Encore in Death

“Loving you changed everything for me. Being loved by you opened everything for me. Every day is more.” - Roarke to Eve, Encore in Death

Encore in Death
Encore in Death US Hardcover
Book Number	56
Release Date	February 7, 2023
Publisher	St. Martin’s
ISBN	978-1250284082
Publication order
Previous	Desperation in Death
Next	Payback in Death

Plot Summary

The homicide cop with a passion for justice returns in the captivating crime thriller series by the #1 New York Times bestselling author.

It was a glittering event full of A-listers, hosted by Eliza Lane and Brant Fitzhugh, a celebrity couple who’d conquered both Hollywood and Broadway. And now Eve Dallas has made her entrance―but not as a guest. After raising a toast, Fitzhugh fell to the floor and died, with physical symptoms pointing to cyanide, and the police have crashed the party.

From all accounts, he wasn’t the kind of star who made enemies. Everyone loved him―even his ex-wife. And since the champagne cocktail that killed him was originally intended for Eliza, it’s possible she was the real target, with a recently fired assistant, a bitter rival, and an obsessed fan in the picture. With so many attendees, staff, and servers, Eve has her work cut out determining who committed murder in the middle of the crowd―and what was their motivation. As one who’s not fond of the spotlight herself, she dreads the media circus surrounding a case like this. All she wants is to figure out who’s truly innocent, and who’s only acting that way…

Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details about an upcoming episode.

Timeline

Story Date: Monday, June 28 - Thursday, July 1, 2061

Day 1 - Monday, June 28, 2061

Chapter 1

• Eliza Lane reflects back on events from the past 25 years. At 18 years old, she took over on opening night of a new musical, Upstage, after the suicide of Leah Rose, the lead playing the part of Marcie Bright. Too many pills and vodka took Leah Rose out before her time.
• Lane was a demanding and hard working star and she achieved the reputation of being a bitch and was proud of it.
• But - she didn't think she knew anyone who wanted to kill her.
• Twenty- five years later, she and her husband were throwing a party in their penthouse to celebrate the revival of Upstage. This time, Lane would play Lily Bright - the mother of Marcie Bright and a stage mother to be feared.
• Up in the master bedroom, Lane finishes dressing for the big party. Her husband, Brant Fitzhugh, walks in and tells her how beautiful she is. He too is a famed actor and about to head off to New Zealand for 6 months to both star in and produce a new movie.
• A few hours later, the party is in full swing and going perfectly. Lane talks with her best friend, Sylvie Bowen about the party and Bowen's breakup with a lover.
• Fitzhugh walks across the room carrying Lane's signature drink, a champagne cocktail. He is known for doing that wherever they are.
• Bowen suggests Lane sing a song, so Lane passes the cocktail back to Fitzhugh and goes off to find the actor playing Marcie, Samantha Keene. As they start the duet, Fitzhugh toasts his wife with her glass and takes a drink of it. Suddenly he feels a pain in his body and seconds later the glass crashed to the floor right before Fitzhugh does.

• Eve Dallas stands over a body in a luxurious penthouse. Unfortunately, the scene has been well compromised. She opens her field kit to get Seal-It and asks Officer Rickie to walk her through the event. She and her partner arrived on the scene after the 911 call and the medics were already there. Dr. James Cyril had asked them to give Lane a mild tranquilizer. They had secured the guests in various locations in the penthouse.
• The doctor and the MTs suspected poisoning. With dilated pupils, red patches on his face, and bluish tinted fingernails, Dallas agrees.
• Dallas surveys the scene before starting to process the victim. Shortly after, Peabody and McNab arrive from date night salsa dancing. Peabody fangirls and tells Dallas about the legendary marriage between Lane and Fitzhugh.
• Dallas hands out assignments to Peabody and McNab and heads up to talk to the widow. Lane is laying on the bed, with Bowen sitting next to her and Dr. Cyril pacing the room. Eve speaks to Cyril separately before heading back to talk to Lane. Cyril goes over the event from his point of view.
• Lane tells Dallas that she has to find the person who took the love of her life away from her. She tells Dallas that she smelled almonds and believes her husband was poisoned with cyanide.

Chapter 2

• Lane can’t think of anybody who wanted to kill either of them (halfway through the interview she realizes since it was her drink that was poisoned, she was probably the intended victim).
• Eve and Peabody interview Brant’s personal assistant, Lin Jacoby, who thinks the world of Brant and also can’t think of anybody who wanted either actor dead. Eve thinks, “Brant Fitzhugh might’ve been a solid, stand-up guy, but he was still very dead.”

Chapter 3

• Eve interviews Eliza’s personal assistant, Dolby Kessler, who didn’t notice anything or anyone unusual at the party and also can’t think of anybody who wanted either actor dead.
• Eve and Peabody interview Brant’s ex, Vera Harrow, who wanted both Brant and Eliza to suffer but says that Eliza won again by having Brant die in her arms and becoming the grieving widow, and Lane’s media/business assistant, Cela Ricardo, who mentions that Eliza had a stalker three years ago, who was eventually arrested, but has not otherwise been threatened.

Chapter 4

• Eve goes home, fills Roarke in on the murder, and sleeps for a few hours, planning to meet up with Peabody, McNab, Baxter, and Trueheart at the penthouse at 9 a.m. for more searching.

Day 2 – Tuesday, June 29, 2061

• Nadine tags Eve, and the only thing Eve shares is that the person who mixed the drink is clear. She said she met them at the Oscars and liked them a lot, that they were gracious even though The Icove Agenda beat them out for three of the major awards they were also nominated for.

• Whitney tags Eve and they settle on a media conference at noon to give Eve time to talk to Morris. Roarke says he will check financials on the key players, which he does, and finds nothing out of the ordinary. Eve sees that Eliza’s stalker was released two months ago and looks like a psychopath: “shaggy brown hair and the eyes of a puppy who might decide to take a quick bite at any moment.”

Chapter 5

• Eve, Peabody, McNab, Baxter, and Trueheart search the penthouse, but alas, nobody finds “a bottle with a skull on it and poison in big, red letters.”
• At the morgue, Morris confirms that Brant was in good health before death and took care of his body, and he “liked his work, and his activism for the homeless.”
• Back at Central, Eve sets up her murder board before heading to Whitney’s office to discuss the upcoming media conference and Eve’s unhappiness with same and with Fitzhugh’s murder getting more manpower than a dead waiter’s.
• Jenkinson and Reineke have the suspect on the Dobson (dead waiter) case, and Eve and Peabody give statements at the media conference, beginning with Eve reading Eliza's prepared statement requesting privacy (Eve remembers what Roarke had told her earlier, “Good luck with that”).

