"Heard about that, did you?"
"Just as I heard that a large portion of your fellow cops walked out of the speech. Your reputation stands, Lieutenant. I imagine your seminar tomorrow will be packed."
"My… Shit!I forgot. I'm not thinking about it," she muttered on the way out. "Not thinking about it."
She slipped into the conference room where Skinner was leading a seminar on tactics. It was some relief to realize she'd missed the lecture and had come in during the question-and-answer period. There were a lot of long looks in her direction as she walked down the side of the room and found a seat halfway from the back.
She scoped out the setup.Skinner on stage at the podium, Hayes standing to his back and his right, at attention.Two other personal security types on his other side.
Excessive, she thought, and obviously so. The message was that the location, the situation, posed personal jeopardy for Skinner; but he was taking precautions and doing his job.
Very neat.
She raised her hand, and was ignored. Five questions passed until she simply got to her feet and addressed him. And as she rose, she noted Hayes slide a hand inside his jacket.
She knew every cop in the room caught the gesture. The room went dead quiet.
"Commander Skinner, a position of command regularly requires you to send men into situations where loss of life, civilian and departmental, is a primary risk. In such cases, do you find it more beneficial to the operation to set personal feelings for your men aside, or to use those feelings to select the team?"
"Every man who picks up a badge does so acknowledging he will give his life if need be to serve and protect. Every commander must respect that acknowledgment. Personal feelings must be weighed, in order to select the right man for the right situation. This is a matter of experience and the accumulation, through years and that experience, of recognizing the best dynamic for each given op. But personal feelings – i.e., emotional attachments, private connections, friendships, or animosities – must never color the decision."
"So, as commander, you'd have no problem sacrificing a close personal friend or connection to the success of the op?"
His color came up. And the tremor she had noticed in his hand became more pronounced." 'Sacrificing,' Lieutenant Dallas?A poor choice of words. Cops aren't lambs being sent to slaughter. Not passive sacrifices to the greater good, but active, dedicated soldiers in the fight for justice."
"Soldiers are sacrificed in battle.Acceptable losses."
"No loss is acceptable." His bunched fist pounded the podium."Necessary, but not acceptable. Every man who has fallen under my command weighs on me. Every child left without a father is my responsibility. Command requires this, and that the commanderbe strong enough to bear the burden."
"And does command, in your opinion, require restitution for those losses?"
"It does, Lieutenant. There is no justice without payment."
"For the children of the fallen?And for the children of those who escaped the hand of justice?In your opinion."
"Blood speaks to blood." His voice began to rise, and to tremble. "If you were more concerned with justice than with your own personal choices, you wouldn't need to ask the question."
"Justice is my concern, Commander. It appears we have different definitions of the term. Do you think your goddaughter was the best choice for this operation? Does her death weigh on you now, or does it balance the other losses?"
"You're not fit to speak her name. You'vewhored your badge. You're a disgrace. Don't think your husband's money or threats will stop me from using all my influence to have that badge taken from you."
"I don't stand behind Roarke any more than he stands behind me." She kept talking as Hayes stepped forward and laid a hand on Skinner's shoulder. "I don't stand on yesterday's business. Two people are dead here and now. That's my priority, Commander. Justice for them is my concern."
Hayes stepped in front of Skinner. "The seminar is over. Commander Skinner thanks you for attending and regrets Lieutenant Dallas's disruption of the question-and-answer period."
People shuffled, rose. Eve saw Skinner leaving, flanked by the two guards.
"Ask me," someone commented near her, "these seminars could use more fucking disruptions."
She made her way toward the front and came up toe to toe with Hayes.
"I've got two more questions for the commander."
"I said the seminar's over. And so's your little show."
She felt the crowd milling around them, some edging close enough to hear. "You see, that's funny. I thought I came in on the show. Does he run it, Hayes, or do you?"
"Commander Skinner is a great man. Great men often need protection from whores."
A cop moved in, poked Hayes on the shoulder. "You're gonna want to watch the name-calling, man."
"Thanks." Eve acknowledged him with a nod. "I've got it."
"Don't like play cops calling a badge a whore." He stepped back, but he hovered.
"While you're protecting the great man," Eve continued, "you might want to remember that two of his front-line soldiers are in the morgue."
"Is that a threat, Lieutenant?"
"Hell, no.It's a fact, Hayes.Just like it's a fact that both of them had fathers who died under Skinner's command. What about your father?"
Furious color slashed across his cheekbones. "You know nothing of my father, and you have no right to speak of him."
"Just giving you something to think about.For some reason I get the feeling that I'm more interested in finding out who put those bodies in the morgue than you or your great man. And because I am, I will find out – before this show breaks down and moves on. That one's a promise."
CHAPTER NINE
If she couldn't get to Skinner, Eve thought, she'd get to Skinner's wife. And if Angelo and Peabody hadn't softened and soothed enough, that was too fucking bad. Damned if she was going to tiptoe around weepy women and dying men, then have to turn the case over to the interplanetary boys.
It was her case, and she meant to close it.
She knew that part of her anger and urgency stemmed from the information Roarke had given her.His father, hers, Skinner, and a team of dead cops. Skinner was right about one thing, she thought as she headed for his suite. Blood spoke to blood.
The blood of the dead had always spoken to her.
Her father and Roarke's had both met a violent end. That was all the justice she could offer to the badges lost so many years before. But there were two bodies in cold boxes. For those, whatever they'd done, she would stand.
She knocked, waited impatiently. It was Darcia who opened the door and sent Eve an apologetic little wince.
"She's a mess," Darcia whispered. "Mira's patting her hand, letting her cry over her goddaughter. It's a good foundation, but we haven't been able to build on it yet."
"Any objections to me giving the foundation a shake?"
Darcia studied her, pursed her lips. "We can try it that way, but I wouldn't shake too hard. Sheshatters, we're back to square one with her."
With a nod, Eve stepped in. Mira was on the sofa with Belle, and was indeed holding her hand. A teapot, cups, and countless tissues littered the table in front of them. Belle was weeping softly into a fresh one.
"Mrs. Skinner, I'm sorry for your loss." Eve sat in a chair by the sofa, leaned into the intimacy. She kept her voice quiet, sympathetic, and waited until Belle lifted swollen, red-rimmed eyes to hers.
"How can you speak of her? Your husband's responsible."
"My husband and I were nearly blown to bits by an explosive device on Zita Vinter's apartment door. A device set by her killer. Follow the dots."
"Who else had cause to kill Zita?"
"That's what we want to find out. She sabotaged the security cameras the night Weeks was murdered."
"I don't believe that." Belle balled the tissue into her fist. "Zita would never be a party to murder. She was a lovely young woman.Caring and capable."