New York to Dallas

hair gunk. Wouldn’t she have left some baubles there?”
    He considered. “Yes. She wanted to be with him, hoped to live with him. When a woman’s maneuvering to move in with a man she tends to leave pieces of herself behind. Get him used to it.”
    “Really?”
    Her tone made him grin. “Something you were careful not to do initially. I had to make do with a stray button.”
    “Living with you wasn’t in the plans. Plans change. So saying she left some baubles, he took them. Which means he thinks he can use them, or sell them, pawn them. The locals could look at that.”
    “Sounds like busywork, as you don’t know what or when he might sell or pawn.”
    “Investigations are loaded with busywork. The locals need to find the people he told her to contact for the soundproofing, the security. He wanted them, specifically for the main apartment. Wouldn’t he have used them for the secondary location? No,” she said before Roarke could comment.
    “No,” he agreed. “Because they might have mentioned the other job to his partner, even if he instructed them not to. She was a player, knew the games. Sex, money, or just asking the right question at the right time, and she could have found him out. Better to keep it all separate.”
    “So, the locals dig up the first round, and we dig for the second. I need you to search for a second location. The higher level. Classier, more central. He had to arrange it from prison, and without an outside partner. I’ll get Feeney on it, piecing through what he’s getting on McQueen’s coms, but everything coming through is patchy and fractured.”
    “It takes time to piece jammed, wiped, and filtered coms back together.”
    “I’m not saying otherwise. We work it here; they work it there. The locals and feds do what they do.”
    “You want him now,” Roarke decided. “Before, you wanted him, but it didn’t matter who took him down. Now, you want it.”
    She didn’t answer at first, but walked to the AutoChef for coffee. “It’s not because he killed her,” she began, and turned back to Roarke. “Not because of the connection.”
    “All right.”
    “It’s because he killed. Because she killed a cop. It’s because Darlie’s father gave me ice cream while he was fighting back tears. And I guess it’s because I remember when I was the kid in the hospital bed with a cop standing over me.”
    “I don’t care why unless you do. I’m just glad of it, because it’s been personal, Eve, all along. And don’t tell me it can’t be, that you have to stay objective. It’s both. It’s always both for you. That’s why you’re so good at it.”
    “I want to take him down, but I won’t bitch if someone else gets it done.”
    “Fair enough. I’ll look for your centralized high-rise, high-end location.”
    “With a good view of the city. No less than two bedrooms, two baths, attached garage. What time is it in New York?”
    He shook his head. “An hour later than it is here. The earth simply has to revolve, Eve, however annoying it is for you.”
    “It can revolve all it wants. I just don’t see why people can’t settle on the same time.”
    “I’ll think about that when I’m running your search, and talking to Hong Kong.”
    “What time is it there?”
    “Morning.”
    “See? Crazy.” She walked to her desk, settled down. And contacted Feeney.
    It felt good, good and solid, just to see his face, hear his voice.
    He said, “Yo,” and took her right back to New York.
    “I got an angle I want you to work. What’s that noise?”
    “Ball game. No score, bottom of the second. Two outs, runner on first. Mets don’t screw up they can clinch the division tonight.”
    “Shit, I wanted to see that game.”
    “They got a ban on baseball down there?”
    “No. Or probably not. Maybe I’ll catch it on replay.”
    He shook his head sadly. “Not the same.”
    “Better than nothing. Anyway, I’m working on the theory that McQueen’s got a second hole down here.”
    “Peabody’s kept me in the loop. She’s doing good. I know McQueen sliced the partner, slithered out. You got the woman and the kid back.”
    “She killed a cop, walked right out of the hospital, stole a car out of the lot. She had an hour on us.”
    “Yeah, I heard that, too.”
    He shifted, paused the game. She realized he was home, not at Central. Which considering the time she should have expected.
    Home, she thought. Beer and the ball game.
    “I know you’ve been on this,