Loyalty in Death (14 page)

Whitney leaned forward, studying the screen. “What was next?”

“The newly refurbished U-Line Arena during a basketball game. Fourteen thousand people were killed or injured. If Cassandra runs true to form, I’m looking at Madison Square or the Pleasure Dome. By keeping all data out of the mainframe and within this room, there’s no way for Cassandra to know our current avenue of investigation. We should be a step ahead of them.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant Dallas. Lieutenant Malloy, your report on the explosives?”

Anne rose, moved to the middle board. The next thirty minutes were technical: electronics, triggers, timers, remotes, materials. Rate of detonation, scope of impact.

“Pieces of the devices are still being gathered on-scene and are under lab analysis,” she concluded. “At this time we know we’re working with intricate, handmade units. Plaston appears to be the material of favor. Analysis is incomplete as to the capabilities of distance on the remotes, but it appears to be extreme long range. These aren’t toys, no homemade boomers, but high-level military-style explosives. I concur with Lieutenant Dallas’s opinion on Radio City. If this group had wanted it blown, it’d be dust.”

She sat, giving way to Feeney. “This is one of the surveillance cameras my team swept out of Radio City.” He held up a small round unit hardly bigger than the circle made by his thumb and forefinger. “It’s damn well made. We tagged twenty-five of them from scene. They watched every step we took and could have blown us to hell in a heartbeat.”

He slipped the bug back into its seal. “EDD is working with Malloy and her people to develop a longer-range, more sensitive bomb scanner. Meanwhile, I’m not saying the feds don’t have good people, but so do we. And it’s our damn city. Added to that, this group contacted Dallas. They targeted her. You pull her back now, and us with her, you’re going to change the balance. Once it tips, we could lose it all.”

“So noted. Dallas?” Tibble lifted a finger. “An opinion on why this group contacted you?”

“Only conjecture, sir. Roarke owns or has interests in the targets thus far. I’m connected to Roarke. It amuses them. Fixer referred to it as a game. I think they’re enjoying it. He also spoke of revenge.”

She rose again, shifted the image of Monica Rowan on-screen. “She’d have the most cause to enjoy some revenge, and as Rowan’s widow, would be the most likely person to have personal and inside knowledge of his group.”

“You and your aide are cleared for immediate travel to Maine,” Tibble told her. “Commander? Comments?”

“This team has put together an impressive amount of evidence and probability in a short amount of time.” Whitney rose. “It’s my opinion that a federal team would be superfluous.”

“I believe the lieutenant and her team have given me enough balls to juggle for the politicians.” Tibble got to his feet as well. “Dallas, you remain in charge until further notice. I expect updates on every step. It’s our city, Captain Feeney,” he added as he turned to the door. “Let’s keep it intact.”

“Whew.” McNab let out a huge sigh when the door closed again. “Dodged that beam.”

“And if we want to keep this case where it belongs, we’re going to work our butts off.” Eve smiled at him thinly. “Your social life just went down the sewer, pal. We need that long-range scanner. And I want every arena and sports complex in every borough scanned. New Jersey as well.”

“Christ, Dallas, with our equipment and manpower, that’ll take a week.”

“You’ve got a day,” she told him. “Get in touch with Roarke.” She jammed her hands in her pockets. “Odds are, he’s got some toy that fits what you’re looking for.”

“Hot damn.” McNab rubbed his hands together and grinned at Anne. “Wait till you see what this guy’s got.”

“Feeney, is there any way you can block the unit in here? Jam it? Or better yet, come up with a new, unregistered unit with a shield.”

His hangdog face brightened as he smiled at Eve. “Guess I could jury-rig something. Not that we ever fiddle with unregistereds over at EDD.”

“Of course not. Peabody, you’re with me.”

“Hey, when are you getting back?” McNab called out.

Eve turned, stared at him, while Peabody wished herself invisible. “When we’re finished, Detective. I think you have enough to keep you busy in the meantime.”

“Oh sure, I just wondered. Just wondered.” He grinned foolishly. “Have a nice trip.”

“We’re not going for lobster,” Eve muttered and, shaking her head, walked out.

“We’ll be back before end of shift, don’t you think? Sir?”

Eve shrugged into her jacket as she strode to the elevator. “Look, if you’ve got a hot date, you’ll just have to cool your glands.”

