Loyalty in Death

Loyalty in Death (1999) is a novel by J. D. Robb. It is the tenth novel in the In Death series, preceding Witness in Death

Plot summary

Lt. Eve Dallas and her assistant Delia Peabody, are called to the home of millionaire, J. Clarence Branson, the owner and co-president of Branson Toys and Tools. Considered by his friends, his brother, and his sister-in-law to be a good man, its all the more shocking when he is found with a hole drilled in the center of his heart. Branson's long-time girlfriend, Lisbeth Cook, comments about the reliability of the drill, and that she killed him because he was cheating on her. Before they can take Cook back to cop central, Dallas and Peabody are called to see a man named Ratso, who tells them he has good information to sell.

Ratso tells them about a man named Fixer, who was killed when he was beaten and drowned in the river. Fixer was, much like his name suggested, good at fixing and building. Fixer had said he had a good assignment, building bombs for a group of people. The people though, wanting to cover their trial, eliminated Fixer. Eve agrees to look at the file, eventually. Dallas and Peabody finally take Cook, and have her booked, although the PA will accept a plea bargain. Eve heads home, where she explains the case to her billionaire husband Roarke.

The next day, Dallas discovers that the PA has accepted a plea of man two, which she sees as wrong. Dallas had Peabody looking for data, when a stranger shows up looking for her. Peabody returns, and recognizes the man as Zeke Peabody, her younger brother. Zeke ends up staying with Peabody for a while.

Dallas questions B. Donald Branson, Clarence's brother, and Clarissa Branson, Donald's wife. They both claim Clarence was faithful, leaving Eve with nothing. Meanwhile, Peabody shows her brother her small apartment, and he reveals he is considering a relationship with a married woman, who is his employer. Peabody, however, is not ready for the shock, when Zeke reveals his employers are the Bransons.

Dallas heads to Fixer's shop, to find it picked clean. He has a rack that is custom designed to hold weapons, and believes it would hold an army blaster. She goes to Roarke, who confirms her suspicion. Later, Dallas attends Branson's will reading, which Roarke also attends. Little to nothing is gained however, as all the people who got money from the will already had money, and the only thing established about J. C. Branson is that he was a good man.

The next morning, Dallas is greeted by Peabody, and a text disc for her to read. The disc is from a group, calling themselves Cassandra, named after the woman of legend, claiming they will bring punishment to the city, and promising to give a demonstration of their power at 9:15 that morning. At 9:15, a bomb explodes, destroying an empty warehouse, owned by Cassandra's main target, Dallas's husband, Roarke. She returns to cop central, bruised, with Peabody. An investigative team is set to investigate these matters with Eve, Peabody, Captain Feeney and a friend of Eve's from the explosives department. It is found that the killer group here is contacting Eve before each blast. On other hand, while working at Branson's, Zeke discovers that Mrs. Branson is being tortured by her husband and both end up making a plan of running away. However, every thing goes wrong and Zeke ends up killing Branson , and dumping the body in river. Meanwhile, Peabody was having a great night with detective Mcnab( with whom she ends up cohabitating with later in the series).

When Peabody comes to know about the whole Zeke thing, she calls Eve, who pulls every string to be the primary. Roarke ,who was also on scene, calms Peabody and hires lawyers up for Zeke. The following morning Eve receives another CD with a threat of explosion at a theatre owned by Roarke. In given time, they do diffuse all the bombs but there was another bomb planted in a cafe, also owned by Roarke. Huge human loss takes place leaving Eve shaken. Another of same type blast takes place at railway station where Eve had gone to trap the Cassandra as they had demanded money, Eve's plan of catching any member flops as the group sends droids to her(machine).

In the blast, the police are successful in evacuating the area, but one of the members of Eve's team, the lady from explosive department dies. Roarke calms her and sends monetary help to all deceased. Mrs. Branson runs away leaving, Zeke confused. When Eve searches her apartment, she discovers that the lady who pretended pink from outside is actually the head of Cassandra. Roarke decodes all her codes and it is found that the group's ultimate target is to explode the Statue of liberty. It is also found that Zeke never killed Mr. Branson and it was all actually a plot to distract Eve.

Eve, with help of Roarke, goes to the Statue of Liberty and successfully saves the structure. Mrs. Branson jumps off the building. Eve and Roarke wail to home victoriously.

Anachronisims

The book was set c.2060 and at one point in the story, the Twin Towers are referred to as being a possible terrorist target. As the book was written in 1999, the author had no way of knowing that the Towers would actually be destroyed in a terrorist attack a couple of years later, and as such, would not be standing in 2060.