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“Warrant coming through. I need a damn drink—and you owe me a whole bunch of drinks.”

“I’ll pay up. You may want to stay on tap. I’m going to be bringing you a serial killer, real soon.”

“I’ll hold off on the drink until I hear from you. Take her down, Dallas.”

“Fucking A. Roarke, get started.” She pivoted to Feeney. “Get me some numbers, locations.”

He jerked a thumb toward the van, where McNab and Callendar started the scan.

“Need a minute, Dallas, to work the angles,” McNab told her. “Callendar, how about you set up a remote?”

“All over it. They move, we’ll know it.”

Eve nudged around Callendar, kept her focus on the van’s main monitor.

“Coordinate heat and e-sensors,” Feeney ordered.

“Getting it, Cap.” McNab’s forest of rings on his earlobes danced as he ticktocked his head, bopped his shoulders to the e-nerd’s internal beat. “Coming up now. And there we are. Two droids on the main floor, at the rear, north. No readings on the second floor. One e-reading on the third floor, one human type.”

“In bed,” Eve said. “She’s down, lying down. That’s the grandmother, with a droid on watch. And that’s Pettigrew, lower level, that’s east, and that’s going to be Brinkman—he’s vertical, arms over his head. She’s got him hanging from the ceiling. That’s center of the area. Is that an e-reading with him?”

“Yeah, one droid down there.”

“Got the remote up—got them on there,” Callendar said.

“Strap it on,” Feeney ordered as he opened a drawer, took out ear-buds. “McNab, you man the van, Callendar can team with Baxter, I’ll take Trueheart. You, Peabody, and Roarke take the front. That suit you?” he asked Eve.

“That’ll work.”

She took the earbuds Feeney handed her, climbed out of the van. “Trueheart, you’re with Feeney—take the west side, find a hole, get inside. Baxter, you and Callendar peel to the east side. Lock down any exits on the east side, continue to the rear. Two droids on the north side. Take them down if Peabody and I haven’t reached that point. I need the elevators shut down.”

“Can do,” Callendar assured her.

“We close off all exits to that basement. We cl

ose her in.”

She passed out earbuds as she worked it out. “Big house. She may have more droids, have them shut down. Could she activate by remote?”

“If they’re programmed for it,” Feeney said.

“Clear the house, floor by floor. Main, second, third. Find any more droids, take them out. Roarke?”

“Another minute or two.”

“Roarke goes in the front with me and Peabody, then heads up to the third level. He’ll take out the droid there, determine the grandmother’s status.”

Impatient, she rolled to her toes, back on her heels. “Once we’re through the gate, we need to shut down any exterior cams. We’ll wait until we go through the door to shut down interior.”

“She’s moving into the center of the basement level, Dallas,” McNab said in her ear.

“Roarke!”

“And there we are,” he said, cool as ice. “Two seconds and …” The gates quietly slid open. “I assumed you didn’t want everyone to climb over.”

“Good thinking.”

“Slick work” was Baxter’s opinion.


Tags: J.D. Robb In Death Mystery