by J. D. Robb
‘Sure. It’s a job requirement.’
‘Right. Well, go home and pack a bag. I want you on your way to Rexal on the first transport we can arrange. You and McNab can check out the facilities, find the unit Palmer had access to.’
The initial rush from the idea of an off-planet assignment turned to ashes in her mouth. ‘McNab? I don’t need McNab.’
‘When you find the unit, you’ll need a good electronics man.’ Eve opened the door, and the blast of cold cooled the annoyed flush on Peabody’s cheeks.
‘He’s a pain in the ass.’
‘Sure he is, but he knows his job. If Feeney can spare him, you’re the off-planet team.’ She reached for her communicator, intending to interrupt Feeney’s sleep and get the ball rolling. A scream from the end of the block had her drawing her weapon instead.
She pounded west, boots digging into the slick sidewalk. With one quick gesture, she signaled Dalrymple to stay at his post in the surveillance van.
She saw the woman first, wrapped in sleek black fur, clinging to a man with an overcoat over a tux. He was trying to shield her face and muffle her mouth against his shoulder. The pitch and volume of her screams indicated he wasn’t doing a very good job of it.
‘Police!’ He shouted it as he saw Peabody and Eve running toward them. ‘Here’s the police, honey. My God, my God, what’s this city coming to? He threw it out, threw it out right at our feet.’
It, Eve saw, was Carl Neissan. His naked and broken body lay face up against the curb. His head had been shaved, she noted, and the tender skin abraded and burned. His knees were shattered, his protruding tongue blackened. Around his neck, digging deep, was the signature noose. And the message carved into his chest was still red and raw.
WOE UNTO YOU ALSO, YE LAWYERS!
The woman’s screaming had turned to wailing now. Eve tuned it out. With her eyes on the body, she pulled out her communicator. ‘This is Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. I have a homicide.’
She gave Dispatch the necessary information, then turned to the male witness. ‘You live around here?’
‘Yes, yes, this building on the corner. We were just coming home from a party when—’
‘My aide is going to take your companion inside, away from this. Out of the cold. We’ll need her statement. I’d appreciate it if you’d stay out here with me for a few minutes.’
‘Yes, of course. Yes. Honey.’ He tried to pry his wife’s hands from around his neck. ‘Honey, you go with the policewoman. Go inside now.’
‘Peabody,’ Eve said under her breath, ‘take honey out of here, get what you can out of her.’
‘Yes, sir. Ma’am, come with me.’ With a couple of firm tugs Peabody had the woman.
‘It was such a shock,’ he continued. ‘She’s very delicate, my wife. It’s such a shock.’
‘Yes, sir, I’m sure it is. Can I have your names, please?’
‘What? Oh. Fitzgerald. George and Maria.’
Eve got the names and the address on record. In a few minutes she would have a crowd to deal with, she knew. Even jaded New Yorkers would gather around a dead, naked body on Madison Avenue.
‘Can you – sir, look at me,’ she added when he continued to stare at the body. He was going faintly green. ‘Look at me,’ she repeated, ‘and try to tell me exactly what happened.’
‘It was all so fast, so shocking.’ Reaction began to set in, showing in the way his hand trembled as he pressed it to his face. ‘We’d just come from the Andersons’. They had a holiday party tonight. It’s only a block over, so we walked. We’d just crossed the street when there was a squeal of brakes. I barely paid attention to it – you know how it is.’
‘Yes, sir. What did you see?’
‘I glanced back, just out of reflex, I suppose. I saw a dark car – black, I think. No, no, not a car – one of those utility vehicles. The sporty ones. It stopped right here. Right here. You can still see the skid marks in the snow. And then the door opened. He pushed – he all but flung this poor man out, right at our feet.’
‘You saw the driver?’
‘Yes, yes, quite clearly. This corner is very well lit. He was a young man, handsome. Light hair. He smiled … he smiled at me just as the door opened. Why, I think I smiled back. He had the kind of face that makes you smile. I’m sure I could identify him. I’m sure of it.’
