Ceremony In Death

"Objectivity's essential. And, more often than any of us want to admit, impossible. I wasn't completely objective either, which is why I overreacted to your comments. I apologize for that."

Surprise and relief spread through her. Peabody found them both easier to swallow than crow and fear. "Will you keep me on?"

"I've got an investment in you." Leaving it at that, Eve turned back to her 'link.

Behind Eve's back, Peabody closed her eyes tightly, dug for composure. She took a breath, swallowed hard, and found it. "So, does this mean we've made up?"

Eve slanted a look at Peabody's hopeful grin. "Why don't I have any coffee?" She engaged the 'link, let her messages run. The first had barely begun when Peabody set a steaming cup at her elbow.

"Come on, Dallas, come on. Give me a break. I can go on with an update any time, day or night. Get back to me damn it. Just a couple details.''

"Not going to happen, Nadine," Eve murmured and zipped through the next three messages from the reporter, all increasingly desperate.

There was a communication from the ME, with the autopsy report. Eve downloaded and ordered a hard copy print. Finally, a relay from the lab which verified the blood on the robe was Wineburg's.

"I can't see it," Peabody said quietly. "Why can't I see it? It's all there." She lifted her shoulders, let them fall. "It's all right there."

"We charge him and book him." Eve rubbed a finger up and down the center of her forehead. "Murder one on Wineburg. We'll hold off on the conspiracy to murder on Trivane until Mira's done the testing. Have him brought up for interview again, Peabody. We'll see how many more we can pin to him."

"Why Alice?" Peabody asked. "Why Frank?"

"He didn't do them. They're not his."

"Separate cases? You still think Selina's responsible for them?"

"I know she is. But we're a long way from proving it."

– =O=-***-=O=-

She spent the day going over reports, filing her own. By noon, when she faced Chas in interview again, she was ready to try a different tack.

She studied his chosen representative, a young, sad-eyed woman who, by Eve's estimate, could barely be old enough to have passed the bar. She didn't bother to sigh as she recognized the woman from the initiation ceremony.

A lawyer witch, she mused. And wondered if that would be considered a redundancy.

"This is your chosen counsel, Mr. Forte?''

"Yes." His face was a sickly gray, his eyes shades darker. "Leila has agreed to help me."

"Very well. You've been charged with murder, Mr. Forte."

"I've requested a bail hearing," Leila began and passed Eve some paperwork. "It's scheduled for two p.m. today."

"You won't get bail." Eve handed the papers to Peabody. "And it won't delay this very long."

"I didn't even know the man who was killed," Chas began. "I'd never seen him before that night. I was with you."

"Which puts you on the scene at the time, giving you opportunity. Motive?" She leaned back. "You were there, you knew he was about to break, to talk. His blood wasn't the first to spill, was it, Mr. Forte?"

"I don't know anything about it." His voice quavered. He took a breath, laid his hand over Leila's as if for support. Their fingers linked and his voice came stronger. "I've never harmed anyone in my life. It's against everything I believe, everything I've made myself. I've told you. I held nothing back from you, trusting you to understand."

"Do you own a black robe? Natural silk, wrap style, floor length?"

"I own many robes. But I don't care for black."

Eve held a hand out, waited until Peabody put the sealed garment into it. "Then you don't recognize this?"

"It's not mine." He seemed to relax a little. "That doesn't belong to me."

"No? Yet it was found in a chest in the bedroom of the apartment you share with Isis. Carelessly, perhaps quickly hidden under a stack of other robes. There's blood on it, Mr. Forte. Wineburg's blood."

"No." He cringed back. "That's not possible."

"It's a fact. Your representative is free to study the lab report. I wonder if Isis will recognize it. It might… jog her memory."

"She has nothing to do with this. Nothing to do with any of this." Panic had him lurching up. "You can't suspect her of – ''

"Of what?" Eve cocked her head. "Of being an accessory? She lives with you, works with you, she sleeps with you. Even if she's just been protecting you, it puts her in it."

"She can't be drawn into this. She can't be put through this. Leave her alone." He leaned forward, resting trembling hands on the table. "Leave her alone. Promise me that, and I'll tell you whatever you want to hear."

"Chas." Leila stood, put a firm hand on his shoulder. "Sit down. Don't say anything else. My client has nothing further to say at this time, Lieutenant. I need to confer with him and request privacy to do so."

Eve took her measure. The woman no longer looked young and sad-eyed, but cool and determined. "There won't be a deal, counselor, not on this one." She rose, signaled Peabody. "But a full confession might get him a psych facility rather than a maximum lockup. Think about it."

She swore under her breath once she was outside the room. "She'll put a lid on him. He'll do what she tells him because he's too scared not to."

Eve paced a yard down the corridor then back. "I've got to get to Mira. She's bound to be done by now with testing. You contact the PA's office. We need somebody down here. Maybe if we have a prosecutor talk to his rep lawyer to lawyer, we can open it up."

"Isis cracked him." Peabody glanced back toward the door as they headed away. "He really loves her."

"There's all kinds of love, isn't there?"

"I don't get why he had sex with Mirium."

"There's all kinds of sex, too. Some is straight manipulation." She turned into her office to call Mira.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Delusional, sociopathic, an addictive and easily influenced personality. Eve tossed Mira's report aside. She hadn't needed a psychiatrist to tell her Mirium was a lunatic with no conscience. She'd seen that for herself.

Or that she had obsessive leanings toward the occult, a low intelligence quotient, and a capacity for violence.

Mira's recommendation for further testing, and for treatment as a mentally defective might have been sound, but it didn't change the facts.

Mirium had butchered a man in cold blood, and would more than likely do her time in the quiet rooms of a mental health facility.

The truth testing hadn't been much more helpful. It indicated the subject was telling the truth – as the subject saw the truth. There were gaps and hitches and confusion.

Likely due, Eve noted, glancing at the drug scan results, from having a half dozen illegal substances bouncing around in her system.

"Lieutenant?" Peabody stepped in, waited for Eve to look up. "Schultz from the PA's office just tagged me."

"What's the status?"

"The lawyer won't budge. She's pushing for a truth test, but Forte keeps refusing. Schultz thinks she's stalling, says she wants forty-eight to study all the reports and evidence. It'll keep Forte in since bail was denied, but she's insisting. Schultz thinks Forte's ready to roll over, but she's keeping him on a short leash."

"Schultz give you all that?"

"Yeah, well, I think he was looking to make time. Fresh divorce."

"Oh." Eve lifted a brow. "And he likes a woman in uniform."

"I'd say it's more like he likes a human with breasts at this point. Bottom line, he doesn't think we're getting any more tonight. The lawyer exercised her client's right for minimum break. Schultz agreed to talk more in the morning. He's headed out."

"All right. Maybe it's best to give them both time to stew. We'll swing by Isis's place. May be able to shake her."