Page 135 of Bonded in Death

“I heard you got shot. You don’t look like you got shot.”

“Because I didn’t. I got shot at. People leave off theat. Number three. This is him.”

“It’s not a hundred percent.”

“I get that, Yancy. I get that, but it’s him.”

“We’re still working it. It’s fascinating. We get more, you get more.”

“You get more, I get more, you get another hit of real.”

“Hold you to it. I’m heading back to EDD.”

“It’s end of shift.”

“Fascinating,” he repeated, and smiled his frosty smile. “Figured you’d want hard copies, and now?” He pulled out his ’link. “You’ve got them on your unit.”

“Appreciate it.”

She added them to her report, sent them with her notes to the bullpen.

Then she added them to her board. And tapped the third sketch.

Dark hair, dark eyes, skin smooth under them, brows thick and dark over them. Slim, straight nose, hard-lined mouth. A nice hint of cheekbones, a square jaw.

“There you are. You had some luck today, but I’m going to make sure your luck changes.”

She went out to the bullpen, and wasn’t surprised to see Roarke sitting at a desk working on his PPC.

“Heads-up. I’ve just sent you Detective Yancy’s images. The third’s the winner, in my opinion, but you have them all to show around. Officer Carmichael, I need you to select uniforms coming on shift to begin circulating these images. On the street. I’m sending out a list of high-end men’s shops, barber shops, bootmakers. Uniforms can start on those tonight.

“Any detectives not on another investigation, pick that up in the morning. Add in high-end licensed companion agencies. If he wants sex, he won’t hire it off the street. I want client lists where we can get them. For the barbers we’re looking for regulars who want the hot towel shave. He can’t use appliances or enhancements for that.

“Peabody, we’re going to start refining those lists to areas and sectors. Roarke, unless you’re applying for a job at Central, with me.”

“Dallas.” Peabody trotted after her. “We didn’t get him, but the op wasn’t a failure.”

“How do you figure?”

“Nobody blew up, nobody died, and we have more than we did going into it. He ran. He had to run, like he had to run during the Urbans. He’s going to remember what happened then. And be afraid. We didn’t get him, but we will.”

Eve considered Peabody’s summary accurate enough.

But.

“He’s going to escalate. He has to. And whatever it is he has in mind to do, it won’t be pretty. We’ll get him, but we have to make sure we get him before he does what comes next.”

Roarke joined her on the glides. “You’re a target now.”

“I always was. You knew that. I may have moved up on the list, but I always was.”

Irritated, unable to say what she needed to say on the glides, she shoved her hands in her pockets.

“Knowing is one thing, even a bit abstract, isn’t it?”

His tone, light and conversational, had the hands in her pockets balling into fists.

“The reality of you bleeding on the corner of First and Third is a different matter.”

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