by J. D. Robb
Eve snagged another fry. «Take a look at her. Computer,» she ordered, «display ID image, Nocho-Alverez, Dolores, on wall screen one.
When it flashed on, Roarke lifted his eyebrows. «Beauty is often deadly.»
«So why would somebody who looks like that consult with a face and body sculptor? Why would he take her?»
«Beauty's often irrational as well. She may have convinced him she wanted something more, something else. Being a man, and one who obviously appreciates beauty and perfection, he might have been curious enough to take the appointment. You said he was all but retired. Time enough to spend an hour with a woman who looks like that one.»
«That's one of the things. Too much time. A guy who's spent all of his life working, dedicated, striving, making history—in his field— what does he do when he's not working? I can't find playtime for this guy. What would you do?»
«Make love with my wife, steal her away for long, indulgent holidays. Show her the world.»
«He doesn't have a wife, or a specific lover. Not that I can find. Long blocks of time blank on his appointment calendar. He did something with it. Something on those discs. Somewhere.»
«We'll have a look then.» He polished off his beer. «How did you sleep while I was gone?»
«Fine. Okay.» She rose, figuring since he got the meal, she had to clear it away.
«Eve.» He laid a hand over hers to stop her, bring her eyes to his.
«I bunked in here some nights, in the sleep chair. You can't worry about that. You've got business out of town, you've got to go. I can handle it.»
He brought her hand to his lips. «You had nightmares. I'm sorry.»
She was plagued with them, but they were worse when he wasn't with her. «I can deal.» She hesitated. She'd sworn she would go to her grave telling no one. But he'd be weighed down with guilt, she knew. «I slept in your shirt.» She tugged her hand free, gathered up dishes to keep the confession light. «It smelled like you, so I slept better.»
He rose, took her face in his hands and said, softly, «Darling Eve.»
«Don't get sloppy. It's just a shirt.» She stepped back, walked around him. Then stopped at the entrance to the kitchen. «But I'm glad you're home.»
He smiled at her back. «So am I.»
5
They split the discs, Roarke in his adjoining office, Eve at her desk. Where Eve spent a frustrated ten minutes trying to cajole her unit into reading what turned out to be encoded data.
«He's got a block on the discs,» she called out. «Some sort of privacy protection thing. My unit won't accept or override.»
«Of course it will,» Roarke said and had her frowning up at him. He'd come back into her office without her hearing him move. He only smiled, and laying a hand on her shoulder, rubbing a bit, scanned the screen. «Here you are, then.» With a few keystrokes he bypassed the privacy mode and something resembling text popped onto her screen.
«It's still coded,» she pointed out.
«Patience, Lieutenant. Computer, run deciphering and translation program. Display results.»
Working…
«I guess you already did yours,» Eve complained.
«This unit's equipped to handle code, my technologically challenged cop. You've only to tell it what to do. And…«
Task complete. Text displayed.
«Fine. I've got it now. Or would if I was a frigging doctor. It's medical crap.»
He kissed the top of her head. «Good luck,» he added, and strolled back to his own office.
«Passcoded the unit,» she muttered. «Privacy protected the discs, and coded them. Reasons for that.» She sat back a moment, drummed her fingers. Could be just his perfectionist nature. Obsessive. Compulsive. Doctor-patient confidentiality. But it seemed like more.
Even the text was secretive. No names, she noted. The patient was referred to throughout as Patient A-l.
Eighteen-year-old female, she read. Height: five feet, seven inches. Weight: one hundred fifteen pounds.
He listed her vitals, blood pressure, pulse rate, blood work, heart and brain patterns—all within normal range, as far as she could tell.
The disc seemed to be a medical history, detailing tests, results, examinations. And grades, she realized. Patient A-l had excellent physical stamina, intelligence quotient, cognitive abilities. Why would he care about those things? she wondered. Eyesight corrected to 20/20.
She read quick details on hearing tests, stress tests, more exams. Respiration, bone density.
Then was thrown again by notes on mathematic abilities, Language skills, artistic and/or musical talents, and puzzle-solving ability.
She spent an hour with A-l, spanning three years of similar tests, notes, results.
The text ended with a final note.
A-1 treatment complete. Placement successful.
She rapidly scanned another five discs, finding the same sorts of tests, notes, with occasional additions of surgical corrections. Nose planing, dental corrections, breast enhancements.
Then she sat back, propped her feet on the desk, and stared up at the ceiling to think.
Anonymous patients, all referred to by numbers and letters. No names. All females—at least in her stash. Treatment was either complete or terminated.
There had to be more. More notes, more complete case files. If so, there had to be another place. Office, lab, something. Most of the face or body sculpting, which was supposed to be his specialty, was minor on these cases.
Tune-ups, she mused.
The records were more an ongoing evaluation: physical, mental, creative, cognitive.
Placement. Where were they placed after treatment was complete? Where did they go if and when it was terminated?
And what the hell had the good doctor been up to with more than fifty female patients?
«Experiments,» she said when Roarke came through the door. «These are like experiments, right? Is that how it reads to you?»
«Lab rats,» he agreed. «Nameless. And these notes strike me as being his quick reference guide, not his official charts.»
