Eve looked at Roarke.
“Yes.”
“The immunity’s going to hold,” Reo put in, “whether or not you recover the emeralds. Wenn will make sure of it, but my boss is going to be a lot happier if you get them back, take down the rest.”
“Then happiness is coming because that’s just what we’re going todo. And we’re going to hand you Nathan Barrister’s killer. Magdelana wasn’t talking about happiness when she said Joy’s an easy mark. Joy Barrister.”
“Give me a motive.”
“He’d been in her way all her life, taken first place. She wanted him gone.”
Eve moved quickly through the garage.
“She didn’t care about the vault, what was in it. She cared that their father left it all to her brother. All of it. She cared he left his son the bulk of his business, put him in charge. Not her, never her.”
“Take the front, Peabody,” Roarke said as Eve got behind the wheel.
“Killing him doesn’t change any of that,” Reo pointed out.
“The widow isn’t going to take charge of Zip. She’ll lean on her sister-in-law there. And all that stuff her father collected over the years? Her brother’s not getting the credit for turning it in. Hell no. She’ll get it.”
“She must’ve hated him,” Peabody murmured. “To do what she did, how she did it.”
“That’s exactly right.”
Eve bulled her way through traffic as a way to vent her anger. “She hated him because her father favored him. Hated him because he had a solid marriage, a loving family. Hated him for living his happy life in the house where she’d grown up.”
“She was an easy mark,” Roarke agreed. “Magdelana would play on that hate, scrape the masking layers off it. And give her a way to take what she wanted.”
“They met up, right here in New York last December. That’s when it started.”
“If so, we’re talking premeditated on Joy Barrister and conspiracy to commit for Magdelana Percell.”
“That’s what I’m going to drop in your lap. And I meant that thousand years, Reo.”
“I heard you. I’ll update my boss from Central because I want to see how close you are to dropping this into our lap, and adding a whole bunch of emeralds along with it.”
“Peabody, book a conference room. I need about an hour prior, then we’re doing a full briefing. I’d like ten minutes with Mira in my office if she’s free. I’ll work around her schedule.”
She flicked a glance in the rearview, saw that Roarke appeared absorbed in whatever he did on his PPC.
“All your detectives?” Peabody asked as she got to work.
“If someone’s on a hot, they can skip and read the record. Have Uniform Carmichael pick half a dozen officers. Inform the commander. Put Lowenbaum on tap.
“When we get the time, date, location, we’ll have an op in place, which we’ll then refine to suit the venue. Bunch of filthy rich people bidding on these emeralds? They’ll have their own security. The venue will have more security.”
“And Abernathy?”
“Yeah, bring him in. Feeney pulls in who he wants from EDD.”
“You don’t think Joy Barrister will be at the auction.”
“No, Reo, I don’t. I just need to work out how and when we take her so I can drop her in your lap.”
“She’ll have the best legal team billions can buy.”
“She’s going to tell me how and why she killed her brother. I know how to play an easy mark, too. And she’s going to roll right over on the others involved in the theft. I need a warrant for her condo. Search and seizure.”
