“Which is my point.”
“And if you’re willing to split your time, cut the NYPSD out of the loop to pursue that line, you’ve got a reason. I don’t give a flying fuck if there’s a half a percent probability it ties into my investigation, the NYPSD should be informed, and you know it. Murder trumps all, Abernathy. You’re looking for teams—and a team is behind this current case.”
“You appear to be well-informed.”
“Not by you.”
He sipped his tea, then set it down. “There’s more than a half a percent probability the NYPSD may have a conflict with the goals of the task force.”
“Is that so? How do you figure?”
“Seriously, Lieutenant, do you want me to spell it out?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“You’re perfectly aware Roarke has been suspected in any number of high-level thefts in the past, which makes him a suspect in the original thefts that constituted items recovered from the vault, and the items stolen from it.”
Watching him, she sipped her coffee, eased a hip down on her desk. “You’re thinking he maybe broke into the Tate and took the emeralds? Wasn’t that back in like ’42 or thereabouts? He’d have been like eighteen, nineteen?”
She shook her head on a laugh, drank more coffee. “If a teenager managed that, I hope they beefed up their security after.”
“A team,” Abernathy said stiffly. “The original theft, as well as many others, would have been the work of a team. It’s been proposed Roarke may have been a kind of apprentice.”
“You’re reaching, and you know it. And you’re not stupid enough to think Roarke broke into Barrister House, killed Nathan Barrister, in order to snatch back what he snatched before he could buy a legal drink.”
“No, I do not, but—”
“Add the owners of the recovered property don’t give a good damn who stole them way back whenever. They want their property returned. That includes the Royal Suite, and pushing on who stole a painting of rocks and trees or a naked woman statue twenty or thirty years ago isn’t going to get them back.”
“Crimes were committed.”
“Yeah, they were, and good luck digging back in the freezer to thaw those out. But my priority is Nathan Barrister. I brought you and Interpol in, and quickly, because my victim’s father had a vault full of items of considerable worth stolen, at various times, from around the fricking world. The NYPSD has cooperated and coordinated with you, down the line.”
She pushed off the desk. “You held back. I get the emeralds are your priority, and I’ve got no problem with that. But you held back because you want the shine of bagging the original thieves, maybe a nice promotion.”
“And you don’t want the shine or the promotion? Captain Dallas?”
“I turned down the bars because I belong right where I am. But that’sme. I don’t blame you for wanting otherwise. When we get the emeralds, and we goddamn will because they’re linked to my victim, you take all the shine you want. You won’t trace them or anything else in that vault back to Roarke. Because even if, in your alternate universe, he helped himself to any of it, he’s too fucking smart to have left a trace.
“Push there, you’ll get nowhere. Push there to the detriment of my investigation? You’ll stand on the wrong side, Abernathy. And you don’t want me as an enemy.”
“We have different approaches, but I assume we both work diligently to apprehend criminals and pursue justice.”
“There you go. Let’s do those things. The NYPSD will continue to cooperate fully with Interpol on these matters. They expect the same cooperation from you and your side of it.”
He inclined his head. “Understood.”
“Then we’re clear. Now I’ve got to go talk to a lawyer.”
He started to step out, then stopped. He nodded to her board. “The task force is looking at a handful of females. You might do a run of a Jenna Lynn Delaney from, ah… Savannah, Georgia, whereabouts unknown.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that.”
When he left, she took her coffee to stand at her window for a few minutes, just to settle herself.
He’d look, she decided. He couldn’t help himself. But he’d look in the wrong direction assuming Roarke had been part of a team.
Still, the sooner she found the goddamn emeralds, the sooner Abernathy and the rest would move on.
