The In Death Collection Books 16-20 - J. D. Robb [718]
“What do you expect—” Turnbill began, but Peabody sent him a look of such sympathy his voice broke.
“I expect I would have done exactly the same,” she told him. “I expect my only clear thought would be to protect my child, my husband, myself.”
“We said nothing,” Roxanne continued, her voice a little stronger. “We left New York, we left our lives there, and came here. My parents live nearby. I realized she’d run—Dian—but I thought he’d find her. Kill her. Two years, I was sure she was gone. Then I answered the ’link. She’d blocked the video, but she said my name. She said my name and we’re safe. That’s all. She broke the connection. I get those calls every few months, sometimes more than a year between. That’s all she ever says.”
“When was the last time she contacted you?”
“Three weeks ago. I don’t know where she is, and if I did I wouldn’t tell you, for the same reasons I said nothing after the abduction. We’ve made a life here. We have two sons now, and they’re happy. This is their home. And still, we live in a prison because of this one man. I’m afraid every day, every single day.”
“We’re going to find him, Roxanne, and when we do, you won’t have to be afraid again. Tell me about the room where they held you,” Peabody said. “Every detail you remember.”
19
EVE WAS BACK AT HER DESK WHEN ROARKE CAME into her office. He immediately sniffed the air.
“You had a burger?”
“What? No. Baxter, Trueheart. Let cops loose near food, it’s a free-for-all. They’d want a place in the city, wouldn’t they?”
“Baxter and Trueheart? Is there something about their relationship I’ve missed?”
“What?”
“You keep saying that. You need to eat.”
Her mind cleared slightly as he moved into the kitchen. “I’m not talking about Baxter and Trueheart.”
“I’m perfectly aware of that. And yes, I agree. Kirkendall and associates would want a place in the city. Why risk running into pesky commuter traffic, or pesky commuter traffic cops?”
“I bet it’s Upper West.”
“We agree again.” He came back in with two plates, and this time Eve sniffed the air. “What is that?”
“Lasagna.” Veggie lasagna, he thought. One of the easiest ways to get something green in her system that wasn’t a gumdrop was to disguise it in pasta.
“Why do you agree? About the Upper West?”
He set one of the plates in front of her, the other across the desk. Then went to get a chair, and two glasses of wine. When a man wanted to eat a meal with his wife, and his wife was Eve, Roarke thought, the man learned to make adjustments.
“Considerable time and effort went into casing out the Swisher property. Not only the electronics, but lifestyle. They knew where to go and when to go. So—”
He set her wine down, tapped his glass against it, then sat. “More efficient to have a location near the target point. You can do drive-bys, walk-bys, test your jammers and so on against their system. And you’d want to watch them.”
She watched him as she cut into the lasagna. “Because you’d want to see them alive before you saw them dead.”
“Oh yes. It’s personal. So though the kill is clean and quick, you’d want the rush beforehand. Look at them, they don’t know I have the power to end them. When and how I like.”
“It’s a little strange being hooked up with someone who can think that much like a killer.”
He lifted his glass to her. “I’ll say precisely the same. And make a considerable wager that your thoughts ran parallel to mine.”
“Yeah, you win.” She sampled the lasagna. Something in there tasted like spinach. But it wasn’t half bad. “You come up with anything for me?”
“I’m a little hurt you’d have to ask. Eat first. You’ve heard from Peabody?”
“They’re on their way back. Want to hear the roundup?”
“Of course.”
She told him while they ate.
“Torturing a pregnant woman,” Roarke commented. “Lower and lower. But he should’ve killed her, in hindsight. It seems his long-suffering wife learned enough from him to keep her location—more