New York to Dallas - J. D. Robb [106]
“Things that would be useful for checking in a hotel. When you find the hotel, see if he left anything behind in his room. I’ve got to get on this from here.”
“You look beat,” Peabody commented.
“Not yet, I’m not.” She clicked off. “Let’s take this to Ricchio, let him and the feds start working on tracking down the names. We’d better go by the hospital first. We can probably pass the box to somebody there.”
Peabody was right, Roarke thought as she resealed the door. She looked beat. Pale and strained.
“You need a couple hours down. You know you do.”
“I’ll take it when I can. I can’t stop yet.” She got in the car. “I’ll down a booster if I need it.”
“A booster isn’t what you need. I’m not going to press you, yet. Especially not if you agree once you’ve talked to Melinda and Darlie you’ll go back to the hotel if there’s nothing immediate. You’d rather work there anyway.”
Since she’d already planned to do just that, it wasn’t hard to go along. “If you agree to try not to tranq me.”
“That’s a tough bargain, a hard line. Agreed.”
“That was easy. Too easy.”
“I’ll let Mira tranq you.”
She managed a weak laugh. “I can take Mira.”
“I imagine she’s wily.”
So was he, he thought, as he pulled her directly to Vending at the hospital. “Pick something.”
“I’m not really—”
“You may not think you’re hungry, but you need food. I’ll pick. Veggie-and-cheese pocket. Some protein,” he said as it slid out of the tray.
“I’d rather have the—”
“Candy bar, yes. And so you shall. When you eat that.” He ordered up the bar, wishing he could offer her some rich Belgian chocolate.
She stuffed half the pocket in her mouth. “Why do I have to eat and you don’t?”
“I’m considering my choices, which are all equally unappetizing. Ah, well.” He ordered up a second pocket. “We’ll suffer together.”
“It’s not that bad.”
He took a bite. “Yes, it certainly is.” Not wanting to risk the coffee, he ordered them each a tube of Pepsi.
“Food snob.”
“This barely qualifies as food. Give me some of that candy.”
“Get your own candy.” But she pulled credits out of her pocket, plugged them in. “There.” She ordered it, offered it, and gave him a genuine smile. “You look like a really well-dressed pirate carting around an ugly treasure chest. Thanks for lunch.”
18
Annalyn started to step on the elevator as Eve and Roarke got off.
She moved back.
“I was just on my way in. I’ve been splitting time between Melinda and Darlie, Darlie’s parents, Bree, her parents, the doctors.” She rubbed her eyes. “You see it, you see it in this job. You never get used to it.”
“Good cops don’t,” Eve said, and had Annalyn dropping her hands.
“Well, I’m a damn good cop today.”
“Do they still want to talk to me?”
“Yeah. Melinda convinced Darlie she should. She’s made you out to be the monster slayer. It’s a good thing,” she added when Eve winced. “It’s helping the kid. The idea there are slayers, since she knows monsters are real. Melly’s ambulatory. They want her in bed, resting, but she’s in and out of the kid’s room. That helps, too. It’s helping them both.”
She raised her eyebrows at the box Roarke held. “If that’s a gift, it’s really sparkly.”
“It’s evidence. We found it at the duplex.”
“What? Where? I didn’t see anything like that on the evidence list. I’ve been keeping in touch.”
“She had a hide in the bedroom closet. I played a hunch,” Eve added. “And we got lucky.”
“We could use some luck. Missing that son of a bitch today, losing Malvie.” She looked back down the hall. “I keep reminding myself we got Melly and the girl back safe. But Malvie’s dead, and McQueen’s in the wind.”
“She’s got some correspondence from McQueen in here.”
“No shit?”
“None, and some names, some data. If you’re going in, you can start the runs. There’s a photo of him, too. She took it while he was sleeping. There’s a champagne bottle in it. My source here tells me it’s pretty special.”
“There’s only