Scary Roarke

“You’re a scary guy, Roarke.” - Eve Dallas, Vengeance in Death

Introduction

Roarke’s scary times.

• In Progress...

Rapture in Death

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Revenge for Jess Barrow planting subliminal commands that had Roarke raping Eve:

Eve: “You had no business monitoring this interview.”
Roarke: “I beg to differ. I had every business. He’s coming around. I’d like my moment with him now.”
Eve: “Listen, Roarke--”
Roarke: [He cut her off with one swift, ice-edged stare.] “Now”
That was the trouble between them, she decided. Both of them were so used to giving orders that neither of them took orders well. But she remembered the stricken look in his eyes when he’d backed away from her. They had both been used, she thought, but Roarke had been victimized.
Eve: “You’ve got five minutes. That’s it. And I’m going to warn you right now. The record shows he’s relatively undamaged. If there are marks on him, it’s going to swing back on me and compromise my case against him.”
His lips twitched in a bare flicker of a smile as he took her arm and led her to the door.
Roarke: “Lieutenant, give me some credit. I’m a civilized man.” He shut the door in her face, locked it. And he thought, he knew how to cause great discomfort to the human body without leaving so much as a dent. He walked over, hauled Jess out of the chair, and shook him until his eyes blinked into focus.
Roarke: “Awake now, are you? And aware?”
Barrow: [Sweat pooled cold at the base of Jess’s spine. He was looking into the face of murder, and he knew it.] “I want a lawyer.”
Roarke: “You’re not dealing with the cops now. You’re dealing with me. At least for the next five minutes. And you have no rights or privileges here.”
Barrow: “You can’t lay a hand on me. If you do, it’ll slap right back on your wife.”
Roarke: [Roarke’s lips curved and struck a fresh fist of terror in Jess’s gut.] “I’m going to show you just how mistaken you are in that.”
His eyes never left Jess’s face as he reached down, grabbed onto his penis, and twisted. It was some satisfaction to see every drop of blood drain out of the man’s face and watch his mouth work like a guppy’s as it gasped for air. With his thumb, he pressed gently on Jess’s windpipe and cut off even that thin passage of air until the silver eyes bulged.
Roarke: “Hell, isn’t it, to be led around by the cock?” He gave one last jerk of the wrist before letting Jess collapse into the chair and curl up like a shrimp.
Roarke: “Now, let’s talk about private matters.”
Out in the corridor, Eve paced up and down, glancing every few seconds at the thick door. She knew very well if Roarke had implemented the soundproofing, Jess could be shrieking his lungs out and she wouldn’t hear. If he killed him... Good God if he killed him, how was she going to handle it? She stopped, appalled, and pressed a hand to her stomach. How could she even consider it? She was duty bound to protect the bastard. There were rules. Whatever her personal feelings, there were rules. She marched to the door, coded in, and hissed out a breath as her code was denied.
Eve: “Son of a bitch. Goddamn it, Roarke.” He knew her too well. With little hope, she raced down the corridor, into his office, and tried the connecting door. Entrance denied. She streaked to the monitor, cued up the security camera for her office, and found he’d locked her out of that as well.
Eve: “God almighty, he is killing him.” She rushed the door again, beat on it uselessly with her fist. Moments later, like magic, the locks slicked back, and the door slid quietly open. She went through at a dead run and saw Roarke calmly sitting at her desk, smoking. Her heart pounded as she looked down at Jess. He was pale as death, his pupils the size of pinpricks, but he was breathing. In fact, he was wheezing out air like a faulty temperature control.
Roarke: “He’s unmarked, and I believe he’s begun to see the error of his ways.”
Eve leaned down, peered closely into Jess’s eyes, and watched him cringe back into the chair like a kicked dog. The sound he made was barely human.
Eve: “What the hell did you do to him?”
He doubted Eve or the NYPSD would approve of the tricks he’d picked up in his more shadowy travels.
Roarke: “Much less than he deserved.”
She straightened and now took a long, hard look at Roarke. He looked like a man about to entertain late night guests or chair an important business meeting. His suit was unwrinkled, his hair unmussed, his hands perfectly steady. But his eyes, she noted, were just on the down side of wild.
Eve: “Christ, you’re scary.”
Peabody returned to announce the arrival of the MTs and said, “He must have hit his head pretty hard. Still looks dazed, skin’s clammy.” She offered Roarke a wide smile. “I know just how that feels.”
Roarke: “No, Peabody. In this case, I don’t believe you do.”

