The In Death Collection, Books 21-25

by J. D. Robb

  “Yeah, what if they change their minds, don’t show, decide to bring a pal along. Lots of possibles.” He sucked in fizzy. “But she wants it worked, so we work it. She said if you popped in, you should take a look at your employee list with this angle in mind. Women who fit the parameters who might do a house call on the side.”

  “Yes, I can do that.”

  “Lots of possibles,” McNab repeated, “considering all the pies you’ve got fingers in. Anything moving on the real estate angle?”

  “Nothing that stands out from the crowd, no.”

  “Sometimes you’ve got to toss it up, you know. Let it fall in a different pattern. You keep working it, it gets so it’s just data. Maybe I could take that for a while while you work the new business.”

  “Fresh eyes. Yes, that’s a good idea.”

  “Icy, then…Hey, here come our ladies. Just looking at them gives you the uh, doesn’t it?” McNab gave the sound a push that was unmistakably sexual as he grinned down the long corridor where Peabody got off the glide with Eve.

  Then he shot Roarke a quick look. “I mean the uh me for mine, you for yours. It’s not like I get the uh for the lieutenant, for which she would kick my ass, then leave you to turn what was left of it into bloody dust. Which She-Body would then grind into the earth before she set it on fire. I was just saying.”

  “I know what you were saying.” McNab could, invariably, entertain him. “And I couldn’t agree more, with everything including the bloody dust. They are compelling women. Lieutenant,” Roarke said as her long stride brought her to him.

  “So glad you two have time for fizzy breaks.”

  “Sir. I’ve been bringing Roarke up to date, and relaying your orders.”

  “Looked like slurping and ogling to me.”

  “Ah…those may have been minor factors, but neither overshadowed the update or relay. Vic’s images are broadcasted, Lieutenant. I set up another line for responses from those sources. We’ve been fielding tips and inquiries on the investigations, and I figured if we got something out of this, we didn’t want it to get bogged down in the general dump.”

  “Good. That’s good thinking. I want you to pass off whatever you’re doing and take Rossi’s equipment. Her comp. I’m looking for personalized fitness programs. Find me one that matches our unsub.”

  “On that.”

  “Feeney?”

  “Roving mode,” McNab told her. “Gives a look and a buzz to whatever everyone’s working. Tightens it up or opens it out. He was playing the medical equipment angle when I came out to get—when I stepped out to update Roarke.”

  “Tell him I need somebody to go down to BodyWorks. Rossi used a couple of comps there routinely. The manager’s been contacted and is cooperating. Get them brought in and gone through. Same search.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Roarke, with me.”

  Roarke fell into step beside her. “Formidable.”

  “What?”

  “You. I’d used compelling, but formidable suits as well. Very sexy.”

  “Don’t say ‘sexy’ on the job.”

  “You just did.”

  Okay, she admitted, he made her laugh. Which was obviously the point and intent. And it did relieve some of the tension at the base of her skull. “Got your smarty pants on, I see.”

  She moved into the bullpen, stopped her forward motion when one of the men called her name. “Got a DB in a flop off Avenue D,” he began. “Licensed companion over there…”

  He jerked his head toward the skinny woman in a bloody shirt seated at his desk. “She says the guy wanted to party, the party was had. He refused to pay the bill and popped her two good ones when she objected to getting stiffed. Pulled out her sticker, which she claims he ran into. Six times.”

  “Clumsy of him.”

  “Yeah. Thing is, Lieutenant, she called it in. Didn’t try to rabbit, and she’s sticking to the story. Claims he laughed like a looney bird every time the knife went in. Got a couple of wits saw them make the deal, another who heard them yelling in the flop. You can see she’s got herself a pretty good shiner working there.”

  “Yeah. Got priors?”

  “Couple little bumps, nothing violent. Had her LC ticket for three years.”

  “And the DB?”

  “Oh, he had a nice long sheet. Assaults, assaults with deadlies, illegals—possession and intent. Just got out of the cage for an attempted robbery—beat hell out of a clerk at a twenty-four/seven. On the Zeus.”

