“Who called it in?”
“Sister. Lives down on St. Thomas. Guess you’ve been to the islands plenty now,” he added. “Blue water, white sand, mostly naked women. Wouldn’t mind trading this heat for some of that.”
He gave a wistful sigh, then crouched down beside Eve, careful to keep his cuffs out of the blood. “So anyway, bro here was supposed to fly down today. Big family party or some shit. Doesn’t show, she gets worried, gives him a call. He answered—screaming at her, cursing, nose bleeding like a tap. She figured he was hurt, being attacked, and called it in.”
“I’m going to need to talk to her, get a formal statement.” With her hands braced on her thighs, Eve looked over at Baxter. “I have to take this one away from you.”
“Yeah.” He huffed out a breath, pushed to his feet. “Figured. Everybody knows what went down in EDD today.” He looked around, frowned at the computer screen. “What the hell’s going on?”
“I’m putting together a team to find out.” She straightened. “You want in on that?”
He looked back at her. “I want in.”
“Then you’re in. I need copies of the security discs, Fitzhugh’s file, sister’s name and location. We talk to neighbors, family, known associates. See if we can determine when Fitzhugh got . . . infected.” She scratched her head. “We need to review his personal vid collection.”
“Oh yeah, that’s my idea of a good time. Watching some creep pork little boys.”
“Maybe one of those little boys has been playing with computer programs. This unit needs to be transported to my home office.”
“We working this out of your digs?” He brightened immediately. “Solid.”
“Nobody messes with it. No search, no scan. It gets shut down and stays shut down until I say otherwise. Same goes for any of the data centers in this place.” She looked around. “We’re going through this place top to bottom. See if he put anything on hard copy. He gets bagged, sent to Morris, with a red flag.”
“Got it. Hey, where’s your shadow?”
“My shadow?”
“The inestimable Peabody. She’s looking pretty good these days.”
“A knothole in an oak tree looks good to you, Baxter.”
“Only after a very long, very hard day. How come you didn’t bring her in on this?”
“She’s in, she’s just . . . She’s with McNab.”
His humor faded. “How’s he doing?”
“He’s okay. Awake, coherent, good attitude. He’s . . .” She shoved her hands in her pockets. “He’s having a little trouble with his right side.”
“What do you mean, trouble?” But he knew. Every cop knew. “Ah, shit, Dallas. Goddamn it. Temporary, right? It’s just temporary.”
“Yeah, they’re saying that.”
They stood for a moment, in silence. “Let’s get to work here,” she ordered.
Chapter 7
She found Roarke in his office when she got home. Since it was there, she picked up the coffee at his elbow and drank it straight down like water.
“Dead pedophile. Slit his own throat. Went nuts first, broke up his own fancy apartment. Morris is going to find severe intercranial pressure. The Purity message was on his machine.”
“Just the one unit?”
“I don’t know yet. I’m having all of them sent here. I’ve got to find out how those units were compromised. How that causes a human brain to essentially blow up.”
“You don’t say you have to find out why.”
“Purity,” she said and sat. “Clean out the dirt and make absolute purity. The world would be better off without them,” she said aloud, thinking of Baxter’s comment.