Devoted in Death

12

When Eve drove through the gates Banner gave a low, through-the-teeth whistle and said, “Holy hell.”

She glanced over, saw he’d leaned forward, eyes fixed ahead.

She’d gotten used to the mass and magnificence, she admitted, but she understood absolutely the staggering impression the house made, its windows lit against the dark sky, its silhouette both powerful and fanciful with snow – white and blue in the lights – spread at its feet.

“I saw the vid,” he told her, “but it sure smacks you upside the head live and in person. Sort of like a castle, isn’t it, right inside the city.”

“He’s Irish,” Eve said, as if that explained it all.

“Biggest house I’ve ever seen.”

“Me too.” Mildly embarrassed, she pulled up, parked. “Summerset – that’s Roarke’s… man of everything,” she decided, “will have your room ready. You can get settled in, and we’ll take this in my home office.”

“Good enough. I want to say again, I appreciate this.”

“Rooms we’ve got.”

“I can sure see that.” He got out, hauled up his gear. “Biggest house I’ve ever seen,” he called out against the wind, “in the coldest place I’ve ever been to. It’s a by-God experience.”

She led the way inside, saw – as expected – Summerset in the foyer with the cat squatting beside him. They both gave Banner the eye.

“This is Deputy Banner.”

“Yes, Detective Peabody informed me. Welcome to New York, Deputy.”

“Thank you, and thanks for the room. Will Banner,” he added, stepping forward, extending a hand.

Summerset inclined his head, shook hands while the cat sniffed suspiciously at Banner’s boots.

“You’d be – what is it – Lancelot?”

“Galahad,” Eve corrected as Banner crouched, ran a hand smoothly over the cat, head to tail.

“Galahad – knew it was one of those knights. Like I said, I saw the vid. Lucky cat – two eye colors. That’s a lucky cat.”

Galahad apparently agreed as he arched under Banner’s hand, then rubbed along his leg.

“Deputy Banner will be in the Park Room.” At Eve’s blank look, Summerset smirked. “I’ll show you up.” He gestured toward the elevator. “May I help you with your bag?”

“I got it, thanks. Elevator, right in the house. Another first for me.”

“I’ll be in my office once you’ve settled,” Eve told him, a little irked that the cat padded along at Banner’s heels.

Unabashedly gawking again, Banner grinned back at Eve as the elevator doors closed him in with Summerset and the cat.

It all felt off, she decided. Not one snarly remark from Summerset – one smirk hardly counted – the cat going off without even giving her a glance.

It occurred to her that she wasn’t just used to their usual evening ritual, she liked it. So, sulking a little, she shrugged out of her coat, very deliberately hung it on the newel post before jogging upstairs.

She headed to the bedroom first. It would take Banner some time to unpack, get his bearings, so she pulled off her jacket, considered her weapon harness, then decided to leave it on.

She was debating whether to change her boots for skids when her ’link signaled.

Santiago.

“Dallas. What have you got?”

“Carmichael’s got culture shock, but she’s recovering. Met up with the locals, talked to the woman and kid who stumbled on the body. We’ll be meeting with the coroner in a bit. Nothing much to add, as yet, but that stretch of road, LT, where they found the body, there sure isn’t much traffic along there. We were there a good half hour and didn’t see one vehicle pass by. It’s a damn good spot for a killing.”

“Somebody got lucky, knew the spot or knew how back roads in backwaters work.”

“One of those. The other is, Carmichael and I both agree there had to be a second vehicle. It’s the middle of nowhere. Coroner report says tire iron, a good-sized one. Who hitches and hikes along carrying a big-ass tire iron?”

“Possible breakdown, vic is changing a tire, gets jumped. But then they’d have to get the tire iron from him. Second vehicle makes more sense.”

“We’re backtracking the vic’s movements, and we’ll head on, doubling the check the locals did last summer on sitings of the rental. Nobody took tire impressions back then at the scene, or checked for blood on the road.”