‘Yeah.’ Eve let out a breath, watched the wind snatch it away as the first black-and-whites arrived on the scene. You wanted to be seen, didn’t you, Dave? she thought. And you wanted me to be close, very close, when you gave me Carl.
‘You can go inside with your wife, Mr Fitzgerald. I’ll be in touch.’
‘Yes, of course. Thank you. I – it’s Christmas week,’ he said with honest puzzlement in his eyes. ‘You live in the city, you know terrible things can and do happen. But it’s Christmas week.’
‘Joy to the world,’ Eve murmured as he walked away. She turned around and ordered the uniforms to secure the scene and prepare for the crime-scene team. Then she crouched beside Carl and got to work.
Nine
Eve spent most of the next thirty hours backtracking, searching for the step she was sure she had missed. With Peabody off-planet, she did the work herself, rerunning searches and scans, compiling data, studying reports.
She did personal drop-bys at both the safe house where Justine and her family were being kept and Mira’s home. She ran checks on their security bracelets to confirm that they were in perfect working order.
He couldn’t get to them, she assured herself as she paced her office. With them out of reach, he would have no choice but to come for her.
Jesus, she wanted him to come for her.
It was a mistake, she knew it was a mistake, to make it a personal battle. But she could see his face too clearly, hear his soft prep-school voice so perfectly.
But you see, Lieutenant Dallas, the work you do is nothing more than a stopgap. You don’t change anything. However many criminals you lock up today, there’ll be that many and more tomorrow. What I’m doing changes everything. The answers to questions every human being asks. How much is too much, how much will the mind accept, tolerate, bear, if you will, before it shuts down? And before it does, what thoughts, what impulses go through the mind as the body dies?
Death, Lieutenant, is the focus of your work and of mine. And while we both enjoy the brutality that goes with it, in the end I’ll have my answers. You’ll only have more questions.
She only had one question now, Eve thought. Where are you, Dave?
She turned back to her computer. ‘Engage, open file Palmer, H3492-G. Cross-reference all files and data pertaining to David Palmer. Run probability scan. What is the probability that Palmer, David, is now residing in New York City?’
Working … Using current data the probability is ninety-seven point six that subject Palmer now resides in New York City.
‘What is the probability that subject Palmer resides in a private home?’
Working … probability ninety-five point eight that subject Palmer is residing in a private home at this time.
‘Given the status of the three remaining targets of subject Palmer, which individual will he attempt to abduct next?’
Working … strongest probability is for target Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Attempts on targets Polinsky and Mira are illogical given current status.
‘That’s what you’re hoping for.’
She turned her head. Roarke stood in the doorway between their offices, watching her. ‘That’s what I’m counting on.’
‘Why aren’t you wearing a tracer bracelet?’
‘They don’t have one that goes with my outfit.’ She straightened, turned to face him. ‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘Do you?’ He crossed to her. ‘Or are you too close to this one? He’s gotten to you, Eve. He’s upset your sense of balance. It’s become almost intimate between you.’
‘It’s always intimate.’
‘Maybe.’ He brushed a thumb jus
t above her left cheek-bone. Her eyes were shadowed, her face pale. She was, he knew, running on nerves and determination now. He’d seen it before. ‘In any case, you’ve interrupted his work. He has no one now.’
‘He won’t wait long. I don’t need the computer analysis to tell me that. We’ve got less than forty hours left in the year. I don’t want to start the new one knowing he’s out there. He won’t want to start it without me.’
‘Neither do I.’
‘You won’t have to.’ Because she sensed he needed it, she leaned into him, closed her mouth over his. ‘We’ve got a date.’
‘I’ll hold you to it.’
When she started to ease back, he slid his arms around her, brought her close. ‘I’m not quite done here,’ he murmured, and sent her blood swimming with a hard and hungry kiss.
For a moment that was all there was. The taste of him, the feel of him pressed against her, the need they created in each other time after time erupting inside her.
Giving herself to it, and to him, was as natural as breathing.
‘Roarke, remember how on Christmas Eve we got naked and crazy?’
