn’t seem the type to use the word cunt when referring to Amaryllis. It’s too vulgar.”
    “Maybe he hires vulgar underlings.”
    “Very possibly. Or it was a deliberate choice because it seems off. Because it seems more like his father.”
    “Maybe. He’s interested in us, has been interested in us. But—”
    “No more, it seems, than reasonable. Given the circumstances.”
    “It seems,” she agreed. “There’s either some tension between him and his father, or he wanted us to think there is. I wonder which. Anyway, are you going to midtown? To your office?”
    “I suppose I am.”
    “I’ll dump you there.”
    “Shows me what I’m worth to you. Now I’m dumped.”
    “I mean drop you off there, take you. Whatever. But speaking of dumping. She breaks things off back in Atlanta. He’s pissy about it—amicable, my ass—but maybe it’s like, sure, screw it, who needs you. Or maybe he keeps at her some, and that’s why she decides to transfer.”
    “The timing would indicate she wanted distance.”
    “What did he say? He doesn’t get to New York often. Then he comes here, contacts her. Here we go again, she thinks, and just when she’s gotten into this romance with Morris. When things are smoothed out. She goes to see him, tries to convince him it’s over and done. He could play that out. Like you said, he’s