44 Delusion in Death

by J. D. Robb

  “For God’s sake,” Teasdale muttered.

  “Look, Agent, we might get the same line on Curve with this.”

  “Jeni?” Shock registered on Callaway’s face. “You don’t seriously suspect Jeni.”

  “I don’t want to influence your memories here. Let’s just focus on yesterday. You stayed in for lunch?”

  “Actually, I wanted some air, some head-clearing time, so I went out.”

  “Do you remember what time you left the office? The building? If not, we can check logs and discs.”

  “I think it was around twelve-fifteen. Near that time. I grabbed a pita—veggie and cheese, and a ginger ale from a cart about a block from the office. I’m not sure he’d remember me. He was busy.”

  “Where did you go, what did you see? Take your time,” Eve encouraged. “Try to see it again.”

  “I was thinking about Joe. It’s why I wanted the air, and some time to myself—out of the office. Thinking about him, his wife, his kids. I kept remembering how we’d sat at the bar just before … I didn’t want to say anything in front of Nancy, but Joe and I worked together quite a lot on the side. He often needed a little help on projects.”

  “He’d come to you?”

  “I was glad to help.” Callaway brushed that away, as if it didn’t need mentioning. “As I said, he has kids, and that long commute every day. A wife who, understandably, wanted his attention when he was home. Sometimes he had trouble keeping his head in the game—a spat with the wife, the kids acting up.”

  “So he had trouble at home?” Eve asked, all attention.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” But his face clearly did. “But that added pressure, and demands on this time, his attention, so I’d give him some input, another set of eyes, you could say.”

  “I’m sure he appreciated it.”

  “It wasn’t a big deal,” Callaway said, glancing down in modesty. “I’m sure he’d have done the same for me if I’d needed his help. In any case, I just wanted to walk, so I walked and ate lunch. Nancy’s so emotional right now. She hasn’t been able to get a handle on things. I’m happy to lend a shoulder or take on some extra work, but I needed a break.”

  “I understand. Were you ever in sight of the café?”

  “I walked by it, on the other side of the street. I actually thought about going over, getting a latte, but I didn’t want to deal with the crowd, the noise. They’re always busy at that hour.”

  “Exactly.” Eve shot Teasdale a look. “You’d know that as you’d had lunch there regularly.”

  “Everybody at the office had, one time or another. I was just walking, trying to settle. I’d nearly gone the other way, to the bar, just to … but I couldn’t.”

  “You were walking,” Eve prompted.

  “Yes.” He stared up at the ceiling. “Just taking the air. It was brisk. Not as cold as today, and it felt good to be out, to be moving. There was so much on my mind. You can’t imagine how many people in the office want to talk about it, ask questions, ask for details.”

  “Because you were there, right there.”

  “Yes. Something I’ll never forget. Even if I could, people in the office, reporters, and of course, the police, ask questions, bring it all back.”

  “Of you especially.” Eve tried to add a note of sympathy. “Steve left early, then Weaver left. But you, you were there almost till it began.”

  “Yes. Just minutes before. I … wait, wait. I saw Carly.”

  “Carly Fisher?”

  “It had to be her, going into the café. The red jacket she wears, with the floral scarf. I caught a glimpse of the jacket and scarf as she went in. I didn’t really register, didn’t really think about it. But now I wonder if that’s another reason I didn’t go in.”

  “You didn’t get along?”

  “No, not that. Carly was very driven, very focused on advancing her career. She’d often pick my brain for an assignment or project. That was fine.” He waved that away, a man burdened, but accepting the weight. “But I wasn’t in the mood yesterday. In fact, I remember now, seeing her made me decide to go back, just close myself into my office. But I saw her, poor Carly. I must’ve been one of the last people to see her alive.”

  “Like Joe.”

  “Yes. This is very upsetting. Could I have some water?”

  “Absolutely.” Eve rose, got a bottle herself and offered it. “Just take your time, Lew. What did you do next?”