“Fucking A.”

“Yeah, we said. We’ll go over it tomorrow, in daylight, but it’s been months.”

While Eve talked to Santiago, Roarke came in the front door. He was mildly irked himself as his last meeting had run over, and weather in Halifax was delaying a project.

He removed his coat, wondered idly where Summerset might be. He tossed his coat over Eve’s, started upstairs. He went to his office first, laid down his briefcase. He had work, but for later. At the moment he wanted his wife, a quiet glass of wine. He’d kept current with the media reports, and as there’d been nothing new on her investigation, imagined they’d be hip-deep in it that evening.

After he’d changed, he thought, he’d have that wine with Eve. That would clear his head enough of business.

He heard movement in Eve’s office, stepped in.

He saw a tall, leanly built man with a messy mop of corn-silk hair rocking back on the worn-down heels of scarred boots, thumbs comfortably in the pockets of faded jeans. And a stunner on his belt.

Roarke slid his own hand into his pocket, and onto the mini stunner he carried in it.

“Can I help you?” he said very coolly.

The man turned, his hand going to the butt of his own weapon. Quiet blue eyes met wild blue – and Roarke recognized cop. But kept his hand where it was.

“Deputy Banner. Will Banner. I’m waiting for the lieutenant.”

As am I, Roarke thought. “And why is that?”

“This.” He gestured to the board with his left hand. “You’re Roarke?”

“I am.”

“Sorry to just be… Summerset showed me in. I got in from Arkansas this morning. I sure do appreciate your hospitality.”

Banner’s hand dropped from his weapon, then outstretched as he crossed to Roarke.

Roarke accepted the hand, but stayed on alert. “You’re involved in the lieutenant’s investigation?”

“It’s looking like it. I know you sometimes consult on cases, but I don’t know how much you’re into this one. I’d be more comfortable, if you don’t mind, if Lieutenant Dallas filled you in.”

“So would I.”

Roarke noted the cat slide off the sleep chair, wander over, wind through Banner’s legs, then come over to do the same through his own. And back again.

“That’s a good cat. I got a dog back home – he’s with my folks while I’m gone. But this one here makes me think I ought to get me a cat, too. He’s good company. Ah… I’m in the Park Room? It sure is nice, and I can see clear over to Central Park.”

“Would this be your first time in New York?”

“That’s right. It makes my head spin a little. Um, we’ve got Detectives Peabody and McNab coming.”

“Do we?” Roarke said, brutally pleasant. “If you’d wait here, I’ll go find the lieutenant.”

“I’ll be right here.” Banner turned back to the board. “Right here.”

Roarke made his way to the bedroom. He wanted out of the bloody suit, and wanted a bloody explanation as to why he’d found a cop from Arkansas in his house – and apparently sleeping in one of the guest rooms.

Eve was still on the ’link when he walked in, and held up a finger to hold him off.

She might have poured gas on a fire.

“I’ll get you what we get as we get it, and you do the same. Everything, Santiago, as it comes. Time’s clicking down.”

“Yes, sir.”

She ended the transmission, circled her neck. “I’ve spent more time on the damn ’link today than…” The frigid blast from his eyes got through. “What?”

“I’ve just come across a Deputy Banner, apparently from Arkansas, apparently involved in your investigation, and apparently staying in our home.”

“Yeah, Banner, I told you. Is he already in the office?”

“He is, and you bloody well didn’t tell me a bloody thing about it.”

“I did. I texted you before…” Coffee, she remembered, text Roarke – and she’d been interrupted.

“I was about to,” she corrected. “I got interrupted.” She scowled at the ’link still in her hand, shoved it in her pocket. “I’ve had a million interruptions today. I meant to text you, I started to.”

“A man I’ve never seen before – armed, by the way – is wandering freely around the house.”

“He’s a cop.”

“And what possible difference does that make?”

“Well, it’s not like he’s going to steal the silver, or whatever. I ran him. The commander talked to his chief. He’s solid.”