Vengeance in Death

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• Roarke lists the men he killed in retribution for their part in the abduction, rape, torture, and murder of Marlena Kolchek, and their methods of execution:
  • Charles O’Malley. Murder by disembowelment, August 5, 2042. Unsolved.
  • Matthew Riley. Murder by evisceration, November 12, 2042.
  • Donald Cagney. Murder by hanging, April 22, 2043.
  • Michael Rowan. Murder by suffocation, December 2, 2043.
  • Rory McNee, murder by drowning, March 18, 2044.
  • John Calhoun, murder by poisoning, July 31, 2044.

Eve: “Who else knew what you were doing?”
Roarke: “I didn’t pop into the pub after and brag about it over a pint. But word and rumor travel. I wanted it known in any case. I wanted to give them time to sweat.”
Eve: “You’re a scary guy, Roarke.”

Judgment in Death

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• At Purgatory, when Ricker arrives, Roarke takes him to his booth. Ricker’s men attempts to check Roarke for weapons but Roarke stops him with a threat. Eve watches from a control booth and asks Feeney if Roarke’s system will override Ricker’s weapons scans. Feeney assures her it will, saying that it did with police scanners. Eve assigns each of her team to each of Ricker’s men.
• The meeting between Roarke and Ricker continues and once pleasantries are done with, they move to the topic of Eve’s safety. Roarke puts on the act of a scared and desperate husband and asks Ricker what he wants to guarantee Eve’s safety. Ricker counters that he enjoys hurting Eve and Roarke pleads. Ricker answers $10 million USD and he will terminate the contract he has on Eve. The money must be transferred by midnight. Roarke warns Ricker he should be careful about putting a contract on a cop. Roarke then tells Ricker he’s interested in more than protecting Eve, that he has some funds and is looking for other investments--that he’s tired of the straight and narrow path. Ricker says Roarke’s gone soft because of Eve; he threatens to kill Roarke and Roarke says he’ll gain nothing by that.
• Roarke then starts pushing Ricker’s buttons by mentioning the end of their association years before which angers Ricker. He tells Ricker they can help each other, offering his (Roarke’s) contacts at the NYPSD. Ricker replies he has his own. Roarke counters they’re not Eve and that he (Roarke) could convince her to work for Ricker. He tells Ricker he’s working on getting Eve to resign that he “wants a wife, not a bloody cop.” Ricker tells Roarke he can make Eve’s resignation happen if Roarke will turn over Purgatory and for taking some inventory for another $10 million. Roarke answers he doesn’t deal in illegals. Ricker loses control which makes Eve ready to move in. Roarke asks for time to think, realizing Ricker is indeed insane; he asks how Ricker intends to arrange Eve’s resignation without it having it come back to him (Roarke).
• Ricker says he can ruin Eve’s career within a week. Roarke plays into Ricker’s delusion saying Eve will apologize and Ricker is in control. Ricker tells Roarke “…misinformation, skewed data in the right computer. It works.” Roarke pulls out of Ricker that he’s (Ricker) behind the cop killings, that he planted the idea, that it’s just a game. Ricker says it only took months for his plan: “Only a few months. It’s simply a matter of selecting the right target. A young cop, too stiff-necked to play the game. Eliminating him is simple enough, but the beauty is how it can be connected, how it can be expanded upon by planting the seeds in the heart of the grieving father. The I simply sit back and watch a once-dedicated cop kill. Again and again. And it costs me nothing…I can do it again, any time I like. Murder by proxy. No one’s safe, certainly not you. Transfer the money and until the wind changes, I’ll protect you. And your wife.”
• Roarke reconfirms Ricker’s terms of $20 million and with Ricker’s agreement, Roarke pulls a gun on Ricker and turns the tables on Ricker telling him he has been set up. Ricker replies that he and Eve are as good as dead. Eve approaches and is backhanded by Ricker; she fires her weapon at Ricker. Roarke confronts Ricker with the gun and Eve warns Roarke that killing Ricker would be for nothing. He hands the gun to her and takes hold of Ricker and reminds Ricker of who took him down and to not touch what’s his. “Listen to me now, and carefully. Touch her, put your hand on what’s mine again, and I’ll follow you to hell and peel the skin from your bones. I’ll feed you your own eyes. I take an oath on it. Remember what I was, and you’ll know I’ll do it. And worse.”
• Taking Ricker into custody and Canarde as well, Eve makes duplicates of her files on the Purgatory operation, not wanting the case to be compromised. One copy to be kept at Central, one copy in her home office.
• Eve awakens at 7 a.m. to Roarke saying Webster is awake and asking for her. On the way to the hospital, Roarke and Eve discuss the Purgatory operation; Eve tells Roarke he’s very scary, asks if the gun he had was loaded, informing him she’s going to have to do some explaining and finally asks about his wanting her at home.

