"I love him! If it's wrong, if it's shameful, if it's wretched, that doesn't change. He's my life."
"Then why are you afraid?" Eve leaned forward. "Why are you so afraid that you'll cover for him even when you wonder if he's killed? Anything for true love? You let Holloway prey on your clients, and that makes you the same as a pimp for an unlicensed whore."
"No, we did our best to find him like-minded women."
"And when you didn't, and they complained, you paid them off," Eve finished. "Is that what you wanted to do, or was it Rudy?"
"It was business. Rudy understands the business better than me."
"Is that how you live with it? Or maybe neither one of you could live with it anymore. Was he with you the night Donnie Ray was killed? Can you look at me and swear he was with you all that night?"
"Rudy couldn't hurt anyone. He couldn't."
"Are you so sure, so sure, you'll risk another death? If not tonight, then tomorrow."
"Whoever is killing these people is insane – vicious, cruel, and insane. If I thought it could be Rudy, I couldn't live. We're part of each other, so it would be in me the way it's in him. I couldn't live." She covered her face with her hands. "I can't stand any more of this. I won't talk to you. If you accuse Rudy, you accuse me, and I won't talk to you."
Eve rose, but paused by the chair for a moment. "You're not half of a whole, Piper, whatever he's told you. If you want a way out, I know someone who can help you."
Though she felt it was a useless attempt, she took one of her own cards and noted Dr. Mira's name and number on the back. She left it on the arm of the chair and walked away.
Her emotions were in upheaval when she got into her car. She took a moment to settle them, then glanced at her wrist unit. Not much time, she mused, but enough.
She used her personal porta-'link rather than her car unit and tagged Nadine.
"What do you want, Dallas? I'm under the gun here. The press conference is in an hour."
"Meet me at the D and D, bring your crew. Fifteen minutes."
"I can't – "
"Yeah, you can." Eve broke transmission and drove downtown.
She'd picked the Down and Dirty Club partly for sentiment, partly because it would be fairly private on a midweek afternoon. And the proprietor was a friend who would see that she wasn't hassled.
"What you doing here, white girl?" Crack, all six and a half feet of him, grinned at her. His face was dark and homely, his scalp recently shaved and oiled to a mirror gleam. He sported a vest of peacock feathers, leathers so snug she wondered his balls weren't bruised, and shin-breaking boots in cherry red.
"Got a meet," she told him and did a quick scan of the club. It was mostly empty, but for the six dancers practicing a routine on stage and a scatter of customers who – being what they were – marked her as a cop in the time it takes to pick a tourist's pocket in Times Square.
She imagined several ounces of illegals would shortly be swimming into New York's sewer system.
"You bringing more cops into my place?" He glanced over as two skinny dealers made a beeline for the Johns. "Somebody's business gonna suffer tonight."
"I'm not here for a bust. I got press coming. Got a privacy room we can use?"
"You got Nadine coming down? Now, she be fine. You use room three, honeypot. I look out for you awhile."
"Appreciate it." She glanced over her shoulder as the door opened, letting in sunlight, Nadine, and a camera operator. "It won't take long."
Eve pointed toward the room and strode over and in without waiting for Nadine's assent.
"You frequent such interesting places, Dallas." Wrinkling her nose, Nadine stared at the stained walls and rumpled bed – the only piece of furniture the room could boast.
"You liked the place well enough, as I recall. Enough to strip down to your undies and dance on stage."
"I was impaired at the time," Nadine said with some dignity when her operator snickered. "Shut up, Mike."
"You got five minutes." Eve sat on the side of the bed. "You can either hit me with questions or I'll give you a straight statement. I'm not going to give you more than what we'll release at the press conference, but you'll have it on a good twenty minutes before anyone else. I'm also giving you the go-ahead to use data already discussed."
"Why?"
"Because," Eve said quietly, "we're friends."
"Step outside a minute, Mike." Nadine waited until he'd finished grumbling and had closed the door behind him. "I don't want any pity favors."
"That's not what this is. You kept the deal, holding information until I cleared it. I'm keeping my end. That's professional. I trust you to report the truth. That's professional. I like you, even when you're irritating. That's personal. Now, do you want the one-on-one or not?"
Nadine's smile bloomed slowly. "Yeah, I want it. I like you, Dallas, and you're always irritating."
"Give me a quick rundown of your take on Rudy and Piper."
"Charming, absolutely. They can spout their company line like champs. Every button I pushed, they came back with the perfect reaction. Well programmed."
"Who's in charge?"
"Oh, he is. No question. He's a little over-protective of her for a brother, if you ask me. And it's mildly creepy the way they dress alike down to their lip dye. But it's probably a twin thing."
"Did you interview any of the staff?"
"Sure, picked a few consultants at random. They've got a very slick operation going there."
"Gossip about the owners?"
"Nothing but praise. I couldn't elbow out one spiteful sentence." She cocked a brow. "Is that what you're looking for?"
"I'm looking for a killer," Eve said flatly. "Let's get this going."
"Fine." Nadine reached back, rapping her knuckles on the door to signal Mike. "Straight statement with follow-up questions."
"One or the other."
"Don't be so pissy. Start with the statement." Nadine glanced at the bed, calculating the varied body fluids that might have been spent there, and opted to stand.
An hour later, Eve listened to Chief of Police and Security Tibble run nearly the identical statement she'd given Nadine. He had a more impressive style, she mused, shivering a bit in the cold, as he'd chosen to give the statement on the steps of the Tower, where his offices spanned the top of the building.
Air traffic had been rerouted for the thirty-minute event so that only a scatter of sky-cams and traffic choppers disturbed the sky overhead.
Eve was certain he already knew she'd gone on-air with the data. He could slap her down for it. But as she had not been officially barred from preceding him with a statement, it would be a waste of time.
Eve knew Tibble rarely wasted anything.
She respected him, and respected him more when he managed to give a complete statement while withholding vital pieces of evidence they would need for trial.
As questions began to bullet out of the crowd of reporters, he held up both hands. "I'll turn questions over to the primary investigating officer, Lieutenant Eve Dallas."
He turned, then bent down to her ear. "Five minutes, and don't give them any more than they already have. Next time, Dallas, wear a goddamn coat."
She huddled in her jacket and stepped forward.
"Do you have any suspects?"
Eve didn't sigh, but she wanted to. She hated facing the media. "We're questioning several individuals in connection with these cases."
"Were the victims sexually assaulted?"
"The cases are being handled as sexual homicides."
"How are they connected? Did the victims know each other?"
"I'm not free to discuss that area of the investigation at this time." She held up a hand to cut off the vicious barrage. "We are, however, treating the cases as connected. As Chief Tibble stated, the investigation, thus far, points to one killer."