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“That old excuse.”
He smiled at her. “I thought Feeney might have something interesting for me to do.”
“He’s tapped into Steinburger’s comms, and we’re going to be monitoring Nadine when she boxes Steinburger into an interview. But better, we’ve got Pearlman’s electronics. I’m hoping EDD can track back, using the buried account you found, link the embezzlement to Steinburger.”
“See? Enough fun for all. I’d like finishing out the financials. And you?”
“Waiting for Reo to get me search warrants. Then I’m going to turn the bastard’s residence, vehicle, and office inside out until I find something to put his murdering ass away for several lifetimes.”
“Even more fun. I’d enjoy poking and peering into someone’s private belongings.”
“You’ve got plenty of experience.” She considered. “You could be useful.”
“My mission in life.”
“It would spare Feeney an e-man if I had my own geek along to deal with Steinburger’s electronics. That’s your favorite poke and peek area anyway.”
“You know me so well.”
“Once done, you could dig into the Pearlman angle.”
“He’s bound to have data on the B.B. Joel account on his comp. A man must monitor his money, after all.”
“I guess he must.”
She caught him up on the morning’s work as she led him to the conference room instead of her office. Then just stood with him, studying the board.
“That’s both efficient and disturbing.”
“It needs updating. We found the boat he used.”
As she added to the board, she brought Roarke up to date.
“And still not enough for an arrest,” Roarke commented.
“I can’t prove he used the boat. I can only show he had the means, knew the codes. I can’t prove he bribed Valerie. I can only show the money.”
“And it shows pattern. It begins to add up.”
“Piece by piece.” Eve tucked her thumbs into her pockets. “And Valerie? I can break her. A couple more shots and she’ll crack. Right now she’s protecting herself, thinking it through. What’s best for Valerie. I get a little more on him, push it in her face, bring up accessory to murder, she’ll roll on him like an LC on a john.”
“Do you think he plans to eliminate her?”
“Oh yeah. But not now. Too many questions for him if he gets rid of her now. Down the road she’ll have a terrible accident, or OD. Whatever suits best. He can’t try to implicate her as she’d turn on him like a rabid dog. So I figure she’s safe enough, but Connie’s a good buffer in the event he panics.”
“Who will he implicate? Or allude to?”
“I’m wondering about that. Connie works. The scene at dinner, the private talk after. And she admitted to leaving the theater, so that gives her opportunity. He doesn’t know about the dome, and the fact is that’s not going to stand very steady in court without a whole lot more. But it’s a detail. And he’d figure we could leapfrog to Connie killing Asner because Harris hired him, and he had something on her or on Roundtree. She knows the boat owner.
“She’d do,” Eve concluded. “The same in general fits for Andrea, and we know there was the issue with the godson. He’d know that, too. Marlo and Matthew, very unlikely as he’d have to implicate both of them. That gets tricky and sticky. But Julian would work.”
“I wondered if you’d get to him.”
“Drunk, embarrassed, the issue of the underaged banging. Finds out Asner has the goods, too. Pissed. Kills Harris, cleans up with Asner. The thing is the guy doesn’t have killing in him, not the Asner kind anyway. Not the planned-out, follow-through, beat-the-living-shit-out-of-somebody kind. And he’s just not smart enough to have pulled off two murders in two days.”
“I feel mildly insulted.”
“He’d have screwed up, and he’d bury himself in guilt and fear.” Amused, she gave Roarke a sidelong look. “He ain’t you, Ace.”
