“I could, and would if necessary, but it isn’t. I said ‘appear.’ Just as we’ll make it appear, whenever we win a bid, the money—I assume it would be a down payment, the rest on delivery—has been transferred.”
“But it won’t be?”
“There won’t be any funds to transfer, but the amount will appear in the seller’s—or their agent’s—account. We’d likely have about twelve hours to identify the sellers, their locations.”
“How do you do all this?”
He ate some bacon. “Trade secret.”
“No, seriously.”
“I am serious, Lieutenant. I haven’t had to run this one for a very long time, but, well, riding a bike.”
“You’re going to ride a bike?”
He turned, grabbed her face with both hands, and kissed her. “I simply adore you. ‘Like riding a bike,’ they say, when you haven’t done something in a while, as you don’t forget how to ride a bike.”
“You could forget how to ride a bike. People forget all kinds of stuff.”
“Be assured, I haven’t forgotten how to run this con. And the tech’s improved considerably since last I did, so it’ll only be easier—as long as the NYPSD doesn’t arrest me for it.”
“You’re covered there. Twelve hours, from the transfer to the cutoff?”
“It may be longer, but I wouldn’t want to risk it. Meanwhile, we could work on hacking the other bidders’ accounts. It’s unlikely, you have to understand, we’ll get all.”
“We get the sellers, they’ll have records. Twelve hours, who knows how many girls sold and shipped out? I’m going to have to call in the feds. Teasdale’s good, she’s solid. I want to wait another day—thirty-six hours max. I’ll clear that with Whitney. I want to see how much of this we can put in place, what progress we make on the other angles, but I need to pull in the feds within the next thirty-six.”
She rose to put on her weapon harness. “We narrow potential locations, even by twenty percent, that’s major progress. We track back the abductees I’ve matched, maybe we find some crack, some little mistake.”
She swung on the jacket, began to load her pockets. “If we find Dorian Gregg, it blows wide open. If we don’t by end of today, I’ve got to figure she’s way into the wind, or they found her first.”
She turned back, looked at him.
“I’m going to say I was wrong.”
“It can happen. About what?”
“About pushing you back, or trying to push you out of this one. I worried about you worrying, and I didn’t want you hovering over me.”
He gave her a long, deceptively neutral look. “‘Hovering,’ is it now?”
“That’s how I justified trying to block you out, and I’m saying I was wrong. I’m steady, and I need you to believe that.”
“I do.”
“Part of the reason I’m steady is because of you. And when we find some of these girls—I know we won’t save them all, but every one we do? You’re part of the reason, too. We break the chains, you’re part of that.”
“I need to be. For you, for myself, for them. I need it.”
“I know that, too. If any of these cracks widen or break, I’ll let you know. If we find these bastards, and you want in on the bust, if I have time to notify you, you’re in.”
“Yes.” He rose, went to her. “I would.” He brushed his mouth to hers. “Take care of my cop.”
She wound her arms around him, held for just a moment. Then stepped back, put on the badass shades she hadn’t managed to lose already.
“Take care of the guy in the quarter-zillion-dollar suit. He looks damn good in it.”
She beat the worst of the traffic, and the morning cacophony of ad blimps. She cruised a three-block area around Tiko’s downtown location, circled the blocks, did it again.
She didn’t expect Dorian Gregg to jump out and wave, but she took the shot.
Even if she came back to her old territory, Eve thought as she continued the drive to Central, no reason for her to be up and out so early. Far too early for tourists, so the sidewalks opened for the dog walkers, the domestics heading to work, the street joggers, the street-level LCs finally calling it a night.
If she remained in New York, and Eve held on to that as highest probability, she had a hole, cobbled enough together for a flop, or had a contact they hadn’t unearthed as yet.