by J. D. Robb
Final satisfaction: removal of the eyes. Owning the eyes, Eve thought. Arranging the body in a specifically chosen manner and location.
He’d be back to the arousal stage again. If not now, soon.
She swung her legs off, wrote up her daily, then gathered what she needed for an evening session at home.
She went out to Peabody’s desk. “I’m hitting some of the gyms, working my way uptown toward home. If you’re with me, you’ll have to get yourself back downtown when we call it a day.”
“I’m not missing a chance to ogle and interrogate big, sweaty guys. I might cut out at six, though, unless we’ve got something. McNab and I have a packing date tonight.”
“A packing date?”
“Yeah, we’ve got to get some serious packing done at my place. We’ll be moving into our place in a few days. Our place.” She patted her belly. “Still gives me a little bit of the jitters.”
“You can’t imagine what it gives me,” Eve said, and walked away when Peabody snorted.
Chapter 9
They spent a couple of hours talking to men with big pecs and tree-trunk legs in workout facilities that carved out the frills and concentrated on the testosterone.
Peabody’s main complaint was that a large percentage of the members seemed to be more interested in ogling themselves or each other rather than a certain police detective.
It was a fishing expedition, Eve thought as she swung toward home. And she didn’t feel any appreciable tugs on her line. Yet.
She’d start running names, that’s all. The few hundred of them she’d compiled from membership and subscription lists. See if she got any pops on sex crimes. He hadn’t started down his current path yesterday.
He’d be single, so that would eliminate more. He wasn’t gay, or hadn’t recognized himself as such. He didn’t work nights; that’s when he killed.
No human hair recovered on the victim or from the murder or dump sites. Had he sealed that up thoroughly, or did he—like some of the obsessive body guys she’d seen today—regularly remove his head and body hair?
She could almost, almost, get a picture of him in her head.
Trying to define it, she turned toward the gates of home. Then was forced to stomp on the brakes when they remained shut.
“Summerset, you prick.”
She lowered the window, barked into the intercom. “Open the damn gates, you rat-faced, pointy-assed—”
“One moment, please. Your voice print is being identified.”
“I’ll give you my voice print. I’ll give you my voice print all over your—”
She broke off again, hissing as the gates slid open. “Thinks he’s got a new trick up his sleeve to bust my chops. Thinks he’s going to keep me stewing outside the gates now while he runs his little game. If he had balls, I’d kick them into his throat.”
She slammed out of the car, jogged up the steps, and burst into the house ready to rumble.
“If you wish automated entry, Lieutenant,” Summerset said before she could spew, “you’ll need to inform us when you intend to arrive in a strange vehicle. One not yet scanned and cleared for security. Otherwise, as you know, you’re required to announce yourself so the system can read and verify your voice identification or access codes.”
Shit. He had her there.
“It’s not a strange vehicle. It’s my vehicle.”
He gave her his sour smile. “Come up in the world, have we?”
“Just blow me.” Annoyed at the missed opportunity to pound on him, she started up the stairs.
“You have guests. Roarke is entertaining Mavis and Leonardo on the west terrace, first level. I’m about to serve canapés.”
“Goodie.” But since the half candy bar was now a far, fond memory, she could admit, privately, that anything involving food sounded fine to her.
She wound her way through the house, and found everyone sipping drinks. Not exactly, she corrected. Mavis was gesturing with her glass as she bubbled, more frothy than the lemon fizz in her hand.
She stood on the patio in a pair of shimmering green boots that ran up to her knees like a thin coat of paint, where they met equally tight pants in red, no blue, no red.
Eve narrowed her eyes as the pants changed hues every time Mavis wiggled, which was always. The shimmering green top floated down to her hips, where a lot of beads dangled.
Her hair was red today and, to Eve’s relief stayed that way, even when she danced in place. She’d left it down so it trailed along her butt, with the ends picking up that same shimmering green, as if they’d been dipped in paint.
