Holiday in Death (17 page)

A flash of heat on her shoulder. A shock. Someone was whimpering inside her head. Then cool, cool liquid over the heat, soothing as a kiss.

And under she went again, sliding down and down until she rocked on the soft bottom and curled there, sleeping deep.

When she surfaced, it was dark. Disoriented, she lay very still, counting her own breaths. She was warm and naked, stretched flat on her stomach under the billowing cloud of the duvet.

Home in bed, she realized, as the last hours of her life slipped in and out of focus. Trying to bring it clear, she rolled over, and her legs tangled with Roarke’s.

“Awake?”

His voice sounded alert — a little skill of his that was a mild irritation to her. “What — “

“It’s nearly morning.”

She was indeed warm, and naked, her skin soft as dewed petals thanks to Trina, and she smelled like the cool juice of hothouse peaches.

“How do you feel?”

She wasn’t entirely sure. Everything in her was so loose and smooth. “I’m fine,” she said automatically.

“Good. Then you’re ready for the final phase of your relaxation program.”

His mouth took hers, whisper-soft, his tongue already sliding in to tangle. Her mind, which had just started to clear, clouded again. This time with pure and healthy lust.

“Hold on. I’m not — “

“Let me taste you.” His mouth skimmed down her throat to nibble and destroy. “Touch you.” His hand glided up to her hip, down, parted her legs. “Have you.”

When he slipped inside her, slowly, she was already hot and ready.

She couldn’t see. The predawn light was like ink. He was a shadow moving over her, a steady, glorious force moving inside her. She tripped over the first peak before she could find the rhythm.

With long, slow, torturous strokes he pleasured them both. Her breathing thickened to match his, her hips lifted and fell until their paces meshed. Now when their mouths met, they swallowed each other’s groans.

Warm, soft waves of sensation cradled her, then swept her up and over silky crests. When she felt his body tense, she enfolded him, wrapping herself around him, welcoming that final thrust that pinned them both to peak.

He buried his face in her hair and breathed her in.

“You are feeling better.” He murmured it, his breath tickling her skin and making her smile.

Then her mind cleared.

“Goddamn it.”

“Uh-oh.” Chuckling, he rolled, taking her with him until her body was sprawled over his.

“You think it’s funny.” She shoved up and away, blowing at her hair as she sat up. “You think it’s a joke? You push me around, bully me into taking some tranq.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to bully you into anything if you hadn’t been ready to drop.” He sat up as well. “Lights, ten percent.” At his order the room filled with a soft glow. “You look good,” he said after a moment’s study of her furious — and rested — face. “Despite her rather extreme personal taste, Trina knows what suits you.”

The way her mouth dropped open and her eyes bugged out had Roarke fighting back a roar of laughter. “You let her work on me while I was out? You sadistic, treacherous son of a bitch.” She might have taken a swing at him, but she was already leaping out of bed toward the mirror.

The relief that she looked normal, fairly much the way she looked every other morning wasn’t quite enough to cut through the temper. “I ought to throw you both in a cage for this.”

“Mavis was in on it, too,” he said cheerfully. She hadn’t moved that quickly or easily in several days, he noted. And her eyes were free of shadows. “Oh, and Summerset.”

Now she had no choice but to sit down. She staggered back to the bed and dropped down on the edge. “Summerset.” It was a horrified croak.

“He worked on your shoulder after I ran a quick diagnostic. The muscles had flamed up. Why the hell don’t you take normal steps to deal with discomfort?”

“Summerset” was all she could say.

“He’s had medical training, as you know. He simply treated your shoulder. How does it feel?”

Maybe it was pain free for the first time in days. Maybe her entire body felt gloriously energized and fresh. That didn’t make Roarke’s methods acceptable.

She pushed off the bed, snagged the robe that was draped over a chair, and shoved her arms into the sleeves. “I’m going to kick your ass.”

“All right.” He got up agreeably and found a robe for himself. “It’ll be a fairer match than it was last night. You want to go at me here, or down in the gym?”

