by J. D. Robb
“I can get up whenever I damn well please.” There was frustrated insult in his voice as he shifted to sit up straighter. “Can’t get very far, but I can damn well get up. You thinking I got up and killed that girl. Grabbed myself a couple others?”
“You’re well informed, Mr. Pella.”
“What the hell else do I have to do all damn day but watch the screen.” He jerked his chin toward the one on the wall opposite the bed. “I know who you are. Roarke’s cop.”
“Is that a problem for you?”
He grinned, his teeth showing through the breather.
“How about him.” Eve pulled out the sketch. “Do you know who he is?”
He glanced toward the sketch in a way that told Eve he was ready to dismiss it all. Then she saw something come into his eyes, saw something pass in and out in that beat where he really looked at the face. “Who is he?”
“Guy who likes to kill women, be my guess.” That hard resistance was back on his face, the screw you expression. “From where I’m sitting, that would be your problem, not mine.”
“I can do a lot to make it your problem, too. Do you like brunettes, Mr. Pella?”
“I don’t have time for women. They don’t listen to you. Die on you.”
“You served on the Home Force during the Urbans.”
“Killed men, women, too. But they called it heroic. She was busy saving lives when they killed her. Somebody probably said that was heroic. None of it was. Killing’s killing, and you never get it out of your head.”
“Did you identify her body?”
“I’m not talking about that anymore. You don’t talk about Therese anymore.”
“Are you dying, Mr. Pella?”
“Everyone’s dying.” He grinned again. “Some of us are just closer to finishing it than others.”
“What’s finishing you?”
“Tumor. Beat it back, been beating it back for ten years. This time they say it’s going to beat me. We’ll see about that.”
“Any objection to my partner and me looking around while we’re here?”
“You want to run tame in my house?” He pushed himself up a little. “This isn’t the Urbans, Roarke’s Cop, where your kind can do as they damn please. And this is still the United States of goddamn America. You want to search my house? You get a warrant. Now get out.”
Eve stood outside, hands on hips, studying Pella’s house. In moments she saw the bedroom drapes twitch, then quickly settle.
“Tough son of a bitch,” Eve commented.
“Yeah, but is he tough enough?”
“I bet he is. If killing’s what he wanted, killing’s what he’d do. There’s the groom angle, the lost love. Why should these women live, be happy, young, when he lost his wife? Soldier during the Urbans. Knows how to kill, and he strikes me as a man with plenty of anger, and a lot of control—when he wants to use it.”
“The sick room, the breather,” Peabody considered. “Could be an act.”
“Could be, but he has to know we could find that out. Of course, if he is dying, that’s just one more check in the plus column. And no judge is going to give us a warrant with what we have to search the home of a dying, bedridden old man.
“Dallas, mute off. Feeney, you copy?”
“Read you.”
“Let’s put a couple of uniforms on this place. Surveillance goggles. Pella doesn’t give me the full buzz, but there’s a minor tingle happening. He knows something about something, and the face in that sketch triggered it.”
“Done.”
“Shadow pick up on any tail?”
“Nada.”
“Yeah, me either. I’m going to drop Peabody by her place, head home myself. I’ll be working from there. Dallas out.”
“Home sweet home?”
“Home where you can start digging up data on Pella’s dead wife. Details, all you can find. I can wrangle clearance to search his medicals. Take a closer look at Dobbins, too.”
“Looks like I’m not getting laid again tonight.”
Eve ignored her. “I’ll take another glance at the currently unavailable Hugh Klok. Guy’s into antiquities and that says travel to me. Let’s see if any of these guys frequents the opera. Roarke can take a closer look at their real estate. Maybe the houses mean something. I want blueprints in any case.”
She pulled away from the curb, hoping to sense someone watching, someone sliding through the traffic behind her. But all she felt was the crowded streets, and the sluggish push of vehicles that had turned the earlier snow into dismal mush.
