The In Death Collection Books 6-10 - J. D. Robb [191]
“Yeah.” But Peabody sighed in memory. “I indicated that I wanted to proceed immediately. Gave her a line about not wanting to be alone during the holidays. She was very sympathetic, personable. I can see why people who go in there trust her to fix them up. She wanted to pass me off to a consultant, but I balked. Said how I was so comfortable with her, and that this process was somewhat embarrassing for me. I offered to pay more, if necessary, to have her stick with me.”
“Good thinking.”
“She was sweet about it. Patted my hand. She walked me through the video herself, even coached me a little. Rudy came into it toward the end because she had a meeting to go to. He didn’t make me either. He flirted with me.”
“In what way?”
“In an automatic way. It was just part of the job, if you ask me. Approving smiles, compliments, hand holding. He is way not my type,” she added, “but I played along. He offered me more hot chocolate, but I managed to resist. I also got a tour of the place, was shown a club area they have where matches can meet if they feel awkward about making the connection outside. Very tasteful, leaning toward elegant. They’ve got a small coffee shop, too, for the same purposes. That’s casual. There were several couples linking up in there.” She wrinkled her nose. “I saw McNab getting the run-through, too.”
“Then we’re in, and on schedule. What about your match list?”
“I can go in tomorrow morning. They prefer you come in person rather than arranging for a transmission on a first go. They screened me in about an hour. Roarke’s new data held up, and from what I could see, they really dig. If I was going into this for real, I’d feel safe.”
“Okay, you get the match list, go through the routine. But you set up meets outside.” She considered a moment. “We’ll use one of Roarke’s places—medium-sized club or bar. We’ll put a couple cops on the inside. I’ll need to stay out. If Rudy or Piper are in on this, they’d make me. We’ll get a surveillance vehicle. I want you to set up at least two, try for three, of the meets tomorrow night. We can’t sit on this.”
She glanced at her wrist unit, tapped her fingers. “Let’s find an empty conference room. I need to pull in McNab and Feeney for an update. I want this to go smooth.”
“If McNab starts on me, I’m flattening him.”
“Wait till the case is closed,” Eve advised. “Then flatten him.”
She could see the lights from the end of the long drive the minute she was through the gates. At first, Eve wondered if the house was on fire, they were so bright and brilliant. As she sped closer, she saw the outline of a tree in the wide window of the front parlor. It was alive with white light, shimmering and glowing, sparking like little flames off the branches ladened with shiny globes of red or green.
Dazzled, she parked her car and jogged up the steps. Heading straight for the parlor, she stopped under the archway and stared. The tree had to be twenty feet high, at least four feet across. Miles of silver garland were artfully draped to set off the hundreds of colored balls. Atop, nearly brushing the ceiling, was a crystal star, each point pulsing with light. Beneath was a blanket of white that stood in for snow. She couldn’t begin to count the elegantly wrapped gifts stacked there.
“Jesus, Roarke.”
“Pretty, isn’t it?”
He came in silently behind her, made her jolt before she turned to shake her head at him. “Where the hell did you get it?”
“Oregon. It has a treated root ball. We’ll donate it to a park after the New Year.” He slipped an arm around her waist. “Them, I should say.”
“Them? You have more of these?”
“There’s one a bit bigger than this in the ballroom.”
“Bigger?” she managed.
“Another in Summerset’s quarters, and the one in our bedroom. I thought we’d trim that one tonight.”
“It’ll take days to trim one of these.”
“It only took the crew I hired four hours to do this one.” And he laughed. “Ours is more manageable.” He turned his head to brush his lips over her forehead. “I need to share this with you.”
“I don’t know how to do any