  “I might have walked just a little more, then I turned around, and …”

  “You saw something.” Eve leaned toward him. “What did you see?”

  “Who,” he murmured. “It’s who I saw. I saw Jeni.”

  Eve sat back, once again leveled a stare at Teasdale. “You saw Jeni Curve. Where?”

  “Across the street, maybe a half a block—less, I think, from the café. But I’m used to seeing her around. I didn’t think about it, didn’t even retain it—or so I thought.”

  “What was she doing?”

  He closed his eyes, balled his fists. “She was talking to someone. A man. His back’s to me. I don’t see his face. He’s taller than she is. Yes, taller, broader, and wearing a black coat. He—does he give her something? I think yes, yes, she puts what he gives her in her coat pocket.”

  “What next? Think!”

  “I—I hardly paid attention. He kissed her—lightly, on both cheeks. Like a salute. He walks away, and she walks toward the café. This doesn’t seem real.”

  “Did you see him with anyone else?” Eve demanded. “Did you see where he went?”

  “I only know he walked in the same direction I was, but across the street, ahead of me. I stopped to look in a shop window, just to stall going back to the office. I didn’t see him again, or Jeni. Or any of them.”

  “Lew, I want you to think and think hard. Did you ever see Jeni Curve with CiCi Way?”

  She set both of their photos on the conference table. “Do you ever remember seeing these women together?”

  “I can’t be sure. I’d see Jeni so often—in the offices when she made deliveries, or in the café when she picked something up. Even around the neighborhood. I can’t be sure if I saw her with this other woman.”

  “You can’t link the two of them together,” Teasdale pointed out. “You’ve got Curve walking into the place she worked, and Way at the bar—with friends. You’ve got nothing that ties them to this.”

  “We push on Way again. We can take Lew in, let her see him, shake her up. Would you be willing to do that?” Eve asked him.

  “Anything I can do to help.”

  “Let’s go back to Curve for a minute. You saw her talking to someone just before she went in. You said you’d see her around the neighborhood. Did you ever see her with someone? With this man?”

  “I think … I think I may have. I wish I could be sure.”

  “What about when she delivered to the office? Did she spend more time with certain people than with others?”

  “Well, Steve flirted with her. He told you that himself. And she’d talk to Carly from time to time. They were close to the same age, I suppose.”

  “Not with you, particularly.”

  “No. She was just the delivery girl.”

  “Yeah, just the delivery girl.”

  “Do you think that’s why this person—this leader—used her?” Callaway widened his eyes. “She was young, susceptible. No one in particular, if you know what I mean. I imagine manipulating her, and this other woman, this CiCi, would have been easy for someone like him.”

  “Like him?”

  “As you said.” He turned to Mira. “He’s highly intelligent, organized, charismatic.”

  “We could be talking about you,” Eve said.

  He laughed, did the same wave away. “That’s flattering, but I don’t think I qualify.”

  “That’s just the tip of the profile, isn’t it, Doctor Mira?”

  “Yes. I’ve also determined that he’s a loner by nature with sociopathic tenden
cies. His violence is internal, rigidly suppressed. He uses others to carry out the violence.”

  “He doesn’t want to get his hands bloody,” Eve added. “He’s a coward, without the balls to kill face-to-face.”

  “I don’t want to tell you your business.” Though his face had gone stony, Callaway spread his hands, all affability. “But it seems to me by staying above the fray, he’s only demonstrating that intelligence. How will you find him if he doesn’t actively participate in the murders, if he keeps himself removed from the actual killings?”

  “He’ll make a mistake. They always do. And look at how much more you’ve been able to tell us. We know more about him.”

  “You can’t tell a civilian details like that,” Teasdale began.

  “Don’t tell me what I can do,” Eve snapped back. “We know his type, his needs. He lives alone. He has no genuine social circle and has never been able to develop or maintain a lasting relationship. He may be, likely is, impotent sexually.”

  She tossed that one in, for icing, watched a dull color stain Callaway’s cheeks.

