Faithless in Death

by Robb, J. D.

  “Harris will keep her steady. She’s trained for it. If Zoe follows through, she should be on the corner of Moore and Greenwich. But at the rate we’re going, we may beat her there.”

  New York hit its quiet pocket. Some cars zipped now and then. A block-long white limo streamed by with a couple of women standing, arms outstretched, in the sunroof.

  Eve heard their “Wooooo-hoooo!” carry boozily on the night air.

  As Roarke barreled south, she saw a man in sweatpants walking a dog about the size of a large rat. The man had a poop-scoop sticking out of his pocket and shuffled behind the dog like a sleepwalker.

  Roarke avoided the endless party at Times Square and kept to the quiet, nearly empty streets where he could let the car fly.

  When he circled to the corner, no one waited.

  “Stay in the car,” Eve told him. “I’m going to walk in her direction.”

  “She sounded sincerely terrified, Eve, but there’s no guarantee this isn’t a setup.”

  She merely opened the jacket he’d pulled out for her to wear, exposed her weapon.

  Still, she’d gone no more than a yard when she saw a woman, a bulging bag on one shoulder, a toddler on the other hip, doing her best to run.

  She’d seen her before, Eve remembered, carting the kid on her back and market bags in both hands.

  “Zoe.” Eve held up a hand when the woman stumbled to a halt, didn’t quite hold back a scream. “Lieutenant Dallas. Let me help you.”

  She stepped forward to take the bag. The woman shook as if sheathed in ice. “The car’s right around the corner. The man behind the wheel’s with me. He’s with me, and we’re going to keep you safe.”

  To get her moving again, Eve put an arm around her waist. “Just a little bit farther.” Gently, Eve took the ’link out of Zoe’s hand. “Operator Harris.”

  “Right here, Lieutenant.”

  “I’ve got her now. Thank you for your assistance.”

  “Glad to help. Zoe, give Gabe a kiss for me. Operator out.”

  “She—she sang to him. He cried when I woke him up, and she sang to him. Are you taking me to the police station? If he finds me there—”

  “No.”

  Zoe shook harder when Roarke got out of the car. But he only smiled and opened the back door.

  “He’s with me,” Eve repeated. “You’re safe.”

  “Am I going to jail?”

  “No. Trust me now, Zoe. You trusted me enough to call me, to ask for help. Trust me to help you.”

  “He said the police would take me to jail and I’d never see Gabe again.”

  “He lied.”

  Still shuddering, Zoe cuddled her son and climbed in the back.

  “I’m going to sit in the back with her,” Eve said.

  Nodding, Roarke waited. He saw the little boy look at him with sad, sleepy eyes.

  When he got behind the wheel again, Eve shifted, started to speak to Zoe. But the woman pressed her face to Eve’s shoulder and wept, wept, wept.

  Saying nothing, Eve put her arms around Zoe, and Roarke drove her to safety.

  17

  When they arrived at Dochas, two women stood at the door. One Eve judged as mid-forties, the other about a decade younger. Both dressed casually and wore sympathetic smiles.

  “Welcome to Dochas,” the older one told Zoe. “You’re safe here.”

  “What is it?” Zoe looked around in wonder laced with fear.

  “Home as long as you need it.”

  “You have a very sleepy little man there.” The younger one pumped up her smile. “And so handsome. It’s Gabriel, isn’t it? I’m Natalie, and this is Gracie. Would you like to go up, get him settled in your room?”

  Zoe just wrapped tighter around her son.

  “I need to talk to Zoe. Maybe we can do that down here. Zoe, why don’t you let Natalie take your bag up to your room? You need to trust me,” she added when Zoe stayed frozen.

  “It’s hard,” Gracie said softly. “It’s hard to trust when you’ve been so afraid. Did you know Lieutenant Dallas and Roarke built this house, this lovely house, to keep women who’ve been afraid safe? Women and their children.”

  Eyes still wide and wary, Zoe looked around again. “There are other women here, and kids?”

  “Yes, and they’re all safe. Why don’t you come in here with your sweet boy, and you can sit and talk to Lieutenant Dallas? Nat can take your bag. How about some coffee, or tea?”