Before the last word was out of his mouth, she sprang. She came in low. He had time to start a pivot, but not to complete it, and ended up sprawled on the bed, his wife on top of him, with her knee planted firmly, worrisomely, between his legs.

“Ah, I’d say you’re back, Lieutenant.”

“Damn right. I ought to knock your balls up to your ears, smart guy.”

“Well, at least we both got one last use of them first.” He grinned and risked serious damage. Then he reached up and feathered his fingers over her cheek. And distracted her just enough to allow him to counter the move. He flipped her over and pinned her down.

“Now, you listen.” The grin was gone. “Whatever it takes is what I’ll do. Whenever it’s needed is when I’ll do it. You don’t have to like it, but you’ll damn well live with it.”

He pushed off, shifting to the balls of his feet when he saw her eyes narrow with purpose. Then he let out a sigh and jammed his hands into his pockets. “Bloody hell. I love you.”

She’d been poised to spring. Those two sentences, said with equal parts frustration and weariness, arrowed straight to her heart. He stood there, his hair tousled from sleep and sex and struggle, his eyes deeply blue and filled with annoyance and love.

Everything inside her shifted, then settled into the pattern she supposed it was fated for. “I know. I’m sorry. You were right.” She tunneled her fingers through her hair, distracted enough not to see the flicker of surprise on his face. “I don’t like your methods, but you were right. I was pushing too hard before I was a hundred percent. You’ve been telling me to recharge for days, and I didn’t want to hear it.”

“Why?”

“I was scared.” It was hard to admit it, even to a man she knew she could tell every secret.

“Scared?” He crossed to her, sat down, and took her hand in his. “Of what?”

“That I wouldn’t be able to go back, not all the way back. That I wouldn’t be strong enough, or sharp enough to be back on the job. And if I couldn’t…” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’ve got to be a cop. I have to do the job. If I can’t — I’ve lost myself.”

“You could have talked to me about this.”

“I wouldn’t even talk to myself about it.” She rubbed her fingers over her eyes, irritated that there were tears brewing behind them. “Since I went back, I’ve been mostly doing paperwork, court dates. This is my first homicide since I got off disability leave. If I can’t handle it…”

“You are handling it.”

“Whitney ordered me home last night — either that or he was taking me off the case. I get here and you threaten to pour drugs down my throat.”

“Well.” He gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze. “That was lousy timing. But I believe, in both cases, it was a matter of wanting you to rest, rather than a criticism of your abilities.”

He took her chin in his hand, rubbing his thumb over the center dent. “Eve, there are times when you are astonishingly unaware of self. You push yourself to the wall on every case. The only difference with this is that you were physically shaky to begin with. You’re the same cop you were when I met you last winter. And occasionally that’s a frightening thought.”

“Yeah, I’m counting on that.” She studied their joined hands. “But I’m not the same person I was last winter.” With her fingers linked with his, she lifted her head, looked into his eyes. “I don’t want to be. I like who I am now. Who we are now.”

“Good.” He leaned over to kiss her. “Because we’re stuck.”

She fisted a hand in his hair to deepen the kiss. “It’s turned out to be a pretty good deal. But…” She nibbled lightly at his bottom lip then bit it sharply enough to make him yelp in surprise and pain. “If you ever again let Summerset put his hands on me when I’m out…” She rose, breathed deeply, and decided she felt incredible. “I’ll shave you bald in your sleep. I’m starving,” she said abruptly. “Want breakfast?”

He considered her for a moment, then ran a considering hand over his long black hair. He was, fortunately, a very light sleeper. “Yeah. I could eat.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Armed with the results of the probability scan on Rudy, Eve paced Dr. Mira’s outer office. She needed the weight of Mira’s profile on him to yank him back into Interview and, hopefully, into a cell.

Time was passing. With or without the tag, she expected him to move on to number five that night.

“Does she know I’m out here?” Eve demanded of Mira’s assistant.

Well used to impatient cops, the woman didn’t bother to glance up from her own work. “She’s in a session. She’ll be with you as soon as possible.”

Pumped by refreshed energy, Eve paced to the far wall and eyed with suspicion a dreamy watercolor of some seacoast town. She paced back and scowled at the mini AutoChef. She knew it wouldn’t be stocked with coffee. Mira preferred her patients and associates to sip soothers or tea.