  Eve studied the LC. The woman looked more annoyed than worried. And her face was sporting a sick rainbow of bruises. “Guy on Zeus could run into a knife multiple times. Wait for the tox screen on the DB, run her through again, see if she stands on the story, then put her in holding.”

  “Guy was juiced up, a lime green PD’s going to get a self-defense. Could slap her for the sticker, as it was over legal limit.”

  “What’s the point?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Wanted to run it by you first.”

  “She ask for a PD or a rep?”

  “Not yet. Pissed is what she is.” He nodded over to her desk. “Knows the incident means an automatic thirty-day suspension of her license. So she’s out the fee and a month’s work, got a fist in the face, and ruined what she says is a new shirt.”

  “That’s the life. Get the tox, wrap it up. Reach out to Illegals on the DB if anything looks shaky,” Eve added. “Somebody over there probably has a take on him.”

  She walked into her office, shut the door.

  “She’ll walk,” Roarke commented.

  “Likely. Smart not to run, to come in voluntarily. Less smart to party with a guy on Zeus, if that was the case. And if she’s worked that sector for a couple, three years, she’d know if he was pumped.”

  “A girl’s got to make a living.”

  “That’s what they tell me. So, anything from the unregistered?”

  “Nothing that gels, not at this point. I have Summerset running more searches and crosses. He knows what to look for, and how to find it.”

  Her brows drew together. “Am I going to have to be grateful to him?”

  “I’ll take care of that.”

  “Good.” She pulled off her coat, went for coffee. “Did McNab actually give you an update?”

  “He did, yes. I’ll go through the employee list, cull out any who might take a home appointment or consultation. Do you think now this has been his pattern all along?”

  “I don’t know, can’t say.” Eve rubbed at her eyes, then scratched her head furiously as if to wake up the brain under her scalp. “But we’re talking more than twenty women. How likely is it that not one of them ever told anyone where they were going? Bogus name, sure, but if they had the location in advance, made this appointment, how likely is it none of them told anyone, or left any sort of record of the appointment?”

  “Low. Yes, I see. But…There may have been more than the twenty. And I see you’ve considered that as well,” he added when he studied her face. “He picked them, made the arrangements, and if he sensed or learned they’d mentioned it, he’d simply follow through with the cover. Take his fucking dance lesson.”

  “Yeah, I think he could pull that off. And I think he could grab or lure them later in his schedule. So we go back over the prior cases, find out if any of the vics took a house call in the week or two before they were killed. He’s focused,” Eve continued, “careful enough to make sure he’s clear, but focused. I can see him postponing the grab, or switching vics. If so, it’s something we didn’t have before. A mistake we missed.”

  Roarke drank his coffee. The office seemed ridiculously confining to him all at once. The piss-poor light barely seeping through her excuse for a window, the tight box formed by the walls.

  “Haven’t you ever considered asking for a bigger office?”

  “What for?”

  “A little breathing room might be a plus.”

  “I can breathe fine. You can’t t
ake this in, Roarke.”

  “And how would you suggest I avoid that?” he demanded. “I’m his springboard, aren’t I? There’s a woman dead because she worked for me. Another who, even now, is being tortured. It’s too late for Gia Rossi.”

  “It’s not too late until it’s too late.” Still, she knew she owed him the straight line, and that he had to be able to deal with it. “The probability is low that we’ll find her in time. It’s not impossible, but at this point, it’s not likely.”

  “And the next, she’d already be in his sights.”

  “He’d have stalked her, selected her, worked her by now. But we’ve got more time there. He’s not infallible, and there’s only one of him. I’ve put the best I’ve got on this. It ends here.”

  Her eyes went flat, cop flat. “It’s going to end here. But you’re no good to me if you can’t set the emotional connection aside.”

  “Well, I can’t. But I can use it. I can do what I need to do.”

  “Okay.”

  “Which includes getting right pissed from time to time.”

