Remember When

he had to spend time doing so. Again in private. Had to have transpo, had to know there was a handy dump site and access to the flammable."
    "Probably didn't seal up for that one," Feeney commented. "Why bother?"
    "Not an efficient use of his time," Eve agreed. "He's going to burn the body and destroy any possible trace to him, or so he believed. Why bother to avoid any trace on the scene as long as it's reasonably cleaned? Particularly if he had some legitimate reasons for being there."
    "Could own the place, work or live in it."
    "Could be a building or construction inspector," Roarke put in. "Though if he is, it wouldn't have been bright of him to forget about the fire sealant."
    "You got the data I asked for, the properties being built or rehabbed in that area. Is what you sent me the whole shot?"
    "It is, yes. But that doesn't take into account ones that are under the table. Small jobs," he explained. "A private home or apartment where the owner might decide to do some work, or hires a contractor who's willing to forgo the permits and fees and work off the books."
    Eve visualized the map of her investigation suddenly crisscrossed with hundreds of dead ends and detours. "I'm not going to worry about side deals until we exhaust the legitimate ones.
    Sticking with that, don't they sometimes use gas on construction sites?"
    "For some of the vehicles and machines." Roarke nodded. "As it's inconvenient to transport it from one of the stations outside the city, you might use a storage compartment on-site or nearby.
    You've a fee to pay for that as well."
    "Then we follow that down, too."
    "Bureaucrats in Permits and Licensing are going to make you jump through hoops," Feeney reminded her.
    "I'll deal with it."
    "You're going to need to put the arm on these guys, get the warrants and assorted paperwork and other bullshit. We get lucky with the matches, you'll cut back on that." Feeney considered, pulled on his nose. "But you got a lot to wade through one way or the other. I can put my leave off a few days, until this is closed."
    "Leave?" She frowned at him until she remembered his scheduled vacation. "Crap. I forgot all about it. When are you going?"
    "Got two more days on the clock, but I can juggle some things around."
    She was tempted to take him up on it. But she paced it off, heaved out a breath. "Yeah, fine, you do that and your wife will eat both our livers for breakfast. Raw."
    "She's a cop's wife. She knows how it goes." But there wasn't much conviction behind his words.
    "Bet she's already packed."
    Feeney offered a hangdog smile. "Been packed damn near a week now."
    "Well, I'm not facing her wrath. Besides, you've already juggled enough to give me this much time. We can handle the rest of it."
    He looked back at the board, as she did. "I don't like leaving a case hanging."
    "I've got McNab and this guy." She jerked a thumb toward Roarke. "If we don't wrap it before you have to go, we'll keep you in the loop. Long distance. Can you give me a couple more hours tonight?"
    "No problem. Look, why don't I get back to it, see if I can work some magic?"
    "Do that. I'll see if I can wrangle some warrants. Okay with you if we brief here tomorrow, oh-eight hundred?"
    "Only if it comes with breakfast."
    "I'll be right along," Roarke told him, and waited until he was alone with Eve. "I can save you time with the red tape. A little time on the unregistered, and I can have a list of permits for you."
    She jammed her hands into her pockets as she studied her murder board, as she looked at the faces of the dead. Roarke's unregistered equipment would blind the unblinking eye of CompuGuard. No one would know he'd hacked into secured areas and nipped out data with his skilled hands.
    "I can't justify it for this. I can't shortcut this just to save myself a little time and a lot of aggravation. Gannon's secure. To my knowledge she's the only one who might be in immediate jeopardy from this guy. I'll play it by the book."
    He stepped up behind her, rubbed her shoulders as they both looked at the images of Jacobs and Cobb. Before and after.
    "When you don't play it by the book, when you do take that shortcut, it's always for them, Eve.
    It's never for yourself."
    "It's not supposed to be for me. Or about me."
    "If it wasn't for you, or about you, in some sense, you wouldn't be able to go on day after day, facing this and caring, day after day. And if you didn't, who would pick up the standard for people like Andrea Jacobs and Tina