“Here you go, Lieutenant.” Darren handed her a packet. “Printouts and copy. I sure as hell hope you get to him in time.”
“Yeah, thanks. You drive, okay?” she said when they started out. “I have to figure out how to box Reo on this one.”
“I’ve no doubt you will. The name she’s used to register the car? Maybe it’s somehow connected. To the support group perhaps.”
“Maura Fitzgerald isn’t on the list. So far.”
She gestured to where she’d parked the car, saw his smile spread. “What are you smiling at?”
“It pays to be a bit of a film buff, and a longtime fan of Eloise Callahan. That’s how I know she won her first Oscar at the tender age of twenty-two for her portrayal of a young woman named Maura Fitzgerald in the classic Only by Night.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Not a bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if you find the address she used features in one of her grandmother’s vids as well.”
He opened the car door for her. “Would that help with the warrant?”
“It sure as hell won’t hurt.” Elated, she broke her own rule, grabbed him, kissed him hard. “I’m going to bang you like a drum in Italy.”
“I look forward to it—and perhaps a bit of drum practice beforehand.”
“I take her down tonight, we’ll practice.”
While he drove, she did a search on the address.
“Well, for Christ’s sake, you nailed it in one. It’s the address used in Apartment 8B, starring Eloise Callahan. All right, Reo, I’m putting you to work.”
Eve made her pitch; ADA Cher Reo listened, then pushed at her pretty blond hair.
“Dallas, you want me to talk a judge into issuing a search warrant because of a name and address used in old vids, your gut, a women’s group? To search a Hollywood legend’s New York mansion because you think her granddaughter—with no previous record of bad acts—is a crazy serial killer?”
“Not think, know. It’s circumstantial, Reo, but it piles up and it adds up. And I’m telling you there’s a man, whose major crime in her eyes is dumping his wife for a younger woman, hanging naked in the basement of that house. He’ll be tortured, castrated, and bleed to death if you don’t get me in that house. Did you see the crime scene photos?”
“Yeah.” Reo blew out a breath. “Yeah, I saw them.”
“He’ll end up like that, and he’ll be on us.”
“Okay, all right, let me start pushing on it.”
Before Eve could speak again, Reo clicked off.
“She’ll get it,” Eve stated.
“She knows you,” Roarke said. “She knows you don’t bullshit on something like this. She’ll get it, yes.”
“You need to pull up out of range of the gates,” she began. “There.” She gestured. “That’s Baxter and Trueheart, get behind them.”
He maneuvered, hit vertical to cross the avenue, and dropped down behind the police issue.
Eve leaped out, hustled down to the passenger window Trueheart had already lowered.
“No movement, Lieutenant.”
“Peabody’s heading back. McNab’s bringing the EDD van. Reo’s working on a warrant. We’re going to … Gates are opening. That’s the nurse, on foot. Hold on.”
Striding along, chatting on her ’link, Donnalou didn’t spot Eve until they were nearly face-to-face. “Oh, Lieutenant Dallas. I didn’t expect to see you. No, Harry, I’m heading home now. I’ll pick something up. See you soon. Sorry,” she said to Eve as she slid the ’link away. “Just letting my husband know I’m on my way home. Are you going back in?”
“What’s the status in the house?”