Conspiracy in Death Read Free Page A

and DNA sample for IDing?"
    "Already sealed and ready for the lab."
    "Then we'll bag him, take him in."
    Eve nodded. "You curious enough to bump him up to the top of your stack of bodies?"
    "As a matter of fact, I am." He smiled, gestured to his team. "You should wear a hat, Dallas. It's fucking freezing out here."
    She sneered, but she'd have given a month's pay for a hot cup of coffee. Leaving Morris to his work, she turned to meet Bowers and Trueheart.
    Bowers clenched her teeth. She was cold, hungry, and she bitterly resented the chummy consult she'd witnessed between Eve and the chief medical examiner.
    Probably fucking him, Bowers thought. She knew Eve Dallas, knew her type. Damn right she did. A woman like her only moved up the ranks because she spread her legs while she made the climb. The only reason Bowers hadn't moved up herself was because she refused to do it on her back.
    That's the way the game's played, that's how. And her heart began to pound in her chest, the blood to thunder in her head. But she'd get her own, one day.
    Whore, bitch. The words echoed in her brain, nearly trembled off her tongue. But she sucked them in. She was, she reminded herself, still in control.
    The hate Eve read in Bowers's pale eyes was a puzzle. It was much too vicious, she decided, to be the result of a simple and deserved dressing down by a superior officer. It gave her an odd urge to brace for attack, to slide a hand down to her weapon. Instead, she lifted her eyebrows, waited a beat. "Your report. Officer?"
    "Nobody saw anything, nobody knows anything," Bowers snapped. "That's the way it is with these people. They stay in their holes."
    Though Eve had her eyes on Bowers, she caught the slight movement from the rookie. Following instinct, she dug in her pocket and pulled out some loose credits. "Get me some coffee, Officer Bowers."
    Disdain turned so quickly to insulted shock, Eve had to work hard to hold off a grin. "Get you coffee?"
    "That's right. I want coffee." She grabbed Bowers's hand, dumped the credits into it. "So does my aide. You know the neighborhood. Run over to the nearest 24/7 and get me some coffee."
    "Trueheart's lowest rank."
    "Was I talking to Trueheart, Peabody?" Eve said pleasantly.
    "No, Lieutenant. I believe you were addressing Officer Bowers." As Peabody didn't like the woman's looks, either, she smiled. "I take cream and sugar. The lieutenant goes for black. I believe there's a 24/7 one block over. Shouldn't take you long."
    Bowers stood another moment, then turned on her heel and stalked off. Her muttered "Bitch" came clearly on the cold wind.
    "Golly, Peabody, Bowers just called you a bitch."
    "I really think she meant you, sir."
    "Yeah." Eve's grin was fierce. "You're probably right. So, Trueheart, spill it."
    "Sir?" His already pale face whitened even more at being directly addressed.
    "What do you think? What do you know?"
    "I don't -- "
    When he glanced nervously at Bowers's stiff and retreating back, Eve stepped into his line of vision. Her eyes were cool and commanding. "Forget her. You're dealing with me now. I want your report on the canvass."
    "I..." His Adam's apple bobbed. "No one in the immediate area admits to having witnessed any disturbance in the vicinity or any visitors to the victim's crib during the time in question."
    "And?"
    "It's just that -- I was going to tell Bowers," he continued in a rush, "but she cut me off."
    "Tell me," Eve suggested.
    "It's about the Gimp? He had his crib on this side, just down from Snooks, as long as I've had the beat. It's only a couple of months, but -- "
    "You patrol this area yesterday?" Eve interrupted.
    "Yes, sir."
    "And there was a crib by Snooks's?"
    "Yes, sir, like always. Now he's got it on the other side of the street, way at the end of the alley."
    "Did you question him?"
    "No, sir. He's zoned. We couldn't roust him, and Bowers said it wasn't worth the trouble, anyway, because he's a stone drunk."
    Eve studied him thoughtfully. His color was