“No, I didn’t mean… Ah, I just want to let Zeke know if I’m going to be on OT, that’s all.” And it shamed her that she hadn’t given her brother a thought.

“It takes as long as it takes. We’ve got a stop to make before we snag transpo north.”

“I don’t suppose we’ll be taking one of Roarke’s private jets?” When Eve merely eyed her balefully, Peabody hunched her shoulders. “Nope, guess not. It’s just that they’re so much faster than public shuttles.”

“And you’re just interested in speed, right, Peabody?” Eve stepped onto the elevator, pushed for garage. “It has nothing to do with plush, roomy seats, the fully stocked galley, or the screen selection.”

“A comfortable body produces a sharp mind.”

“That’s lame. You’re usually better than that when you try to hose me. You’re off today, Peabody.”

She thought of that wild interlude with McNab in an empty office. “You’re telling me.”

Zeke worked steadily, precisely, doing his best to focus his mind on the wood and his pleasure in it.

He’d known his sister hadn’t slept well the night before. He’d heard her stirring and pacing while he’d laid awake on the living room pull-out. He’d wanted to go to her, offer to meditate with her, or to make her one of his organic soothers, but he hadn’t been able to face her.

His mind was full of Clarissa, of the way she’d felt snuggled into his arms, of how sweet her lips had tasted. It shamed him. He believed strongly in the sanctity of marriage. One of the reasons he’d never pursued a serious relationship was that he’d promised himself when he took those vows to another, he would keep them throughout his life.

There had been no one he’d loved enough to make promises to.

Until now.

And she belonged to someone else.

Someone who didn’t appreciate her, he thought now as he had during the night. Someone who mistreated her, made her unhappy. Vows were meant to be broken when they caused pain.

No, he couldn’t talk to Dee when thoughts like that were skimming through his head. When he couldn’t get Clarissa out of his mind and offer his own sister comfort.

He’d seen the reports of the bombing on the news the evening before. It had horrified him. He understood that not everyone embraced the cause-no-harm tenets that formed the foundation of the Free-Agers. He knew that even some Free-Agers modified that foundation to suit their lifestyles, and after all, the religion was designed to be fluid.

He knew cruelty existed. That murder was done every day. But he had never seen the kind of terrible disregard for life as he had on the viewing screen at his sister’s apartment the evening before.

Those who were capable of it had to be less than human. No one with heart and soul and guts could destroy lives in that way. He believed that, clung to the hope that such a thing was an aberration, a mutation. And that the world had evolved beyond acceptance of wholesale death.

It had been a shock when he’d seen Eve moving through the carnage. Her face had been blank, he remembered, her clothes splattered with blood. He’d thought she’d looked exhausted, and hollow, and somehow courageous. Then it had struck him that his sister must have been there as well, somewhere in the horror of all that.

Eve had only spoken to one reporter, a pretty, foxy-faced woman whose green eyes had mirrored her grief.

“I don’t have anything to add to what you see here, Nadine,” she’d said. “This isn’t the time or place for statements. The dead make their own.”

And when his sister had come home, with that same exhausted look on her face, he’d left her alone.

He hoped now that he’d done so for her sake and not his own. He hadn’t wanted to talk about what she’d seen and done. Hadn’t wanted to think about it. Or about Clarissa. And while he’d been able to control his mind enough to blank out those images of death, he hadn’t had the power to do so with the woman.

She would stay away from him now, he thought. They would stay away from each other, and that was best. He would finish the job he’d promised to do, then he would go back to Arizona. He’d fast and he’d meditate and he’d purge his system of her.

Maybe he’d camp in the desert for a few days, until his mind and heart were in balance again.

Then the sounds came through the vent. The angry laugh of the man, the soft pleas of the woman.

“I said I want to fuck. It’s all you’re good for, anyway.”

“Please, B. D., I’m not feeling well this morning.”

“I don’t give a damn how you feel. It’s your job to spread your legs when I tell you to.”

There was a thud, then a cry sharply cut off. The crash of glass.

“On your knees. On your knees, you bitch.”

“You’re hurting me. Please — “

“Use that mouth of yours for something besides whining. Yeah, yeah. Put some effort into it, for Christ’s sake. It’s a miracle I can get it up with you in the first place. Harder, you whore. You know where I had my cock last night? You know where I had what you’ve got in your whiny mouth? In that new ‘link operator I hired. I got my money’s worth there.”