The two men watched her, Roarke with a bemused and affectionate smile, and Leonardo with open adoration.
Roarke shifted his gaze, winked at Eve.
Rather than interrupt, Eve crossed over to where a wine bottle and glasses were set up. She poured herself a drink, then crossed the patio to sit on the arm of Roarke’s chair.
“Dallas!” Mavis threw out her arms, and somehow didn’t spill a single fizzing drop. “Did you just get here?”
“Just.”
“I didn’t know if we’d get to see you. But we wanted to come by so I could give Summerset a smoochie.”
“Please, you’re going to make me sick.”
Mavis only laughed. “Then Roarke came in right behind us, so we’re having a little hang. We’re getting snacks.”
Her eyes, green to go with the shimmer, danced.
“So I hear.” Eve leaned around Roarke. “How’s it going?” she asked Leonardo.
“Couldn’t be better.” He beamed at Mavis. He was a giant of a man, with skin of coppery gold. A wide face with dark eyes that were currently accented with a sweeping line of silver studs at each corner.
He wore boots as well, pale blue that rode up his calves. There his loose sapphire pants sort of poofed into them, reminding Eve of pictures she’d seen of—she thought—Arabia.
“Oh, boy, here’s food!” Mavis made the dash over as Summerset rolled out a two-tiered trolley, laden with trays of fancy appetizers and sweets. “Summerset, if it wasn’t for Leonardo, I’d scoop you right up and make you my love slave.”
He smiled, a wide, toothy smile. Fearing nightmares, Eve turned away and stared into her wine.
“I believe I have several of your favorites here. You’re eating for two.”
“Tell me! I’m like an oinker every five minutes. Oooh, that’s the salmon thingy with the stuff! This is just mag.”
She popped it into her mouth. “I just love eating.”
“You sit down now, honeypot.” Leonardo walked over, rubbed her shoulder. “I’m going to fix you a plate.”
“Cuddle bear,” she cooed. “He totally spoils me. This pregs business is the top deal of the day. You gotta look.”
Even as Mavis reached for the hem of her shirt, Eve was curling into herself and wincing. “Oh, Mavis, I don’t . . . oh well.”
There was the belly, in all its glory and accented by an interlinking trio of belly-button rings.
“Now check this.” Still holding the shirt up, Mavis turned to the side. “See? It’s poking. I know I said it was poking before. You know like five seconds after I found out I was knocked up, but now it completely is.”
Eve tilted her head, pursed her lips. There was a little bit of a slope in that area. “Are you pushing it out?”
“No. Feel.”
Eve wasn’t quite quick enough to whip her hand behind her back. “I don’t wanna. Don’t make me touch it again.”
“You can’t hurt it.” She pressed Eve’s hand to her belly. “Solid baby.”
“That’s good, Mavis.” Her palm was going to go damp any second. “Really good. You’re feeling okay?”
“At the summit. Everything is totally uptown.”
“You look beautiful,” Roarke told her. “And cliché or not, you glow.”
“I feel like I’m sending off waves.” She laughed and bounced to a chair. “I still get the weepies sometimes, but they
’re happy weepies mostly. Like Leonardo and I were talking a couple days ago about how Peabody and McNab are moving into the building soon, and we’re going to be neighbors, at least until we get a bigger place, and I just flooded.”
She took the plate Leonardo brought her and cuddled up with him on the padded love seat. “So what do you think they want for, like, a housewarming?”
“Don’t they have regulation temp control?”
“Jeez, Dallas.” With a giggle, Mavis popped something else in her mouth. “Housewarming. You know, where people move into a new place and you get them a gift.”
“Hold on. You have to give them a gift for moving?”
“Uh-huh. Plus they’re shacking, so it should be a couple thing.” She ate another canapé, fed one to Leonardo.
“Why does there have to be a gift for every damn thing?” Eve complained.
“Retail conspiracy.” Roarke patted her knee.
“I bet it is,” Eve said darkly. “I just bet it is.”