  “I can’t have coffee, thank you. I’m pregnant.”

  “And how far along are you?” Gracie asked as she gently led Zoe into a pretty parlor.

  “Seventeen weeks.” When the baby started fussing, Zoe jiggled him. “I think he’s hungry. He’s not used to me waking him up like this, and—”

  “Are you nursing?”

  “I’m starting to wean him. My husband wants to wean him, but—”

  “It would be a comfort to you both now with all this upheaval. Sit here now and feed your baby. Some tea for you? A nice soothing tea. Lieutenant, Roarke?”

  “Coffee’s good. Black for both of us, thanks.” Eve sat across from Zoe.

  “I’ll give you a hand with that, Gracie.” Roarke stepped out.

  “This is your house?” Zoe asked Eve.

  “No, it’s your house, and the others who come here. Why don’t we start with your full name?”

  “Zoe Metcalf. I was Zoe Brown before I got married.”

  “When was that?”

  “Two years ago.”

  “You’re a member of Natural Order.”

  “Yes. No. Yes.” Tears leaked as she shifted the baby. She unbuttoned her shirt, and smoothly flipped a flap on her bra. The baby latched on like a leech. “Harley said I had to join so we could get married. So I signed the papers, and we got married, and he brought me to New York.”

  “From where?”

  “From Ohio.”

  “How old are you, Zoe?”

  “I’m twenty-one—or I will be next month. I thought it would be wonderful to be married, and exciting to live in New York. But it’s not. I’m only allowed to go to the store or to one of the neighbors’. I can only take Gabriel to the park if one of the other women goes, too. Once I took him by myself, and Harley found out. He got so mad.”

  “Is he violent with you?”

  “Sometimes. Not bad, not like Mr. Piper with Marcia. Harley just slaps or takes away a privilege.” She stroked the baby’s cheek as he kneaded her other breast and stared up at her. “I can watch one hour of screen a day, or read for one hour, as long as all my housework is done.”

  She looked down, continued to stroke her baby’s cheek. “It’s not right. I know it’s not right. But they watch—some of the other women on the block. Gina—she lives across the street—she told me once they get extra privileges if they report infractions. She tried to leave once, but they caught her. She had a black eye after. She used to laugh a lot, but not anymore.”

  “What’s Gina’s full name?”

  Zoe looked up again. “Can you help her?”

  “I’m going to try. What’s her name?”

  “Gina Dawber. She’s the one who told me how to get a little money from the marketing. Every few times you go, you take something back you haven’t opened or used, and ask for cash instead of credit to the debit card. Harley always checks the debit card when I go, but if you just return some cleaner or something, get the cash, you can start saving.”

  Smoothly, she shifted the baby to her other breast. “I saved, and put the money in one of Gabe’s diapers—a clean one,” she added with the first hint of a smile. “Harley doesn’t change Gabe. That’s a mother’s job. I bought the clone ’link, and hid that, too. We’re not allowed to have our own ’link.”

  Gracie and Roarke brought in tea, coffee, some muffins that looked freshly baked.

  “Look at that little angel, sound asleep now.” Gracie trailed a finger over Gabe’s down of brown hair. “He’s got your jawline, and your nose. Wo
uld you like me to take him up, settle him in his crib? I raised two of my own,” she added.

  She walked over to a small screen sitting on a table. After tapping some buttons, she gestured. “That’s your room I’ve programmed on, and his crib right there. You’ll be able to see and hear him. I’ll sit in the rocker right by the crib, and when you’ve finished your talk, I’ll come and bring you up to your room.”

  “You’ll stay with him? He’s a good sleeper, but …”

  “It’s a new place, and if he wakes he’ll want his mama, won’t he? Don’t worry, I’ll bring him straight to you if he wakes.”

  “Thank you.” Tears welling again, Zoe lifted the baby toward Gracie. “I don’t even know what to say.”

  “Not to worry.” She settled the sleeping boy on her shoulder. “Bless you,” she said to Roarke, then turned to Eve. “Bless you both.”

  When Gracie carried the baby out, Roarke stepped back again. “I’ll just be in the next room.”