17
“LOCKED IN,” EVE SAID WHEN THE GATES OF home closed behind her. “Eyes and ears off. Dallas out.”
No ugly mush and slush here, she thought. The snow spread, pure and pristine, over the grounds, draped heavy as wet fur on the trees so that the great house rose like the powerful focal point of a winter painting. And like a painting, now that the frigid March wind had died, it all stood utterly still.
She left the car, and even moving through winter’s irritable bite, she had the thought that maybe Peabody was right. Maybe spring was edging closer.
As she entered the house Summerset oozed into the foyer with the fat Galahad shadowing him.
“I’m to tell you that Roarke will be somewhat late. It seems he has considerable business of his own to deal with as he’s been spending so much of his time entrenched in yours.”
“His choice, Scarecrow.” She tossed her coat over the newel.
“There’s blood on your pants.”
She glanced down. She’d nearly forgotten the bite. Little thieving bastard. “It’s dry.”
“Then you won’t drip on the floor,” he said equably. “Mavis wishes you to know she wasn’t able to pinpoint the hairpiece, but she and Trina believe they may have narrowed the brand of body cream down to three choices. The information is on your desk.”
Eve climbed two steps, partly because she just wanted to get the hell upstairs, and partly because it allowed her to look down on him. “They’re gone?”
“Since midday. Leonardo returned. I arranged for their transportation home, where Trina will be staying with them until this matter is resolved.”
“Good. Fine.” She went up two more stairs, then stopped. He was a righteous pain in her ass most of the time, but she’d heard the concern in his voice. Whatever his numerous flaws—and don’t get her started—he had a big, gooey soft spot for Mavis.
“They’ve got nothing to worry about,” she said, looking straight into his eyes. “They’re clear of this.”
He only nodded, and Eve continued upstairs. Galahad trotted up after her.
She went to the bedroom, but only glanced at the big, gorgeous bed. If she went down, she knew she’d stay down, and that wasn’t the answer. Instead, she stripped, placing her weapon—and the clutch piece she’d strapped onto her ankle that afternoon—her badge, electronics on the dresser, then pulled on a tank and shorts.
She started to pick at the bandage on her calf, then ordered herself to stop. If she looked at the wound, the stupid thing would start hurting again.
What she needed was a good, strong workout where she could empty her mind and push her body awake.
Galahad obviously had other ideas on how to use his time and was already curled up dead center of the bed. “See, that’s why you’re fat,” she told him. “Eat, sleep, maybe prowl around a little, then eat and sleep some more. I oughta get Roarke to put a pet treadmill downstairs. Work some of that pudge off you.”
To show his opinion of the suggestion, Galahad yawned hugely, then closed his eyes.
“Sure, go ahead. Ignore me.” She stepped into the elevator, went down to the gym.
She did a two-mile run, using her favored shoreline setting. She had the texture of sand under her feet, the smell of the sea around her, the sight and sound of waves rolling, receding.
Between the effort and the ambiance, she finished the run in a kind of trance, then switched to weights. Sweaty, s
atisfied, she ended the session with some flexibility training before she hit the shower.
Okay, maybe the bite on her leg throbbed a little in protest, but it was still better than a nap, she assured herself. Though she had to admit the cat snoring on the bed looked pretty damn happy. She pulled on loose pants, a black sweatshirt she noticed with baffled surprise was cashmere, thick socks. With her file bag in tow, she went from bedroom to office.
She programmed a full pot of coffee, and drank the first cup while updating, then circling and studying her murder boards. She paused, looked into the eyes of the killer Yancy had sketched.
“Did you come home to die? Ted, Ed, Edward, Edwin? Is it all about timing and circles and death? Has it all been your own personal opera?”
She circled again, studying each victim’s face. “You chose them, used them. Cast them away. But they all represent someone. Who is that? Who was she to you? Mother, lover, sister, daughter? Did she betray you? Leave you? Reject you?”
She remembered something Pella had said, and frowned.