The minute Mira’s door opened, Eve whirled and pounced. “Dr. Mira — ” She broke off when she spotted Nadine Furst.

The reporter flushed, then straightened her shoulders and met Eve’s annoyed glare dead on.

“If you start going around me to pump my profiler for data, you’re going to find yourself without a departmental source, and up on charges, pal.”

“I’m here on personal business,” Nadine said stiffly.

“Save the bullshit for your viewing audience.”

“I said I’m here on personal business.” Nadine held up a hand before Mira could interfere. “Dr. Mira counseled me after the… incident last spring. You kept me alive, Dallas, but she kept me sane. Now and again I need a little help, that’s all. Now if you’ll get the hell out of my way — “

“I’m sorry.” Eve wasn’t sure if she was more surprised or ashamed, but neither sensation sat well. “It was rough on you. I know what it’s like to carry around bad memories. I’m sorry, Nadine.”

“Yeah, right.” She jerked a shoulder, striding out quickly. Her heels tapped on tile, and the sound echoed away.

“Please come in, Eve.” Mira, her face carefully blank, stepped back, then shut the door behind Eve.

“Okay, I jumped and I shouldn’t have.” She jammed her hands in her pockets to keep from squirming under the air of disapproval Mira created with a quiet look. “She’s been nagging me about this case, and we’ve got a press conference set up in a couple of hours. I figured she was trying to cut some corners.”

“You have difficulty trusting, even after a measure of trust has been established.” Mira sat, smoothed her skirt. “You were also quick with an apology that came from the heart. You are, and always have been, a study of contradictions, Eve.”

“I’m not here on personal business.” Eve’s tone was flat and dismissive, but she glanced back toward the door with concern in her eyes. “Is she okay?”

“Nadine is a strong and determined woman — traits you should recognize. I can’t discuss this with you, Eve. It’s privileged.”

“Yeah.” She blew out a breath. “She’s pissed at me now. I’ll give her a one-on-one and smooth her out again.”

“She values your friendship. Not only the information you give her. Are you going to sit down? I don’t intend to scold you.”

Eve grimaced, then cleared her throat and held out the file she carried. “I have the probability scan on Rudy. With current data he comes out at eighty-six point six percent. That’s high enough to poke at him again, but I can tie him up tighter after you test him. Rollins said Rudy’s lawyer popped to it.”

“Yes, I have him scheduled for this afternoon as you flagged it Priority One.”

“I need to know his head, his violence potential, so I can put him away long enough for me to dig up evidence. I don’t think he’s going to break, or deal. If the sister knows anything, I can work on her. She’ll fold eventually.”

“I’ll give you what I can, as soon as I can. I understand the pressure you and your team are under. However,” she added, tilting her head, “you look well. Rested. The last time I saw you I was a little concerned. I still think you came back to full duty sooner than was wise.”

“You and everyone else.” Then she shrugged. “I feel good. Better. I had a top-level relaxation therapy session last night, and about ten hours sleep.”

“Really?” Mira’s lips curved. “And how did Roarke manage that?”

“He drugged me.” At Mira’s delighted burst of laughter, Eve scowled. “Figures you’d be on his side.”

“Oh, completely. How well you suit each other, Eve. It’s a pleasure to watch what grows between you. I look forward to seeing you both tonight.”

“The party, right.” Whoopee, she thought irritably, but her mouth twitched when Mira laughed again. “Get me that profile, and maybe I’ll be in a party mood.”

But she wasn’t when she walked into her office and found McNab rifling through her desk.

“I don’t keep my candy stash there anymore, ace.”

He straightened so quickly his hip hit the drawer, and shoved it closed on his fingers. His pained yelp greatly lifted Eve’s mood.

“Jesus, Dallas.” Pouting, he sucked his throbbing fingers. “You might as well blast me as scare me to death.”

“I ought to give you a jolt. Stealing a superior officer’s candy bars is no small matter, McNab. I need my candy fix.”