  “You don’t have to go,” Zoe told him. “I recognize you, too. I’ve seen you both on-screen, when Harley watches the news. I’m better now, I think. I feel better. Oh, look! She’s putting Gabriel in his crib. He’s a good sleeper. He’s so sweet. I couldn’t stand the idea of him growing up in that house, in the order. And now with another.” She pressed a hand to her belly. “I couldn’t bear it.”

  “You’re very brave.”

  Zoe shook her head at Roarke. “I’ve been afraid nearly every day for almost two years. But I saw you today, Lieutenant Dallas. I saw you and the other policewoman next door at the Pipers’, and I thought, It’s a sign. It’s a sign that it’s time, that there’s someone who can help. And still I didn’t do anything.”

  “You called for help.”

  “Not until after … Marcia.”

  “I need you to tell me what happened. You said they took her away. Who took her?”

  “Mr. Piper came home. He doesn’t have to stay at the compound for retreat like Harley does. Because Marcia’s not well, and they have children, and he’s a VP and all. It was quiet. It’s always quiet on the block at night. I put Gabe to bed at eight. I couldn’t settle. I was trying to think what I should do, how I should do it. And then I heard them.”

  “Next door?”

  “Yes. I had windows open, and I guess Marcia did, too, so I heard them. He was shouting at her, calling her stupid and swearing at her. I could hear him hitting her, and her crying. I put my hands over my ears. I sat on the floor with my hands over my ears but I could still hear them.”

  When she picked up her tea, her hand shook again.

  “It’s happened before. It happens a lot. The kids used to cry when it happened, but the last few times, they stay quiet, and I thought about them with their hands over their ears like me.”

  She breathed out, drank some tea. “He just screamed at her, horrible things, and I could hear thumps and crashes, things breaking or falling over. It was worse this time than the other times. I kept hearing something—her, I think—hit the wall. The shared wall between our houses. Then it stopped. At first, I thought, Thank God, it’s over.

  “I felt sick. I was afraid to close the windows in case he heard and realized I’d heard him beating her. I went upstairs, and I couldn’t settle. I told myself to go to bed, just go to bed and I’d figure out what to do in the morning. Then I saw the van drive up.”

  “What kind of van?”

  “I don’t know. One of the order’s. Black, I think, and no windows. I turned off the lights in my room. They—two men—got a kind of stretcher on wheels out of the back and went next door, and with the windows still open I heard voices. Not what they said, they weren’t loud enough. And I needed to stay back so they didn’t see me looking. I saw, oh God, I saw them roll the stretcher out. They had her covered, they had her in a kind of bag, so I couldn’t see, but I know it was Marcia. It had to be Marcia. He killed her. He killed her.”

  Zoe covered her face with her hands.

  “What time was this, Zoe?”

  “I guess about nine-thirty, or maybe ten. I think maybe ten. I was going to get the ’link I’d hidden and call nine-one-one, but they drove away.”

  “Did you see a license plate?”

  “No, I’m sorry. I thought, What if I call and the order comes here? What if Harley was right, and the police came and put me in jail? Then, not long after the van left, I heard him talking to the kids. I heard the kids crying, so I tried to see. He loaded the children in his SUV and drove away. And right after, like a minute after, another van came, a bigger one.”

  “Black again, windowless?”

  “Yes. People got out of it. I think four or five. They wore, like, coveralls? I think. And had their hair covered. They rolled these, like, trollies out of the back of the van and into the house. They were there at least two hours, probably more. I could hear machines, like big vacuums or something, and once or twice one of them came out with a big bag and tossed it in the back of the van.”

  Cleaners, Eve thought. Crime-scene cleaners—the order’s cleaners.

  “Then they loaded everything back up, and left. I thought, he killed Marcia, and they’re making it all go away. Like it never happened. What if Harley did that to me? What would happen to Gabe?”

  She looked back at the monitor as if to assure herself he stayed safe.

