When he stepped out with her, she started toward EDD. “You had a fizzy.”
“They’re oddly energizing.”
She turned into the circus, then immediately into Feeney’s office, and shut the door.
“I understand what you’re feeling.”
“Do you?”
“I understand what I’d be feeling if I heard a conversation involving plans to have you murdered, so yeah.”
“She planted the seed. I expected she’d watered it, but not that she’d planted it. And not just to protect herself. There are other ways to throw a spanner in the works, and in the end she wanted us—or me—to know she’d done all this. She simply decided it was easier to have you killed, to have Joy Barrister pay for it. Gives her another one over on a wealthy woman and removes you all at once.”
He lifted his hands, let them fall. “She didn’t have this when I was with her. I know there are things about her I didn’t see or want to. But not this, Eve. I wouldn’t have missed or ignored this.”
“People evolve or devolve. Stuff in them can, you know, calcify. She’s focused on the emeralds and turning them in a big, splashy, billion-dollarway. Taking a slap at you? Big personal bonus. She planted that seed as much to get Barrister off her back and add a new lever as to take me out. Right now? She’s not thinking about me. You, you’re still in there, but she’s not thinking about me.”
“She will be.”
“Oh, she will be. You good?”
“I’ll be better when it’s done.”
“We’ll get it done. I’ve got to get back. Don’t OD on the fizzies.”
“You can trust me there. Eve.” He took both her hands, brought them to his lips. “I’m with you on this, and in your way. But I need something. I need, when it’s done, to speak with her. I need to see her in a cage and speak with her. Only speak with her. Privately.”
“All right. Let’s go make it all happen.” Because she felt he needed it, she leaned in, kissed him. “Go finish your fizzy and play with the geeks.”
She went down, and when she turned into the bullpen, Jenkinson hailed her.
“Anybody gets dead the rest of the day, Whitney’s got it covered.”
“Okay. If and when Abernathy’s team gets here, I want them in the conference room. I’ll brief them. Anyone here needs a refresh, they can join in.”
“We got it, boss.”
Knowing the truth of that, she went into her office. Energizing or not, she went with coffee over a fizzy, then went over every step and stage, every action—expected or unexpected—every reaction, planned or unplanned.
Shut down the shuttle strip. Eyes and ears on the estate, circumvent security—alarms, cams, locks. Box them in. No way out. Deal with the guards, armed security.
Round them up, take them out.
The emeralds? Interpol’s deal.
She studied the blueprints on her wall screen, hunting for any area she hadn’t covered.
Then she contacted Nadine.
“You need to be alone so no one can hear me.”
“One second. Hey, Shelley, give me a few minutes. Shut the door, would you? Thanks. What’s going down?”
“I’m telling you because I know you’ll hold it, hot as it is, until I say otherwise.”
“Yes, you can know that.”
“The NYPSD and Interpol, in a joint operation, will raid Cochran Estates on Long Island tonight, where the underground auction of the Royal Suite is taking place.”