  “He works and lives in the area he’s targeted. See, that’s a mistake right there. He should’ve spread out, but he took the easy route, targeting places and people he knew.”

  Eve rose now, wandering to the board, thumbs hooked in her front pockets. “No one particularly likes him, and the ones who pay attention see him as a fake, as a user with an inflated sense of entitlement.”

  “You said he was charismatic.”

  “That may be an overstatement. He adapts, morphs, blends, but he’s weak on social skills. It’s why he hasn’t climbed as high as he feels he deserves in his career. You know the type I’m talking about, Lew. You work with people like that. Then there’s people like your pal Joe. He had the social skills, and a willingness to go the extra mile, so he was making that climb. Slow, but steady. Or Carly Fisher. Bright, young, ambitious—more fast-tracking her way. But this guy? He’s plateaued. He isn’t moving up, getting the credit or the perks he wants. He’s been brooding about it for a long time.”

  “Again, this is your area, but I think you’re underestimating him.”

  “He’d think that. But the fact is, he’s intelligent, sure. He’s got a good brain, but he uses it more to manipulate and undermine than to produce. He’s lazy. He didn’t even come up with this plan, this agenda. Somebody else had already done all the hard work, already done it. He’s just coattailing.”

  Callaway turned aside, but not before Eve saw his jaw twitch, his mouth thin to a scissor blade. “I’m surprised to hear you describe the person who accomplished this as lazy or weak. I’m not sure how you’d describe yourselves as he’s outwitted you.”

  “Outwit, hell. This guy’s more of a lucky half-wit. He’s the stupid using the vulnerable, and that’s always full of pitfalls.”

  On the broody train, Eve thought as Callaway turned his sulky face back to hers. “How so?”

  “Sooner or later, somebody figures out they’re being used, and they turn. And you can count on the fact this guy’s going to bite off more than he can swallow.”

  “Chew,” Teasdale corrected automatically.

  “You need to swallow after you chew, right?” Eve shrugged it off.

  “The asshole’s got delusions of power and glory, but he’s nothing. He’s nobody. Just a cheap copycat.”

  “Nobody? The media’s made him a star. No one’s talking about anything or anyone else.”

  “For now. That’s how it works. Somebody else’ll come along—probably smarter and more newsworthy, and—” She snapped her fingers. “He’s over.”

  “You’re wrong. People will never forget.”

  “Come on, Lew. Once they know he’s just some lunatic, worse some religious fanatic lunatic who stumbled onto a formula cooked up by another religious fanatic lunatic, they’ll laugh.”

  “I’m afraid they’ll be laughing at you when you try to tie these accomplishments with some doomsday group like Red Horse.”

  Eve smiled. “I guess we’ll find out. But it bears out what I said. Outside of this room, I’d bet eight out of ten people never heard of, or have barely heard of Red Horse—and less than that have heard of Guiseppi Menzini. Sure, we have, but it’s our business to dig up arcane data like that. It’s interesting that you know, Lew.”

  “Know what?”

  “About Red Horse.”

  “I don’t, not really. When you brought it up as being tied to this, I remembered hearing the name.”

  “But I never mentioned Red Horse.” She sat on the edge of the table, still smiling at him. “We can play the record back if you want.”

  “I simply assumed you meant that particular cult.”

  “That’s a big assumption, but it’s logical you’d make it.”

  “I simply put two and two together, but I fail to see any religious overtones in this.”

  “You’re right. There aren’t any. That was your grandfather’s deal. It’s not yours.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And I’ve given you all the time I can spare for now.”

  “If you try walking out that door, Lew,” Eve said mildly when he turned, “I’m going to stop you. You won’t like it.”

  “I came here to do you a favor. I’m done.”

  She laughed, not just because she wanted to, but to see that angry color deepen at the sound. “You came here because you’re an idiot. Now you’re under arrest for first-degree murder, a hundred and twenty-seven counts thereof. Agent Teasdale will also charge you with domestic terrorism, but I get first crack. You can take a seat, and we’ll talk this through, or I can cuff you and drag your ass into an interview box. You choose.”

