Visions In Death

"I've got a media conference coming up. Do I tell women with long brown hair to stay off the streets after dark? Jesus.

I feel like I'm building a box around him. I feel that, but I haven't got all the sides steady in place yet. While I'm getting them, while I'm looking for the goddamn lid, he's going to get another one." "Yes, he probably will." Mira spoke with complete calm.

"He may very well kill more than one before you finish the sides of that box and close the lid. And those deaths will be his doing, his responsibility. Not yours."

"I know that, but-" "But it's hard for you to think there's a woman out there, going about her day, her life, unaware that someone's pla

She'd looked like a doll. A tiny, staring doll in the hands of a monster.

"I can still see her. Her name was Mandy." Eve eased out a breath. "Some hit you harder than others." "I know it." Unable to prevent herself, Mira laid a hand on Eve's arm, rubbed lightly from elbow to shoulder. "You did the job, but couldn't save the child. And it hit you, very hard.

You've had others, will have others that hit you equally. And the fact that you've opened your life, that you will go to a di

A great many more years on the job." "There was a time what you're saying would've just pissed me off." A smile quirked Mira's lips. "Something else I know." "Since it doesn't much maybe you're right. It's just di

Day or night." "Thanks." She rolled the wrapper into a ball, pitched it into a recycler. "And thanks for the boost. All around." She stopped off in the bathroom to splash ice water on her face. And pulled out her communicator as she dried off.

Peabody" "Sir!" Eve could see her white face, her startled eyes in the dim light of the crib. "On your feet, soldier. Media conference in fifteen. One Police Plaza."

"Got it. Just let me slap myself around and wake up. I'm on my way." "Get there now. I'll slap you around." "You sweet-talker." Eve's lips twitched as she broke transmission. Maybe it wasn't such a hardship to open up her life here and there.

In the grand scheme, Eve considered media conferences more of an ache in the ass than an actual pain. It was an a

She could see the politics of the setup using the steps of Central to make it a cop deal, rather than a mayoral one.

Having the mayor make a brief statement before stepping back and giving the podium to the chief.

Tibbie was terse and to the point, as she expected from him. He looked powerful and concerned and angry. All the traits you'd want in the city's top cop when a killer was brutalizing i

A formal and distinguished look, Eve supposed, that fit him like a glove. He took no questions, but like the mayor, issued a statement.

We're in charge, Eve concluded. But we're not in the trenches. We work for order, and send our soldiers out to maintain it.

It was a good theme, a strong stand, and a wise move to yield the podium to Whitney.

It all took time, and though no new information was really dispensed, it gave the media bones to gnaw on, and let the public know their top officials were on the job.

It was a good city, tightly run, Eve thought. For all its dark corners and jagged edges, it was a good city. That was important to remember. You didn't want to lose sight of the value and the strengths because you spent too much time wading through the wastes.

So she could stand here, in the bright light of a September afternoon on the steps of her house and know there was murder and mea

A good city, and the only home she'd ever had.

"As primary on this investigation, Lieutenant Dallas will take more questions." Whitney turned to her. "Lieutenant." Pecking order, Eve thought, and on impulse, took Peabody's arm, ignored the shocked jerk from it, and drew her to the podium.

"My partner, Detective Peabody, and I have little to add to the previous statements and the answers Commander Whitney has already given. This investigation is our priority.

It is ongoing and active and we are pursuing any and all leads." Questions spewed out like a geyser of hot air. She let them wash over her, then picked one out of the flood.

Both victims were mutilated. Do you believe these to be cult killings? "None of the evidence we've accumulated during this investigation indicates cult involvement. We believe Elisa Maplewood and Lily Napier were both killed by one individual, acting alone and on his own volition." Can you give us the nature of these mutilations? "Due to the nature of the investigation, our desire to apprehend this individual with dispatch, and the necessity of building a strong case to bring said individual to justice, we can't reveal specifics as pertains to said investigation." The public has a right to know.

Did they never tire of swinging that splintered bat? Eve wondered.

"The public has a right to be protected, and we're doing everything in our power to do so. The public has a right to be confident that its police force and city officials will work diligently to identify, apprehend, and prosecute the person responsible for the deaths of Elisa Maplewood and Lily Napier. The public does not have a right to all the salient and sensitive details of this case." And you, she thought, don't have the right to clock up your ratings by slathering over the dead.

What co

"They were both killed by the same method," Peabody stated. "They were both female, in the same age group, the same racial group. They were both in public parks at the time of the attacks." What other co