Chapters 15, 23

Remember When

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• Chapter 22

Divided in Death

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• Chapters 5, 7, 21

Memory in Death

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• Chapters 3 and 19

Innocent in Death

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• Epilogue

Promises in Death

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• “Scary Roarke” by Eve when they went to interview Alex Ricker in Promises in Death

Delusion in Death

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• Since Stevenson and Reede was expecting Peabody to accompany Eve, and she (Eve) wanted to keep everybody off-balance, she asked Roarke to play aloof megaboss, which she called scary Roarke-lite, who was along because it’s on the way home. Nancy Weaver told Eve Carly Fisher was among the people killed; she was Weaver’s intern in college, then an assistant, and newly promoted.
• Eve asked to speak to Stevenson Vann alone first, since she hadn’t yet interviewed him. They head to his huge, corner office, where Roarke made himself comfortable at Vann’s desk, while Eve and Vann took the visitors’ chairs. He told Eve Joe Cattery was a go-to guy, and Vann was lead on their current campaign because he brought in the client, not because he’s related to the boss. He and Joe were friends outside of work because their sons were the same age.
• Back in the conference room with the three of them, Eve asked about Macie Snyder, if any of them saw her. Weaver and Vann said they did, and then Lewis Callaway admitted she looked familiar. Vann remembered seeing her at a table with another woman and two guys, laughing and flirting. All of them recognized Jeni Curve – she had delivered food to them or somebody else at their company most days. Vann flirted with her, but didn’t pursue it because he was working a lot on the current campaign. Callaway said she was the delivery girl, and then he called Fisher another bright girl, Nancy’s protégée.
• Nancy asked for an update, if Eve could tell them anything. After she told then the police are pursuing every angle, avenue, and lead, Callaway demanded to know what leads, if the two people Eve asked about are suspects. Callaway told Eve she has an excellent rep, but it feels like she’s treating this as a standard homicide, to which she replied that there are no standard homicides. He asked her how much experience she had with terrorism, and Roarke looked up from his PPC long enough to tell Callaway to ask those associated with the group formerly known as Cassandra. Eve acts annoyed and “lets it slip” that the HSO was involved, but asked them not to mention it since it wasn’t a matter of public record.
• Nancy told her the public had a right to know, and couldn’t she issue a warning; Eve said the warning would be to lock yourself at home or flee the city – the perpetrator wanted panic and attention, and she needed to get back to the investigation. Roarke left the doors open as they left so they could hear him telling Eve she spends too much time placating people, and it’s a tedious job, that he knows she’s frustrated that the HSO are involved, but that might allow her to sleep, which she’s barely done since this began.
• Outside, she mimicked Roarke’s comment about Cassandra, telling him “good one,” since it gave her the opportunity to slip HSO in, to maybe buy a little time before the next attack.

