In Death 32 - Treachery in Death

he’s asleep at his desk.” So, Lilah’s instincts were off there. “Asserton or Sloan?”
    “No, nothing as yet—and as I haven’t had a single hit on either, there’s likely not to be.”
    “Agree. Shift them over, push the rest. We serve Garnet up to IAB tomorrow, garnish him with the charges stemming from tonight’s temper tantrum with me. He’s cooked. What you’ve got? It’s the sauce.”
    “The clever cooking analogy doesn’t distract me from the fact you don’t want to serve him up alone. You want Renee sharing the platter.”
    “Be tastier,” she admitted, then waved a hand. “We’ve got to get off the food stuff. I’d rather have her nailed before I take Garnet in. Her, and the rest. But it’s not an absolute. He’ll flip if I need him to flip, and he’ll still go away a good, long time. If you’re done with this for the night, no problem.”
    “And I look like the weak sister?”
    “Don’t make me smile again. It hurts.”
    “I’ll finish it. If I get further along, I should be able to program it to complete the task while we both get some sleep.”
    “I need to contact Webster.”
    “Eve,” Roarke said as she reached for her ’link. “He’s with Darcia.”
    “Yeah, so? He needs to . . .” She broke off, winced as she had when her lip throbbed. “You think they’re having sex?”
    “Oh, at a wild, what-the-hell sort of guess? Yes. Very likely.”
    “I can’t think about that. I don’t want to know that. I know what he looks like when he has sex.”
    Roarke flicked a finger on the top of her head. “I wonder why I need to be reminded of that.”
    This time she pressed her fingers to her lip to hold it as it throbbed since she couldn’t quite swallow the laugh. “I’m just saying. I like how you look having sex better.”
    “Darling, how sweet of you.”
    “I need to scrape off the sarcasm you just piled on me, then I’ll contact him—but straight to message. I want him and the rest here by oh seven hundred.”

    Bix picked Garnet up at one A.M.
    “It’s about fucking time,” Garnet said.
    “It took awhile for the LT to get it set up. Nobody wants any mistakes on this. Like she said, you and Dallas had a confrontation. Don’t want this to blow back on you.”
    “Freeman’s got me covered.” Resentment oozed out of his pores. “If Oberman had done the damn job, I wouldn’t need to be covered.”
    Bix said nothing, then glanced over. “Dallas do that to your face?”
    Color—anger and humiliation—stained Garnet’s cheeks. “She’s not looking so pretty either. Cunt sucker-punched me.” The lie came so easily, as it had when he’d told Freeman the same, he nearly believed it himself. “Pulls her weapon on me. Says she’s going to take my badge. Maybe go after Oberman next,” he added, knowing Bix’s loyalties. “She’s jealous of the LT, that’s what it is. Bitch wants to take her down, cause trouble. If she causes enough, the whole thing’s going to break down. We’re all in the shit can then, Bix.”
    “I guess so.”
    “What’s the plan? You didn’t lay it out before.”
    “The boss is using a bogus weasel to tag Dallas with a tip. A big one, deals with Keener. The boss says how Dallas is hot to close Keener, really wants to tie it to use that to discredit her. So we draw her in tonight, back to the scene.”
    “That’s good.” Garnet nodded, tapped a little of his go-powder on his hand, inhaled it. He wanted the buzz, fresh and rising, when he sliced the bitch to pieces. “What’s the tip?”
    “I didn’t ask; don’t need to know. The lieutenant said she’d get Dallas there, she’ll get her there. We take care of business, and that’s that.”
    “She might call it in.” Garnet tried to figure the angles through the rush in his head. “Tag her partner anyway.”
    “So what if she does?”
    “Yeah. We do them both.” He was eager for it. “Maybe better that way. Better yet if we have somebody to pin it on. The whole thing—Keener and the two bitches.”
    “The boss is working on it,” Bix said simply, and pulled to the curb.
    “Dallas is mine.” Garnet patted the sheath on his belt. “You remember that.”
    “If that’s how you want it.”
    “Did you bring me a piece? Bitch took mine.”
    “We’ll take care of it inside.”
    Bix didn’t speak as they walked the short distance to the abandoned building. He knew there were probably some eyes on them—on two men in black—but it was unlikely