we assume destroyed all that pertained to him. In this case, Asner isn’t the end of it. If Valerie was paid or compensated to give him an alibi, she’s now a new threat. He’ll need to eliminate her, and I don’t believe he’ll wait. Not years, not months. Weeks perhaps. He’ll need to finish it to feel fully in control again.”
She looked at Eve. “He’s more dangerous now, without that feeling of control. He is organized, so he’ll plan. He’s self-serving and can justify all his actions as necessary. And he is ruthless. Whatever gets in the way of his comfort, his success, his ambition must be eliminated. He’s killed for his own needs for forty years, and has become a powerful, respected, famous, wealthy man. On the one hand, killing is the same for him as it is for a paid assassin.”
“Business,” Eve said.
“Yes. And on the other, it’s intensely, intimately personal. Friends, lovers, former wives. You may find he had a sexual relationship at one time with K.T. Harris. Only twice were his kills not part of his intimate circle.”
“And those he killed with extreme violence.”
“He could let that violent nature out with them. I believe when you interview his ex-wives and any former or current lovers they’ll tell you—if they’re honest—he preferred rough sex, likely with rape role-playing. The violence is there, always. Ending lives gives him a sense of control, and at the same time, the need to end them when threatened controls him.”
“He’s going to be real unhappy when we take away his control and put him in a concrete cage. Get me a warrant,” Eve told Reo. “Whatever you can get.”
After a quick knock, Kyung stepped in. “Do you need me to wait?”
“No.” Eve angled her head. “It’s good timing. If everyone could stay a few minutes more. I’ve got a way I think we can get something on that EDD trace sooner rather than later.”
She jerked a thumb at the box on the conference table. “Have a doughnut,” she invited Kyung.
19
“You need to set up another media conference,” Eve said to Kyung.
“I’m afraid so.” After a brief perusal, he selected a conservative glazed, broke it tidily in half. “It’s necessary.”
“Okay, but it has to wait until APA Reo finesses a warrant, and EDD is set on a tap and trace.”
“Well.” Kyung spread his hands in surprise. “You’re very agreeable.”
“I hope to say the same about you. We’re going to announce there’s been a break in the case, and I feel an arrest is imminent.”
“Excellent news.” Kyung continued to study her face. “If it’s true.”
“The break part’s true. In my opinion. The arrest depends on how the killer reacts to the true part.” Eve turned toward Whitney. “With your permission, of course, Commander.”
“I follow you,” Whitney told her. “You expect the suspect to make some sort of contact after this announcement. That he’ll be compelled, through panic or curiosity.”
“He’ll want to know what we’ve got, and if any of it casts a shadow on him. His alibi for Asner is another person, a person and an alibi I believe he bought. Price could go up. His alibi may contact him to renegotiate terms.”
“They could deal with that face-to-face.” Feeney lifted his shoulders. “May not use a ’link or comp to work it out.”
“True. But I’ve got someone else who’ll engage the suspect face-to-face. Nadine’s good at getting people to say things they don’t expect or intend to say. Every and any little slip he makes adds weight. I want to bring her in, Commander. Not only does she have a vested interest, but I know she won’t go public with any information I give her until I give her the go. Especially when I agree—reluctantly and with some annoyance—to giving her an exclusive on
“He manipulates,” Mira commented. “No one can live as he’s lived, do what he’s done for four decades and not have a mastery of manipulation. Nadine also manipulates expertly. And so,” she said to Eve, “do you. You know he’ll lie to her.”
“Yeah. But about who? Because at a point where he believes we’re nearly ready to make an arrest, he has to throw some dirt on someone else. There’s a limited number of suspects. He’s going to have to toss one of his own into the fire to feel safe. He’ll have to lie, or shave the truth into another shape. The more he does that, the better chance he’ll slip up.”
“He may kill one of his own,” Mira pointed out. “And, as he did with his partner, stage it as a self-termination, one executed out of guilt.”
“Yeah, so we’ll have to take steps there. I’m working it out.”
“Excuse me.” Kyung held up a hand. “I’m not a detective, but am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?”
Eve glanced at the board when he gestured. “That information stays in this room.”
“Understood. Of course. But … have you actually connected nine murders to Joel Steinburger? One of the most respected, revered, successful, and celebrated producers in the industry?”
“Just because he makes a good vid doesn’t mean he’s not a stone killer. And I’m about to end his streak and his celebrated status.”
“This is going to be huge. The media will explode over this, and the NYPSD—and you, Lieutenant, will be at ground zero.”
“You sound happy about that.”
He only smiled, took a neat bite of his doughnut. “We all do what we do.”
“You got that right.”
Eve went straight to her office from the conference room to contact Nadine. “Boat lady,” she said to Peabody.
“Lives in Tribeca with her cohab.”
“Contact her. I want her to meet us at the boat.”
“At the boat?”
“Asap, Peabody. Nadine,” she said the minute the reporter came on. “We have to talk.”
“I have a window this afternoon, about—”
“Now.”
“Dallas, I’m right in the middle of—”
“Believe me, whatever you’re in the middle of isn’t as juicy.”
“Really? What’s juicier than finalizing arrangements for an exclusive with Isaac McQueen as he awaits transport to his new facilities—an off-planet, maximum-security penitentiary? To tie in with interviews with the Jones twins, with the young girl McQueen and his accomplice snatched from the Dallas mall,
“Good for you. Want something else mega? The kind of mega that could mean another book, and sure as it’s sweaty in hell, would have Hollywood beating down your door.”
“When and where?”
“The Land Edge Marina, Battery Park. Hold on.” She glanced over as Peabody came back, held up a finger, mouthed:
She clicked off.
“It is mega,” Peabody said. “I don’t mean books and vids. I mean cop mega. When I became a cop it wasn’t for cases like this. I mean, it’s hard to even imagine anybody could do what he’s done, for forty years. It makes me feel …”
“Depressed,” Eve finished. “Like he should’ve been stopped long before this. If one cop had looked right instead of left, up instead of down, had asked one more question, maybe he would have been stopped.”
“Yeah. I know some people never get caught, or they slip through because you just can’t nail the case shut. But this is … It’s been decades, Dallas. And I look at the board, and I see that college guy, a guy younger than me.