“Again, what possible difference does that make?”

She threw out her hands, baffled. “All.”

He yanked off his tie. “Bollocks, Eve. I believe I have a right to be consulted, or at the very least informed, before we’re housing a complete stranger.”

“I was going to! You have people in here when you want them.”

His eyes, hot now, fixed on hers as he shrugged out of his suit coat. “And who have I had wandering free – a stranger to you with a stunner on his belt – without your knowledge?”

“Okay, okay, you want to be pissed, be pissed. I got interrupted, and I forgot. I’ve been a little preoccupied with murder.”

“I won’t have murder as your excuse for every shagging thing, as preoccupation with it is a matter of course. And one I’ve accepted fully.”

She started to snap back, then imagined it from his side. She didn’t want to imagine it from his side, but it came over her too clearly. Guilty now, and defensive, she paced away.

“Two kids and their mother got smashed to pulp with a sledgehammer – by the father.”

“Ah, Christ Jesus, what a world you live in.” Roarke scrubbed his hands over his face.

“Baxter and Trueheart caught it, and Baxter came into my office, shaken up, when I was about to text you on Banner. He doesn’t get shaken up easy. I’m his LT, Roarke, I had to put things aside and listen to him.”

“You did, of course.”

“Then things just kept rolling, and I forgot. So I’m sorry. Be pissed.”

“I am.” He changed his shirt for a sweater, cooling off as he did. “You’re fond of your Marriage Rules, so add this to them. If and when you’ve the inclination to host a complete stranger to me, you don’t forget to let me know. As the next time, I might stun first, ask questions later. I’m firm on that one.”

“I suck at it, you know I do. I don’t get why you keep getting pissed that I suck at it.”

“You don’t, so when you do something that sucks, as you say, it’s very annoying.” He continued to change while she said nothing. “Both children?”

“It looks like the boy’s going to make it. His older sister shielded him as best she could with her own body.”

“And Baxter?”

“He’ll get through it. It’s what we do.”

“It is, yes. It’s what you do.” And for better or worse, what he often did now as well. “And this Banner?”

“He’s solid, like I said. He came here on his own nickel, hopped a shuttle when he got the alert about my searches. Then drove the rest of the way when weather dumped him in Cleveland. He’s been pursuing this, mostly on his own time, since last summer because the feds and the locals don’t think his vic was in the stream. I do. Anything we can get may help us find Jayla Campbell before it’s too late.”

“Then we’d best get to work on it.”

“I’m sorry. I am.” Though she felt annoyance at every damn thing tangling up with the sorry. “And I’m going to be sorrier because I forgot to tell you Peabody and McNab are coming, too.”

“Banner told me.”

“Shit.”

He crossed to her, set his hands on her shoulders. She noted, with relief (and a little more guilt) the temper had faded from his eyes. “It’s our home, and those you want are welcome here. But —”

“Not strangers with stunners.”

“Unless you give me prior notice.”

“Got it.”

“All right, then. We’ve left our guest cop alone in your office long enough.”

“I thought he’d take longer to settle in. He’s been going since yesterday.”

“Then I imagine he could use a beer and a meal.”

“Thanks.” She cupped his face, kissed him. Gave him another as she’d decided, positions reversed, she’d probably have slapped harder than he had. “Seriously.”

“You’re welcome.” He kissed her back. “Seriously.”

They started out together.

“Perhaps you’d fill me in,” Roarke suggested, “as I’m apparently well behind.”

“It’s a lot.”

Eve gave him a quick roundup as they moved to her office. There Banner sat in the sleep chair, the cat comfortably on his lap. He looked half asleep, roused himself when they came in.

“Sorry. Zoning out some.”

“The lieutenant tells me you’ve been at this since yesterday. I expect you could use a beer.”

The wary look on his face lifted with an easy grin. “I sure wouldn’t turn one down.”

“Eve?”

“Yeah, beer’s great. I’ll get it. And food, I guess. Pizza work?”