Chapter 6

• Eve takes questions at the conference, ending with two from Nadine about security at the party.
• Eve and Peabody head to Queens to visit Eliza’s stalker. He took the day off from work, but they find him at home in all his craziness.

Chapter 7

• Crommell flips out when Eve enters the shrine he has to Eliza, threatening her with his scrapbook scissors.
• Eve tells him not to look but her partner has a stunner pointed at him, and when he looks at Peabody, Eve tells him, “Told you not to look. Now I've got a stunner aimed at you, too. Let's do the math here - two police-issue stunners in the hands of trained officers. One pair of scissors in the hand of a delusional fuckwit. What do you figure that equals?”
• They bring him into Central, blubbering on the elevator, where a cop asks what his problem is, and Eve replies, “Love. Mad, mad love.” The cop tells Eve, “It’ll get you every time.”
• Mira joins them in Interview, where Crommell explains that Brant kept Eliza and him apart by blurring her memory of him – “sorcery.” This dark magic caused his (Brant’s) obsession with Eliza, made Eliza press charges and testify against him in court. Eliza is waiting for him now but Brant has minions guarding her still, so they’re not yet together; this requires more white magic on his part, which somehow involves masturbation. He thinks Eliza killed Brant this time, aided by the white magic he used to weaken Brant’s hold.
• The consensus is “he's crazy as a box of rabid monkeys, but he didn't kill Fitzhugh” and Mira plans to recommend more treatment, but under a different doctor's care, for breaking his parole and threatening Eve with a deadly weapon, saying she will share her considerable thoughts with Dr. Horowitz, and throw her weight on that.

• Eve and Peabody make their next stop Vera's plus-one, Rico Estaban, who has a guest spot on a new series shooting in the West Village. Peabody is a huge fan of his and of the holiday romance movies he's known for; she says she can't help watching during the season while she bakes.
  • “Gorgeous, cranky guy hates Christmas, gets stuck in a small town for a couple of weeks during the season, finds love with small-town girl - maybe the local vet with a sweet, frisky puppy - and the true meaning of Christmas. Or he's the gorgeous, Christmas-loving guy who owns the local diner in another small town where the gorgeous, high-powered ad exec gets stuck, and she falls for his, his adorable niece, and Christmas.”
  • A burly uniform chimes in to add his appreciation, saying, “I ain't ashamed. Did you see the one where the big-shot developer comes into town? He's going to tear down this old Christmassy inn to build a fancy resort.”
  • Peabody finishes the plot, “And he falls for the daughter of the family who's run the inn for three generations. With Christmas renewed in his heart, he buys the inn, but to restore it, and the whole town comes to sing carols on Christmas Eve. Made me cry.”
  • Eve says she refuses to discuss Christmas and think of all the stupid presents she has to come up with in the summer, and Peabody suggests, “Maybe you need to get stuck in a small town and find Christmas in your heart. Eve replies, “That’ll be the day.”

Chapter 8

• Rico was a huge fan of Brant, saying they lost a legend last night. He describes his relationship with Vera as “gloriously sexual,” adding that she is “a beautiful woman, an energetic one. We enjoy a robust physical relationship” that won't last, any more than his guest spot relationship, but he is enjoying it for now, and says “she has a biting wit, a towering talent. And she's generous.”
• Rico thinks Vera was pretty shaken by Brant’s murder, more than she let on, that it was the first time he'd seen her vulnerable. He also thinks that if she’d intended to poison Eliza, she was close enough that she could have knocked the drink out of Brant's hands when she saw him about to take a sip.
• Eve checks in with Baxter, and they are done searching two of the three floors of Eliza and Brant’s apartment, with nothing to show. McNab finished with Brant’s assistant’s electronics and is starting on the first of Lane’s assistants. Baxter said a reporter used the flower delivery shtick, bribing one of the tenants to pass him up to their floor and using the stairs to get to the penthouse, but building security spotted him, and Trueheart is taking the flowers (the reporter dropped them when he was nabbed) to his mother that evening.
• Eve and Peabody head to a café to interview Samantha Keene, who was singing with Eliza when Brant was poisoned.
• On the way, Nadine tags Eve because she heard about Crommell’s arrest. Eve confirms that he was arrested and charged with parole violation (the shrine to Eliza), assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon (although it was an attempt, not successful), and resisting arrest, but he’s too batshit to plan Fitzhugh’s death and carry it out, so the investigation is active and ongoing. She adds that she and Peabody just finished interviewing Rico Estaban, who Nadine calls the Holiday Hunk, saying it wouldn’t be Christmas without seeing Estaban, bare-chested, near a Christmas tree. Eve says he is not a suspect at this time, and was cooperative. She tells Nadine he’d jump at an interview but “other than bouncing on Harrow, he’s not connected.”
• Peabody says if it turns out Rico looked the other way while Vera poisoned Lane’s drink, she will never be able to watch him catch the Christmas-loving heroine when she slips off the stepladder while hanging the shining star on the top of the tree, then go in for the long, slow, kiss, and she resents that. Eve agrees that her loss would be the major downside to that theory.
• Samantha says Brant was a sweetheart, that he dropped in on workshops a few times, and he and Eliza had her over for dinner after she got the part. Her parents divorced when she was nine, so it felt good to see a couple who genuinely liked each other. She says Eliza is generous - “if you screw up a number or miss a line too many times, she'll sure as hell let you know it. But she'll work with you until you get it right. And she'll let you know you got it right. She's exacting. She makes me work harder and be better than I might have without her.” She takes Eve and Peabody through the event, giving them a picture of who was standing where when Brant drank.
• Peabody says she’ll do a run on the choreographer, Minerva Novak, who was standing next to Brant, but first wants two minutes to talk to Eve about the Great House Project (which runs long because Eve is feeling generous). McNab and Peabody’s kitchen is finished and she worked on the water feature with the nanny, her father’s building she and McNab a partner’s desk, her mother’s making them a light for the dining area, and McNab’s parents are sending rocks from Scotland for the water feature, so they’ll have pieces of McNab’s and her family in their home.
• Peabody gives Eve the basics on Novak, and Eve says she will poke around at home, since they have arrived at Vera’s Upper East Side penthouse. The desk clerk is reluctant to interrupt Vera’s Do Not Disturb, so Eve gets to bully her until she’s cleared through. Vera’s droid, a young, fit male, shows them in.

