Page 112 of Passions in Death
“You were right about the program—it’s a killer. I was up to it.”
“You look yourself again,” he noted.
“It pumped me up.”
She programmed coffee, took it with her to shower.
When she came out, he had two domed plates on the table. Galahad sulked on the foot of the bed.
Roarke smiled at her as he removed the domes. “It seemed like a pancake kind of day.”
Pampering her, she thought, when she’d scared them both.
“It should always be a pancake kind of day.”
“You have the memorial later.”
“Yeah, and you’re fortifying me, but not with spinach. They’re not cakes,” she said as she sat beside him. “And don’t they make them on a griddle sort of thing? But they call them pancakes anyway.”
She drowned them in syrup. And after the first bite, didn’t care what the hell they called them. She called them good.
“What did you give the cat for helping pull me back?”
“He enjoyed some smoked tuna for breakfast.”
“And still he’s pissed because he’s not getting pancakes, too.” She took another bite. “It is nice to be married. It’s stupid for me to keep thinking Erin Albright didn’t get the chance to find out if it would’ve been nice for her.”
“It’s not stupid.” Touched, Roarke kissed her fingers. “It’s compassionate, and how does that compassion interfere with your cop brain? Not a bit, darling Eve. Not at all.”
“Maybe not.”
“You have to know your victim. It’s always how it works for you. Know the victim, find the killer. It’s fascinating to me. Endlessly.”
“Maybe. Maybe. They made stupid, rookie mistakes. They shouldn’t have brought the case in—or if that was cover in the event they got spotted, they should’ve taken it with them when they left.
“Luck,” Eve continued, “pure idiot luck they didn’t get spotted, that they got in and out without being seen. And they stage a half-assed robbery. Stupid. But they had to take her ’link. There had to be communications on there. If I had enough, I could get a warrant for the suspects’ e’s. But I don’t.”
“The unregistered could deal with that easily enough,” he reminded her.
Frowning, she drank more coffee. “If I felt there was any chance another life was in danger, I’d be tempted there. But I don’t. The job’s done. Erin was the target. Shauna’s hurt is either a by-product or an added benefit. But there’s nothing to indicate anyone else is in danger.”
“If you change your mind, it’s available.”
She polished off the pancakes, rose.
“I’m going to a memorial. I’m wearing black.”
“Understood.”
“Just wanted to get that out of the way.”
“We’re due for a bit of a break with the heat, but you might want to go with linen.”
She made some noncommittal sound as she went into her closet. She wasn’t always a hundred percent sure which was linen.
Black tee, black jacket, black trousers and boots, belt. Easy as it got, she decided. And if the jacket and trousers weren’t linen, they were lightweight.
She came out for her weapon harness.
