Page 109 of Fury In Death

“So he killed her first.”

“They worked together—whatever this restricted project was. Maybe he didn’t like her, but he’d have respected her brain. There had to be a level of trust. And she’s sleeping with the guy who killed his family.”

Eve nodded as she got out of the car. “Big bang. Probably not enough for a warrant, but it’s a big bang.”

“Maybe I can find more.”

“Don’t put your shovel away. You keep digging.”

“And I’ve got fertile ground now.”

“Do what you do with that. I’m going to try to push Reo into that warrant, and I need to get the case files on Delgato’s death.”

“Take you a while on the second.”

“I’ll get them,” Eve said, with an expression as feral as Nadine’s had been. “There’s no wasting the big bang.”

Chapter Sixteen

Just before Eve turned into the bullpen, she heard the mix of voices, Baxter’s quick laugh, and inexplicably, a child’s bubbling giggle.

Peabody said, “Oh, gosh!”

A dark-haired little girl, somewhere in the neighborhood of four, wearing pink pants, pink jacket, a white shirt featuring a smiling yellow sun, sat on Jenkinson’s lap. She played with his atomic tie as they held what appeared to be an intense conversation.

Baxter leaned back against his desk as he held an obviously more jovial one with the little straw-haired boy riding a woman’s hip.

The woman wore dark brown baggies, well-worn boots. A thick brown braid fell down the back of her denim jacket. A man, built like a god in jeans with frayed cuffs and a gray hooded sweatshirt, stood beside the woman, one hand on her shoulder.

The golden brown god with a mass of messy straw-colored hair turned, shot a smile at Peabody that Eve calculated could charge every vehicle in Manhattan in three seconds flat.

“Hiya, Dee.”

“Ben, jeez. Cassie,” she said as the woman turned.

And when she did, Eve had no problem concluding: sister.

The boy all but popped off his mother’s hip to fly into Peabody’s arms.

“Dee! Dee, Dee, Dee!” As he squealed, he plastered her face with kisses.

The little girl deserted Jenkinson to rush over and wrap around Peabody’s leg.

“We got pizza,” the girl announced. “It was yummy! Come to see your work. We played in the park and walked and walked and looked and looked.”

“Wow, that’s a lot.”

Meanwhile, the boy turned his head to stare at Eve as if she might be something interesting enough to lick or poke.

“You must be Dallas.” The woman shot out a hand to grip Eve’s. A strong, hard-palmed hand. “I’m Dee’s sister, Cassie. This is my husband, Ben.”

“Meetcha,” Ben said, and added that smile.

“These are our wild ones, Fawn and Simon. We made the mistake of pointing out the building, telling them that’s where Dee works.”

“So we came in,” Ben continued, “to avoid the nuclear fallout. Detective Sergeant Jenkinson got us visitor’s passes, cleared us right on up.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Eve saw Jenkinson lift his shoulders, let them fall.