She drank coffee, paced. “Dorian changes some of it, maybe. She gives us the New York location, we put together an op to take them down—without alerting the auction, the other buyers. We can work on that. We can make that happen. We put EDD on it, inside the location, keep up the appearances of the sales. We could hand the data to the feds for an assist there if we need it. We locate the auction site, the people involved there.”
“Thinking ahead.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking ahead. It’s like that thing with the things.” She held up her hand, made a space in the air with her thumb and forefinger.
Roarke decided he knew her mind as well as he knew his own when he understood. “Dominoes.”
“Yeah, yeah, those things. Line them up right, knock one down, and they all fall. We just have to line it up right, knock down the right one.”
In under two days, she thought. But no pressure.
“Then let’s consider finding Dorian this way a stroke of luck.” When she snarled, he smiled. “You worried for her. You dreamed of her and worried. She’s alive and safe. You’ll help keep her that way. Meanwhile.”
He glanced at the time.
“I’ll let Feeney know I’m on a related project with you.”
“You can’t tell him about Dorian. I’m not bringing more people into the gray area mess of this.”
“And I won’t. I can work with them remotely, come back in, or set up the team in the home lab. Whatever seems best. We’ll know more, won’t we, after we talk to the young witness?”
“Let’s walk over there. It’ll help clear my head. We should probably have a vehicle, but I need to walk.”
“We’ll walk, then walk back for it. I’ll just sign off with Feeney.”
“Do that. I need to swing through the bullpen.”
When they started out, using the glides, as she needed physical room as well as head space, she considered how to handle a teenage witness, a likely traumatized one.
“If I push her too hard, she’ll pull back. If I don’t push her enough, she’ll leave things out we need. I’m going by her history with cops and authority,” Eve added.
“You’ll find the way, and there’s Peabody to soften it up if need be.”
“Kids are tough. Especially … I should bring Mira in.”
“And I agree, but take this round first. The girl’s already outnumbered, isn’t she?”
“Plus, I’d have to ask Mira to take this goddamn oath. It just puts her in a squeeze. Mavis is getting the kid out—Bella—and that’s the right call. She’s got some guy cruising toward sixty, used to be Special Forces, doing the nanny thing.”
“August.”
As they walked outside, Eve stared at him. “You know about that?”
“I met him, briefly, a few days ago when I went by the house to check on things. Bella’s very happy with him.”
“Peabody ran him.”
“Of course.”
“You did, too.”
“Of course. I’d have mentioned it, but it slipped my mind, and we’ve been busy the last couple of days.”
“You should be at your fancy office in Midtown.”
He took her hand before she could avoid it. “I’ve been there. All’s well. And I admit the challenge of this particular op has been very satisfying. I detest the reason it’s needed, but the work itself? Fascinating.”
“How many laws have you broken?”
“Not a one—after I took the template of it all in to Feeney. I may have bent a few to get there.”
“I’m bending a few right now,” she muttered.
“Not laws,” he corrected. “Regulations. They may come to the same to you, but you’ll soon bend them right back again.”
“If she refuses to go into a safe house … Not an option,” Eve decided. “We have to convince her. I’ve got a thought on that, now that I’m thinking.”
“I’ll pray to those gods that thought isn’t bringing her home with us.”
“Jesus, no. No way in hell. She’s a victim, sure, and a wit, but she’s also a troublemaking hard case. I’ve got an idea what might work. Maybe.”
She glanced toward the playground as they reached it. Bella, in her pink-and-blue shorts, her sunny curls flying, squealed as a man pushed her on a swing.
He looked fit, Eve observed, with his sturdy boxer’s build and carved biceps flexing. He wore jeans and a T-shirt, and his hair close to the skull. Like his body, his face was carved, sharp angles with deep brown skin tight over them.