The in Death Collection Books 11-15 - J. D. Robb [241]
Stowe drew in a shaky breath, had to look away. “Okay,” she managed. “Okay.”
“But understanding where you’re coming from doesn’t mean you get off free. Your partner’s a jerk and a fuck-up, I’m betting you’re not. And I’m betting you’re smart enough to have thought it through now and admit that if you hadn’t gotten in the way, that son of a bitch Yost would be in a cage now.”
It was hard, almost painful to look back and face it. “I know it. And that’s on me as much as Jacoby. I wanted to be the one to take him, and I wanted it enough to risk losing him. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
“Then show me your cards. Your friend worked at the Embassy. What did you find out there?”
“Next to nothing. It’s hard enough to dig under the walls of politics and protocol in your own country. Try it as a foreigner. Initially, the French authorities put her death on a lover’s quarrel. Like I said, she had a lot of men. But that was a wash. I looked into that myself. When they ran for like crimes, they hit on Yost. But after they looked around, they put it down to copycat.”
“Why?”
“First place, she was clean. Squeaky. No connections with anything that would have drawn down a contract on her. And none of the men she’d been involved with could have afforded his fee, and if they could have, they just weren’t the type. She didn’t leave lovers bleeding, it wasn’t Winnie’s style. She was upset when she called, and didn’t want me contacting her at work, so I tried poking around there.”
“And?”
“The best lead I got was that Winnie’d been assigned to interpret for the ambassador’s son in some diplomatic deal with the Germans and the Americans on a multinational off planet project. New communications station. It involved a lot of meetings, a lot of travel, and was virtually all she’d been doing for three weeks before she died. I got the names of the main players, but when I tried to slide through and do a deep search I sent up a million flags. These are important, rich, and protected individuals. I had to back off. I push there too hard and I’ve got no chance to work on the Yost investigation.”
“Give me the names.”
“I’m telling you, you can’t dig there.”
“Just give me the names, I’ll worry about when and how I dig.”
Shrugging, Stowe dug a memo out of her bag and coded the names in. “Jacoby’s fixated on you,” she said as she handed the e-memo to Eve. “He has been since before we got here. If he can give you a few professional bruises while he brings Yost down, it’ll make his life complete.”
“Now, you’re scaring me,” Eve said with a wide smile as she pocketed the memo.
“He’s got contacts, he’s got sources. Deep ones. You ought to take him seriously.”
“I take parasites very seriously. Now, here’s the way it’s going to be. Whatever data you’ve got, whatever leads, whatever angles, you send to my home unit. Tonight.”
“For Christ’s sake—”
“All of it,” Eve said, edging forward. “Hold out on me, and I’ll bury you before it’s done. You keep me fully apprised of every move made, every source tapped, every thread tied.”
“You know, I was actually starting to believe you just wanted him stopped. But it’s the kick, isn’t it? It’s the glory at the end of the bust.”
“I haven’t finished,” Eve said mildly. “You play that straight with me, and if I get to him first, I’ll tag you. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you’re in on the takedown, and that you’re the one to bring him in.”
Stowe’s lips trembled open, then firmed. “Winnie would have liked you.” She stretched her arm across the little table, offered her hand. “Deal.”
Eve got back in her vehicle, checked the time. It was nearly nine, which meant she couldn’t manage to get all the way uptown, change into appropriate clothes for a fancy dinner, get back to midtown, and join Roarke’s party by the deadline she’d given herself.
That left her two choices. She could do what she really wanted to do, ditch it, go home, take a hot shower, and wait for whatever data Stowe sent her to come through.
Or she could go to the Top of New York with its silver