The In Death Collection Books 6-10 - J. D. Robb [684]
“I’m fine. I have to go in, deal with this.”
“I’ll go with you.” He tightened his grip when she started to shake her head. “Eve, do you think I would leave you alone at such a time?”
“I said I’m fine.”
“Liar.”
She gave up, gave in, let him hold her. “I looked at her, I looked in her eyes and I wondered how I would have felt, what it would have been like to have someone care so much about me, someone who’d have done anything to save me from him. And then, looking at her, I trapped her using the thing she loved most.”
“No. You saved the thing she loved most. We both know that.”
“Did I? No, that’s Mira’s job.” She drew a deep breath. “I want to close this thing. I need to make it over.”
Paperwork could be a soothing routine. She used it, writing her report with the dispassionate and brutal efficiency required. She filed it, adding all the evidence gathered.
“Lieutenant?”
“Shift’s nearly over, Peabody. Go home.”
“I will. I wanted you to know Mansfield’s finished in booking. She’s asked to see you.”
“All right. Set it up, Interview One, if available. Then take off.”
“Happy to.”
Eve turned in her chair to where Roarke stood, looking at her miserable view. “Sorry. I have to do this. Why don’t you go home?”
“I’ll wait.”
She said nothing, only rose and made her way down to Interview.
Areena was already there, sitting quietly at the small table. She quirked her lips in a sneer. “I can’t say I think much of the wardrobe choices in this place.” She fingered the collarless top of the dull gray state issue.
“We’ve got to get a new designer. Record on—”
“Is that necessary?”
“Yes, I’m required to put any conversations with you on record. For your protection and mine. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, in Interview One with Mansfield, Areena, at her request. Ms. Mansfield, you’ve been given your rights, do you choose to implement any or all of them at this time?”
“No, I have something to say to you. You knew it was me,” she said, leaning forward. “You were perfectly aware it was me, before we came into the theater today.”
“We’ve been over this ground.”
“I’m asking you if you had any proof before my confession?”
“What difference does it make? I have your confession.”
“For my own curiosity. The attorney I intend to hire will be entitled to that information, which will be relayed to me. Save us the middleman.”
“All right. Acting on my suppositions as regarded Anja Carvell, I ordered voice print analyses between your statements and hers. Though you had altered your tone, your rhythm, effectively disguising your voice to the naked ear, the voice prints were an exact match. As fingerprints are. Several of yours were found in the room registered to Carvell. Strands of hair, both from a synthetic wig matching the shade worn by Carvell and those of your shade, and your DNA, were found in the aforementioned suite. Both were also found, on a warranted sweep of your penthouse in the same hotel.”
“I see. I should have researched police procedure. I was careless.”
“No, you weren’t. You were human, which makes it impossible to think of everything.”
“You managed it.” Areena leaned back now, a considering look in her eye as she studied Eve. “You had enough evidence to bring me in here for questioning, to throw my deception in my face, use my relationship with Richard, with Carly, to break me. Instead, you chose to do so at the theater. In front of Carly.”
“You might not have broken here. I banked on it working the other way.”
“No, you’d have broken me. We both know it. I couldn’t stand against you. You did it in front of Carly for a very specific reason. You did it for her.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I’m off shift.”
Before she could rise, Areena gripped her hand. “You did it for her. She has to live with knowing what the father who made her was capable of. What he did to her. Knowing what he was, and that what he was runs inside her could twist her, scar her.”
“She’ll live with it.” Every day, Eve thought. Every night.
“Yes, she will. But you made sure she saw more than that. You showed her that the other part