‘Mmm.’ He moved his mouth to her ear, felt her tremble. ‘I believe I recall something of that.’
‘Well, prepare yourself for a review on New Year’s Eve.’ She drew his head back, framing his face as she smiled at him. ‘I’ve decided it’s one of our holiday traditions.’
‘I feel very warmly toward tradition.’
‘Yeah, and if I feel much warmer right now, I’m not going to get my job done, so …’
She jumped away from him when her ’link beeped and all but pounced on it. ‘Dallas.’
‘Lieutenant.’ Peabody’s face swam on, swam off again, then came shakily back.
‘Peabody, either your transmission’s poor or you’ve grown a second nose.’
‘The equipment here’s worse than what we deal with at Central.’ The audio came through with a snake hiss of static. ‘And I don’t even want to talk about the food. When you’re planning your next holiday vacation, steer clear of Rexal.’
‘And it was top of my list. What have you got for me?’
‘I think we just caught a break. We’ve tracked down at least one unit Palmer had access to. It’s in the chapel. He convinced the padre he’d found God and wanted to read Scripture and write an inspirational book on salvation.’
‘Glory hallelujah. Can McNab access his files?’
‘He says he can. Shut up, McNab.’ Peabody turned her head. The fact that her face became a vivid orange could have been temper or space interference. ‘I’m giving this report. And I’m reporting, sir, that Detective McNab is still one big butt ache.’
‘So noted. What does he have so far?’
‘He found the files on the book Palmer used to hose the preacher. And he claims he’s working down the levels. Hey!’
The buzzing increased and the screen blurred with color, lines, figures. Eve pressed her fingers to her eyes and prayed for patience.
McNab’s cheerful, attractive face came on. Eve noted that he wore six tiny silver hoops in one ear. So he hadn’t decided to tone down his look for a visit to a rehabilitation center.
‘Dallas. This guy knows his electronics, so he took basic precautions with his personal data, but – take a hike, She-Body, this is my area. Anyway, Lieutenant, I’m scraping off the excess now. He’s got stuff tucked under his praise-the-Lord hype. It won’t take me long to start picking it out. The trouble, other than your aide’s constant griping, is transmitting to you. We’ve got crap equipment here and a meteor storm or some such happy shit happening. It’s going to cause some problems.’
‘Can you work on the unit on a transport?’
‘Ah … sure. Why not?’
‘Confiscate the unit, catch the first transpo back. Report en route.’
‘Wow, that’s iced. Confiscate. You hear that, She-Body? We’re confiscating this little bastard.’
‘Get started,’ Eve ordered. ‘If they give you any grief, have the warden contact me. Dallas out.’
Eve drove into Cop Central, making three unnecessary stops on the way. If Palmer was going to make a move on her, he’d do it on the street. He’d know he would never be able to break through the defenses of Roarke’s fortress. But she spotted no tail, no shadow.
More, she didn’t feel him.
Would he go for her in the station? she wondered as she took the glide up to the EDD sector to consult with Feeney. He’d used a cop’s disguise to get to Carl. He could put it to use again, slip into the warrenlike building, blend with the uniforms.
It would be a risk, but a risk like that would increase the excitement, the satisfaction.
She studied faces as she went. Up glides, through breeze-ways, down corridors, past cubes and offices.
Once she’d updated Feeney and arranged for him to consult with McNab on the unit en route, she elbowed her way onto a packed elevator to make the trip to Commander Whitney’s office.
She spent the morning moving through the building, inviting a confrontation, then she took to the streets for the afternoon.
She recanvased the houses she and Peabody had already hit. Left herself in the open. She bought bad coffee from a glide cart, loitered in the cold and the smoke of grilling soy-dogs.
What the hell was he waiting for? she thought in disgust, tossing the coffee cup into a recycling bin. The sound of a revving engine had her glancing over her shoulder. And she looked directly into Palmer’s eyes.
He sat in his vehicle, grinned at her, blew her an exaggerated kiss. Even as she leaped forward, he hit vertical lift, shot up and streaked south.
