In Dark Places

Chapter Fifty-nine

"I never understood.'" Gray mimicked her, his voice raised in a falsetto. "You bet you didn't. You never got me at all."

He chuckled, an ugly sound.

"All that shit about my daddy burning me and belting mefuck, yeah, he did, 'cause I was always shoplifting and setting fires and ripping off his cash. Okay, he wasn't no A-one parent. And my mama was a dumb ugly cow who never opened her mouth 'cept to stuff it with cheeseburgers and fries. They were a pair of low cards I drew, but fuck it all, I still don't blame them for the way I turned out. You're the one who's into the blame game. Me, I know my childhood sucked, and now I get to make other people's lives suck. Seems fair, don't it? What goes around, comes around. And now it's coming around to you, Doc. You and Meg."

Robin pulled Meg closer. "Don't do this, Justin, please."

"You don't tell me what to do, Doc-aroo. I'm the one ru

"Take me if you want, but not Meg"

"Shut up."

"Please, not Meg"

"I said, shut the fuck up!"

He struck her hard across the face, a ringing blow that sent her reeling backward into one of the old crates strewn on the floor. She fell on it, and the crate shattered, throwing up white whorls of dust.

In the passenger seat of his sedan, Hammond was on the dashboard radio.

"We're code two to the scene. Request Air Support at Central Avenue and Fourteenth. Have reason to believe the fugitive Justin Gray is in the vicinity. Tell ASTRO to look for a green late-model Volkswagen. Hold on." He turned to Lewinsky in the backseat. "How big a coverage area for the cell tower?"

"An urban sector's maybe one or two city blocks, that's all."

He spoke into the microphone again. "We're looking at a radius of one to two blocks."

"Roger that," the dispatcher said. "Air Fourteen en route, ETA two minutes."

"They'll beat us there," the driver said.

Hammond nodded. "But not by much."

Robin's head echoed with the punch. She tasted blood in her mouth. Her tongue seemed large and unwieldy.

She made an effort to rise, but fell down, coughing on dust and wood splinters.

Meg was screaming. Gray seized her by the hair and hauled her to the center of the room, where the two conveyor belts stood side by side under the skylight. He lifted Meg and flung her down on the nearest conveyor belt. The impact stu

"I been in stir a year without a taste of pussy," Gray said. "Got me a hard-on like a Louisville slugger, and it's all for you."

"Chief Hammond, Air Fourteen on tac one."

Hammond switched to the tactical frequency and heard the voice of the airship's observer.

"Air Fourteen. We have a visual on the Volkswagen. Parked in an alley in back of a large industrial site at Central and Pico. Second vehicle at the same locationone of ours, a slickback." Slickback was LAPD slang for a black-and-white police vehicle without roof lights. "No signs of occupancy in either car."

"A slickback?" Lewinsky said from the backseat. "Whose is it?"

It was easy enough to identify the car from the air. The last three digits of the shop number were stenciled on the roof, and the division number was similarly displayed on the trunk. But Hammond wasn't worried about the slickback at the moment.

"Forget the LAPD car for now, Air Fourteen. We're looking for a Caucasian male on foot. He's wearing a denim jacket and tan or brown pants." The carjack victim had given the description to the first patrol officers on the scene.

"Air Fourteen, roger. No visual on suspect. There's a means of ingress to the factory groundsan open gate."

"Gray could be inside the building," Ba

Hammond turned to the driver. "Bring us around to the back alley. We're going in." He switched from the tac frequency to the main comm cha

The dispatcher rogered him.

"We wait for the backup, right?" Ba

"No, we don't." As the car swung off the freeway onto Central Avenue, Hammond drew the pistol from his belt holster. It had never been fired on the job. "Lock and load, gentlemen."

While Robin watched, Gray thrust the gun into his waistband, then climbed onto the conveyor belt. He straddled Meg, who lay unmoving, frozen by shock.

"Don't act like you never had none before," Gray said. "I told your mommy you ain't no virgin. Your cherry's been popped good. Am I right?"

From Meg, a whimper. "Yes."

Gray glanced across the room, meeting Robin's eyes with a smile of triumph. "Told you so. Your baby girl's a whore. Well, I know how to treat a whore." He unzipped his pants. "You're go

Meg moaned. She still couldn't move.

But Robin could.

Her pain and shock had receded. Only anger and adrenaline remained.

Gray leaned over Meg, a jackal on a carcass. He wasn't looking in Robin's direction.

He didn't see her get to her feet, teeth gritted against a swirl of light-headedness.

She picked up a plank from the smashed carton. She advanced on Gray as his shoulders moved in the starlight.

"You want it, don't you, bitch? All you young cunts want what I got. It may be a little big for youI'm what you call supersizedbut I guarantee it'll fit just fine."

Robin lashed out with the plank. She caught Gray on the side of the head, and there was blood and a rip of flesh, and she realized there had been a nail in the plank.

He was howling as he swung off the conveyor belt, his face bleeding, penis hanging out of his fly.

She hit him again. He stumbled away.

"Meg, run!"

Shaken out of her paralysis, Meg scrambled off the conveyor belt and made a move for the exit. Gray darted in front of her to block her escape.

"There are other rooms in back," Robin shouted. "Hide there and don't come out no matter what."

She didn't wait to see if Meg complied. She ran for Gray and swung the board again.

He seized the plank by the edges, ripped it out of her hands, and threw it aside.

And he laughed.

The laugh told Robin that all this time he'd been playing games with her.

He liked games. He'd let her think she had a chance. But that was all over now.

"You're dead," he told her, his hand reaching into his waistband for the gun.

The chopper's Nightsun searchlight prowled the factory grounds, illuminating the vast expanse of the parking lot, as Hammond addressed his troopsBa

"All right, people, I want us going in prepared for anything. Gray's in there. He seems to have someone with him." He noticed Lewinsky on his rover. "Something up, Lieutenant?"

"Slickback's been ID'd, Chief," Lewinsky said. "It was signed out of Newton Area by Detective Tomlinson."

"Tomlinson? What the hell is he doing here?"

"Nobody seems to know."

Ba

"With the possibility of one or more civilians and a fellow officer inside?"

"I'm a media guy. I used to work Traffic. I didn't sign up for this."

"You're signed up now, Phil." Hammond raised his voice to address the group. "Move out."

Robin saw the gun in Gray's hand. At this range he couldn't miss.