  His voice went cold, but the heat burned in his face. “I can only conclude the pressure’s gotten to you, and you’ve lost control of yourself. You can’t arrest me. You’ve got no evidence.”

  “You’d be surprised what I have. It’s all about choices, Lew. Your next one is to sit down or try for the door. Personally, I hope you try for the door.”

  “I’ll be contacting my attorney, and your superiors. You can count on it.”

  “Please,” Teasdale added as he started for the door again.

  “Allow me.”

  “You’re the guest.”

  Teasdale sprang up, fast and quiet. When Callaway tried to push her back, she slid in, fluid as water, used a foot to tangle his, bent her body like a flower on a delicate stalk to turn his own body weight to her advantage. In a kind of pretty, flowing dance she had him on the ground, her knee against his spine, his wrists clamped in her hands.

  “Nice moves,” Eve commented.

  “Thank you, and thank you for the opportunity.”

  “No problem. Peabody, why don’t you assist Agent Teasdale and secure the prisoner in Interview A?”

  “I’ll ruin you for this! Every one of you useless bitches.”

  “Oh-oh, strong language. Golly, now I’m scared. Haul him out, Peabody. Let’s give him a little time to cool off.”

  “You’re finished!” he shouted at Eve as Teasdale and Peabody perp-walked him out. “You have no idea what I can do.”

  “Yeah,” Eve murmured, turning back to the victim board, “I do.”

  “You did well,” Mira told her.

  “I’ll have to do better yet to get it to stick. I’m counting on the search team finding something we can hang on him. Right now, I have to use his own ego and cowardice to get him to confess.”

  “You infuriated him. Switching from talking about him as intelligent, to weak, from being bogged down in the investigation to being confident. It confused him, but more it infuriated and insulted. He could control the violence he felt, but not the resentment. He couldn’t stand there and allow you to insult him, again and again.”

  “I’m not sure a replay of that will work in Interview. I’m going to push him with Menzini, the backstory.”

  “My sense is he finds the religious overtones absurd,
even a little embarrassing.”

  “Yeah. I can push there. His grandfather was a fuckhead. Maybe you should take him first. Tell him you convinced me he should have the opportunity to get in touch with his insane brat of an inner child or whatever. String him out awhile—can you do that?”

  “I can do that.”

  “It’ll give the search team more time.” She checked her wrist unit, calculated. “I’d like to trip him up with the parents, then kick him when he’s off balance with something they’ve found. He’s smart, smart enough to know when I lay it out I’ve got enough to cage him. He may want to wrangle a deal.”

  “The PA will never deal on something like this, and HSO will come at him once you’re done.”

  “Yeah, but even some guy sliding off a cliff hopes he’ll snag a handhold. Give them a couple minutes to settle him in. I want to put my boards back.”

  “One thing I found particularly telling,” Mira said. “He called two mass murders ‘accomplishments.’”

  “Yeah, I got that. Can you use it?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Me, too.”

  While Eve put her boards back in order, the search team combed through Callaway’s apartment.

  Roarke found it too trendy, far too studied, and utterly impersonal. Black, white, and silver dominated the open living area and kitchen. Occasional blots or streaks of some bold color—a purple cushion, a red tabletop, only served to accent the starkness.

  Sharp lines, he thought, cold lighting, and an array of stylish gadgets. It struck him like a photo of decor rather than a place to live.

  “Do you want to start on the electronics out here?” Feeney asked him.

  “Do you mind if I wander about a bit first, get a feel?”

  “I got a feel.” Rumpled, Feeney looked around. “Feels like a showroom display put together by somebody who’s never taken a couch nap or watched a ballgame on screen.”

  “But it doesn’t feel like somewhere you plot mass murder.”

  “What else you gonna do? Sit on one of those damn chairs for five minutes, your ass’ll be numb for a week.” Feeney sniffed at them. “Might as well kill somebody.”