Banner flashed that grin a second time. “When doesn’t it?”

“Cops. The same everywhere. Arkansas, is it?” Roarke asked Banner while Eve went into the kitchen.

“Silby’s Pond. Seems a long ways from here.”

“In the Ozarks, isn’t it? Lovely country there.”

“You’ve been?”

“Around and about. And how did you come to being with the police?”

“Circular route, I’d guess. I always figured to work the family farm, did some deputy work summers when there was time for it – and a need with tourists and such. But, well, the farm’s been in the family five generations, and you’ve got an obligation there. But my daddy set me down one night a few years back, and he said he could see my heart wasn’t in it, and you had to do what your heart was in. That was police work for me.”

“Your father sounds like a wise man. Thanks, darling,” he said as Eve brought out the beer.

“He is, and a good farmer. So’s my sister and her man, so the farm’s in good hands. I help out when there’s time, but I wanted to be a cop. Good beer. We brew our own – family recipe. I’m going to send you some after I get home.”

“Clomp and prance,” Eve said and got a puzzled look from Banner. “Peabody and McNab.”

“I’ll see to the pizza,” Roarke said as they came in.

“Did I hear pizza?” McNab bounced in, but was smart enough to release Peabody’s hand at Eve’s narrowed stare.

“And beer. You’d rather a glass of wine, Peabody.”

“If it’s okay.”

“One,” Eve decreed. “Then it’s coffee and it’s work. Santiago checked in.”

While Roarke set up the meal, Eve filled in the others.

“What kind of bumfuck bozos don’t check for blood at a crime scene?” McNab glanced over at Banner. “Sorry.”

“It’s hard to take offense. They weren’t my bumfuck bozos, but close enough.”

As the others did, he helped himself to a slice. Bit in. Sat, just sat.

“This is pizza. Is it like the coffee?” he asked Eve.

“It’s New York. Morris and DeWinter should already have the first remains. She expedited, and they were going to start tonight.”

“That’s quick work.”

“Time’s the issue. When they verify these two victims are part of our stream, we can pull in more resources. It’s Santiago and Carmichael we need. We verify the first victim, we’re closer to ID’ing the killers. The first is going to be closer to home, closer to where they knew – and were known. The first is key.”

She looked toward the board. “But Campbell may not have time for that.” As she rose, Banner started to get to his feet. “Sit. Eat. I want to update the board. It helps me think.”

She got to work. “Why don’t you brief the others on the two stops we made?” she said to Banner.

“The lieutenant’s running searches on missings who have homes or businesses in the city here, figuring maybe they got somebody we haven’t found, and are using their place for their killing room.”

“Have to be private,” Roarke speculated. “Soundproofed. Even gagged, such matters made noise. And low security or they’d show on disc when bringing in a victim.”

“We stopped at two, eliminated them. Regular civilians living there.”

“Others to eliminate,” Eve said. “We’ll spread out tomorrow, bring in some uniforms. They’ve got a place, one they’re comfortable in. One they could take Kuper to. One where they’re working on Campbell right now.”

“Downtown,” Roarke added.

“Probability’s high. Peabody, put the sector on screen.”

While they ate, while they worked, Jayla Campbell struggled to rise above the pain. Going under it was a kind of escape, but they always brought her back, gave more.

She’d stopped trying to understand it. It simply was.

How long she couldn’t tell, not any longer. Hours, days, weeks. There was only pain and fear, and the certainty there would be more.

They’d had sex on the floor, against the wall, sometimes blessedly out of sight. Though she could hear them grunting or wailing, laughing.

They liked when she tried to scream, when she cried and begged. So she tried not to, but sometimes she couldn’t stop. Just couldn’t stop.

They looked so ordinary. Monsters shouldn’t look so ordinary, so much like ordinary people. The woman was pretty, in a hard, slutty sort of way, and the man – good-looking, sort of gangly and… stupid, she thought now.

He went along with anything the woman said.