Calculated in Death

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• Roarke said he had to talk to entirely too many people for entirely too long when he had lunch in the executive dining room, which Eve interpreted to mean he had to be Scary Roarke.

Brotherhood in Death

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• Chapter 9

Secrets in Death

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• Roarke told Eve Larinda Mars tried to blackmail him about three years ago, shortly before they were married, and said, “Darling Eve, if I told you about everyone who tried, in various ways, to shake me down, milk me, exploit some dubious connection, or issue threats – veiled or overt – we’d talk of little else.” He asked her if she tells him about everybody who threatens to make her pay for doing her job, which she was forced to admit she did not do.
• Roarke said Mars’s aim was poor – she was wrangling for an interview, kept getting blocked by Caro, but finally managed to corner Roarke at a fund-raiser for the New York City Library and told him she needed an exclusive on their upcoming wedding; when he told her no she told him she could make things uncomfortable for him, but had nothing specific, and since Roarke doesn’t leave traces or fingerprints, she didn’t worry him.
• Eve summed it up as “You went Scary Roarke on her.” He asked Mars if she enjoyed her work and outlined a hypothetical of buying Channel 75, breaking her contract, and planting “seeds that would root in such a way that she’d be fortunate to find a job as a gofer in broadcasting at some third-rate station in Bumfuck.”
• Eve says nobody intimidates “Scary Roarke.”

Leverage in Death

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• Roarke said Jordan Banks was a wanker and a git – wealthy family, most of whom seem to do something constructive with their lives and advantages. Roarke had a close relationship with one of his cousins, who was a woman of intelligence and style, which contrasted sharply with Banks. He said Banks had the brains of a bag of wet mice, but he was sly enough and had a certain slick charm that he slithered into to convince the unsuspecting to invest or lend or offer him bounties. He tried that with Roarke when he was at the cousin’s wedding in Madrid, and Roarke told him to bugger off.

Eve: “Is he afraid of you?”
Roarke: “Why would he be?”
Eve: “When you told him to bugger off, did he bugger off or keep slithering?”
Roarke: “I believe he buggered off right quick.”
Eve: “That’s what I’m talking about. So you’ll put on the coldly polite Roarke, which is scary enough, and if I need more, you can pull out the full scary Roarke.”

• Banks played up his involvement in the business side of things, how he advised Willi on the negotiations, just like Eve asks for Roarke’s advice. He strongly encouraged the merger. He sent his condolences to the Pearsons, whose daughter, Liana, reminded him of Willi – “a fascinating woman with considerable style.” Roarke added, “and disposable income.” Eve asked who else was interested in his advice and opinion on the merger, i.e., who did he talk to. He said he would never betray Willi’s trust, and Roarke said, “Bollocks to that. You’re a bloody sieve.”
• Eve said to think about it and she bet he didn’t contact the hospital to get Willi’s status. He asked them to leave before he was forced to call security. Roarke reminded him, “It’s my building, you arse, and my security. You’d be wise to heed the lieutenant’s warning. Oh, and here’s another. Liana won’t give a wanker like you the time of day.”
• Eve told him, “That was a good scary Roarke.”

Connections in Death

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• Eve called Roarke “scary Irish boy” after Crack called her “skinny white girl.”

Shadows in Death

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• When Lorcan Cobbe made his presence known to Roarke after killing Galla Modesto, Eve asked him, “What’s going on? You’re pissed. Scary Roarke pissed.” He told her about Cobbe, suggesting she do a run on him.
• Inspector Abernathy mentioned Roarke’s family in the west of Ireland: “Everything in him went cold. Eve wondered if Abernathy felt the frosty sting of Scary Roarke.”

Passions in Death

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• After he fired Alyce Avery for stealing, which she did to try to help her son with his considerable gambling debts, and trying to blame her assistant, he spoke with her son, using the threat of her going to prison for embezzlement as motivation for him to enter rehab for gambling addiction, i.e., he was Scary Roarke.