Page 133 of Obsession in Death

“She can sleep through this?”

“Gave her a soother, and earplugs.” He grinned. “Glad I was home when this went down, but like I said, nobody was getting in. Even a master would set off an alarm. I rigged up a system,” he told Roarke. “Full-house program—motion, weight shift, light sensitive, with the master alert. Layered it over your basic shutdown and scream.”

“Did you now?”

“A prototype—experimental yet. I’ve been working on it with your R&D on winter break. Deal’s a deal.”

“It is indeed.”

Roarke paid for Jamie’s college, in exchange for the work as he considered the boy a blooming genius in electronics.

“Glitch is—I hadn’t thought of it,” he continued, “using a master that doesn’t work. I’m going to fiddle with that some. If it had worked, the secondary locks would’ve engaged, and the alarm would’ve sounded. As it was, you took care of that.”

“You’ve got cams?” Eve asked.

“Oh, damn straight.” He pulled a micro disc, sealed, out of his pocket. “Got your copy here. I viewed the feed. Can’t see much of her face, but maybe you can enhance that. She’s favoring her right arm, and you’ll see her left’s shaking some when she tries the master. Shoves it in twice, then actually thumps her fist on the door a couple times. That’s what alerted me—just before you tagged Mom. I was up working—sort of—and the contact with the door set off an alert. No big, I figured. I got some friends might come by anytime. I switched my screen to the cam—nobody there. Hey, you want a drink or something? Mom stocked up on everything for the holidays. We’re flush.”

She could see that from the coffee table spread. “No, thanks.”

“Well, anyway, I was going to go down, check the system, and that’s when you tagged my mom. I could hear her, tell she was freaked over something. I got the gist, hit total lockdown—and full lights.”

He grinned.

“Neighbors might be a little steamed, but if anybody was out there, still thinking about trying to get in, that would make them think a lot more.”

“I’d like a look at the system,” Roarke told him.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Later.” Eve held up a hand to stop the two geeks. “I’m leaving the uniforms, keep your mother feeling settled. And I’m going to add a patrol, but I don’t think you’re going to get another visitor. She missed twice tonight, so if she hits again, it’s not going to be a place as secure as the freaking Pentagon.”

“Twice?”

“She tried for Nadine.”

“Nadine.” The excitement whisked out of Jamie’s face. “Is she okay? Was she hurt?”

“Shaken up, not hurt. Safe, secured.”

“This is the UNSUB—Bastwick and Ledo. I follow,” Jamie said to Eve. “Bastwick wasn’t a fan. I figured you busted Ledo a time or two.”

“His chops, sure.”

Jamie nodded, and his eyes no longer looked so young. He had cop in there, Eve thought, however Roarke might wish the boy would stick with R&D. “Nadine, and now me and Mom. She did the switch. She’s trying for people you care about now.”

“That’s the theory, so take precautions. Nobody comes in the house you don’t know. You don’t open the door, period, to anyone you don’t know. No exceptions. Not for a cop I don’t personally clear, not for a city worker yelling gas leak, not for a delivery, not for anything.”

“Got it. I won’t take chances with my mom, you can believe it.”

She did—he was a good son, and all his mother had, so she did. But she was still leaving the cops.

•••

By the time they got home, Eve felt she’d been gone for days. She needed her office, and an hour, one hour to get everything down, and in order, and out of her head.

Roarke picked up a memo cube from a table in the foyer.

Summerset’s voice droned out.