Chapter 9

• Vera tells Eve and Peabody she doesn’t appreciate being disturbed and Peabody tells Vera how much she enjoys her work on The Matriarch, that her character is so layered and fascinating. Vera says she’s been so upset (delayed reaction to Brant’s death) she took the day off from work, canceling shooting for the first time in her life, and she’s going have to say sweet things about Eliza now that she’s the tragic figure, and that galls. She says she didn’t wish him dead, just that he had been caught with his pants down around his ankles and his cock in some ingénue, but that won’t happen now. She thinks Eliza must have loved Brant because otherwise she would have discarded him.
• She says she will cut people to bloody ribbons with her tongue given the motive and opportunity, she’ll feed the gossip sheets nasty (but only true, otherwise they come back to bite you) tidbits to humiliate people, and she once punched a director who thought she wanted a part bad enough to let him grope under her skirt, but she kept the part and he didn’t try that again, and then a year later she revealed what happened; since she wasn’t the first or last, he became a pariah and it ruined him.
• Vera added that she just read a script for a rom-com that she’s interested in, and they started negotiations – it’s with Brant’s production company, although her agent was smart enough to send her the script without that information so she’d give it a chance.
• Eve has Vera walk through the evening, who was standing where and what she observed. She positioned herself to be able to give Brant an embrace for the cameras when she greeted him, and close enough for him to remember why he used to call her “The Bod,” pointing out that her breasts are real. She recounts the conversations she had, and Eliza introducing Samantha for their duet, Brant lifting Eliza’s glass to toast them, stepping back, the glass shattering, screaming, and chaos. Rico pulled her onto the terrace and got her a brandy, staying with her and holding her hand.
• Vera asks Eve if she’s under arrest, and Eve tells her not at this time. Vera says she doesn’t like Eliza, and she resents not being able to stop herself from feeling sorry for her, but hopes to get over that very soon.
• Peabody and Eve agree that they don’t think Vera has anything to do with the murder, that she liked Brant despite the grudge, and now she’s lost any chance of getting him back into bed with her and wrecking his marriage. Eve doesn’t think she was close enough to Brant to knock the drink away in time, but is still leaning away from her as the killer.
• Eve drops Peabody at the subway with instructions to dig through gossip stories for people with motives to kill Lane, while she heads home by way of Lane, inviting Roarke to meet her at Lane’s. The doorman there tells Eve how much they all liked Brant: “A hell of a guy. Always took a minute to say hello. Never puffed himself up.” Lane was liked as well, and got him house seats to a play once when she heard his wife wanted to see a show.
• Baxter and Trueheart are heading out, having cleared the apartment, still not finding anything. McNab is also heading out and gives Eve an update on Lane’s assistants, again with nothing troubling, and Jacoby’s assistant, also nothing. He didn’t find anything on either of the Rowans, and when he hears Peabody’s on her way home he heads home instead of out with Baxter and Trueheart for a brew.

Chapter 10

• Roarke and Eve go down to Sylvie's apartment to speak with Eliza and her. On the way, Eve tells Roarke she thinks Lane was the target, at least partly because he drank it on impulse, and partly because it doesn’t seem like he had any enemies, but hasn’t ruled Lane out as the killer because “the spouse is always a contender.”
• Eve asks Roarke to be his usual, which is “sympathetic charm.” Sylvie greets them and the four of them visit. Lane visited Brant’s body earlier, along with Sylvie, Lin, and Dolby, and says it still doesn’t seem real. Eve says the penthouse is cleared, and Lane agrees she will go back in the morning since Sylvie has a table read in the morning and she has to face it sometime. Eve has Eliza walk through the last night again, beginning with when the caterers arrived. She had invited media to the party to generate buzz for the revival of Upstage, and Sylvie picks up on that – Eliza has decided to go ahead with the production. She says she needs it as much as the rest of the cast and crew, that they’ve already put in so much time, so much work, and she doesn’t believe any of them had anything to do with Brant’s murder.
• When Lane talks about security for the party, she mentions that they’ve been very careful since Crommell, and Eve lets Lane know that he’s been sent back to serve out his full sentence, that he’s still obsessed with her, but had nothing to do with Brant’s murder. She doesn’t remember anything new, but feels bad about giving him a hard time about leaving for New Zealand. She didn’t yet have an understudy for Upstage, saying they would get another name if Lane had been killed.
• Lane invited Vera because if she didn’t there would be talk – there would be talk either way, so “take the high road” plus she’s a draw. She’s butted heads with many people she’s worked with, but nothing serious, saying she doesn’t have Brant’s easygoing temperament, but can’t think of anybody who would want to kill her. She says she doesn’t know how to be without Brant, that she doesn’t “think you get another once you find the love of your life.”
• Eve asks if there’s anybody who doesn’t want the revival of Upstage to happen, and they think of Maeve Spindal, who played Lily Bright in the original production; she has a grudge against Eliza, thinks that Eliza got lucky with Leah Rose dying, but is starring in a play in London. Rose had fought with her mother and then with her boyfriend the night before opening. A lot of the rest of the cast and crew went to a local hangout after the final dress rehearsal, and then the next morning Rose was found dead in her dressing room, ruled an accidental overdose from pills and vodka. Eliza stepped into her role, and won a Tony for Best Supporting Actress for it, while Spindal was nominated but didn’t win the Best Actress Tony for her role. Maeve took to reminding Lane that she was only there because Leah was in the morgue, and has had a few barbed things to say about the revival, how at least this time when she’s stepping into her shoes, Spindal is still wearing hers.

Chapter 11

• Roarke drives home while Eve contacts Feeney to see if he remembers Leah Rose’s death; he does, and she gets the basics. They agree that Lane loves Fitzhugh, although Eve points out that she’s put more than one person behind bars who loved the one they killed.
• Once home, Roarke researches Bowen, who lives within her means and was very generous with her cheating ex, but has since cut him off. Eve and Roarke eat dinner and then Eve starts researching the Upstage director, Tessa Long, who's in a long-term same-sex marriage, and the choreographer, Minerva Novak, whose stepsister was Leah Rose.