«Right. Just something he could flip through to check a detail or jog his memory. A lot of shields for something this vague, which is telling me it springs out of something more detailed. Still they fit my gauge of him. In each of the cases I reviewed, he's aiming for perfection. Body type, facial structure—which would be his deal. Then he veers off to stuff like cognitive skills and whether they can play the tuba.»
«You got a tuba?»
«Just a for instance,» she said with a wave of her hand. «What does he care? What does it matter if the patient can do calculus or speak Ukrainian or whatever? I've got nothing that indicates he worked on brain sectors. Oh, and they're all right-handed. Every one, which goes against the law of averages. They're all female—interesting—and all between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two when the notes end. With either 'placement' or 'treatment terminated.'»
»Placement's an interesting word, isn't it?» Roarke eased a hip onto the corner of her desk. «One might assume employment. If one weren't of a cynical bent.»
«Which you are, which makes you a good match for me. Some people would pay a lot of money for a perfect woman. Maybe running a slavery ring was Icove's little hobby.»
«Possibly. Where does he get the goods?»
«I'm going to do a search. Coordinate the dates of the case notes with missing persons and kidnappings.»
«There's a start. Eve? It'd be a hell of an operation to keep this many people under control, and to keep such a thing concealed. Can you consider it might be voluntary?»
«I'm going to volunteer to be sold to the highest bidder?»
He shook his head. «Consider. A young girl, for whatever reason unhappy with her appearance or her lot, or simply looking for more. He might pay them as well. Earn money while we make you beautiful. Then we'll match you up with a partner. One with enough money to afford the service, one who selects you out of all the othe
rs. Heady stuff for the impressionable.»
«So he's creating, basically, licensed companions, with their consent?»
«Or spouses, for all we know. Both, either. Or—a thought that hit my perhaps overactive brain—hybrids.»
Her eyes rounded. «What, half-LC, half-spouse? A guy's wet dream.»
He laughed, shook his head. «You're tired. I was thinking more along the lines of an old, classic plotline. Frankenstein.»
«The monster guy?»
«Frankenstein was the mad doctor guy who created the monster.»
She swung her feet off the desk. «Hybrids. Part droid, part human? And way, way illegal? You thinking he might dabble in hybridizing humans? That's out there, Roarke.»
«Agreed, but there were experiments a few decades ago. Military, primarily. And we see it every day on another level. Artificial hearts, limbs, organs. He made his name with his reconstructive surgery techniques. Man-made is often used in that area.»
«So maybe he's making women?» She thought of Dolores, absolutely calm before and after a murder. «And one of them turns on him. One of them isn't happy with her placement, and comes back to the creator. He agrees to see her because she's his work. It's not bad.» she decided. «Out there, but not altogether bad.»
She slept on it, and woke so early Roarke was just out of bed and pulling on sweats.
«You're awake. Well then, let's have a workout and a swim.»
«A what?» She blinked groggy eyes at him. «It's not morning.»
«It's after five.» He stepped back up to the bed, hauled her out. «It'll clear your mind.»
«Why isn't there coffee?»
«There will be.» He bundled her into the elevator and had it heading for the home gym before her brain woke fully.
«Why am I working out at five in the morning?»
«Five-fifteen, actually, and because it's good for you.» He tossed her a pair of shorts. «Suit up, Lieutenant.»
«When do you leave town again?»
He tossed a top into her face.
She dragged on the clothes, then set her equipment for a beach run. If she was going to work out before the sun came up, at least she could pretend she was at the beach. She liked the feel of sand under her feet, and the sounds and scents and sights of surf.
Roarke set up next to her with the same program. «We could make this a reality after the holidays.»
«What holidays?»
Amused when she picked up her pace, he matched her. «We're nearly to Thanksgiving. Which is actually something I wanted to discuss with you.»
«It's on a Thursday. You eat turkey whether you like it or not. I know about Thanksgiving.»
«It's also an American holiday. A… family holiday, traditionally. I thought it might be appropriate to invite my Irish relations here for dinner.»
«Bring them to New York to eat turkey?»
«Essentially.»
She watched him out of the corner of her eye, noted he was slightly embarrassed. A rarity for him. «How many of them are there, anyway?»
«About thirty or so.»
Her breath wheezed in. «Thirty?»
«More or less. I'm not entirely sure, though I doubt all of them could get away, with a farm to run and other work. All those children. But I thought Sinead, at least, with her family, might be able to take a day or two here, and the holiday seemed the right time. We might invite Mavis and Leonardo, Peabody and so on. Whoever you'd like. Make a right bash of it.»
«Gonna need one big-ass turkey.»
«I think the food will be the simplest of the details. How would you feel about having them here?»
«A little weird, but okay. How about you?»
He relaxed. «A little weird, but okay. I appreciate it.»
«As long as I don't have to bake a pie.»
«God forbid.»
The workout did indeed clear her mind, and she added a stint with weights, polished it off with twenty laps in the pool.
She'd intended to do twenty-five, but Roarke caught her on the twenty-first turn. And she ended the workout with a different sort of water exercise.
