In Death 29 - Kindred in Death

happy to have the place to myself until Deke and the boys get back Sunday. Now you have a muffin while I go put these pretty daisies in water. I won’t be a minute.”
    “Okay.”
    Charity strolled out of the room, didn’t break stride even when she sent one fiercely satisfied glance in Eve’s direction.
    As her footsteps echoed away, Darrin took a small vial out of his pocket, tipped the contents into her glass.
    “Go. All positions, go.”
    Weapon drawn, Eve rushed the room only seconds before a half-dozen cops did the same.
    “Hello, Darrin,” Eve said. She smiled as he stared at her. “Hands behind your head. Now. On your knees.”
    “What’s this about?” He obeyed, but turned his head side-to-side, with the perfect mix of fear and confusion on his face. “My-my name’s Denny, Denny Plimpton. I have identification.”
    “I bet you do. Darrin Pauley, aka Denny Plimpton, among others, you’re under arrest for murder, two counts.” Eve gripped his wrist, yanked his arm behind his back.
    She looked up and into MacMasters’s eyes. “Captain, would you read this son of a bitch his rights?”
    “I . . .” MacMasters cleared the rust from his voice. He looked down at the weapon in his hand, then slowly holstered it. “You have the right to remain silent,” he began as she secured Darrin’s wrists in restraints.
    “Thought you were playing her, didn’t you, Darrin?” Eve hauled him to his feet. “Playing an old woman. But she played you. She played you like a piano. This time? You’re the mark.”
    The frightened boy fell away, and he smiled. And when he smiled, turning his face toward MacMasters, the shadow of the monster slouched behind his eyes. “Maybe you’ll get intent to rob, but that’s all you’ll get.”
    Eve jerked him around so he faced her. “Keep telling yourself that, Darrin.”
    “Look what I found.” Baxter held up a pair of the cutaway restraints bailiffs carried in courtrooms. “There’s a recorder here, too, a can of Seal-It, and hmmm.” He held up another vial and a small package of pills. “I bet these contain illegal substances.”
    “Bag it, log it, bring it. And the contents of Mrs. Mimoto’s glass. Transport this thing into Central, book him. I’ll be in real soon, we’ll chat.
    “Get him out.” She shoved Darrin toward Jenkinson, then walked up to MacMasters. “You did the job. You maintained. We’ve got him now. You should go home, tell your wife we’ve got him now. Be with her.”
    “I’d like to observe your interview.” His face was like stone, pale and sharply carved.
    “We’ll let him sweat a while. You’ve got time to go home, tell your wife. She needs to hear this from you.”
    “Yes, you’re right.” He held out his hand. “Thank you, Lieutenant.”
    “Captain.”
    He started for the door, stopped, turned. “I thought about it, even after what we talked about. I could have taken him out. Clean line, one stream. I could have done it. Now I have to think about that.”
    “Bastard did his job there,” Eve murmured. “Cracked the foundation of a damn good cop.”
    “I think, with some time, the foundation’s going to prove solid. He did the job, like you said,” Peabody pointed out. “It was good, you having him read the bastard his rights.”
    “Yeah. Contact the judge, assure her that her mother’s safe, and it’s done. We can contact her father, but I assume she’ll want to do that herself.”
    She turned away. “All right, boys and girls, good work. Let’s close it down.”
     
    At Central, Eve formally notified her commander, the PA’s office, contacted Mira with a request she observe. She wrote her report.
    She sat, her boots on her desk, and drank a cup of coffee.
    Peabody tapped on the doorjamb. “He’s been booked and processed, and he’s been sitting in Interview for an hour.”
    “Mmm-hmm.”
    “Reo and the commander are here, MacMasters just came in, and Mira’s on her way.”
    “I’m up on that.”
    “Don’t you think we ought to start working him?”
    “Feeling twitchy?”
    “No. Yes. Well, Nadine’s chomping to break the story.”
    “Not yet. Nothing yet.”
    “Well . . . we’re supposed to be back, you know, with the rehearsal. I know they’re using stand-ins, but if we wrapped this, we could still . . .”
    Eve merely turned her head, stared.
    “And ah . . . We should talk about how we’re going at him,” Peabody decided on the spot. “And if we leave him sitting too long, he