“Die on you? More than that? Was she taken, killed? Is this a recreation of her death?”
She studied her own face, the ID print she’d pinned up. And what did he see when he looked at it? she wondered. Not just another victim this time, but an opponent. That was new, wasn’t it? Hunting the hunter.
The grand finale. Yes, Mira could be right about that. The twist at the end of the show. Applause, applause, and curtain.
She poured out a second cup of coffee, sat to prop her feet on her desk. Maybe not just an opera fan. A performer? Frustrated performer or composer…
The performer didn’t fit profile, she decided. It would involve a lot of training, a lot of teamwork. Taking direction. No, that wasn’t his style.
A composer, could be. Most people who wrote anything worked alone a lot of the time. Taking charge of the words or the music.
“Computer, working with all current data, run probability series as follows. What is the probability the perpetrator has returned to New York, has targeted Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, in a desire to complete what he may consider his work?
“What is the probability that desire is fostered by his knowledge of his own death, or plans to self-terminate?
“What is the probability, given his use of opera houses for false addresses, he is or was involved in opera as a profession?
“What is the probability, given the timelines of the perpetrator’s sprees and subsequent rest periods, he utilizes chemicals to suppress or release his urge to kill?”
Acknowledged.
“Hold it. I’m still thinking. What is the probability the victims represent a person connected to the perpetrator who was, at some time, tortured and killed by methods he now employs? Begin run.”
Acknowledged. Working…
“You do that.” Leaning back, Eve sipped coffee, closed her eyes.
She let it filter in, chewed on it awhile, used the results to formulate other runs. Then she simply sat and let it all simmer in her head.
When Roarke stepped in, she had her boots on the desk, ankles crossed. There was a coffee mug in her hand. Her eyes were closed, her face blank. The cat padded in behind him and arrowed straight for the sleep chair, lest someone get there first. Then he sprawled out, as if exhausted by the walk from nap to nap.
Roarke started across the room, then stopped dead in front of the murder board. If someone had slammed a steel bat into his chest it would’ve been less of a jolt than seeing Eve’s face on that board, among the dead and missing.
He lost his breath. It simply left his body as he imagined life would if he lost her. Then it came back, blown through him by sheer rage. His hands clenched at his sides, hard balls of violence. He could see them punching through the face of the man who saw Eve as a victim, as some sort of grand prize in his collection. What he felt, literally, was the connection of those fists to flesh, to bone and blood, not to empty paper and ink.
And he reveled in the raw phantom pain in his knuckles.
She didn’t belong there. Would never belong there, in that hideous gallery of death.
Yet she had put herself there, he realized. Had put her image among the others. Steely-minded, he thought now. His cop, his wife, his world. Coolheadedly, cool-bloodedly aligning the facts and data, even when her own life was part of them.
He ordered himself to calm, to understand why she’d put herself there. She needed to see the whole picture, and seeing the whole picture would shut it down.
He looked away from the board and over to her. She was exactly as she’d been when he entered. Kicked back, still—and safe.
He went to her, realized some of the rage and fear was still with him when he wanted to simply pluck her up, wrap himself around her, and hold on. And on. Instead he reached down to take the mug out of her hand.
“Get your own coffee,” she muttered, and opened her eyes.
Not asleep, he realized, but in the zone. “My mistake. I thought you were sleeping on the job.”
“Thinking time, pal. Didn’t hear you come in. How’s it going?”
“Well enough. I grabbed a swim and a shower to delude myself that I was still feeling human.”
“Yeah, I went the beach run and iron pumping route. Mostly works. I’ve been doing probabilities and some data juggling. I need to write up a report, then do some runs. When—”
“I want ten minutes,” he interrupted.
“Huh?”
“Ten minutes.” He took the coffee now, set it aside, then captured her hand to pull her out of the chair. “Where it’s just you, just me.”
She cocked up her eyebrows as he drew her away from the desk. “Ten minutes isn’t anything to brag about, ace.”