  “Fine. But get this in your head. The responsibility for this is his. Totally, completely, absolutely. No portion of it’s yours. He owns it. If his mother used him as her butt monkey when he was a kid, he still owns it. He made the choice. If his father, uncle, aunt, cousin from Toledo kicked his ass every Tuesday, it’s still his. You and I know that. We know about the choice. We know, whenever we take a life, whatever the circumstances, whatever the reasons, it’s still our choice. Right or wrong, we own it.”

  Roarke considered his coffee, set it aside. And his eyes met hers. “I love you, for so many reasons.”

  “Maybe you can give me a few of them later.”

  “I’ll give you one now. That unfailing moral center of yours. So very solid and true.” He laid his hands on her shoulders, drew her in. Kissed her softly. “And then there’s the sex.”

  “Figured you’d work that in.”

  “As often as humanly possible. Well then.” He gave her shoulders a rub, stepped back. “There’s one thing I can do now, and that’s order in lunch for the team. Don’t,” he continued, lifting a warning finger, “give me any lip.”

  “I thought you like my lip—the set of them. Look, I don’t want you to—”

  “I was thinking pizza.”

  Her eyes slitted; she huffed out a breath. “That’s hitting below the belt, pal.”

  “I know your every weakness, Lieutenant. And this one’s topped with pepperoni.”

  “Just don’t make a habit of it. The food. They’ll get greedy.”

  “I think your team’s steady enough to handle a few slices. I’ll take care of it, and start on the employee list.”

  When he left, she closed the door behind him. She wanted to work in the quiet for a while, with minimal interruption. To think and theorize before she went back to the noise and pressures of the war room.

  She brought up the files on the first investigation.

  She knew these women. Their names, their faces, where they’d come from, where they’d lived, where they’d worked or studied.

  A diverse group, in all but general appearance. And now she would look for one more point of origin.

  Corrine, would-be actress working as a waitress, who’d squeezed in acting, dance, and vocal lessons when she could afford them. He could have played her, yes, he could have in several ways. Come to this location to audition for a part—what hungry young actress wouldn’t bite? Or come to this address on this date and time to help serve at a party. Pick up some extra cash. Possibilities.

  She went down the list of names. A secretary, a grad student working on her master’s in foreign studies, a clerk in a gift shop who dabbled in pottery.

  Following the string, she began to make calls, questioning people she’d interviewed nine years before.

  There was a quick knock, then Peabody stuck her head in. She had a slice of pizza, half eaten, in her hand. “Pizza’s here. They’re pouncing on it like wolves. You’d better get out there if you want any.”

  “Minute.”

  Peabody took another bite. “You got something?”

  “Maybe. Maybe.” Eve wished the scent of pizza wasn’t so damn distracting. “I’ll bring it in. Get whoever’s in the field on a headset. I want to brief everyone at once.”

  “You got it.”

  “Get the vics from the first investigation up on screen, with data.”

  Eve gathered her notes, her discs, then tagged Mira. “I need you in the war room.”

  “Ten minutes.”

  “Sooner,” Eve said and clicked off.

  When Eve strode into the war room, she noted that two pizzas had been demolished along with most of a third. After setting down her notes, she marched over, grabbed a slice.

  “Got Jenkinson, Powell, Newkirk, and Harris on the line,” Peabody told her. “Everyone else is here.”

  “Mira’s on her way. I want her take on this.” Even as Eve bit in, Feeney was coming toward her.

  “You’ve got something. I can see it.”

  “Might. A possible link, possible method. I’m going to lay it out as soon as Mira’s in the room.” She glanced over, then handily caught the tube of Pepsi that Roarke tossed her. “Progress?” she asked him.

  “I have fifty-six most possible, given their vocations or avocations. Still coming.”

  “Okay. Peabody, get the screen up, backed with the disc I brought in.” She nodded when Mira came in. After taking a long sip, Eve put on the headset.

  “Listen up, people. I need your full attention. If you can’t eat pizza and think—”

  “You got pizza?” was Jenkinson’s complaint in her ear.

  “We’re working on a new theory,” Eve said, and began to lay it out.

