She was trembling, and she knew it. What the hell was wrong with her? She was trembling and tired and riding too close to panic. “I think you have no right poking into my job.”
“Only when it suits you? Only when I come in handy. Then it’s all right for me to poke in. Invitation only.”
“Okay, fine! Fine, fine!” She threw up her hands, furious because he was right, and that made her wrong. “Do you know what you’ve done? Do you know what you’ve risked?”
“Can you imagine what I wouldn’t risk for you? You can’t, because there’s nothing. There’s bloody nothing.” He took her by the shoulders, fingers hard and tense.
It was always a weird sort of fascination to see him lose control, to hear his voice take on that jagged edge. But she wasn’t in the mood to be fascinated. “I was handling it, and I would’ve finished it.”
“Well, now we’re handling it. And we’ll finish it. When you swallow that pride, Eve, take care you don’t choke on it.” Leaving it at that, he strode off the elevator when the doors opened and left her fuming inside.
It was Vernon’s bad luck that she was ready to chew glass. He leaped to his feet when she walked into Interview.
“You had me picked up. You had me picked up and dragged in here like a criminal.”
“That’s right, Vernon.” She shoved him, hard, and knocked him into the chair.
“I want a goddamn lawyer.”
This time she grabbed him one-handed by the collar and shoved him against the wall while Feeney, McNab, and Peabody stood aside and watched with varying degrees of interest.
“I’ll get you a goddamn lawyer. You’re going to need one. But you know what, Vernon, we’re not on record yet. You notice that? And you notice how my pals here aren’t making any move to stop me from pounding your ugly face in. I’m just going to kick you around the room a few times before we call for that goddamn lawyer.”
He tried to shove her, found her elbow hard in his gut. “Get your hands off me.”
He took a swing at her that went wide as she sidestepped. Then he was doubled over, retching from the agony of her knee slamming into his crotch.
“I’ve got three witnesses here that’re going to testify that you assaulted me. That’s going to put you in lockup, where all the big, bad guys will be drawing straws to see who gets to be your date for Friday night. I bet you know what those big, bad guys do to cops in lockup, don’t you, Vernon? They can do a lot of it in the couple of hours it’s going to take me, given my physical distress as a result of said assault, to contact your representative.”
Every breath he drew cut into his throat like glass.
“Now, I came in here in the mood to dance with you, but I’m losing the urge. You don’t want to talk to me and my pals, we’ll just book you on the assault, then finish up by slamming you with corruption, misuse of authority, accepting bribes, collusion with suspected members of organized crime, and top it all off with conspiracy to murder.”
“That’s bullshit.” He had most of his breath back, though his face was still white and sheened with sweat.
“I don’t think so. Ricker’s not going to think so, either, when it leaks you’re in here squealing like a pig. And it will leak, because I’ve got a warrant out on Canarde.”
Not yet, she didn’t, but she would.
“If we let you out, you’re going to wish you were in a cage playing house with some guy named Bruno.”
“I came in to make a deal.”
“Yeah, but then you didn’t show up on time.”
“I got sidetracked.”
“And I don’t like your attitude. Fact is, Vernon, I don’t need you anymore. I’ll have the case wrapped by end of day, and I’m going to take Ricker down, just for my own amusement. You’re what they call superfluous.”
“You’re bluffing. You think I don’t know how this works? I’m a fucking cop.”
“You’re a fucking disgrace, and don’t you call yourself a cop again in my presence, or I will kick your ass.”
If she had Canarde, he thought, if she was that close to Ricker, he was done. And he’d better save himself, quick and fast. “You want to make your case, you’re going to want what I know. I know plenty. You haven’t scraped the surface at the One twenty-eight.”
“I’ve scraped it, and I’m busy mucking out the slime on the bottom. That’s where I found you.”
“I can give you more.” Desperation had him trying out a shaky smile. “I can give you a promotion. Names, Dallas, not just in the One twenty-eight. Names in the mayor’s office, in the media, and right on through to East Washington. I want immunity, a new ID, and the seed money to relocate.”