Page 108 of Fury In Death

The voice that answered was human, male, and brisk.

“Please submit your warrant.”

“We’re not here to detain Mr. Banner, or to search the premises. We request an interview with Mr. Banner to aid in the investigation. Two of his employees have been brutally murdered. We assume Mr. Banner is concerned about these deaths, and we are concerned for his safety.”

“Your request is denied until such time as you have a warrant authorizing you to enter the property. Please remove your vehicle.”

“We can seek a warrant charging Mr. Banner with obstruction of justice.”

“Your request is denied until such time as you have a warrant. You’re free to contact Mr. Banner’s attorneys. Please remove your vehicle.”

She stood a moment longer, then got back in her car.

“How pissed are you?” Peabody asked.

“Pretty goddamn pissed. And yet.”

She pulled away, drove away.

“And yet?”

“The barricade tells me Banner’s in there. Or they’d simply say Mr. Banner is not in residence. And it tells me he was expecting the visit, as the gate’s asshole guard had his script. It further tells me he’s walled up tight because he knows Redman’s rampaging through his company, and he’s on the list.”

“I’m going to agree down the line. All that money, and he’s walled up in there. No matter how magnificent it all is inside that gate? It’s a kind of prison.”

“He can enjoy the magnificence of that one awhile longer. Then he’s going to find out what a real prison’s like.”

Eve remembered the chips, ate another one.

“Dig,” she told Peabody.

A half hour later, Peabody sat back. “I’m going to need a blocker before much longer. Give me a minute.”

Taking the minute, she sat back, closed her eyes.

“If you don’t find it and the connection exists, we’ll find it when we get into Banner-Wyst. Or EDD will find something when they break that goddamn code.”

“I’m not admitting defeat. Okay, okay, I can’t find any way they might have been related. She never married, he did. She never cohabbed or had offspring. No educational or military connection. She owned a place in the Hautes-Pyrénées. He didn’t. He still has family in Mexico, she didn’t. But.”

She hissed out a breath and picked up the shovel again.

“X marks the spot!” Peabody whooped as Eve drove back into Central’s garage. “I got an image. I got one. Some fancy do in Acapulco. The two of them, together. Look, look!”

Eve parked in her spot, studied the screen Peabody shoved into her face.

She saw Cruz, in a tux, his arm around the waist of the woman—dark hair, bold blue eyes, curvy in a red gown.

Both smiled for the camera.

“Bang,” Eve said. “When?”

“April 2045. They knew each other, Dallas. Socialized glitzy.” Peabody pumped a fist, added a quick car seat dance. “I am not defeated.”

“No, you’re not. Good work. Damn good. They slept together.”

Peabody rubbed at her tired eyes. “You can tell that from a photo?”

“He was divorced right around this time, and I’m betting they had it going before that. Just sex would be my bet. Have some fun. Redman figured it out, figured out the connection, and decided—true or not, but I bet true—she’s the one who suggested having Cruz take care of things.”