  9

  “ONE OF CORRINE DAGBY’S COWORKERS AT THE time of her death remembers—or more accurately thinks she remembers—the vic mentioning she was up for a part in a play. Off-off Broadway. If she spoke of this to anyone else, family, friends, other students in her classes, they don’t recall.

  “Melissa Congress, second vic, secretarial position. Last seen leaving a club Lower West, well lubricated. This remains, most probably, a grab. A moment of opportunity. She was, however, known to complain with some consistency about her level of employment, her pay, her hours. There remains a possibility that she was approached about interviewing for another position and therefore knew or recognized her abductor.

  “Anise Waters,” Eve continued. “Grad student at Columbia. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Russian, and working on a master’s in political science. She sometimes supplemented her income by tutoring, most usually on campus. Last seen leaving the university’s main library. Wits stated that she took a pass on joining a group for drinks, claiming she had work. As she was a serious and dedicated student, it was assumed she was heading home to study. She didn’t mention, to anyone’s recollection, an outside tutoring job. The language discs she checked out from the library were never recovered. The vic did have a scheduled tutoring job, on campus, the next day. It was assumed she’d checked out the discs for that purpose.

  “Last, Joley Weitz. Last seen leaving Arts A Fact, a shop where she was employed, at approximately seventeen hundred. The vic did pottery, and had sold a few pieces she had on consignment at her place of employment. Her employer stated that the vic mentioned she had an important stop to make before she got ready for a date with a new boyfriend. The boyfriend was identified and cleared. As the vic had a dress on hold at a boutique she frequented, it was thought picking that item up for her date was her stop. She never reached the boutique, if indeed that was her intended destination.”

  She waited a moment, let it soak. “New theory. The vics were approached by the unsub at some time. York gave dance instruction, Rossi moonlights as a personal trainer off-site. It’s a reasonable assumption all or most of these women were offered a private job, and went to their killer. I’ve begun examining the other case
s, outside of New York, and believe this possibility extends. We have an assistant chef, a photographer, a nurse, a decorator, a data cruncher, a freelance writer, two health care aides, two artists, a clerk in a nursery—plants, the owner of a small flower shop, a librarian, a hair and skin consultant, a hotel maid. A music instructor, an herbalist, a caterer’s assistant.

  “No link but physical appearance was ever found between these women. But if we factor in this possibility. An opportunity to head the kitchen for a private dinner party, to do a photo shoot, private nursing care, write an article, so on.”

  “Why didn’t anyone know they were going off for a private job, an audition?” Baxter asked.

  “Good question. Some of them are likely grabs, as we assumed all along. It’s also possible he took the time once they were inside the location to engage them in casual conversation, determine if they had told anyone. In some cases, outside jobs would be against their rules of employment. Cop moonlights as a security guard, a bouncer, a body guard, he keeps it to himself. Dr. Mira? Any thoughts on this?”

  “It could be another form of control and enjoyment. Inviting his victims in, having them willingly enter, would be yet more proof to him of his superiority over them. It may indeed be another part of the ritual he’s created. The lack of violence on the bodies—and by that I mean the fact there’s no evidence he used his fists, his hands to strike, to throttle, that there is no sexual molestation—indicates he isn’t physical in that way. The violence is through implements and tools. A method such as you’re theorizing would fall within the structure of his profile.”

  “I like it,” Baxter commented. “Makes more sense to me, if he’s hitting on sixty or over, he’d use deception instead of force to bag them.”

  “Agreed,” Eve said. “If this holds, it indicates he’s aware they’re physically stronger than he is, or might be,” Eve put in. “All these women were in good physical shape, a number of them in exceptional physical shape. He targets young, strong women. We believe he isn’t young, maybe he isn’t particularly strong.”

  “Which may be one of the reasons he needs to subdue, humiliate, and control them.” Mira nodded. “Yes, by luring them into a location he has secured, he’s dominated them intellectually, and then he proceeds to dominate them physically up to and including the point of their death. He not only masters them, but makes them other than they were. And by doing so, makes them his own.”