“I’m not meaning sex.” He slid his arms around her, kept moving in what she now understood was a slow and easy dance. “Or not precisely that. I want ten minutes of you,” he repeated, lowering his brow to hers. “Just that, without anything or anyone.”
She drew in a breath, and smelled the shower on him. That lingering scent of soap on his skin. “It already feels good.” She touched her lips to his, angled her head. “Tastes good, too.”
He skimmed a finger down the dent in her chin, brushed his lips on hers. “So it does. And there’s this spot I know.” He used his finger to turn her head slightly, then laid his lips along her jawline, just below her ear. “Just exactly there. It’s perfect.”
“That one spot?”
“Well now, there are others, but that’s a particular favorite of mine.”
She smiled, then rested her head on his shoulder—a favorite spot of hers—and let him guide her through the easy dance. “Roarke.”
“Mmm?”
“Nothing. It just feels good to say it.”
His hand stroked up and down her back. “Eve,” he said. “You’re right again. It does. I love you. There’s nothing that feels more perfect than that.”
“Hearing it’s not bad. Knowing it’s the best.” She lifted her head, met his lips again. “I love you.”
They held on, and they ended the dance as they’d begun. With his brow resting against hers. “There, now,” he murmured. “That’s better.” He drew back, then lifted her hands to his lips.
He had a way, just that way, of making her insides curl. His lips warm on her skin, and those wild blue eyes looking over their joined hands into hers made her wish she had a hundred ten minutes just to be. As long as he could just be along with her.
“It’s pretty damn good,” she told him.
“Why don’t I get us a meal,” he suggested, “and you can tell me about those probabilities.”
“I’ll get it. It’s got to be my turn by now. You can go ahead and look them over if you want.”
She stepped back, turned. And saw, as she realized now he would have seen, her photo on the board. “Oh, Jesus. Jesus.” Appalled, she gripped a handful of her own hair and tugged. “Listen, this was stupid. I’m stupid. I only put this up there
to—”
“Don’t call yourself stupid, for you’re far from it most of the time.” His tone was cool and even. “I’m more than happy to let you know when you are stupid. It’s not a problem for me.”
“Yeah, you’ve made that clear in the past. But this was just so—”
She broke off again when he held up a hand. “You put yourself there because you have to be objective, and more—you have to be able to see yourself as he does. Not only as you are, but as he sees you. If you don’t, you may be careless.”
“Okay, yeah.” She slid her hands into her pockets. “Got it in one. Are you okay with this?”
“Does it help you if I’m not okay with it? Obviously not. So I’ll deal with it. And I’ll kill him if he hurts you.”
“Hey, hey.”
“I’m not meaning the garden variety of bumps, bruises, and occasional bites,” he added with a glance at her leg, “you seem to incur on an alarmingly regular basis.”
“I hold my own,” she snapped back, oddly insulted. “And you’ve taken some hits yourself, pal.” Her eyes narrowed when he held up a finger. “Oh, I really hate when you do that.”
“Pity. If he manages to get past your guard, past me, and all the rest, and causes you real harm, I’ll do him with my own hands and in my own way. You’ll have to be okay with that, as that’s as much who and what I am and it’s who and what you are that put your own face up there.”
“He won’t get past my guard.”
“Then we won’t have a problem, will we? What’s for dinner?”
She wanted to argue, but she couldn’t find any room to maneuver. So she shrugged and stalked off toward the kitchen. “I want carbs.”
The man was exasperating. One minute he was kissing her hand in the sort of quietly romantic gesture that turned her to putty, and the next he was telling her he’d do murder in that calm, cool voice that was scarier than a blaster to the temple.
And the hell of it was, she thought as the cat bumped his head against her leg, he meant both those things absolutely. Hell, he was both of those things absolutely.
She ordered spaghetti and meatballs, leaned back on the counter, and sighed. He might be exasperating, complicated, dangerous, and difficult, but she loved every piece of the puzzle that made him.