Delusion in Death edahr-44

by J. D. Robb

  “Got the fucker.”

  “It seems so. I’ll call the lieutenant, let her know.”

  “Tell her we’ll bring everything in. She can start wrapping him up.” He started toward the office. “When we close this down, I’ll buy you a beer.”

  “I’ll hold you to it.” Roarke took out his ’link, waited for Eve to come on screen.

  “Give me something good.”

  “Would a small, secret lab with the ingredients contained in the substance, the formula for said substance, Menzini’s journal, and a computer that likely holds pertinent data be something good?”

  “Jesus. Jesus, you’re going to get so much sex.”

  “Jenkinson says: ‘Hoo-haw!’”

  “For Christ’s—”

  “I’m winding you up, darling. I’m quite alone at the moment, and will happily take you up on so much sex. Do you have him in the house?”

  “In restraints. He slipped up enough I’ve charged him, and I’m about to head in to work a confession out of him, with details. You just nailed it shut.”

  “Feeney said we’ll bring everything in.”

  “Give me some details so I can use them to cook him some.”

  “The lab’s behind a false wall, lined with shelves, in his office. The journal with the formula has a leather binding—it’s faded brown leather and cracked with age, and there are notes that appear more recent and in another handwriting with the formula. There’s a storage box holding more journals, an old Bible, and a manifesto hand-written by Menzini. It’s titled End of Days.”

  “That’ll do it. Mira’s messing with him now. I’ll fill in Teasdale and Peabody, and we’ll tie it up.”

  “I’ll see you soon then.”

  “Yeah. What’s wrong? There’s a thing.”

  “Nothing, really. This place. It’s depressing. It’s a good building, has character. It’s a nice space, really, but it’s lifeless and cold. The only place I think he’s ever felt happy, perhaps ever felt normal—that is, felt himself—was that office, and that lab.”

  “He had every chance, every choice. Don’t feel sorry for him.”

  “Not at all. But I can see him here, finding himself at last in the blood and death. It’s depressing.”

  “Get the goods, get out. We can get a little drunk before the so much sex.”

  “Well now, that sounds promising. Soon, Lieutenant.” He clicked off, grinned at Reineke as the detective cleared his throat.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to catch that.”

  “No problem. Now you know I’m not a sick fuck.”

  Reineke snorted out a laugh. “Never figured it. So, Feeney thought you’d want to take a look at the comp. Says the data’s encrypted.”

  “Excellent. That should liven things up.”

  “Ah, maybe you don’t have to mention to the LT I happened to hear her say that business. The sex business.”

  “I think we’ll all be happier that way.”

  19

  Moving fast, Eve headed for Observation, contacting Whitney on the fly. “Put me through to the commander,” she snapped when she reached his admin. “Priority.”

  “One moment, Lieutenant.”

  She pushed through the doors where Peabody and Teasdale watched Mira work Callaway. “We got him.” She held up a finger as Peabody started to speak. “Commander, Callaway is currently in Interview with Mira, charged with the murders. The search team found his hole. They’re bringing in his electronics, and journals, and chemicals. They got it all.”

  “Wrap it up,” Whitney ordered. “I’m on my way.”

  “Interview A, sir,” she told him as Peabody punched her fists into the air, and Teasdale yanked out her own ’link. “I’m about to go in, finish it. I’ll contact the PA, get someone in here.”

  “Hold until I get there. Coming now.”

  “Yes, sir.” She clicked off, shot a finger up in the air again, then contacted Reo.

  “Cher Reo.”

  “We’ve got Callaway, Interview A, and enough evidence to bury him on its way in.”

  She watched the petite blonde scramble for her suit jacket. “The boss is in court. I’ll tag him now, head to you. Give me some details.”

  “We tied him to Menzini. He has the formula, the chemicals, the works in his apartment. You want more, get here fast.”

  She clicked off. “Has he said anything I can use?” she demanded.