She was alert and ravenous by the time she'd showered and grabbed her first cup of coffee.
She went for waffles, exchanged beady eyes with Galahad when the cat tried to slink up to her plate.
«He's got to have space.»
«Cat's got the run of the bloody house.»
«Not the cat. Icove,» Eve said and got an absentminded mmm-hmm from Roarke as he scanned the morning stock reports on-screen in the sitting area of their bedroom. «Not in the apartment,» she continued. «Too many patients coming in and out. Lab. Maybe in the Center, maybe someplace else entirely. He'd need privacy. Even if it's not anything illegal, it's strange. He didn't go through all the trouble to private the discs and his unit, then conduct all these exams or experiments or case studies in the open.»
«It's a big facility, the Center,» Roarke began, and switched to the media bulletins. «But there are a lot of people through there. Patients, staff, visitors, stockholders. Very possible, if he was careful enough, to have a private area. But wiser, I'd think, to do this other work— particularly if it skirts the law—off-site.»
«The son would know. If they were as close, personally and professionally, as I think they were, the father and the son would both be involved with this…project. We'll call it a project. Peabody and I'll pay him another visit, see if we can go at this the direct way. We'll take a deeper look at the financials. If this is a by-fee project, it would have generated big bucks. And I'll look at property in his name, the son's, the daughter-in-law, grandchildren, under the Center or his other arms. If he's got a place, we'll find it.»
«You'll want to save them. The girls,» he continued when she said nothing. «You'll want to stop them from being arranged, let's say, if that's the case.» He turned from the screen to look at her. «If this is some sort of training ground, some kind of preparation area, you'll see them as victims.»
«Aren't they?»
«Not like you were.» He took her hand. «I doubt very much it's anything like that, or that you'll be able to stop yourself from seeing it that way regardless. It'll hurt you.»
«They all hurt me. Even when they have nothing to do with what happened to me. They all take a toll.»
«I know.» He kissed her hand. «Some more than others.»
«You'll ask your family here for Thanksgiving, and it'll hurt you. Because your mother can't be here, and you'll think of that. Won't be able to stop yourself from remembering what happened to her when you were only a baby. It'll hurt you, but it won't stop you from asking them here. We do what we have to do, Roarke. Both of us.»
«So we do.»
She rose, reached for her weapon harness. «You're off, then?» he asked her.
«Might as well get an early start, since I'm up.»
«Then I'd best give you your present.» He watched her face—the surprise, the chagrin, the resignation. And burst out laughing. «Thought you'd gotten away clean, did you?»
«Hand it over, get it done.»
«Gracious to the last.» To her surprise he went to his closet, opened it, and pulled out a large box. He set it on the sofa. «Open it, then.»
Another fancy dress, she supposed. As if she didn't already have enough of them to clothe an army of fashion plates. Of which she was the chipped one, hidden on the top shelf. But buying glam made him happy.
She pulled off the top, stared. «Oh. Oh wow.»
«An atypical reaction for you, Lieutenant,» he said with a grin, but she was already yanking the long black leather coat out of the box, burying her nose in it to sniff.
«Oh boy, oh boy.» She whirled it around, swirled it on while he watched. It hit her an inch above the ankles, carried deep pockets, and was smooth as butter.
«You make a picture,» he complimented, pleased that she'd already spun toward the mirror to see for herself. It was masculine—a deliberate choice on his p
art. No frills, no feminine touches. In it she looked sexy and dangerous, and just a little aloof.
«Now this is what it is. This is a goddamn coat. I'll bung it up before the end of shift, but it'll look even better with a few scars.» She spun around, and the coat swirled around her legs. «Nice job. Thanks.»
«My pleasure.» He tapped his lips so that she walked over to plant hers on them. Then he slid his arms under the coat and around her.
My God, he thought, it was good to be home.
«There are a number of inside pockets, if someone needed to secret weapon of some sort.»
«Frosty. Man, Baxter's going to crap himself when I walk in wearing this.»
«Lovely image, thanks.»
«It's really great.» She kissed him again. «I really love it. I gotta go.»
«See you tonight.»
He watched her walk away, and thought she looked like a warrior.
Since she had nearly an hour before the start of her shift, Eve took a chance and headed to Mira's office first. As she had expected, the doctor was in, and her dragon of an admin wasn't.
Eve knocked on Mira's open office door.
«Sorry.»
«Eve. Did we have an early appointment?»
«No.» Mira looked tired, Eve noted. And sad. «I know you usually try to get in before hours, catch up on paperwork or whatever. Sorry to get in the way of that.»
«It's all right. Come in. Is this about Wilfred?»
«Wanted to run something by you.» And she felt lousy for doing it. «Doctor-patient relation sort of deal. You keep case files.»
«Of course.»
«And in addition to the consult position with the department, you do some private work. Counseling, therapy, and the like. You sometimes treat patients on an ongoing basis. Over the course of years, say.»
«Certainly.»
«How do you keep the files, the data?»
«I'm not sure what you mean.»
«You passcode your unit, for security?»
«Absolutely. All files are confidential. The private cases. And the consults for the department are on a need-to-know basis.»