The In Death Collection Books 16-20 - J. D. Robb [291]
“Gain initial entrance by posing as a client,” Roarke said. “Clone security. Enter again, when the victim is sleeping. Restrain, torture, rape, and mutilate, leaving a single red rose on the pillow beside them.”
“Marsonini got six women with that method between the late winter of 2023 and the spring of 2024. All brunettes, like Mitchell, all home workers, all between the ages of twenty-six and twenty-nine. All bearing a slight resemblance to his older sister who had, reputedly, sexually and physically abused him in childhood.”
She straightened. “We’ll get this Katie Mitchell under wraps. If we don’t find Renquist within the next forty-eight hours, he’s going to find us.”
Chapter 22
There was no choice but to risk going directly to Katie Mitchell’s apartment. If Renquist had it staked, it would spook him, but Eve couldn’t risk a life.
If he bolted, she’d hunt him down.
With help from EDD, she had a list of residents and a layout of the building where Mitchell had her third-floor loft. She left Feeney in charge of the ongoing search of Renquist’s home, and took Roarke along.
For ballast, she told him.
“You’re too good to me, darling. Really, I’ll get spoiled.”
“Fat chance. Anyway, you’ve got a good touch with women.”
“Now I’m blushing.”
“I’m going to laugh my ass off any minute, then where will I sit? This woman may become hysterical. You’re better with hysterical females than I am.”
“Excuse me, did you say something? I was busy thinking about your ass.”
She whipped her vehicle up a ramp and squeezed it into a second-level spot a half block from Mitchell’s loft. “I’m sure that’s entertaining—”
“You have no idea.”
“But let’s try to keep to the program. It’s possible if we go in as a couple, straight in, he won’t make me if he’s staking out the building. I don’t think he’s around tonight. I think he’s in some bolt-hole, putting it all together. Odds are we’ve got time, but I can’t be sure. Marsonini always hit his victims between two and three A.M. We’re plenty early if he’s marked her for tonight. But I want us to walk straight to the building, and in. How fast can you get through the security?”
“Time me.”
“Let’s move.”
“I think you should hold my hand,” he said as they started down the ramp. “You’ll look less like a cop.”
“Take the left.” She switched sides with him. “I want my weapon hand free.”
“Naturally.” Even as he gave her arm a playful little swing, he saw her eyes, those cop’s eyes, tracking, scanning, dissecting every shadow. “I’ll need my hands free at the door. You could ease behind me. It wouldn’t hurt to give my butt an affectionate little pat.”
“What for?”
“Because I like it.”
She ignored that, but did move behind him slightly as they climbed the short flight of steps to the building’s entrance.
“It’s cooled off considerably. I think we’re done with the worst of the heat for the year.”
“Hmm. Maybe.”
“Why don’t you lean in a bit, nuzzle my neck?”
“For cover, or because you like it?”
“As a kind of reward,” he said and opened the door.
She hadn’t even seen him finesse the lock. “You’re pretty fucking slick,” she commented and stepped in ahead of him.
She walked straight back to the steps rather than hassle with the elevator’s security system. That would open, once cleared, directly into Mitchell’s loft. Less traumatizing, Eve hoped, to knock on the hall door on the third level, and gain admittance that way.
“His log shows an appointment with her here, this afternoon,” Eve continued. “That tells me he’s already bunged up her loft security, and plans to move in tonight, tomorrow latest. I need to get her out, but I don’t want cops around yet. We’ll set up a unit in the morning, early.” She knocked on the door, held up her badge, then turned to smile at Roarke.
“So I’m giving her to you. You’ll transport her to Central, and she’ll be transferred to a safe house until this goes down.”
“And you plan to stay here tonight, alone? I don’t think so.”
“I outrank you.”
Eve heard the click of the speaker engage, and