Chapter 12

• Eve finds it suspicious that nobody had mentioned this relationship, so she has Roarke check finances for Novak and her husband, while she takes a close look at Rose Bernstein aka Leah Rose, whose file Feeney sent, and she and Peabody will interview Novak in the morning.
• Leah Rose’s story is sad – she had a lot of talent, but also a lot of problems: addiction to pills and alcohol, anorexia, an emergency treatment of an overdose of sleeping pills, a medically induced abortion when she was 15, possession at age 13 in Chicago, underage drinking, court-ordered rehab: “a short, fucked-up life.”
• Roarke is sad to find that Novak and her husband, Malcomb Furrier, are law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. It looks like Rose and Minerva spent time together in Chicago, including dance classes, before Rose moved to New York at 15 with her mother. The day Rose turned 18 she kicked her mother out, a few months later she got the role of Marcie Bright in Upstage, and six months later she was dead from barbs and vodka; Novak would have been about 11. Eve thinks maybe Minerva is upset about that, plus the accident that ended her dance career, and having Upstage come around again, with Eliza riding on the break she got all those years ago because her sister died, triggered something.
• There are two possible relatives with access to cyanide – a step-sibling from her mother’s second marriage is a photographer, and another sibling’s spouse is an office manager for a pharmaceutical company. Roarke didn’t see anything suspicious, money-wise with either, so they each take one to run, and then agree to go back to where they were the previous evening when Eve was tagged for Brant’s murder. Neither finds anything but Eve is still suspicious about Novak not telling anybody about the connection.
• Roarke tells Eve that Furrier wrote the lyrics to a song they danced to at their wedding, Only One, so they reminisce, leading to them making love to the song playing.

Day 3 – Wednesday, June 30, 2061

• Eve wakes up remembering that in her dream, Minerva was choreographing everybody at the party. Over waffles, Roarke shows her some pictures of Peabody’s kitchen, which includes a living wall – herbs and other plants in pots her sister made, and a piece of the counter that’s shorter than the rest for rolling out pie dough and kneading bread dough, custom to Peabody’s height. They agree to make time to go over before they leave for their anniversary trip to Europe.

Chapter 13

• Eve picks up Peabody on the way to Minerva and Malcomb's house. Malcomb is surprised to see them instead of the nanny and Eve starts with asking him questions about the night of Brant’s murder and Brant and Eliza in general. Malcomb wrote lyrics for a tune Brant composed as an anniversary gift for Eliza, and was a fan, and he didn’t interact much with Eliza. They recently found out Minx is pregnant, she comes in, leaves to have morning sickness, and comes back a little more settled. The nanny arrives to take their two-year-old to the park, and Eve springs the question about Leah Rose being her sister to get her reaction.

Chapter 14

• Minx hadn’t told Eliza that Rose was her stepsister because she wasn't sure if Eliza would take her on if she knew (out of superstition). She was six when her mother and Rose's father got together, and Minerva looked up to Rose, who was seven years older, even though she saw her problems - bulimia, pills to keep her energy up and her weight down.
• Her stepmother's grandparents surprised her with a trip to New York for the opening night of Upstage (for Roger, Heaven, and Minerva). Right before the show started, when they went backstage, somebody pulled her father aside to tell him that Rose had died. She thinks Rose chose poorly, and she's sad for what might have been, but doesn't blame anybody for her death, although if she had to pick somebody it would be Rose's mother for not taking care of her, and for getting Rose the pills. Also, Rose’s mother attacked Minerva at the funeral. Minerva asks Eve to give her the chance to tell Eliza and Tessa about her connection with Rose.
• Eve and Peabody believe Minerva, but start searching their house before turning it over to Jenkinson and Reineke, and McNab on the electronics. Peabody runs Debra Bernstein while she and Eve head back to Central; Bernstein has a long and fraudulent history, but mainly non-violent. Eve thinks maybe Bernstein tried to find a way into the party, probably as a plus-one.
• At Central, on an elevator, Eve and Peabody encounter a tourist whose purse was stolen; she is wailing, “He stole my purse. What kind of a place is it where somebody can just grab your purse right out of your hands?” Eve thinks, “New York,” and makes up a whole backstory for Peabody about Winnie, ending with her husband Hank telling her, “Well, Winnie, you were hell-bent on visiting that godforsaken city, weren't you? Things like that don't happen in Nobody Goes There, Idaho.”
• Peabody contacts Leah Rose’s agent at the time, Fred Aaron, who tells her that the mother was a piece of work – the worst stage parent ever. She threatened to ruin him, to tell people he molested her daughter, raped her unless he cut professional ties. He told her to go right ahead and try it. She then cried, begged, went on about how she dedicated her whole life to Rose, and he suggested she try living her own life for a while.
• Bernstein told Rose’s boyfriend, Gary Proctor, she would have sex with him if he could get Rose to fire Aaron. Aaron was also Lane's agent twenty-five years ago; she changed agents because she wanted bigger guns, and they remain friendly. She invited him to the party she and Brant had. Eve has Peabody contact Proctor, who’s still in New York theater, to get his story.
• The candy thief has stolen Eve’s chocolate.

Chapter 15

• Eve gets in touch with one of the primaries on Rose’s death, Chief Wimbly, and learns that the general consensus is that Debra Bernstein is a piece of work and that Debra found a way backstage before the show despite not being invited by Rose. They couldn’t see it as anything but accidental overdose, but Wimbly thinks it was triggered by seeing (and fighting with) Debra and by the fight with Proctor. She also said Debra went after the boyfriend and after Lane after Rose’s death – came to a performance, told Lane she killed her daughter, and assaulted her, but Lane wouldn’t press charges or file a restraining order.
• Since Spindal is the person who got Bernstein into the theater the day she attacked Lane, Eve contacts her in London. She said she felt a very deep bond with Leah, so she assists her mother now and again in her memory. She admits she sent her $5,000 ten days ago, but tells Eve that she's an idiot if she thinks Debra had anything to with Brant's murder and police officers shouldn’t be idiots. Eve gets the money wire information from her assistant, which allows her to track Debra to the West End Hotel in New York, where she has been for two weeks.
• Peabody said that Bernstein drunk tagged Gary Proctor three days ago – every few years he gets through before he can block her and change his number again, and she reams him out, telling him it’s his fault Leah’s dead, or his and Lane’s fault together. Peabody thinks between it being 25 years and the revival, Bernstein is convinced that it’s time to avenge her daughter’s death by killing Lane, and managed to get into the party as a plus-one.
• On the way to Debra’s hotel, Kyung tags Eve requesting another media briefing. At the hotel, Debra spots Eve and Peabody in the lobby and takes off. Since she’s wearing skinny-heeled sandals, Eve is able to catch up fairly quickly, and after a brief tussle, has a couple of uniforms take her in on assaulting a police officer to start while they stay behind and search her room.
• Eve and Peabody find a gray maid’s uniform, along with a cocktail dress, a lot of makeup, several wigs, face putty, fake IDs and licenses, and a very professional-looking master swipe. Peabody finds out that the cleaning agency used for Lane’s penthouse uses gray uniforms and brought in two temps the day of the party to do a deep clean; one matches Debra’s height and weight and had ID under Debra Rose. Peabody finds burglar’s tools in one of Bernstein’s makeup cases. Eve figured she used the maid gig to get into Lane’s apartment, and then found a way to stay behind, wait it out, and then changed into a cocktail dress and slipped downstairs for the party. Eve finds Eliza’s Tony for Best Supporting Actress from the original production of Upstage.