He was panting now, grunting like an animal, and Zeke squeezed his eyes shut and prayed for it to stop.

But it didn’t, it only changed, with the sounds of Clarissa weeping, then pleading. He was raping her now, there was no way to mistake those sounds.

Zeke caught himself at the foot of the steps, shocked to find his hand curled around the haft of a hammer. The blood was roaring violently in his ears.

My God, dear God, what was he doing?

Even as he set the hammer aside with a shaky hand, the sounds quieted. There was only weeping now. Slowly, Zeke climbed the steps.

It had to stop. Someone had to stop it. But he would face Branson empty-handed, and as a man.

He walked through the kitchen. Neither of the two remote domestics who worked there paid any attention to him. He moved into the wide hallway beyond, past the beautiful rooms and toward the sweep of floating stairs.

Perhaps he had no right to intrude, he thought, but no one, no one had a right to treat another human being as Clarissa was being treated.

He moved down the hallway to the right, judging which room would be directly over the workshop. The door was ajar; he could hear her crying inside. Placing his fingertips against the polished wood, he eased it open. And saw her curled on the bed, her naked body already blooming with bruises.

“Clarissa?”

Her head came up, eyes wide, and her swollen lips trembled. “Oh God. No, no, I don’t want you to see me like this. Go away.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. Gone. Oh please, please.” She pressed her face to the tangled sheets.

“He can’t be. I just came up the front stairs.”

“The side entrance. He uses the side. He’s gone, already gone. Thank God. If he’d seen you come up…”

“This has to stop.” He came to the bed, gently untangled a sheet, and draped it over her. “You can’t let him hurt you this way.”

“He doesn’t mean — He’s my husband.” She let out a sigh that ripped at Zeke’s heart. It was so hopeless. “I have no place to go. No one to go to. He wouldn’t have to hurt me if I wasn’t so slow and stupid. If I’d just do what he says. If I — “

“Stop that.” It came out sharper than he’d intended, and when he laid a hand on her shoulder, she flinched. “What happened here wasn’t your fault, it was his.”

She needed counseling, he thought. She needed cleansing. A safe place to stay. Both her body and her self-esteem had been battered, and such things harmed the soul. “I want to help you. I can take you away from here. You can stay at my sister’s until you decide what to do. There are programs, people you can talk to. The police,” he added. “You need to file charges.”

“No. No police!” She gathered the sheet close and struggled up. Her dark violet eyes were brilliant with fear. “He’d kill me if I did. And he knows people on the force. High-up people. I can never call the police.”

She’d begun to tremble, so he soothed. “That’s not important now. Let me help you get dressed. Let me take you to a healer — the doctor,” he corrected, remembering where he was. “Then we’ll talk about what’s next.”

“Oh, Zeke.” Her breath shuddered out as she lay her head on his shoulder. “There is no next. Don’t you see this is it for me? He’ll never let me go. He’s told me. He’s told me what he’d do to me if I try to leave. I’m just not strong enough to fight him.”

He slipped his arms around her, rocked her. “I am.”

“You’re so young.” She shook her head. “I’m not.”

“That’s not true. You feel helpless because you’ve been alone. You’re not alone now. I’ll help you. My family will.”

He brushed at her loose and tangled hair, cloud soft under his hand. “At home, my home,” he said, keeping his voice a reassuring murmur. “It’s peaceful. Remember how big and open and quiet the desert is? You can heal there.”

“I was almost happy for those few days. All that space. The stars. You. If I believed there was a chance — “

“Give me the chance.” Gently, he tipped her face back. The bruises on her face nearly broke his heart. “I love you.”

Tears swam into her eyes. “You can’t. You don’t know what I’ve done.”

“Nothing he’s made you do counts. And it doesn’t matter what I feel, but what you need. You can’t stay with him.”

“I can’t drag you into this, Zeke. It’s wrong.”

“I won’t leave you.” He pressed his mouth to her hair. “When you’re safe, if you want me to go, I will. But not until you’re safe.”

“Safe.” She barely breathed the word. “I stopped believing I could be safe. If there’s a chance…” She drew back, looked into his eyes. “I need time to think.”