“Okay, okay.” Trying for contrite, he smiled and pulled out her desk chair for her. “Looking good this morning, Dallas.”

“Don’t suck up, McNab. It’s pathetic.” She dropped down in her chair and stretched her legs out, which bumped her boots against the wall. “You want to make points, give me some news.”

“I verified the financials, and found eight complaints lodged against Holloway buried in the FI file.”

“FI?”

“Fuck It file,” he said with a quick grin. “It’s a place businesses stick cranks and other shit they don’t intend to deal with. But all eight women were given free perks, just like Peabody. Salon treatments or free match lists, credit in the boutiques.”

“Who authorized?”

“Both of them, depending. She knew what was up, all right. I got her initials on three of the complaints.”

“Okay, that puts Piper in, but it doesn’t win us a prize. I can use it to squeeze her some.”

“Something else’s a little interesting,” he said and sat down on the corner of her desk.

Eve eyed him balefully. “Interesting enough for me not to kick your ass off my desk?”

“Well, let’s find out. I found a memo on Donnie Ray, dated six months ago and updated the first of December.”

Eve felt a little tickle under her heart. “What kind of memo?”

“From Rudy to the consulting staff. Donnie Ray was not to be put through to Piper. Rudy would do his consults personally, or oversee them. The update was a little slap, restating the original notice and reprimanding some drone who didn’t shield a call.”

“That’s fairly interesting. So he didn’t want Donnie Ray sniffing around Piper. I can use that. Anything on the other two victims?”

“Nothing that popped out.”

She drummed her fingers on the desk. “Medical? Mental or physical treatments?”

“They’re both sterilized.” McNab squirmed on the desk as he imagined the cold tongue of the laser on his own genitals. “They opted out of the reproductive market about five years back.”

“That follows.”

“Piper’s had regular shrink work, weekly sessions at Inner Balance for as long as they have records on file. Last year, she did a month at one of their retreats on Optima II. I hear they do colonies, sleep in mood tubes, and eat nothing but grain noodles.”

“What a party. What about him?”

“Zip.”

“Well, he’s going to get some shrink work this afternoon. Decent job, McNab.” She looked over as Peabody came in. “Good timing. The two of you nail down that last piece of jewelry. I want to know where he bought those four calling birds. He got a little sloppy at the scene; maybe he tripped up with the necklace, too.”

Peabody studiously avoided looking at McNab. “But, sir — “

“I’m going to squeeze Piper, so I can’t take you with me. If you leave the building, either of you, you leave together.” She rose. “If he hasn’t picked out number five by now, he’s looking. I want you both where I can find you.”

“Relax, She-Body,” McNab sneered as Eve headed out. “I’m a professional.”

“Bite me.”

Though Eve managed to swallow a chuckle at her aide’s use of her own standard response to annoyances, she didn’t quite make it over McNab’s cheerful, “Where?”

Eve’s timing was well calculated. If Rudy’s lawyer had any brains, he’d have his client in some locked room being prompted on the upcoming tests. She had, she decided, at least an hour to rattle Piper before she had to get back to Central for the press conference.

This time, the receptionist didn’t bother to stall, but simply cleared her through.

“Lieutenant.” Pale, hollow-eyed, Piper stood at the doorway of the office. “My lawyer informs me that I’m not under any obligation to speak with you, and advises me against it unless it’s in formal interview with my counsel present.”

“You can play it that way, Piper. We can go in right now, or we can stay here, be comfortable, and you can tell me why Rudy didn’t want you dealing with Donnie Ray Michael.”

“That was nothing.” Distress shimmered into her voice as she linked her hands. “That was nothing at all. You can’t make anything bad out of it.”

“Fine. Why don’t you just clear it up for me so we can put it away?”

Without waiting for an invitation, Eve slipped into the room and took a chair. She waited, saying nothing, and let the little war so obvious on Piper’s face play out.

“It was just that Donnie Ray had a little crush on me. That’s all. It was nothing. It was harmless.”

“Then why the staff memos?”

“It was just a precaution. To avoid any… unpleasantness.”

“Is there often unpleasantness?”

