The in Death Collection Books 11-15 - J. D. Robb [57]
“Word gets out,” Martinez said, but her tone wasn’t quite so confident. She reached for her water the minute it was on the table.
“Yeah, especially when someone wants it to. You think I arranged to put over three million dollars in Kohli’s and Mills’s accounts to cover my husband’s ass? You think I’ve maybe been funneling it there for months to try to create a scandal involving fellow cops?”
“You’re the one saying the money was there.”
“That’s right. I’m saying it.”
Martinez said nothing for a moment, just staring back into Eve’s eyes. Then she closed her own. “Hell. Oh, hell. I’m not turning on another cop. I’m fifth generation. There’s been a cop in my family for over a hundred years. That means something to me. We have to stand up for each other.”
“I’m not asking you to judge. I’m asking you to think. Not every one of us respects the badge. Two of the men on your task force are dead. Both of them had more money stashed away than most cops can save in a lifetime on the job. Now they’re dead. Somebody got close enough to them to take them out before they could blink. Are you ready to be next?”
“Next? You see me as a target?” The fire came back into Martinez’s eyes. “You think I’ve been taking.”
“I haven’t seen anything to make me think that. And I’ve looked.”
“Goddamn bitch. I worked my ass off to make detective. Now you’re going to toss me to IAB?”
“I’m not tossing you anywhere. But if you’re not straight with me, you’re going to hang yourself. One way or another. Who’s at the core of this?” Eve demanded, leaning forward. “Be a detective, for Christ’s sake, and figure it. Who connects Kohli and Mills and has the money to turn a cop into a weasel?”
“Ricker.” Martinez’s fingers curled on the table until her fist ran white across the knuckles. “Goddamn it.”
“You had him, didn’t you? You went into that bust knowing you had everything you needed for an arrest, an indictment, and a conviction. You were careful.”
“It took me months to set it up. I lived with that case twenty-four/seven. I made sure I didn’t miss anything. Didn’t rush it. Then to have it all fall apart. I couldn’t figure it. I kept telling myself the son of a bitch was just too slick, too well covered. But still . . . Part of me knew he had to have somebody inside. Had to. But I didn’t want to look there. I still don’t.”
“But now you will.”
Martinez lifted her glass, drank water as though her throat was scorched. “Why am I being tagged?”
“Spotted the surveillance, did you?”
“Yeah, I spotted it. I figured you were going after me next.”
“If I find out you’re in bed with Ricker, I will. Right now, the tag’s for your protection.”
“I want it off. If I’m going to throw in with you, I need to move without somebody breathing down my neck. I have a personal copy of all the data, all my notes, every step leading up to Ricker’s bust. After the case fell apart, I looked over them, but my heart wasn’t in it. It will be now.”
“I’d like a copy.”
“It’s my work.”
“And when we take him down, I’ll see to it you get the collar.”
“It means something to me. The job means something to me. This case . . . the captain said I’d lost my objectivity. She was right,” Martinez added with a twist of her lips. “I did. I ate that case for breakfast every morning and I slept with it every night. If I’d kept the right distance, I might have seen all this coming. I might have seen how Mills insinuated himself into it until he was calling shots. I just took it as his usual macho bullshit.”
“We’re supposed to stand for each other. You had no reason to look his way.”
“Kohli’s memorial’s scheduled for day after tomorrow. It comes to me, without doubt, that he was looped with Ricker, I’ll spit on his grave. My grandfather went down in the line of duty during the Urban Wars. He saved two kids. They’re somewhat older than I am, and they write my grandmother every