  “He’s claiming he’s not related to Menzini, keeps asking to be allowed to contact his parents. How they’ll worry about him. Mira’s playing it soft, so he’s trying to wheedle.” Peabody took a breath. “Holy shit, Dallas. He really had everything in his apartment?”

  “With some precautions. He never believed we’d make the connection. He wasn’t worried.”

  “I’ve contacted my superior.” Teasdale replaced her ’link. “HSO will be filing federal charges. In addition to the murder charges, Lieutenant,” she added quickly. “Not in lieu of.”

  “Fine. I don’t care which cage he lives out his miserable life in.

  Here’s how it’s going to work.”

  She broke off as Whitney stepped in. “Commander.”

  He nodded, turned to study Callaway through the glass. “He looks ordinary, doesn’t he? An ordinary man in a well-cut suit.”

  “That’s his problem. He couldn’t tolerate being ordinary. That’s why he’s in there, and that’s why he’ll confess.”

  “If the formula and the items required to create the substance were in his possession,” Teasdale said, “in addition to the statements of his parents, on record, the biological connection to Menzini, a confession may be superfluous.”

  “Not for me. He’s going to say what he did. He’s going to look me in the eye and tell me what he did. Peabody, I want you to go in. Hard eye him, but don’t talk to him, don’t respond if he talks to you. Whisper to Mira we’ve got the evidence, and I’m coming in. She should keep going until I do. Go in now, stand against the wall, and look tough. It’ll add some sweat.”

  “Looking tough.” Peabody tightened her jaw, hardened her eyes as she went out.

  “I’d like a shot at him myself,” Whitney stated.

  “Commander, I’d like to keep the room unbalanced. All women, and him.”

  “Understood.”

  “I want to circle him awhile,” she said to Teasdale. “He’ll expect the direct hit, and he’s prepared for that. I’m going to dribble out what we have on him, keep hacking at his ego. Follow me?”

  “I do.”

  “Commander, if you could direct APA Reo to come in as soon as she arrives? Another woman’s going to piss him off. Ready?” she asked Teasdale.

  “Very ready.”

  Eve walked in first. “Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, and Teasdale, Agent Miyu, entering Interview. Excuse me, Doctor Mira, we’re going to have to cut you off. You’re welcome to stay, of course.”

  “This is bullshit.” Callaway jabbed a finger into the table. “As I’ve been telling Doctor Mira, you’ve obviously got me confused with someone else. I’ve never heard of this Menzini person. My maternal grandfather was a decorated military officer, Captain Edward Gregory Hubbard. I can verify that. I demand to contact my parents. It’s my right to have communication.”

  “Not once you’re charged with terrorism.” Eve shrugged as she sat. “We can hold you for forty-eight hours without communication or representation. It sucks, but that’s how it plays.”

  “If there’s been a mistake”—Mira lifted her hands—“it would save time, and any additional stress to Mr. Callaway if you arranged for his parents to come here. If you spoke with them to verify his parentage.”

  “I won’t have my family subjected to interrogation by incompetent police and witch-hunting government agents.” Callaway folded his arms. “I’ll wait. I have nothing to say for the next forty-eight hours.”

  “Okay. You can just listen. We can and will run DNA tests to prove Menzini’s your grandfather.”

 
; “Go ahead! I welcome it.”

  “And once we do that, you’re not just cooked, you’re served up with tasty side dishes. How did you know about Red Horse?”

  Like a child, he turned his head away, stared at the wall.

  “Because it’s interesting you’d bring up Red Horse in connection with the killings as Menzini headed one of the sects during the Urbans. Menzini was a chemist, more self-taught than educated. And completely bat-shit. He created a substance that caused violent delusions, extreme paranoia. The same substance you used at On the Rocks and Café West.”

  She let it hang, said nothing. Silence ticked, ticked, ticked as she kept her gaze steady and cool on his averted face.

  He shifted in his chair. “I’m not a damn chemist. I can’t make something like that even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”

  “How did you know about Red Horse?”

  “My grandfather served during the Urbans. I’ve heard stories.”