“Anyway.” Mavis waved it all away. “We really came by—and we’re all pumped that you’re both here—because we wanted to talk to you about the baby.”
“Mavis, since you got pregnant, when haven’t you wanted to talk about the baby?” Eve leaned over, took a canapé from her plate. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
“Yeah, but this is a specific thing, that involves you.”
“Me?” Eve licked her thumb and decided to steal another loaded cracker from Mavis’s plate.
“Uh-huh. We want you to be my backup coach.”
“You’re taking up baseball?” Eve bit into the salmon thingy with the stuff, and decided it wasn’t half bad. “Shouldn’t you wait until you get the kid out of there?”
“No. Labor and delivery coach. You’d back up Leonardo when I have the baby.”
Eve choked on the canapé and turned white.
“Take a drink, darling,” Roarke said with a laugh in his voice. “Put your head between your knees if you feel dizzy.”
“Shut up. Are you talking about . . . like, being there? In the actual place at the actual time? In the same room as . . . it.”
“You can’t coach me through it if you’re in Queens, Dallas. You gotta have a backup coach, somebody who takes the class, learns about the breathing and the positions and the . . . stuff. Daddy Bear’s first string, but you have to have one on the bench.”
“Can I just stay on the bench? Outside?”
“I need you there.” Tears swam into her eyes until they shimmered brighter than her boots. “You’re my best friend in the whole universe. I need you with me.”
“Oh man. Okay, okay. Don’t flood. I’ll do it.”
“We feel,” Leonardo said, and offered Mavis a green cloth to dab at her eyes, “that first for friendship there’s no one who we want to share this miracle with more. Added to that, you’re the most steady and solid people we know. In a crisis, you’d keep your heads.”
“Our heads?” Eve repeated.
“We want Roarke there, too.” Mavis sniffed into her cloth.
“Me? There?”
Eve turned her head and saw—with pleasure—the rare sight of utter panic on his face. “Not so damn funny now, is it, ace?”
“We’re permitted, even encouraged, to have family present,” Leonardo explained. “You’re our family.”
“Ah, I’m not sure it’s quite proper for me to be . . . to see Mavis in that condition. Under those . . . circumstances.”
“Get out.” Sniffles forgotten, Mavis giggled and tapped Roarke playfully on the arm. “Anybody with a vid player’s seen me mostly naked. And this isn’t about the proper. It’s about family. We know we can count on you. Both of you.”
“Of course.” Roarke swallowed a great deal of wine. “Of course, you can.”
When they were alone, sitting in the soft light of dusk with the candles Summerset had lit flickering, Roarke reached out, gripped Eve’s hands in his.
“They could change their minds. It’s still months away, and they could easily change their minds and want this . . . event to be a private one between them.”
She looked at him as if he’d sprouted a second head. “Private? Private? This is Mavis we’re dealing with.”
He shut his eyes. “God pity us.”
“And it’s just going to get . . . more.” She pulled away, sprang up. “Before you know it, before you know it she’s going to want us to deliver the thing. They’ll want to do it here, in our bedroom or something, with cameras—live feed to her fans. And us pulling the thing out of her.”
Utter and genuine horror leaped into his eyes. “Stop it, Eve. Stop it now.”
“Yeah, live feed, that’s Mavis to the ground. And we’ll do it.” She spun back to him. “We’ll do it because she’s just sucking us in. Sucking us in like some . . .” She windmilled her arms. “Like some big sucking thing. Some big pregnant sucking thing.”
“Let’s just calm down.” With the images Eve painted playing in his head, Roarke took out a cigarette. Lighting it, he ordered himself to think rationally. “Surely you’ve done this sort of thing before. You’re a cop. You must have at least been on hand during a birthing.”
“Uh-uh. Nope. No. Once, when I was still on patrol, we had to take this woman into a health center. Jesus, she was screaming like somebody was ramming steel spikes into her crotch.”
“Merciful Jesus, Eve, could you dispense with some of the imagery?”
