López jerked as if struck with sudden, shocking pain. Rather than sorrow, it was fury that flashed into his eyes. “No. No, I didn’t know. Why didn’t any of them come to me for help?”
“I doubt seriously they knew who was blackmailing them, or where the blackmailer got the information. And now I know whoever killed him wasn’t one of them.”
Eve pushed to her feet. “I can’t force you to tell me what you know. I can’t make you tell me who used your church, your faith, your ritual, your vows to murder. I could squeeze you, and sweat you, but you still wouldn’t tell me and then both of us would be pissed off. But I’ll tell you this: I’m going to find out who it was. Whatever kind of slime Lino was, I’m going to do my job, the same as you.”
“I pray you will find them, and I pray that before you do, they come to you. I pray that God gives me the wisdom and the strength to show them the way.”
“I guess we’ll see which one of us gets there first.”
Eve left him sitting on the bench.
“I get he’s doing what he thinks he has to,” Peabody said. “But I think we should be taking him in. You could break him in Interview.”
“Not sure I could. He’s got titanium for faith. And even if… isn’t that going to make him one more victim? I break him, make him slip enough, and he’d never be the same. He wouldn’t be a priest anymore.”
She remembered what she’d felt like when they’d taken her badge. How she’d felt empty, helpless. Like nothing, like no one.
“I’m not doing that to him. Have I even got a right to do that to an innocent man? One who’s taken an oath pretty much the same as ours?”
“Protect and serve.”
“We do people, he does souls. I’m not going to sacrifice him to make my job easier. But I’ll tell you what we are going to do.” She got into the vehicle, switched on the engine. “We’re putting him under surveillance. We’re getting a warrant to monitor his communication devices. I’d put eyes and ears in the damn church if they’d clear it, but that’s not going to happen. We’re going to know where he goes, when, who he sees.”
“Do you think the killer will go for him?”
“He’s got that titanium faith, so he thinks not. Me? I’ve got faith that people mostly look out for their own ass. So we cover him-we protect-and we leave him out here as bait, hoping the sinner needs another shot at redemption. Put it in play, my authorization.”
As Peabody started that ball, Eve glanced at the time. Thought, Shit. “One more stop. We’ll see if we can jangle anything out of Inez.”
A woman answered this time, a looker with warm brown hair pulled back in a jaunty tail from a rose-and-cream face. Behind her, two little boys rammed miniature trucks together and made violent crashing noises.
“Pipe down,” the woman ordered, and they did, instantly. The crashing noises continued, but at whispers.
“Mrs. Inez?”
“Yes?”
“We’d like to speak to your husband.”
“So would I, but he’s stuck in New Jersey, there’s a jam at the tunnel. He’ll be lucky to get home in under two hours. What is it?”
Eve took out her badge.
“Oh, Joe said the police were here last night. Something about one of the tenants being a witness in a hit-and-run.”
“Is that what your son told you?”
“Actually, Joe filled me in.” Awareness came into her eyes. “And that wasn’t entirely accurate. What is this about?”
“We’re investigating an old connection of your husband’s. Do you know Lino Martinez?”
“No, but I know the name. I know Joe was in the Soldados, and I know he did time. I know he had trouble, and he pulled himself out of it.” She gripped the doorknob, eased the door closed a few more inches, as if to shield the children behind her. “He hasn’t had anything to do with any of that business for years. He’s a good man. A family man with a decent job. He works hard. Lino Martinez and the Soldados were another life.”
“Tell him we were here, Mrs. Inez, and that we’ve located Lino Martinez. We’re going to need to follow up with your husband.”
“I’ll tell him, but I’m telling you he doesn’t know anything about Lino Martinez, not anymore.”
She closed the door, and Eve heard the locks snick impatiently.
“She’s pissed he lied to her,” Peabody commented.
“Yeah. Stupid move on his part. It tells me he’s hiding something from his wife. Something from now, something from then? Either way, something. I’m going to drop you at the subway and work from home. Keep on those John Does. I think I’ll comb through those old case files, see if something swims up from the deep.”
“I know what you said back there to López is right. We’ve got to do the job no matter what a creep Lino was. But when you know some of the shit he pulled, and the shit we think he pulled, it’s hard to get worked up because somebody ended him.”
“Maybe if somebody had gotten worked up a long time ago, he wouldn’t have been able to pull so much shit, his mother wouldn’t be crying tonight, and somebody who strikes me as an especially good man wouldn’t be honor-bound, or faith-bound, to protect a murderer.”
Peabody sighed. “You’ve got a point. But I like it better when the bad guys are just the bad guys.”
“There’s always plenty of them to go around.”
18
SHE NEEDED THINKING TIME. CLOSED IN WITH the case time where she could put the pieces of everything she knew, didn’t know, everything that had been said, left unsaid together with people, events, evidence, and speculation, and see what kinds of pictures formed.
She needed to take a good hard look at the victims in the two bombings, and their families, their connections. She needed to consider the blackmail angle, which she already knew would be a deep and sticky well. If López wouldn’t tell her the name of a murderer, he sure as hell wasn’t going to share the names of people who’d confessed blackmail-able transgressions to him.
She didn’t buy murder for blackmail in Lino’s case, but she couldn’t discount it as possible. Or connected.
How had Lino collected the money? she wondered as she drove home. Where had he kept the funds, or had he just pissed it away as it came in? Expensive hotel rooms and lavish meals, gaudy jewelry for his bed partner.
Not enough, she thought. A few thousand here and there? What was the point in risking exposure for a fancy suite and a bottle of champagne?
Showing off to the old girlfriend? Stuben said Penny Soto had been his weak spot. So… It could be that simple. Wanting to be rich, important, and having his woman see him as both.
Or as simple as needing the rush, of knowing you were pulling a fast one. Reminding yourself who you were while you were pretending to be another. Like a hobby.
Something else to think about.
She drove through the gates, then slowed down. There were flowers where she was damn sure there hadn’t been flowers that morning. Tulips-she was pretty sure-and daffodils. She liked daffodils because they were so bright and silly. Now there were rivers of both where there hadn’t been so much as a drop ten hours earlier.
How did that happen?
In any case it was… well, it was pretty, and added a splash to the hazy green of the trees.
She continued on, stopped and parked. And there were three enormous red pots literally engorged with petunias. White petunias-her wedding flower. Sentimental slob, she thought even as she went gooey herself. Simple pleasure warred against the ugly tension she’d been fighting to ignore since her interview with Penny Soto.
She walked in to see Galahad perched like a pudgy gargoyle on the newel post-new spot for him-and Summerset hovering, as usual, in the foyer.
“I assume the city has been cleared of all crime as you’re only an hour late and appear to be unbloodied.”
“Yeah, we’re renaming it Utopia.” She gave Galahad a quick rub as she started upstairs. “Next stage is to get rid of all the assholes. You should get a head start and pack your bags.” She paused briefly. “Did Roarke talk to Sinead?”