  “He died before you were born.”

  “They’ve been passed down. And I’ve familiarized myself with some of the battles he was in. He fought this Red Horse cult. When you mentioned religious fanatics, that came to mind. It’s that simple.”

  “But Menzini was never mentioned in this family history?”

  “I’ve never heard the name before today.”

  “That’s pretty strange, Lew, seeing as he’s your mother’s biological father.”

  “That’s utter nonsense. If you had any brain at all, you’d have checked her birth records.”

  “Oh, I had enough brain to do that. With enough left over to ask her face-to-face.”

  Now his head came around, fast. “What did you say?”

  “It’s really more what she said. I get you didn’t want us to speak to her or your father, but, hey, I’m just bullheaded that way.”

  “Obviously you frightened and intimidated her. She’s not a strong woman. She’s frail, emotionally. You coerced her.”

  “That would be your method. Here’s the thing—the break I’m going to give you right here and now. You can keep denying knowledge, figuring when the truth comes out, you stick to being unaware. Nobody ever told you.”

  She waited a beat, gave him time to calculate. “That’s one way. Or you can admit you found out, discovered the documents your mother told me about. The shock of that sent you into a tailspin. Why, your family lied to you, and your grandfather, rather than being a decorated war hero turns out to be some homicidal lunatic mass murderer and child abductor. A religious looney on top of it. He might get mentally impaired out of that line, right, Doctor Mira?”

  “The shock alone …” Shaking her head, Mira trailed off.

  “It could work to your advantage.”

  “I want to speak with my mother.”

  “Not going to happen, Lew.”

  “A mother testifying against a son,” Teasdale said quietly. “The weight of that testimony will be great.”

  His jaw set. Eve imagined she heard his teeth grinding.

  “She’ll never agree to it.”

  “She won’t have a choice. And when we bring Menzini in—”

  “He’s dead!”

  Eve angled her head. “What makes you think that?”

  “I—I assumed.”

  Smiling, she wagged her finger. “You shouldn’t assume. He’ll tell the whole story, about your biological grandmother, the abduction of your mother, her recovery. It’s the sort of thing that might play for you, if you admit you knew—you found out and it screwed you up. APA’s on the way. I want to wrap this up, get home, have a drink. The prosecutor’s office wouldn’t like me giving you this wiggle room, however slim. Make a choice, Lew. And fast.”

  “I want to speak to someone in charge.”

  “You are. Oh, you mean a man. That’s not going to happen either. Make a choice. I know you found the box of documents. I know you learned Menzini was your grandfather. You found the formula. You’ve got a chance to come clean on that, help yourself. Or you can keep lying, and go down that way.”

  “They did lie to me.” He turned—a deliberate move—to Mira. “All my life. I could never understand why they couldn’t love me, couldn’t give me the affection a child needs. My father … He’s a violent man. The secrets in that house … I can’t speak of it.”

  All sympathy, Mira leaned toward him. “Your father abused you, physically.”

  Callaway turned his head away, managed to nod. “And in every way. She never stopped him, never tried to. My mother. But she couldn’t help it. She’s weak, and afraid.”

  “He abused her as well.”

  “She’s terrified of him,” Callaway whispered. “Of everything. We moved constantly when I was growing up. I never knew what it was to have a real home, friends, roots. Then I found that damn box, and knew why she’d never protected me. I was a constant reminder to her of what her mother had suffered—her real mother. I even look like him a little. The coloring, the build. I stepped into a nightmare.”

  “I understand,” Mira said gently.

  “How can you? How can anyone? To know that runs through you. I wanted to kill myself.”

  “But you kept going back,” Eve interrupted. “Hoping to find more.”

  “Yes, yes. To find it all, to get rid of it. I brought it all back here, and I dumped it all in a recycler.”