Chapter 16

• The one thing they don't find is cyanide in the room. They learn from the regular desk clerk, who is back from the ER, that somebody in a gray maid's uniform left the hotel at 8 a.m. the morning of Brant's murder - clearly Debra in a blond wig. Eve heads for the West End Financial Center, while she instructs Peabody to follow up with the maid service.
• Eve lucks into a superfan of The Icove Agenda at the bank, who thinks she’s there to investigate clones, and gives her all the information she needs about Bernstein's banking activity without requiring a warrant, because “This isn't just police business. It's humanity's business,” along with a tip about a suspected clone who used to live across the hall from her; she claimed to be moving to Atlanta just as the vid was released. Two other people wired Bernstein $5,000 each shortly after Spindal.
• Peabody also got great information from the cleaning service – their new employee, “Debra Rose,” was pleasant and dignified, but not overly chatty, and at the end of the day suddenly remembered she’d left her bag behind on the third floor, so the rest of the crew left without her.
• Eve doesn't get grief from Mira's admin because Brant Fitzhugh was her hall pass, and she tells Mira she brought Bernstein in. They agree that Debra is not equipped to accept any kind of blame or personal responsibility for what happened with Rose, so others must be blamed, and the Tony rightfully belongs to her, not to Eliza or even to her daughter. They’re not quite getting to murder, but Mira offers up that Debra’s conscience is very flexible, and she will try to observe Eve’s interview with her if she has time.
• Peabody contacts two of the people who sent Debra money; one is an actor whose last vid Debra Bernstein was an extra in (he lost a grandson to addiction and they bonded over that), and the other is somebody Bernstein dated in Vegas. Eve and Peabody watch the security feed, seeing Bernstein enter the Lane-Fitzhugh apartment as a cleaner, carrying her big-ass bag that holds the cocktail dress and makeup and seeing her leave, now dressed up, before Brant took the drink to Lane.

Chapter 17

• McNab finds all the research Bernstein did on Lane and the party, but nothing about cyanide. She has a rotation of people she hits up for money, and a lot of back and forth texts with somebody to set up her fake ID as Debra Rose, house cleaner, complete with references.
• Nadine arrives at Eve’s office, saying Channel 75 and a lot of other media are doing compilations on Brant’s career and personal life, but she thought she would concentrate on the silver anniversary revival of Upstage, and the original tragedy of Leah Rose’s death. She and her team uncovered the connection between Rose and Novak, but Nadine hasn’t contacted her yet; Eve advises giving her a pass for at least a day, letting her know she and her husband are not suspects – no motive, no evidence. Nadine hadn’t been able to locate Bernstein, but came to the same conclusion as basically anybody who had more than five minutes of contact with her – Debra is a grasping narcissist who’d have no issue crawling over her dead daughter’s body to grab a gold ring, but nothing in the same universe as murder. They concur that killing Fitzhugh wouldn’t lead to the kind of publicity that Bernstein would enjoy or profit from. Eve tells her “a source from the NYPSD states that something of value was taken from the Lane/Fitzhugh residence on the night of the murder, and has since been recovered.”
• Eve heads for the interview with Bernstein, noting a few stray crumbs from Nadine’s bribe in her bullpen along the way. She hits Bernstein with the current charges (possession of fraudulent identification, trespassing, theft, fraud, fleeing from police officers and assault on a police officer, resisting arrest) and some of her aliases (Debbie Starr, Madame Rose, Rose Stein, Leah Starr, and Debra Rose). Bernstein turns on the waterworks, saying she needed the money so she took a job cleaning.
• When Eve calls her out on that, she ups the waterworks even more, crying, “My baby! My beautiful girl, lost, lost to me, to the world, even before the Rose had bloomed,” admitting that she blames Lane and Proctor for her death and imagine her shock when she realized where she was (Lane’s penthouse). She says she sacrificed everything for her daughter. Lane had tricked Leah into agreeing to give her a matinee performance once a week and an evening performance every month as Marcie Bright to take some of the stress away and give Rose time to rest her voice. Debra said she put a stop to that as soon as she heard, reminding Rose that “you never, ever give anything away, the name of the play was Upstage, and that’s just what that clawing understudy wanted to do.”
• Peabody tells Bernstein it must have been brutal, a stab in her heart every time she thought about Lane bringing Upstage back to the same theater, exploiting that, celebrating that, dredging up all that pain again. She must have had to find a way into her big, beautiful home, the one she built on Rose’s bones, had to find a way to stop Lane, who’d never paid for what she’d done. Debra admits she found a room to stay behind in, stole the Tony, got Cela to put her bag into a closet (“Expect, don’t explain.”), spoke with Brant, enjoyed the party, and then left – she had nothing to do with the murder. She demands a lawyer, so Eve and Peabody send her back to holding and end the interview.

