Dawson slogged through paperwork. He wanted to get it done, get out, get home. He’d all but sworn to his wife in blood he wouldn’t miss her sister’s bash tonight.
But people just kept killing each other, regardless of party plans. And he was two field techs short. Still, with some luck, maybe nobody else would get murdered on his shift. Or at least, nobody would find the DB until tomorrow – after the hangover he was bound to have had passed.
“Yo! Got the vic’s shirt processed and sent up to Harvo.”
Dawson grunted at Mickey, one of the rookie techs. He didn’t need chapter and verse. He needed to finish the paperwork.
“How come you got this drawing of Lottie hanging out here?”
Irritated, Dawson barely glanced up. “The what?”
“The picture of Lottie. Different ’do, but it looks like her. Sort of.”
“Lottie? Lottie Roebuck?”
“Well, yeah. Or her cousin maybe.”
Something ugly sank into his gut as Dawson shoved away from his desk, stepped out to where he’d stuck up the sketch. “It doesn’t look like… Get my microgoggles,” he snapped, and leaned in, squinted, leaned out, squinted.
“Goddamn eyes. Who has time to…” He snatched the goggles, pulled them on.
His vision blurred so he reached up, began to adjust them until he got clarity.
Lottie? It didn’t exactly look like her unless… Change the hair, he thought, rounder at the chin. Put her in a sweeper’s suit.
“Oh fuck me.” He grabbed for his pocket ’link, and it beeped in his hand. He started to hit ignore, saw the readout.
“Dallas. Listen. It’s Lottie, Lottie Roebuck, one of my field techs. This is her.”
“I know. Where is she?”
“She took a personal day. First time in… I don’t know. She’s not here. Jesus, Dallas, she’s one of mine. She’s one of my people.”
“Check your log-in, make sure she’s not there. Contact Berenski, DeWinter. All department heads. Lock it down, Dawson, until you hear different.”
In her office, Eve broke transmission, grabbed her coat.
“We’ve got her,” she said to Peabody as she rushed out.
“What?”
“Lottie Roebuck. She’s a sweeper. She worked the scenes, Bastwick, Ledo, Hastings. Baxter, Trueheart, you’re with me. Grab vests. Uniform Carmichael, Hannigan, same goes. Peabody, tag McNab. I want eyes and ears on her building. We don’t go in until we’re sure she’s there. Then we take her, quick and quiet.”
She turned, ready with more orders. The woman, a strange, blurred mirror image of herself, stepped in.
Eve drew her weapon. “Stop right there, hands up,” she snapped, as every cop in the room surged up, weapons drawn.
“I wouldn’t.” With her left hand, Lottie opened her coat, revealed the suicide vest. “This is a dead man’s switch in my right hand. If you stun me, I release it and we all go. We all go now.”
“Nobody has to die here.”
Solemnly, Lottie nodded. “I need all of you to put down your weapons, and I need you to secure the doors to this division. All of them. If you don’t, I’ll release the switch. I’d like some privacy, I have things to say. But if not, I’ll just let it go.”
“We should talk,” Eve agreed. “Let’s get everybody out of here so we can talk in private.”
A flash of anger sparked in her eyes. “Do you think I’m stupid? Nobody leaves. Secure the doors. Now. Right now, or we all go.”
“Everybody, lower your weapons. Secure the hallway doors, Jenkinson.”
They were never closed, Eve thought, so that alone would set off an alert. But if the crazy woman in the room released the switch, it would, at least, contain the explosion. Nobody outside Homicide had to die.
Slowly, Eve slid her own weapon back in its harness. “Do you want to talk here?”
“I want everybody’s ’links and comms out, on the floor. Weapons, ’links, comms, on the floor. Nobody uses any communication.”
“No problem.” Eve turned. She wanted her people to see her face, to make sure no one tried to be a hero.
“’Links and comms,” she ordered, noted Reineke wasn’t at his desk, or in the room. She caught Jenkinson’s eye, understood when he glanced briefly at the break room. “Nobody in this room will use any sort of communication device.” She held up her hands when her pocket ’link signaled. “How do you want me to handle that? You’re in charge here.”
