“Will you confirm?”
Eve merely crooked a finger, walked away. When the camera operator fell into step behind Nadine, Eve stopped her with one steely stare.
“Wait for me,” Nadine told her. “She’s just doing her job, Dallas.”
“We’re all just doing our jobs. Turn the recorder off.”
“Recorder?”
“Don’t waste my time. We go off record, or you get nothing.”
Nadine sighed, heavily and strictly for form, then disconnected the recorder worked into her gold lapel pin. “Off record.”
“You don’t go on the air with anything until I tell you.”
“Do I get a one-on-one?”
“Nadine, I don’t have time to negotiate with you. For all I know there’s another woman dead tonight and no one’s found her yet. You go on air with your deductions and there could be another one dead tomorrow.”
“Okay. It stays in holding until you say.”
“McNamara’s connected. I talked to him this afternoon. He wasn’t cooperative. I believe he knew or suspected the identity of the killer. I believe he confronted that individual after our conversation, and as a result ended up a floater.”
“That only confirms my deductions.”
“I’m not finished. I believe the root of these murders goes back to a project partnered by J. Forrester and Allegany Pharmaceuticals nearly twenty-five years ago. Sex, scandals, illegals abuse, payoffs, and coverups. Dig there for your background and you’ll be several steps ahead of the other networks.”
“Was McNamara directly involved in the killings?”
“Years ago he spent a lot of time, energy, and money making sure that facts, actions, and criminal activities that should have been part of the public record were sealed. He refused to cooperate by volunteering information pertinent to the investigation of the murder of two women and the attack on another, instead opting to withhold that information. Did he kill them? No. Is he responsible? That’s a moral call. That’s not my department either.”
Nadine touched her arm as Eve turned away. “I have a contact at the morgue. McNamara was struck several blows on the head and face nearly an hour before he died. One defensive wound, right wrist. While the initial injuries came from a blunt instrument about eight inches wide, the killing blow was delivered by a different weapon. A long, slim metal object such as a crowbar or tire iron that might be found in the tool kit of a car.”
She paused. “I believe in the courtesy and cooperation of shared information.”
“I really hate knowing that phrase is going to follow me around for the next six weeks.”
Eve walked back to the car. “Backseat, McNab.”
“How come I can’t sit in front? I outrank her. And my legs’re longer.”
“She’s my aide, you’re ballast.” She climbed in, and didn’t speak again until McNab had stopped grumbling and arranged himself on the backseat. “We’re going to pay a visit to Lucias Dunwood.”
“How’d you get the address?”
She glanced at McNab in the rearview mirror. “I have my ways of ascertaining data. Peabody, you’ll go in with me. McNab, you’ll stay in the vehicle.”
“But—”
“I go in with a uniform, not a uniform and a detective. And not a detective who looks like he spent his evening brawling in the streets. You’ll stay behind, with your communicator open as mine will be. If we run into any trouble, you call for backup, then, using your judgment, decide whether you wait for that backup or come in and assist. Now I want you to get me another address. Kevin Morano.”
Making the best of things he pulled out his PPC and stretched his length out on the backseat. “Hey, there’s a candy bar taped to the back of the passenger’s seat.”
Even as Peabody swiveled around to try to look, Eve bared her teeth. “First one who touches it gets their fingers ripped off and stuffed up their nose.”
Peabody sprang back into position. “You’re hoarding candy.”
“It’s not a hoard. It’s an emergency supply, which the sneaking candy thief who keeps raiding my office hasn’t found yet. And if he or she does find it, I’ll know why.” She paused significantly. “And you will pay.”