Cut here, she’d say – and he would.

They were eating now, and the smell of the Chinese takeaway made her want to gag. She hadn’t eaten since the party. Sometimes they dribbled water in her mouth, but they never gave her food. Sometimes the water was laced with salt, and they laughed and laughed when she choked.

Monsters shouldn’t look like ordinary people.

They’d taken her clothes, but she’d gotten over the worst of that. Neither of them touched her in a sexual way – as if she cared about that now. They saved the sex for each other.

They were naked, too, as they ate, and sometimes they smeared sauce on each other and licked it off.

That, too, made her want to gag. At least she could close her eyes or turn her head. When they were involved in each other, she barely existed for them.

She wished she would stop existing for them.

They talked eagerly, avidly.

He said they were star-crossed lovers. The woman – Ella-Loo – loved when he quoted Shakespeare or talked about how they were lovers like Bonnie and Clyde.

She didn’t know who Bonnie and Clyde were, but the woman did; and she’d laugh and strike poses that made the man – Darryl – moan or lick his lips.

She listened to them when she could, to every word. If she lived – and she didn’t believe she would, but if – she would remember everything. She would tell the police everything. And she would hope with every cell in her pain-filled body, the police killed them in the bloodiest, most brutal, most horrible way possible.

She wanted to kill them with her own hands.

She wanted her mother. She wanted Kari. Sometimes when she floated away, she wanted Luke, and his shy smile.

She wanted anything and anyone who wasn’t this. Anything that wasn’t strapped to a table under bright lights with something round and hard between her teeth, something where she couldn’t feel her own blood oozing out of her body, or the jagged pain of bones broken and rubbing viciously together if she moved even an inch to try to find comfort.

There was no comfort.

“It’s something different, and daring,” the woman was saying. “We don’t want to get bored, right, honey?”

“Are you bored, Ella-Loo?”

“Not with you, baby. Never! You’re my hero. But just think how exciting. If we did two, at one time. If we kept them going longer. Oh, it makes me wet just thinking of it.”

“I like you wet.”

He stuck his hand between the woman’s legs. Jayla closed her eyes.

“I’d be wetter, hotter with two. You can pick this time. Oh, yes! Get down there, baby, and get to work.”

She yelped, she laughed, she groaned. “Fuck me hard, baby, hard! Then let’s go get another one. Let’s get a man. Maybe we can make them fuck each other. Let’s make him rape her while we watch. Oh, oh, Darryl!”

“Anything you want. Anything. I love you, Ella-Loo.”

“Make me scream, Darryl. Make me scream. Then let’s go get another.”

And she smiled, feral and fierce, turning her head to look at Jayla as Darryl drove and drove and drove into her until sweat dripped off his face.

She smiled her monster smile as she came.

In the office, Roarke listened as the room of cops worked theories, ran searches. He listened while Eve spoke to Morris on the ’link, while she consulted with Mira.

His mind worked back to the first – the one they believed was the first.

A businessman killed on the side of the road. No vehicles left behind. Battered – fought back – smashed skull.

Nothing like the others, he thought. No torture, no sense of time taken. But he trusted his wife’s instincts.

The first, perhaps an accident, or a matter of impulse. The spark, possible, for all that came after.

“Someone towed it off.”

Distracted, a little annoyed, Eve glanced around. “What?”

“You’ve two options on your first – on this Jansen. They had a second vehicle, and drove off separately, or they left a vehicle behind.”

“No vehicle was recovered or reported on scene.”

“And you’ve never heard of auto theft I’m supposing. Driving off in two, it’s not impossible, of course, but then they’d have to dispose of one, and they’d not be together after the kill – when the blood would be high.”

“Wait.” She held up her hand to ward off comments, narrowed her eyes. “When the blood would be high,” she repeated. “If this is the first, if this started the ball rolling for them, it would be that high after the kill. Driving off separately? Cooldown period. So, less likely. But no vehicle reported or recovered.”