“No!” Piper shut the door and hurried over. There were spots of agitated color in her cheeks. The silvery hair had been twisted back today, leaving her face unframed, adding a contrast of sophistication and fragility.

“No, not at all. We’re dedicated to helping people find pleasantness, in companionship, romance, often marriage. Lieutenant…” She steepled her hands, folded the fingers down. “I could show you dozens of endorsements from satisfied clients. From people we helped to find each other. Love, true love, matters.”

Eve kept her eyes level. “You believe in true love, Piper?”

“Absolutely, completely.”

“What would you do for your true love, to keep him?”

“Whatever I had to do.”

“Tell me about Donnie Ray.”

“He asked me out, a couple of times. He wanted me to hear him play.” She sighed, then seemed to melt into a chair. “He was just a boy, Lieutenant. He wasn’t… It wasn’t the way it was with Holloway. But Rudy felt, rightly so, that in order to fulfill our obligation to him as a client, it would be best if contact with me was eliminated.”

“Were you interested in hearing Donnie Ray play?”

A smile ghosted around her mouth. “I might have enjoyed that, if that was all. But it was clear that he had hopes for more. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. I can’t bear to bruise a heart.”

“And what about yours? How does your relationship with your brother sit on your heart?”

“I can’t — won’t discuss that with you.” She sat straight again, folded her hands.

“Who made the decision that you’d be sterilized, Piper?”

“You go too far.”

“Do I? You’re twenty-eight years old.” She pushed because she’d seen Piper’s lips tremble. “And you’ve eliminated the chance to have children because you can’t risk conceiving one with your own brother. You’ve been in therapy for years. You’ve been cut off from developing a relationship with another man. You conceal the relationship you do have, paid a blackmailer to insure it continued to be concealed because incest is a dark and shameful secret.”

“You can’t possibly understand.”

“Oh yes, I can.” But she’d been forced, Eve reminded herself. She’d been a child. She’d had no choice. “I know what you’re living with.”

“I love him! If it’s wrong, if it’s shameful, if it’s wretched, that doesn’t change. He’s my life.”

“Then why are you afraid?” Eve leaned forward. “Why are you so afraid that you’ll cover for him even when you wonder if he’s killed? Anything for true love? You let Holloway prey on your clients, and that makes you the same as a pimp for an unlicensed whore.”

“No, we did our best to find him like-minded women.”

“And when you didn’t, and they complained, you paid them off,” Eve finished. “Is that what you wanted to do, or was it Rudy?”

“It was business. Rudy understands the business better than me.”

“Is that how you live with it? Or maybe neither one of you could live with it anymore. Was he with you the night Donnie Ray was killed? Can you look at me and swear he was with you all that night?”

“Rudy couldn’t hurt anyone. He couldn’t.”

“Are you so sure, so sure, you’ll risk another death? If not tonight, then tomorrow.”

“Whoever is killing these people is insane — vicious, cruel, and insane. If I thought it could be Rudy, I couldn’t live. We’re part of each other, so it would be in me the way it’s in him. I couldn’t live.” She covered her face with her hands. “I can’t stand any more of this. I won’t talk to you. If you accuse Rudy, you accuse me, and I won’t talk to you.”

Eve rose, but paused by the chair for a moment. “You’re not half of a whole, Piper, whatever he’s told you. If you want a way out, I know someone who can help you.”

Though she felt it was a useless attempt, she took one of her own cards and noted Dr. Mira’s name and number on the back. She left it on the arm of the chair and walked away.

Her emotions were in upheaval when she got into her car. She took a moment to settle them, then glanced at her wrist unit. Not much time, she mused, but enough.

She used her personal porta-‘link rather than her car unit and tagged Nadine.

“What do you want, Dallas? I’m under the gun here. The press conference is in an hour.”

“Meet me at the D and D, bring your crew. Fifteen minutes.”

“I can’t — “

“Yeah, you can.” Eve broke transmission and drove downtown.

She’d picked the Down and Dirty Club partly for sentiment, partly because it would be fairly private on a midweek afternoon. And the proprietor was a friend who would see that she wasn’t hassled.