Chapter 18

• Eve tells Peabody good job on getting the confession, and they will resume in the morning while McNab looks closer at her electronics. Reo points out that they don’t have her on murder, and Eve decides she needs some alone time to rethink it, but Roarke is there with an early anniversary gift, explaining why he’s been at Cop Central so often lately.
• Roarke Industries is donating Thin Shield body armor linings to the entire NYPSD, beginning with Eve's Homicide division – this is the brand name of the “magic” lining body armor that his company developed for Eve. She's been wearing a prototype, but Roarke manufactured linings for her entire bullpen and they hand them out, with Eve telling them, “I can tell you - from personal experience - it stops a sharp, a stun, and a bullet. It's lightweight, and can - and will - go under your jacket just like your weapon, or your uniform top. Chief Tibble and Commander Whitney have accepted this donation to Homicide initially, and the whole of the NYPSD to follow, from Roarke Industries. I gratefully accept same as Lieutenant of this division.”
• Jenkinson points at the motto posted over the break room door, “NO MATTER YOUR RACE, CREED, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, OR POLITICAL AFFILIATION, WE PROTECT AND SERVE,* BECAUSE YOU COULD GET DEAD. *EVEN IF YOU WERE AN ASSHOLE.” He tells Roarke not everybody gets that, but it means something when somebody not only gets it but gives a rat’s ass, and thanks him for getting it, for not being a stupid son of a bitch, and giving a lot more than a rat’s ass. He then distributes the armor to the bullpen, with each of those present thanking Roarke.
• Spindal arranged the formerly retired “diamond standard of criminal defense attorneys, renowned for his dogged and dignified style, deal-making, and record of acquittals,” Carlton J. Greene, for Debra, and she lucked into a judge who allowed her to post bail (also paid by Spindal), so Bernstein is free and back at the hotel. Eve assigns officers to babysit her until they can bring her back in the following day, beginning with Officers Carmichael and Shelby, and tells Peabody to take the media briefing while she heads to interview Proctor before updating Lane.
• Proctor was nineteen when he and Leah Rose were an item and says she was mercurial - a tough, talented girl with a soft middle. He tried to get her help - he had a family member who was a recovering alcoholic, so he knew the signs.
• Debra threatened him at his apartment - told him he was putting pressure on Leah, making demands, cheating on her, specifically but not exclusively, with Eliza. Offered to have sex with him if he talked Leah into firing her agent and slapped him when he told her it was her fault Leah took pills, drank too much, stuck her fingers down her throat if she ate a real meal. Bernstein grabbed him by the crotch and slapped him, but then his roommate came out and told her to get the hell out or he'd throw her out.
• The night Leah Rose died, the night of the final dress rehearsal, he saw Bernstein go at it with Lane, slapping her. Lane said it was the usual argument, and when he went to confront Leah about having her mother banned, she was already drinking and the pills were out so they parted ways for the last time. He told her he'd had enough and she told him “Bye.”
• He, his roommate, Eliza, and some other cast and crew members of the original production of Upstage were together at Act Two the night Leah Rose died, celebrating the successful final dress rehearsal.

Chapter 19

• At Lane’s building, Eve gets a feel for the elevator and security – Eliza has access to a private elevator, which nobody used the day or evening of the murder. Eliza and Dolby are working on Brant’s memorials, and Eve asks Dolby if he remembers going up to the third floor after lunch on Monday, which he didn’t do. Eve asks to speak with everybody (Eliza, Dolby, Lin, and Cela) at the same time and she explains about Debra posing as a cleaner and gaining access to the party, emphasizing that Debra is not being charged with murder at this time, just illegal entry and theft. Dolby had seen the cleaner, but didn’t realize it was Bernstein, and Cela remembers stowing her bag at the party, but again, didn’t know recognize her, and didn’t realize she never retrieved her bag.
• Lane tells Eve that when she and Brant first got together, Debra tried to extort money from her, claiming she’d plotted and cheated with Gary Proctor, which drove Leah to overdose. Lane told her to fuck off, that she was just friends with Gary, and if anybody drove her to her death it was Debra. She realizes Debra must see the Tony as belonging to Leah or her, not to Lane, and thinks she meant to kill her, not Brant, and he died because Debra wanted Lane dead.
• Lane says at least she’s locked up while Eve proves the rest, and Eve breaks the bad news that she’s been released on bail, although she’s wearing a tracker and will be back at Central in the morning. Eve asks for details about the altercation she and Debra had on the night Rose died. Lane said Debra told her Leah was going to have Lane fired, which wasn’t true, but rattled her, and went off about her scheming to replace Leah, plus cheating with Gary and plotting to ruin Leah, and Debra slapped Lane, so Lane had her removed from the theater. She told Leah she needed to control her mother, to keep her away from the theater, or she would press charges.
• Lane figures out that Spindal is the one who funded Debra’s lawyer and bail because she has “a real soft spot for Debra and a serious hard-on for” Lane, and resents the revival. Lin tells Eve Lane is restarting the rehearsals the following day. On the way home Eve calls Maeve to ask how she talked Greene out of retirement – they used to be lovers.
• It turns out even Summerset doesn’t like Spindal – he thinks she's a good actress, but years after he and his wife saw her in a play, during the Urbans (after his wife had died), he was putting together a benefit for the wounded and the lost. She refused to donate her time and talent, naming a fee well beyond reach, sending word through her representative she was a professional and professionals were paid. He says “Art without heart is hollow.”

Chapter 20

• Since Roarke looks frustrated with work when Eve got home, she surprises him with fish and chips, figuring it to be his comfort food. He tells her she now owns the Lower West, a piece of property that houses the bar Mary Kate Covino’s ex owns and his apartment, so she gets to evict him. He has some suggestions for upgrades and they discuss how well Peabody played Debra, but how it still doesn’t add up to murder.
• Eve and Roarke take a walk to their pond after dinner, and Eve says she thinks it was Eliza, and that she added pills to Rose’s vodka. She’s the only one who benefitted from Rose’s death. Eve thinks she scripted the whole scene with Brant bringing her a drink and her handing it back to do a duet without taking a sip, because she didn’t want to be without Brant for six months [apparently not realizing that forever is longer than six months]. She went to the bathroom when Dr. Cyril brought her upstairs, giving her a chance to flush the cyanide.
• Eve assures Roarke that if he needed to travel for work, she wouldn’t poison him for it, and they go back inside to start looking for a connection with somebody who uses cyanide for work. Roarke finds out that Lane’s housekeeper, Cara Rowan, has a nephew who’s a metal artist; he does electroplating in his work, and that requires cyanide. Eve is sure Lane commissioned something and/or visited his studio recently, and tells Roarke if that’s not true she will kiss Summerset on the mouth with tongue. It’s almost midnight, so Eve texts Peabody to let her know they are going to Brooklyn in the morning to interview the nephew before they put Debra back in Interview and she and Roarke go to bed.

Day 4 – Thursday, July 1, 2061

• Eve’s communicator signals barely two hours later: Debra was found dead at the hotel.

Chapter 21

• Eve is pissed as she drives to the hotel. Somebody in the room below Debra’s complained that the water was dripping and when the night guy checked out Debra’s room he found her dead body. The officers who took over from Carmichael and Shelby at 10 p.m. were already at the hotel when the 911 call came in from the lobby that there was a dead body (Bernstein). Officer Fenton remembered seeing a disguised Eliza Lane come to the building shortly after midnight, leaving thirty minutes later.
• Debra was drinking vodka and cyanide, and somebody used her 'link to type out a fake suicide note: “I can’t take it. I can’t go to prison. I failed. I lost. The bitch won again. I’m going to my Rose.” The body wouldn’t have been found until much later but Lane didn’t realize Debra had turned on the taps to run a bath because there was too much background noise. Eve wakes Morris up to do the autopsy and Peabody finds the cabs that took Lane there and back.
• Eve is sure that Lane has more cyanide and has it hidden at Bowen’s without her knowledge. Eve tags Nadine to tell her about Bernstein’s murder and drop hints about Eliza adding pills to Leah Rose’s vodka 25 years ago.
• Even though it’s not yet 5 a.m., Eve and Peabody drive to Brooklyn to visit the metal artist, who indeed is working on a sculpture Lane commissioned for Bowen's birthday in September, and gave her a tour of the studio when she was there, stepping out for water during the visit.
• At the morgue, Morris confirms cyanide poisoning and also that the vodka in Bernstein’s stomach was not the brand she was drinking earlier and conveniently left in the room – that one has additives and the brand ingested with cyanide was top-shelf.