But she was wound up now. “And something gives way in there, and stuff’s pouring out of her. Fluids, you know?”
“I don’t, no. And I don’t care to.”
“Made a hell of a mess in the cruiser. But at least she had the decency—the common courtesy—to wait until she was inside, with the doctor or midwife or whoever the hell, before she pushed it out.”
For a moment, Roarke pressed his fingers to his temples. “We can’t think about this anymore. We’ll go mad if we do. We have to think about something else.” He stabbed the cigarette out. “Entirely.”
She drew one long, shaky breath. “You’re right. I’ve got work.”
“Murder. Much better. Let me help. I beg you.”
She had to laugh. “Sure. It’s the least I can do. Step into my office.”
She took his hand, filling him in as they went inside and up.
“How much do you intend to use this Celina Sanchez?”
“I’d like to keep it minimal.” She sat at her desk, kicked back to prop her feet on the edge. “She’s got the Dimatto seal of approval, and she’s even likable enough. I’d even call her steady. But it’s not a good fit for me. Still, she’s cued in to this, so I can’t ignore what she can give me.”
“I knew a man who kept a sensitive on staff and wouldn’t make a decision without her. Worked well enough for him, as it happened.”
“You got any?”
“I do. Precogs, clairvoyants, sensitives. I don’t dismiss what they’ve been given, or what they can offer. But I prefer making my own decisions in the final run. You’ll do the same.”
“So far, her—let’s call it intel—isn’t adding much to my basic, nonsensitive cop work. But it matches it.”
She frowned, mentally picking her way through the data and speculation. “Impressions we could pick up at the kill site, and the ones we got leading to the dump site, indicate a size fifteen shoe. We may be able to make the tread, or at least a partial, if Dickhead in the lab works some magic. Ground and grass were dry, but when he added her weight, he left some impressions.”
“Well, that’s a large foot you’ve got there, but not all men with big feet are big men.”
“Big enough to leave impressions on dry grass, strong enough to lift and carry a hundred and thirty pounds of deadweight. You’ve got to speculate, do the probabilities. And when you do, you come up with a man between two hundred and seventy and eighty pounds. My guess would be a height of between six four and six eight.”
He nodded, ima
gined he was building a picture in his mind similar to the one in hers. “And if you take it further, you assume that kind of strength and body type comes from discipline and dedication.”
“Body sculpting procedures can give you the build, but they can’t give you the strength.”
“Hence, your foray into the world of musclemen.”
“Reminded me I like my guys more on the lanky side.”
“Lucky for me.”
“I can’t find any connection between the two missing and presumed and my vic, other than their predilection for fussy stuff and frequenting at least some of the same outlets for supplies.”
“I could spare you time and look deeper there.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“You can’t buy a fifteen shoe just anywhere,” Roarke continued. “You’d have to special order, or use a specialty outlet. For that matter, if your man is as described, he wouldn’t be able to buy anything off the rack.”
“Right. He’d need Enormous Guys ‘R’ Us, or the like.”
“Catchy,” Roarke mused. “I’ll keep it in mind if I ever open a specialty retail outlet of that nature.”
“I’m going to do a search and locate on specialty retail outlets of that nature,” she said, mimicking his accent and making him grin. “Tonight.”
“Well then, we should both be busy enough to keep our minds off things best not thought about. Before we go to our respective corners, tell me this: Why does he do it?”
“Control. Abuse is always about control. Rape is about control, and at its core, so is murder. Even if the motive for murder is greed, jealousy, self-preservation, rage, or entertainment, it still comes down to control.”
“All crime comes down to it at its base, don’t you think? I’ll take this from you, be it your wallet or your life, because I can.”
“Why did you steal when you did?”
A hint of a smile played around his mouth. “All manner of selfish and entertaining reasons, Lieutenant. Certainly to possess something I hadn’t had, before I took it for myself. And the pleasure of doing so successfully.”
“To punish the person who possessed it first?”