“We’ve both been hurt and alone. How scared were we?”
This time Eve pushed up to pace. Maybe, okay maybe, what ran through her was primarily anger, and a knee-jerk distrust of the man Mavis put her faith in. Beyond that, it blurred so many lines, left too many gaps.
And yet. Those faces on the board. All those faces. And the young girl in a drawer in the morgue.
“How do you know Dorian and Mina Cabot were friends?”
“He told me they made a pact, and they ran together, but got separated. That’s all he said about it because he wants her to tell you.”
It fit, she admitted, with her own deductions.
“If we agree to this, he gets one shot. If she balks, if she lies, deal’s off.”
“That’s fair.”
“When?”
“We can set it up as soon as I tell him you gave me your word. I gotta say something else.”
“Sure, hell, why not?”
“I know what you think of him, and I get it. But he was upset, really shaken. I can figure what this is, at least some of it. And I can tell you he wants whoever’s doing this as much as you do. If this didn’t work, he was going to talk her into making a recording for you, laying it all out. But he wants her to talk to you direct, you know? For her to see you, for you to see her. But either way, he wants to get you what you need to catch these bastards. Enough, he’s putting himself on the block for it.”
“I don’t like you in the middle.”
Smiling now, Mavis rose, walked over, wrapped around Eve. “How about I tell you if I help you help this girl, all these girls, I’ll feel solid on it. Could’ve been me, could’ve been you. Let me help fix it.”
“Tag him back.”
“You have to say it.”
“Christ. Fine. You’ve got my word.”
“Peabody?”
“You’ve got mine.”
“Okay. Most of the crews on the house will knock off soon, so I’m going back, and getting the nanny to come in, take Bellamina to the park. I don’t want her around this.”
“What nanny?”
“We hired August—you can run him if it makes you feel better, but Peabody already did.”
“August Fuller,” Peabody said. “Age fifty-eight, Special Forces, retired. Divorced, one offspring, male, age twenty-six, captain, army intelligence, who is currently dating Mavis’s head of security’s daughter. They’re clean.”
“And this guy wants to be a nanny?”
“He said it was time for some light and bright in his life, and he missed too much of his son’s growing up time. It’s just on-call mostly for now. But he’s more than a sitter, so nanny.”
“Okay, make the contacts.”
“You won’t be sorry. I’ve got a good feeling about it. Give me a few.”
When she walked out to make the contacts, Eve headed straight for coffee. “I can’t say I’ve got a good feeling about it.”
“I think I’m somewhere between the two of you. But like you always say, every detail matters. She’s going to give us a lot of details.”
“Maybe.”
She gulped down coffee as Roarke came in.
“Did you get it set up?”
“For the most part, yes, and Feeney’s filling in the gaps. I thought I’d leave it to them for now and see what I could do about the location search.” He glanced back. “I saw Mavis in what seemed a very intense ’link conversation.”
“Yeah, there’s that happening.” And Eve considered. He’d met Sebastian, and he sure as hell knew every angle of every con. Maybe she didn’t really suspect one here, but …
“We may not need the location search. We’ve got a line on Dorian Gregg.”
“Well now, that’s excellent news, and yet you don’t look pleased about it.”
“I don’t like the catches and contingencies. Sebastian—Mavis’s Sebastian—found her. Or she found him. Unclear at the moment.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah, ah. I think maybe you should come along for this. You’ve got a rhythm with him I don’t. It could be we have to convince him Dorian needs a safe house to get her to go in one.”
“How long has she been with him?”
“Unclear. Damn it. He didn’t tell Mavis enough to give me a jump, and claims he wants the story to come straight from the kid.”
“That would make good sense, actually.”
“Yeah, but—” She broke off as Mavis came back. “Roarke’s going with us on this.”