Chapter 22

• Eve thinks the mistakes keep piling up and heads to Bowen’s apartment, where she finds a vial of cyanide in her granddaughter’s room. Eve tags Reo for a warrant to search Lane’s penthouse again and an arrest warrant for both murders. Eve and Peabody find that there is an empty slot for the Comistar vodka in her well-stocked liquor cabinet, despite showing in stock on the inventory panel. She also takes the black sneakers Eliza wore to Debra’s, along with the black pants and tee in the hamper, the wig, and the purse that still has the cyanide container and vodka in it. EDD verifies the private elevator was used for Lane’s comings and goings that morning.
• Eve and Peabody go to the Crystal Gardens Theater to arrest Eliza in front of the cast and crew of Upstage. Eliza tells a distraught Dolby to go back to the penthouse and not to talk to any reporters. She tells Eve she will pay for this, and Eve tells her she does get paid for this “but this is one of those times I’d do it for free.”

Chapter 23

• Eve tells Peabody to take Lane straight into Interview without booking her, and suck up to her. Mira and Eve don’t think she will lawyer up right away because of her arrogance.
• On the way downtown, Lane complains about how Eve is taking advantage of her power: “You think you’re important. You think because some marginally talented actor played you on-screen you’re somebody? You’re nothing.” Eve tells her, “I think I’m a cop and you’re a murderer cuffed in the back of my ride. Maybe I’m nothing, but I’ve got one up on you, Eliza.” Lane tells her, “You really don’t understand who I am” and Eve says, “That’s where you’re wrong. I understand exactly who you are.” While Lane is bitching about how important she is she tells Eve “You married a rich, important man, so you think that makes you something” and Eve tells Peabody about buying the property where Stoner's bar and Stone’s apartment are, saying “Well, my rich, important husband bought it for me.” Eve says she doesn’t know what she’ll do with it yet but whatever she does means that Stone has to find another place to house his business and himself. Peabody suggests rocking it out and having Mavis and Avenue A play there. Lane tells Eve Mavis is a flash in the pan, riding on the wave of questionable style and no substance.
• Peabody brings Lane to Interview while Eve tags Dickhead, who required no bribe because of the cyanide being found in a three-year-old’s bedroom; they give each other grief and he confirms it’s the same cyanide used in Brant’s and Debra’s murders, and Harvo has confirmed the shoes have fibers from Bernstein’s room. Reo is all dressed up because “it’s not every day you get to take on a multiple murderer, multiple Tony and Grammy winner, an Oscar winner.”
• Lane says Eve told her Debra killed Brant – first Eve thought it was Lane’s stalker, then Debra, and now Eve’s going after Lane – just trying to make something stick. She says Eve got lucky here and there and then married lucky on top of it, now she’s just trying to get another notch in her belt, that’s all Eliza is to her, and she will see Eve crushed at the bottom when she’s done, and when she’s done she will sue her for every penny Roarke has. Peabody is still playing the sycophant, asking Lane to cooperate, saying she asked Eve to bring her straight to Interview to avoid holding.
• Lane says Eve’s embarrassed because she arrested the wrong person, and then Debra ended up dead, Eve asks her how she knows Debra is dead, Lane says she heard (“gossip”), and Eve present the evidence that Lane contacted Bernstein, pretending to be his admin, L.W. Jacoby, to set up a meet, and killed her in her room. Lane denies being in Bernstein’s room, Peabody tosses out her shoes, Eve shows her the vodka bottle, explaining how Debra had cheap vodka in her room, and the vial with traces of cyanide.
• Eve lays out the rest of the evidence, and Eliza starts weeping, saying Bernstein killed Brant, and she lost her mind, went to confront her, where Bernstein told Lane she wanted her dead, to pay for Leah, and then poured something from the vial into her glass and drank it – she killed herself right in front of Lane. Peabody says that must have been horrible, and Lane agrees, saying she didn’t know what to do so she panicked and ran. Eve tells her they know she got the cyanide from Vance, who keeps meticulous records, and says she found the remainder of the cyanide in Clara’s room, making Lane switch to “Sylvie tried to kill me?” for a defense, which of course doesn’t fly.
• Eve continues winding Lane up, wondering how Brant could leave her for six months, put his career ahead of her and her career, when she clearly needed him there. Peabody adds on, saying it was selfish of him and must have made her feel so unloved, that she’s read about Eliza turning down parts to be there for him. Lane says she won’t settle for being second, for second place, and Peabody says, “why would you? You’re Eliza Lane. You’re the best there is. He broke your heart, and your trust.” Lane says he crushed it by putting himself first, and somehow conflated that into him falling for his costar and humiliating her.
• Lane says, “This is a pinnacle of my career, of my life, and he chose to leave me.” Peabody says, “So you chose to have him leave permanently. And why not get some benefit out of it? The outpouring of sympathy for you. Clutching your dying and dead husband to your breast, weeping. A hell of a performance.” Lane replies, “It wasn’t! I loved him. I love him more, I realized, than he did me. I did what I had to do for myself.”
• Lane says she couldn’t be sure Brant would drink it, and Peabody says “sure enough” and walks through the rest of the scenario – she flushes the container in the bathroom when Dr. Cyril and Sylvie take her upstairs, the rest of it was already in the toy teapot in Sylvie’s granddaughter’s room, and what a good friend Eliza was to help Sylvie get rid of her ex’s things. Eliza says she wasn’t going to let Brant do to her what Mikhail did to Sylvie (dump her) and when Peabody brings up that she put Clara’s life in danger by leaving the cyanide in her room, Eliza says not to be ridiculous, that Clara isn’t due to come back for nearly a week, but if she did drop by unexpectedly it wouldn’t be her fault if Clara accidentally drank it during a tea party.
• Eve points out that nothing is Lane’s fault – not her fault if the kid drinks the poison, not her fault Brant’s so selfish, not her fault Debra decided to offer her the perfect patsy, not her fault if Leah Rose popped more pills than Lane tipped into her vodka. She shocks Eliza with that one, who eventually admits to that but says it was just to give her (Eliza) the chance to headline opening night, not to kill her (Rose). She says she was better, is better, than Rose and it wasn’t her fault Leah kept taking pills and kept drinking, that she (Eliza) wasn’t even there.
• Finally, APA Reo comes in and charges her with the premeditated murders of Brant Fitzhugh and Debra Bernstein, child endangerment and Man Two on Rose Bernstein’s death. Eliza says she won’t serve a day, and Reo shows her the picture of Clara’s teapot holding the bottle of poison, saying seeing is believing, and the State of New York will ask for and get two consecutive terms of live, off-planet and another ten for the heinous risk to a three-year-old child. Lane may get the Man Two tossed, but she’ll spend the rest of her life in prison. Reo tells Lane, “You killed an icon, a man beloved. You killed him because he wouldn’t give you what you wanted when you wanted it. And you were just narcissistic enough to admit it. No deals.” Lane asks for a lawyer.