  “Oh please.” Eve rolled her eyes. “How stupid are you? Nobody’s going to buy that. You brought it back, and you re-created the substance. Admit it, for God’s sake. Own it. The PA’s going to push for consecutive life sentences in an off-planet cage. Hard as hard time gets. Lay it out, lay it all out and you might have a shot at a facility on-planet. You can write a goddamn book, do media interviews. You can be somebody. Find your balls, Lew.”

  “I was going to kill myself. I was going to use what he made to destroy myself. I lost my mind for a while. I wasn’t sure it would work, but I took it with me, into the bar. I was going to wait until it was nearly empty, but Joe wouldn’t leave. I lost my nerve. I got up to go, and that woman bumped into me. She knocked the vial, and it fell. I panicked, and I got out.”

  He covered his face with his hands. “All those people.”

  “You made the substance?” Eve repeated. “You took it into the bar?”

  “Yes. God help me, yes,” he said just as Reo stepped in.

  “APA Reo, Cher, entering Interview. Pull up a chair. Lew’s entertaining us with fairy tales.”

  “How can you be so callous?” he demanded. “So cold.”

  “Me? You’re the champ there. Lew’s just confessed to creating the hallucinogenic and taking it into the bar.”

  “I was traumatized! I meant to self-terminate.”

  “There are easier ways,” Eve pointed out. “Did you also mean to self-terminate when you took another vial of the hallucinogenic, palmed it off on Jeni Curve without her knowledge?”

  “I don’t remember any of that. There are blanks in my memory. The shock. The stress. I want to speak with your superior!”

  “Fuck that.” Eve slammed her hands on the table, pushed up to lean into his face. “You needed a vessel, she was handy. You made up some story about a man in black. You were the man, Lew. You. Do you know how many buildings on that street have security cams? Do you think you avoided all of them?”

  “You idiot. I never went near camera range.”

  “No? You’re sure. Your memory’s clear on that point?”

  “I don’t know. You’re confusing me. I want to talk to your commanding officer. I don’t want to talk to you.”

  “You can talk to me,” Reo suggested. “I’m Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Cher Reo.”

  “Do you think I’m going to talk to an assistant? Some secretary?”

  “That’s telling her, Lew.” Eve circled him. “Show her who’s in charge here. Who’s the fucking boss. You murdered a hundred and twenty-seven people, for Christ’s sake, without getting a drop of blood on you. And she sashays in here in he
r girly suit and sex-me-up shoes and expects you to give her the time of day?

  “This is bullshit. Just bullshit. You put an entire city on notice, and you did it because you could, not for some crackpot end-of-days bullshit like your whacked-out grandfather. You’ve got book deals and vid deals coming. They’ll be beating down your door, throwing money at you. And fame. Everybody’s going to know your name, and fear it. That’s what you want, isn’t it? The attention, the respect you deserve.”

  “That’s right, and I’m not talking to a bunch of idiot women.”

  “Come on, Lew, show us your balls. Give us a thrill. When the real PA gets here, he’ll know he’s dealing with a man. A man who demands respect. Not some weak sister like Joe Cattery. That bitch Weaver was going to promote him over you. It was time for a game changer. Time to level the field. And all those happy hour assholes, slurping up the half-priced drinks. I bet they made you sick. Plenty more out there just like them, but you—you’re special. It’s about damn time people treated you the way you should be treated.”

  “Joe was nothing. A flunky.”

  “That’s right. That’s right. It had to burn your ass when he got the big bonus.”

  “My bonus. Weaver fucked me over.”

  “That bitch.” Not controlled now, Eve thought. Cornered, furious, cracking. “And it wasn’t the money, not really. Right? It was the principle. What did you do, Lew? Impress me. You had the formula, you had the journal—all those secrets inside the faded brown cover. Sure, we found that.” She kept her eyes steady when he blinked. “The men said you really put it together, Lew. All the time, the effort, the planning that went into building the lab, outfitting it. And the risk. Talk about balls. It’s dangerous, cooking up LSD, mixing it, getting all the parts and pieces together. That takes brains and balls. It takes imagination. People are going to talk about Lewis Callaway for generations.”