"Why aren't you wearing a tracer bracelet?"
"They don't have one that goes with my outfit." She straightened, turned to face him. "I know what I'm doing."
"Do you?" He crossed to her. "Or are you too close to this one? He's gotten to you, Eve. He's upset your sense of balance. It's become almost intimate between you."
"It's always intimate."
"Maybe." He brushed a thumb just above her left cheekbone. Her eyes were shadowed, her face pale. She was, he knew, running on nerves and determination now. He'd seen it before. "In any case, you've interrupted his work. He has no one now."
"He won't wait long. I don't need the computer analysis to tell me that. We've got less than forty hours left in the year. I don't want to start the new one knowing he's out there. He won't want to start it without me."
"Neither do I."
"You won't have to." Because she sensed he needed it, she leaned into him, closed her mouth over his. "We've got a date."
"I'll hold you to it."
When she started to ease back, he slid his arms around her, brought her close. "I'm not quite done here," he murmured, and sent her blood swimming with a hard and hungry kiss.
For a moment that was all there was. The taste of him, the feel of him pressed against her, the need they created in each other time after time erupting inside her.
Giving herself to it, and to him, was as natural as breathing.
"Roarke, remember how on Christmas Eve we got naked and crazy?"
"Mmm." He moved his mouth to her ear, felt her tremble. "I believe I recall something of that."
"Well, prepare yourself for a review on New Year's Eve." She drew his head back, framing his face as she smiled at him. "I've decided it's one of our holiday traditions."
"I feel very warmly toward tradition."
"Yeah, and if I feel much warmer right now, I'm not going to get my job done, so…"
She jumped away from him when her 'link beeped and all but pounced on it. " Dallas."
"Lieutenant." Peabody 's face swam on, swam off again, then came shakily back.
" Peabody, either your transmission's poor or you've grown a second nose."
"The equipment here's worse than what we deal with at Central." The audio came through with a snake hiss of static. "And I don't even want to talk about the food. When you're planning your next holiday vacation, steer clear of Rexal."
"And it was top of my list. What have you got for me?"
"I think we just caught a break. We've tracked down at least one unit Palmer had access to. It's in the chapel. He convinced the padre he'd found God and wanted to read Scripture and write an inspirational book on salvation."
"Glory hallelujah. Can McNab access his files?"
"He says he can. Shut up, McNab." Peabody turned her head. The fact that her face became a vivid orange could have been temper or space interference. "I'm giving this report. And I'm reporting, sir, that Detective McNab is still one big butt ache."
"So noted. What does he have so far?"
"He found the files on the book Palmer used to hose the preacher. And heclaims he's working down the levels. Hey!"
The buzzing increased and the screen blurred with color, lines, figures. Eve pressed her fingers to her eyes and prayed for patience.
McNab's cheerful, attractive face came on. Eve noted that he wore six tiny silver hoops in one ear. So he hadn't decided to tone down his look for a visit to a rehabilitation center.
" Dallas. This guy knows his electronics, so he took basic precautions with his personal data, but – take a hike, She-Body, this is my area. Anyway, Lieutenant, I'm scraping off the excess now. He's got stuff tucked under his praise-the-Lord hype. It won't take me long to start picking it out. The trouble, other than your aide's constant griping, is transmitting to you. We've got crap equipment here and a meteor storm or some such happy shit happening. It's going to cause some problems."
"Can you work on the unit on a transport?"
"Ah… sure. Why not?"
"Confiscate the unit, catch the first transpo back. Report en route."
"Wow, that's iced. Confiscate. You hear that, She-Body? We're confiscating this little bastard."
"Get started," Eve ordered. "If they give you any grief, have the warden contact me. Dallas out."
Eve drove into Cop Central, making three unnecessary stops on the way. If Palmer was going to make a move on her, he'd do it on the street. He'd know he would never be able to break through the defenses of Roarke's fortress. But she spotted no tail, no shadow.
More, she didn't feel him.
Would he go for her in the station? she wondered as she took the glide up to the EDD sector to consult with Feeney. He'd used a cop's disguise to get to Carl. He could put it to use again, slip into the warrenlike building, blend with the uniforms.
It would be a risk, but a risk like that would increase the excitement, the satisfaction.
She studied faces as she went. Up glides, through breeze-ways, down corridors, past cubes and offices.
Once she'd updated Feeney and arranged for him to consult with McNab on the unit en route, she elbowed her way onto a packed elevator to make the trip to Commander Whitney's office.
She spent the morning moving through the building, inviting a confrontation, then she took to the streets for the afternoon.
She re-canvased the houses she and Peabody had already hit. Left herself in the open. She bought bad coffee from a glide cart, loitered in the cold and the smoke of grilling soydogs.
What the hell was he waiting for? she thought in disgust, tossing the coffee cup into a recycling bin. The sound of a revving engine had her glancing over her shoulder. And she looked directly into Palmer's eyes.
He sat in his vehicle, grinned at her, blew her an exaggerated kiss. Even as she leaped forward, he hit vertical lift, shot up and streaked south.
She jumped into her car, going air as she squealed away from the curb. "Dispatch, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. All units, all units in the vicinity of Park and Eighty respond. I'm in ground-to-air chase with murder suspect. Vehicle is a black new-issue Booster-6Z, New York license number Delta Able Zero-4821, temporary. Heading south on Park."
"Dispatch, Dallas. Received and confirmed. Units dispatched. Is subject vehicle in visual range?"
"No. Subject vehicle went air at Park and Eighty, headed south at high speed. Subject should be considered armed and dangerous."
"Acknowledged."
"Where'd you go, where'd you go, you little son of a bitch?" Eve rapped the wheel with her fist as she zipped down Park, shot down cross streets, circled back. "Too fast," she muttered. "You went under too fast. Your hole's got to be close."
She set down, did her best to bank her temper, to use her head and not her emotions. She'd let the search run another thirty minutes, though she'd already decided it was useless. He'd had the vehicle tucked away in a garage or lot minutes after she'd spotted him. After he'd made certain she'd spotted him.
That meant canvases of every parking facility in three sectors. Public and private. And with the budget, it would take days. The department wouldn't spare the manpower necessary to handle the job any quicker.
She stayed parked where she was, on the off chance that Palmer would try another taunt. After aborting the search, she did slow sweeps through the sectors herself, working off frustration before she drove home through the dark and the snarling traffic.
She didn't bother to snipe at Summerset, though he gave her ample opportunity. Instead, scooping up the cat, which circled her legs, she climbed the stairs. Her intent was to take a blistering-hot shower, drink a gallon of coffee, and go back to work.