Epilogue

• Eve does another press conference, after which Mira gives Eve a blocker. Reo says Lane tried for Greene (“major conflict of interest there, since she murdered his client”), and Reo’s sticking to no deals. At home, Eve talks it through with Roarke, who tells her “love, when it’s real, doesn’t hang on conditions.” Even though she and Roarke compromised and still do, that’s different than conditions.

Character List

List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book

• Eve
• Roarke

List of Secondary Characters Appearing in this Book

• David Baxter
• Detective Carmichael
• Uniform Carmichael
• Ryan Feeney
• Mavis Freestone
• Nadine Furst
• Galahad
• Detective Jenkinson
• Leonardo
• Ian McNab
• Charlotte Mira
• Morris
• Delia Peabody
• Detective Reineke
• Detective Santiago
• Lawrence Summerset
• Troy Trueheart
• Jack Whitney

List of Recurring Characters Appearing in this Book

• Kyung Beaverton
• Bella Eve
• Dickie Berenski
• Harvo
• Jake Kincade
• Dennis Mira
• Cher Reo
• Officer Shelby
• Chief Tibble
• Trina

List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book

• Adele
• Ariella
• Arlo
• Debra Bernstein
• Sylvie Bowen
• Carmine
• Joe E. Clark
• Craig
• Ethan Crommell
• Dr. James Cyril
• Dory
• Rico Estaban
• Officer Fenton
• Brant Fitzhugh
• Malcomb Furrier
• Vera Harrow
• Henry
• Lin Jacoby
• James (droid)
• Jerry
• Kacie
• Monika Kajinski
• Samantha Keene
• Dolby Kessler
• Abbie Korick
• Eliza Lane
• Luce
• Officer Manning
• Ms. Mussy
• Detective Nalley
• Minerva Novak
• Gregg Ortz
• Gary Proctor
• Cela Ricardo
• Officer Rickie
• Robert
• Cara Rowan
• Officer Rye
• Maeve Spindal
• Detective Stringer
• Travis
• Lowell Tucker
• Tyler Vance
• Chief Wimbly
• Winnie

List of Peripheral Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book

• Fred Aaron
• Roland Adderson
• Lloyd Bernstein
• Bower
• Nessa Bowie
• Bristol
• Carla
• Jake Casto
• Chance
• Clara
• Suzannah Clarkson
• Corrine
• Mary Kate Covino
• Julian Cross
• Alyson Crupke
• Andrew Dawber
• Dobson
• Dru
• Marlo Durn
• Elliot
• Ernestine
• Flora
• Franco
• August Fuller
• Mr. Gambini
• Ms. Gambini
• Georgia
• Gino
• Carlton J. Greene
• Aileen Gretzy
• Holister
• Dr. Ivan Horowitz
• Mr. Jabbot
• Jed
• Jesse
• Julio
• J.Z. Kramer
• Steven K. Lewis
• Mai Li
• Linny
• Ivanna Liski
• Tessa Long
• Marjorie
• Marta
• Mike (droid)
• Mikhail
• Mina
• Natalie
• Heaven Colby Novak
• Roger Novak
• Phoebe Peabody
• Sam Peabody
• Grant Pfiffer
• Benson Pickett
• Pilar
• Judge Pointer
• Carmandy Proust
• David Quaid
• Willa Rogan
• Leah Rose (née Rose Bernstein)
• Wayne Rowan
• Dirk Russell
• Shelly
• Speedo
• Teegan Stone
• Jorje Talbet
• Pauline Trueheart
• Kurtis Walter
• Edwin White-Mitchell
• Cosmo Wise

Memorable Quotations

• “I married a bright, beaming ray of sunshine. And one who’s often armed.” - Roarke to Eliza Lane and Sylvie Bowen

Eve: “Will do cop work for sex?”
Roarke: “It’s become my daily mantra.”

• “Stuff it, Jerry. This isn’t just police business. It’s humanity’s business. Humanity, Jerry!” - Teller Dory to Eve at the West End Financial Center
• “Betrayed for cookies? Et tu, fuckers?” - Eve to her bullpen
• “[Eve] closed her eyes a moment, tried her meditation mantra -- Fuck this, fuck this, fuck this -- to clear her mind.”
• “Poison was poison whether it killed you emotionally, mentally, or physically.” - Eve, musing
• “Love, when it’s real, doesn’t hang on conditions.” - Roarke to Eve
• “Love doesn’t hang on conditions, but marriage bloody well hangs on compromise.” - Roarke to Eve

YANNIs

• In actual 2061, June 28 is a Tuesday.
• Malcomb Furrier and Minerva Novak had either been married for four or six years.
• Eve told Roarke she gave Peabody two minutes to talk about the Great House Project on the way to Queens, but it was really on the way across town to Vera’s penthouse from the café where they met Samantha.
• When Peabody told Eve, “My mom is making us the lights for the dining area,“ Eve asked, “You can make lights?“ Mira’s 2060 Christmas present from her daughter and son-in-law, mentioned in Obsession in Death, was a fancy lamp over an array of flowering plants spilling from stone-gray pots along Mira’s windowsill, adding extra light to the winter sun in her office. Gillian made the pots and started the plants from seedlings, and her husband made the light. “They’re a clever pair.” Therefore Eve knew this was possible.
• Roarke said he would have been 12 twenty-five years ago when Leah Rose died from an overdose: “I've failed in my duty to know all about all, even what happened in New York when I was roughly twelve and in Dublin.” [Roarke maybe would have been eleven.]
• Tinker to Evers to Chance is a DOUBLE PLAY combo not a triple play combo as Eve mentioned to Nadine.