  “I sat in the dark, in case they came back. I waited in the dark until all the lights were out on the block. Then I waited more, just in case. I packed what I could without turning on any lights. Then I waited some more because I was too afraid to get the ’link. Then I went in to check on Gabe, and I just sat and looked at him sleeping for a long time. And I thought, no, no, he can’t be here, can’t be part of any of this. He’s my baby, and I have to protect him. So I finally got the ’link, and called nine-one-one. I begged Operator Harris to let me talk to you.”

  “You did the right thing.”

  “If I’d used the ’link earlier …”

  “You couldn’t help Marcia. It was too late to help her. But what you’ve done now, what you’re doing now is going to help others.”

  “Gina?”

  “Yes. Did you get a look at any of the people who came—either van?”

  “Sort of, yes. Maybe.”

  “Would you work with a police artist?”

  Her shoulders pulled in. “Do I have to go to the police station?”

  “No, he can come here. You can trust him, too. You should get some sleep.” Eve stood and dug in her pocket for a card. “You can contact me at any time. I want you to tag me after you’ve gotten some sleep, when you’re ready to work with Detective Yancy, the police artist.”

  “Okay.”

  “Do you have family in Ohio?”

  “My parents, my sister, but I don’t want to contact them.” Reaching out, she gripped Eve’s hand like iron. “I don’t want anyone from the order to hurt them.”

  “Are they members?”

  “Oh God, no. It’s just that they might send somebody there to see if I went there, or if they know. Harley might not want me back after this, but he’ll want Gabe. Please don’t let him take my baby away from me. Please don’t—”

  “Look at me.” Eve leaned forward until their eyes met on the same level. “Nobody’s going to touch your son. I’ll get protection for your family in Ohio, and I’ll let them know you’re safe.”

  “Thank you, thank you. I’ve been so stupid.”

  “No, Zoe, you’ve been abused, and there’s a world of difference.”

  “And what a fine mother you’ve proven to be already.” Roarke stood. “Gracie’s coming down for you.”

  “Thank you, so much. Lieutenant Dallas, would you tell my family I’m sorry, and I love them?”

  “I will.”

  The minute they stepped outside, Eve pulled out her ’link and tagged APA Cher Reo.

  Reo groaned. “Come on, Dallas. It’s not even six A.M.”

  “Warrants, I need them. Now. P
iper, Lawrence—I’ll send you his salients—Murder One.”

  “Who’d he kill?”

  “His pregnant wife. Beat her to death. I need a warrant to enter, to search and seize at the crime scene.” She rattled off the address. “Where I’m heading now. And I need you to start working on warrants to get me and a team—probably NYPSD and FBI—into the Natural Order HQ.”

  “Whoa, whoa.” The video popped on to show Reo jumping out of bed in red sleep shorts and a white tank. She shoved a hand through tousled blond curls. “I know you’re working on a murder with connections to Natural Order, but—”

  “They’re holding a woman, Ella Alice Foxx, age eighteen. I believe Natural Order not only transported the body of Marcia Piper and sent cleaners to deal with the crime scene—eyewit on both—but that Lawrence Piper is holing up in their HQ. Accessory after the fact should get me a damn warrant.”

  “I’ll get you the first two fast. The third’s going to take some doing and some time. We need to coordinate there. I’ll come into Central and we’ll start working on it.”

  “Let’s work fast.”

  She clicked off, then did a search on Piper.

  “Lucked out. The SUV’s in his name. If he had it through the order, this wouldn’t be so easy.”

  She issued an APB on the vehicle, then a BOLO on Piper.

  She kept working until Roarke pulled up at the address he’d heard her give Reo.

  “Quiet,” Eve observed. “Real quiet. You want to bet Zoe wasn’t the only one to hear the screaming and pounding?” She pointed across the street. “Unit on the left, that’s Gina Dawber’s. We’re getting her into Dochas, her and her kids, if she’ll go. No vehicle out front. I bet the fuck of a husband’s at the compound.”

  “Could be some carpooling involved.”

  “Could be. Here comes the warrant. Let’s get inside. This dead zone’s going to start waking up soon. I want a look around before the sweepers get here.”

  “I’ll get your field kit.”

  Once they’d sealed up, Eve tried her master on the front door. When it didn’t budge, she shrugged at Roarke.