She jumped into her car, going air as she squealed away from the curb. ‘Dispatch, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. All units, all units in the vicinity of Park and Eighty respond. I’m in ground-to-air chase with murder suspect. Vehicle is a black new-issue Booster-6Z, New York license number Delta Able Zero-4821, temporary. Heading south on Park.’
‘Dispatch, Dallas. Received and confirmed. Units dispatched. Is subject vehicle in visual range?’
‘No. Subject vehicle went air at Park and Eighty, headed south at high speed. Subject should be considered armed and dangerous.’
‘Acknowledged.’
‘Where’d you go, where’d you go, you little son of a bitch?’ Eve rapped the wheel with her fist as she zipped down Park, shot down cross streets, circled back. ‘Too fast,’ she muttered. ‘You went under too fast. Your hole’s got to be close.’
She set down, did her best to bank her temper, to use her head and not her emotions. She’d let the search run another thirty minutes, though she’d already decided it was useless. He’d had the vehicle tucked away in a garage or lot minutes after she’d spotted him. After he’d made certain she’d spotted him.
That meant canvases of every parking facility in three sectors. Public and private. And with the budget, it would take days. The department wouldn’t spare the manpower necessary to handle the job any quicker.
She stayed parked where she was, on the off chance that Palmer would try another taunt. After aborting the search, she did slow sweeps through the sectors herself, working off frustration before she drove home through the dark and the snarling traffic.
She didn’t bother to snipe at Summerset, though he gave her ample opportunity. Instead, scooping up the cat, which circled her legs, she climbed the stairs. Her intent was to take a blistering-hot shower, drink a gallon of coffee, and go back to work.
Her reality was to fall facedown on the bed. Galahad climbed onto her butt, kneaded his way to comfort, curled up, and went on guard with his eyes slitted on the door.
That’s how Roarke found them an hour later.
‘I’ll take over from here,’ he murmured, giving the cat a quick scratch between the ears. But when he started to drape a blanket over his wife, Eve stirred.
‘I’m awake. I’m just—’
‘Resting your eyes. Yes, I know.’ To keep her prone, Ro
arke stretched out beside her, stroked the hair away from her cheek. ‘Rest them a bit longer.’
‘I saw him today. The son of a bitch was ten feet away, and I lost him.’ She closed her eyes again. ‘He wants to piss me off so I stop thinking. Maybe I did, but I’m thinking now.’
‘And what are you thinking, Lieutenant?’
‘That I’ve been counting too much on the fact that I know him, that I’ve been inside his head. I’ve been tracking him without factoring in one vital element.’
‘Which is?’
She opened her eyes again. ‘He’s fucking crazy.’ She rolled over, stared at the sky window and the dark beyond it. ‘You can’t predict insanity. Whatever the head shrinkers call it, it comes down to crazy. There’s no physical, no psychological reason for it. It just is. He just is. I’ve been trying to predict the unpredictable. So I keep missing. It’s not his work this time. It’s payback. The other names on the list are incidental. It’s me. He needed them to get to me.’
‘You’d already concluded that.’
‘Yeah, but what I didn’t conclude, and what I’m concluding now, is he’s willing to die, as long as he takes me out. He doesn’t intend to go back to prison. I saw his eyes today. They were already dead.’
‘Which only makes him more dangerous.’
‘He has to find a way to get to me, so he’ll take risks. But he won’t risk going down before he’s finished with me. He needs bait. Good bait. He must know about you.’
She sat up now, raking her hair back. ‘I want you to wear a bracelet.’
He lifted a brow. ‘I will if you will.’
A muscle in her cheek jumped as she set her teeth. ‘I phrased that incorrectly. You’re going to wear a bracelet.’
‘I believe such things are voluntary unless the subject has committed a crime.’ He sat up himself, caught her chin in his hand. ‘He won’t get to you through me. That I can promise. But if you expect me to wear NYPSD accessories, you’ll have to wear a matching one. Since you won’t, I don’t believe this conversation has a point.’