The Other Side - J. D. Robb [30]
She jumped out of the back of the transport, weapon out. She prayed she hadn’t missed a deeper level of security, prayed he wasn’t monitoring the cameras as she used her master to access the main door.
Cops spread out to the exits, up the stairs, moving quick and quiet while she and her team rushed to the basement door.
“Master’s ineffective.”
“Give me a minute,” Roarke told her. “Battering rams are crude, and they’re noisy.”
She stepped back to give him room, mentally checking off each exit as her men reported them secure.
When Roarke’s clever tools and fingers unlocked the door, she signaled to Peabody. “High and left,” she told her, “then straight down.”
She went in low and right—and knew immediately her instincts had been on target.
Lights burned in the ceiling, dim but activated. The old metal stairs led down to a concrete floor, thick walls, narrow corridors.
She signaled Peabody to lead her team, then set off in the opposite direction with Roarke.
They passed through a cavernous room piled with old furniture, lamps, fabrics, down another dim corridor. She heard the clink and hum of the building mechanicals as they moved through a utility area where tools were neatly stored on freestanding shelves.
“This area needs to be maintained,” she said quietly, sweeping with her weapon as Roarke did the same with the one he’d slipped out of his pocket. “Wherever he keeps them has to be soundproofed and fully secured.”
“This sector’s void’s west. Down that way.”
Eve started to turn, then went into a crouch, weapon up. Her muscles trembled as the ballerina blocked her way.
“I can’t get out,” the woman said and held out her hands. “We can’t get out. Can you help me?”
“You have to wait.”
“Eve?”
“It’s Vanessa Warwich.” Eve fought off shudders as her skin shivered from the sudden cold. “You have to wait a little longer.”
“I couldn’t dance anymore.” She lifted her sparkling white skirt. “He cried when he killed me.” She touched her fingers to the gaping slice across her throat. “But I couldn’t dance anymore.”
“Just wait.” And gritting her teeth, Eve walked through the pleading woman. She reached out to try to balance herself when her head spun.
Roarke grabbed her, braced her. “Bloody hell. Stay here.”
“I have to finish it. You know I have to finish it. I have to make it stop.” She glanced back and into Vanessa Warwich’s eyes but saw the others behind her. All the pretty girls in their sparkling skirts and toe shoes.
All those white throats gaping.
“She’s waiting. Warwich waiting—trapped. And God, she’s not alone. We have to move.”
“Hold on to me if you have to.”
He took the lead, brooked no argument. She steadied herself as she followed, cleared her throat as she listened to team updates.
Her op, she reminded herself. She was in command here. She had to be.
Natalya and Alexi were secured, Peabody had reached the first of her voids. An empty room. The search of Sasha’s apartment was under way, but neither he nor the murder weapon had been found.
Roarke held up a hand, stopped her. “Sensors,” he murmured. “They’ll read us.”
“Then we’re getting close.”
“They’ll likely signal in his apartment but could very well alert him if he’s down here. Give me a minute to jam them.”
“You’re handy.”
“We do what we can.” He took out what looked like an innocent PPC, keyed in various codes. “It’s rudimentary,” he told her. “Just a precaution to let him know if anyone’s down this way.”
“Or if his current ballerina managed to get out. Are we clear?”
“We are.”
“Peabody, we hit sensors. Watch for them. We’re moving.”
Another turn, another twenty feet, and they spotted the door. “Secured door,” she said into her mic. “Accessing now.”
She rolled her shoulders as Roarke got to work. She was ready, she thought. She was herself.
When he nodded, they went through the door together, swept it.
She supposed it would be called a sitting room—windowless, but with a softly faded carpet, a sofa, a lamp. And a small monitoring station.