In Death 32 - Treachery in Death

like in.”
    “Why?”
    “Is that yet another rhetorical question?”
    She had to laugh, but shook her head. “A storm’s coming.”
    “As a trained observer with considerable cop curiosity, I already figured that. If you need another umbrella, just let me know.”
    “So noted.”
    “Meanwhile, it may or may not be of interest to you but there are mutters that you’re after Oberman because she’s on the fast track to captain, or because she has bigger tits. Or because she spurned your sexual advances.”
    “You made that last one up.”
    “Actually I didn’t, but I wish I had. Those mutters aren’t getting far as they’re overpowered by louder mutters that Garnet was an asshole and Oberman didn’t rein him in. Or that you spurned her sexual advances. Mostly the other mutters haven’t gotten a foothold because people are more scared of you than Oberman.”
    “I like fear. It’s versatile.”
    “In the right hands.”
    She left him contemplating his choices for washing down the coconut cream and walked into Interview, where she’d kept Bix waiting.
    “Record on. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, entering Interview with Bix, Detective Carl. Detective, I’m formalizing this as our discussion will involve another police officer whose death has been deemed a homicide and is being investigated by other detectives. Do you understand and agree?”
    “Yes.”
    “I’m going to Mirandize you to keep this interview formal, and to adhere to the letter of procedure.” She read him the Revised Miranda. “Do you understand your rights and obligations in this matter?”
    His jaw twitched, just a little. “I’m a cop. I know what being Mirandized means.”
    “Excellent. Detective, your direct superior is Lieutenant Renee Oberman, Illegals, correct?”
    “Yes.”
    “Under Lieutenant Oberman you have often partnered with Detective Bill Garnet, of the same squad.”
    “Yes.”
    “Most recently, you and Detective Garnet were assigned as lead investigators on the Giraldi case. According to my information, Detective Garnet believed that case was about to break.”
    “We were pursuing several lines of investigation.”
    Eve opened a file, skimmed it as if looking for specific data. “Were any of those lines of investigation pursued due to information received from your lieutenant’s CI, Rickie Keener, now deceased?”
    “Not to my knowledge.”
    She cocked up her eyebrows. “You had not solicited information from that source?”
    “No.”
    “Had Garnet?”
    “Not to my knowledge.”
    “It runs a very high probability, Detective, that as both Keener and Garnet were killed at the same location, their murders are connected, either by perpetrator or purpose, or both.”
    “I don’t believe Keener was murdered. I think he overdosed, as his kind often do.”
    “That determination isn’t yours to make, Detective. It falls to the ME, to me, to the evidence, which all weigh in on homicide.”
    She closed a file, opened another, exposing Keener’s crime scene photos, then slid out one of Garnet’s and set them side-by-side.
    “It would be a very strange coincidence if Detective Garnet was murdered in the same location and his death had no connection to Keener’s. Adding to that, you and Garnet entered Keener’s residence, after his death, and performed an illegal search.”
    “We believed we had cause, and did not—at that time—know Keener was dead.”
    “The cause being a possible connection to your investigation.”
    “That’s right.”
    “But you had not solicited Keener prior.”
    “I didn’t. I said I had no knowledge whether Garnet did. He said he had a hunch, that we needed to give Keener a shake.”
    “What was the hunch? What was the purpose of the shake?”
    “I don’t know.”
    She leaned back. “You and Garnet were working what you consider a major case, one you believed would shortly break. He has a hunch, and you both go to the flop of your lieutenant’s CI. But you don’t ask why, or what you’re looking for when you conduct the illegal search, you don’t ask how Keener might be connected to your investigation.”
    Bix shrugged, the first move he’d made since she’d come in to the room. “Garnet wanted to give him a shake. I backed him up.”
    “You don’t have much cop curiosity, do you, Bix?”
    “I do the job.”
    “You follow orders. Did you consider Garnet a partner or a senior detective?”
    “He was both. Now he’s neither.”
    “Did you get along with