“I’ve got the bodyguard already. Mikah Jessup, age forty. He’s head of Phoebe Harper’s personal security team, and has been for nine years. Fifteen years with the company altogether. No criminal. Divorced, no offspring.”
“Loyalty. How about the tech?”
“McNab reports Shaun Ye—I’m running now. Okay, age twenty-six, freelance tech—he’s done some work for the Harper Group, as a subcontractor. Single. A few minor bumps here.”
“Money. He’ll flip and fast. Jessup will stick. We’ll take money first. Your lead.”
“Hot dog!”
“What’ll you offer him, Reo?”
“He’s more windfall than low-hanging fruit. Dump it down to misdemeanor, six months. Immunity’s possible, depending. We want the payment to wrap around Harper. We want her instructions and so on wrapped, too.”
“I can live with either,” Eve decided. “He’s nothing. A tool, nothing more.”
“Agree. With the bodyguard, I also agree he’ll be stickier. If he flips, gives a full statement, testifies, three to five years. If he sticks?” Calculating, Reo lifted her shoulders. “He’ll do twice that. If he had a part in hiring the tech or in procuring the ID? Twenty to twenty-five.”
“What about Harper?”
“Well, doing some math, adding up the charges?” Smiling, Reo ticked off on her fingers. “Let’s call it fifty. Yes, I believe fifty works well, though I’ll start off higher considering the heinous nature of her son’s crimes. If she gets a really good lawyer, we might deal that down to twenty, but I’m not inclined there. And she won’t get bail, not after this. She also forfeits the fifty million she posted for her son.”
“I can live with fifty inside.” Eve answered her in-dash. “Commander Whitney.”
“Lieutenant. Good work. I need you to meet with Kyung for a media conference in one hour.”
“Sir, I have APA Reo with me. We’re strategizing before the interviews. We have four to—”
“The live feed from Channel Seventy-Five was a thing of beauty. Beauty costs, and that cost is full media access at this point. One hour.”
“Yes, sir.” She waited until she ended the call. “Fuck it! ‘Good work. Here’s your punishment.’ Fuck it. You don’t need me in the box with the first two.”
“Oh, what?” Peabody lost all color. “You want me to go solo? But why do I get punished?”
“I could say because, but take McNab in for the tech. They speak the same weird language. You can pull Jenkinson for the guard. If he’s not available, Baxter.”
“I don’t get to be bad cop, do I?”
“Use your bad cop on the tech. McNab’s more sympathetic—same language,” she repeated. “For the guard you want to sympathize and relate to his sense of loyalty and service. He won’t break for bad cop. Jenkinson will know that, and play it so you can contrast. Loyalty and service are your strengths. Use them.”
She pulled into Central’s garage, just sat a minute. “And I was feeling pretty damn good.”
“It was still genius, Dallas.” Reo gave Eve a pat on the shoulder before she slid out of the back. “That feed in court? Private shuttle waiting. Ebersole running, Harper trying to stop you, swiping at Peabody? It’s diamonds and gold. And I’m betting Nadine’s commentary added more shine and sparkle.”
“Blah, blah, bollocks, blah.”
She went straight to her office, and with coffee, wrote up her report—nice and pretty.
Peabody stepped in. “They’re bringing up Shaun Ye. Any advice?”
“Hit him out of the gate. Aiding and abetting a serial killer in an escape. There’s precedent for one who aids and abets receiving the same sentence as the accused. Three terms of life, no parole, off-planet. Put that thought in his head, he’ll give you everything you need, and it’ll save time.”
Eve pushed up. “Get every single detail. How she contacted him, what she paid, what she offered, what she told him. What they discussed in the penthouse. You’re tying her up more than him.”
“I’ve got that. I’ve got this.”
“Yeah, you do.”
Instead of hearing those details firsthand, Eve went up to meet Kyung.