“Darling Eve,” he said, and had Banner glancing at her sideways, “it’s a very remote and rural area, yes?”

“So?”

“And I’ll wager more than a pint there’d be a towing service or two, and beyond that – a farming sort of area? Those with tow bars handy enough. And it’s: Look there, mate, at that car/truck/van on the side of the road. Out you get to have a look. It may be it’s broken down —”

“Which would be a reason to boost another car, okay.”

“Some mechanical problem, that may be. Or it’s been previously boosted, and time to switch out. But either way, an enterprising soul might tow it off, strip it down or alter the van and resell it. Surely even in that area, they’d have a chop shop handy enough, or someone who’d pay to have another vehicle on their land.”

When she frowned, he smiled.

“Speaking hypothetically, of course, one who once made a bit of a living boosting vehicles may have cruised along such back roads and byways for just such an opportunity.”

“Slapping a tow bar on it, hauling it off to another location.”

“And making a tidy little profit through little effort,” Roarke concluded. “You might have your people down there put the arm on towing companies, farmers, mechanics and such.”

He looked over at Banner. “Would you have such events in Arkansas, Will?”

“Could be. There was a guy the next county over who ran a chop shop. They picked cars off the interstate mostly, but hit the back roads, too. I never thought of it. People know people, and you hear tell.”

Eve already had her ’link out. “Carmichael.”

“About to contact you, LT. Having some Arkansas barbecue, and have to echo Santiago. Yee-haw. The coroner —”

“Wait on that. I want you to push this angle, and now. Towing company, mechanics, garages, maybe little farms or whatever the fuck. Ability to tow away a vehicle. Let’s theorize,” she began.

When she’d finished, clicked off, she looked over at Roarke. “It’s a good angle. The locals should have been all over it. You’re handy.”

“I do my best.”

“Maybe it happened that way. I like the logic of it. Maybe they boosted whatever they dumped – or just dumped. Either way it could take us back to the prior step, the earlier location. It may give us names.”

She looked at the board, at Jayla. “Coffee,” she said.

“I’m all about that,” Banner agreed. “Dallas, I may know somebody who knows somebody around there. I’m a little pissed I didn’t think of it before.”

“Spend any time boosting cars, Banner?”

“I didn’t, but I can’t claim not to know some who did. I may be able to help your people down there.”

“Then get on it. Peabody?”

“Sir.”

“Coffee. Lots. Now.”

While they worked the new angle, Ella-Loo, in a micro skirt taken off an LC they’d killed and whose name she’d forgotten, struggled with a bulky armchair.

She was freezing in the skirt, in fishnets, and a short, fake leather jacket – taken off yet another victim – but inside she was furnace hot.

The guy came bustling along, ’link in hand, hood of his parka thrown up. “Yeah, yeah, I’m on my way. Jeez, it’s like the South Pole out here tonight. I’m nearly there. Fire it up!”

“Hey, cutie?”

She called out, shook back her hair, saw him turn his head, give her the eye.

“Back to you,” he said into the ’link and stuffed it in his pocket. “What’s shaking, baby?”

“Could you just give me a hand, for one little minute? I can’t lift this silly thing in here, and I need to get it in before my completely ex-boyfriend comes back.”

“Sure, no prob. Bad breakup?”

“So bad. He hit me!”

“Ah, come on.” The guy hunkered down to lift the chair. “You’re better off. I can get this if you take that side and —”

Darryl leaped in, weighted sap – Ella-Loo’s idea – whacking down on the back of his head.

He made a sound like a balloon letting the air out, and crumpled.

“Quick, baby, quick, before somebody comes!”

It took a couple of hard hefts to get him and the old, reliable armchair in the back of the van. Ella-Loo scrambled in after, happily giving the groaning man another good whack before yanking the duct tape around his wrists.

“Let’s go, baby! We got him good. I can’t wait! I’m already wet. I’m already hot.”

“Save it for me,” Darryl called, zipping out to drive the short two blocks back home.