“Who is it? I want to know who it is.”
Eve look at the ’link. “It’s Roarke. I was supposed to contact him about ten minutes ago. I forgot.”
“Answer it. Keep it short. Tell him you’re busy. Try to signal him, I let it go.”
Eve answered. “Hey, baby. Sorry I forgot to tag you – you must’ve been worried. But sweetheart, I’ve been busy. Still am.”
His eyes, blue and vivid, held hers. She could see him rethink whatever he’d been about to say. “Understood. It wouldn’t be the first time. As it happens, I’m heading down your way. I thought I’d stop in, see if I can be of any help.”
“Appreciate the thought, but I’m really swamped here. I’d like to stick with it, get what I can done. You know how much I’m looking forward to the ball drop tonight.”
“As am I. I’ll let you get back to it. Take care of my cop.”
“That’s the plan. Later, honey.”
She clicked off, set her ’link on the floor. “Okay?”
“I want everybody on the floor! Facedown. Except you,” she said to Eve. “On the floor, everybody else.”
“On the floor, facedown. You’re in charge here.”
“I know how that works! You can’t play me like some civilian.”
“I’m just stating the facts. Why would I play you? You’re one of us.”
“You don’t even know who I am.”
“But I do. Lottie Roebuck, crime scene unit. Field tech. We’ve worked countless cases together.”
Surprise, maybe happiness, glimmered for an instant, then died again. “You never even talked to me. All I wanted was a conversation.”
“We’re talking now. Why don’t we go in my office? It’s got a door, it’s got a lock. Just you and me, Lottie.”
“You care more about them than about me.”
She thought about her cops. Smart cops. If one of them saw a move, they’d take it. She didn’t want to risk it.
“I’m all about you, Lottie. I’ve never had a friend like you. I’m just getting used to it. I needed time to get used to it.”
“I did what you wanted. Bastwick, Ledo. It’s what you wanted, but you didn’t appreciate it. You said I was a coward. Does this look like I’m a coward?”
“Come on, Lottie, you said you knew how it worked. I’ve got to say things like that. I didn’t want them to take me off the case, right? Now we’ve got to figure out a way to get you out of here, get you somewhere safe.”
“It’s too late for that.”
“It doesn’t have to be. We can figure it out together. I mean, Jesus, look at us. Who’s smarter than us?”
“I’m the smart one.”
“That’s right.”
“Not pretty enough, not sweet enough, not happy enough. Just not enough, ever, for anybody. I’m enough now. Why wasn’t it enough for you?”
Eve wished to God she had Mira in her ear, telling her what to say, how to play it. But she only had herself.
“You didn’t give me a chance. I didn’t know about you, Lottie. I knew you were the best at the work, sure. Really smart. I depended on you, your work, your smarts. But I didn’t know you felt the way you did. I didn’t know you wanted to be my friend the way I wanted to be yours.”
“You’re lying.”
“What’s the point in lying? We’re past all that. You need to tell me what you want, let me try to get it for you, like you got me what I wanted.”
“I thought I could wait until midnight. It’s symbolic. But it’s too long. I need to show you who we are. Not just how we look now. That’s symbolic, too. I thought, if I did what you wanted, what you needed, you’d see, you’d know. But you didn’t. You treated me like I was just one of the faces on the board, one of the names in the murder book.”
“I had to find you.” Six feet, Eve gauged. Just six feet between her and the switch. “We couldn’t talk until I found you.”
“It felt so good to help you. It made me happy, really happy. But that was a lie, too. There’s only one way to make it right. When we die together we’ll finally be partners, be family. Be a unit.”
“Like your mother and your sister.”
Lottie’s face went rigid. “Don’t talk about them! They’re dead.”
“It’s hard, losing family.”
“They never cared about me. I was nothing. They only cared about each other. They died together so they’ll always be together. I’ll never be. But with you I could be somebody. I could be part of something important. It’ll be fast. I don’t want to hurt you. Even though you hurt me.”
“I need to know some things first. That’s fair.” Sweat ran down Eve’s back. She wasn’t going to talk this one down, she could see that. Stall. Just stall a little longer. “Justice and respect, Lottie. We owe each other that.”