By the Sword

    He leaned back and tried to let his mind go blank, but an aching need popped Gia into his head. He saw her… he heard her… the sounds she made when they were in bed. She wasn't a wailer, not a screamer, not an oh-godder… just soft little moans, almost like whimpers, from way back in her throat. He felt her nails raking his back when he was in her, heard the rasp of those nails as they raked the sheets when he was down on her.

    He had to go back. He couldn't stay away any longer.

    Usually Gia avoided mention of Emma and rarely visited her at St. A

    Jack understood that—all too well. What he'd never understood was why she had insisted on this particular cemetery. St. A

    And now Gia had forgotten the dreams and that she'd ever said those things. The memories were gone but Emma would remain at St. A

    Other memories… of the burial… crashed around him. The snow-covered grass, the hard-frozen ground, the cutting wind, the tiny white coffin…

    And no Gia. Although she and Vicky were recovering from their comas and injuries at what every doctor and nurse in New York Hospital had called "a miraculous pace," they remained in the trauma unit. Emma needed burial but no way could they venture out of intensive care. Which left all the funeral arrangements to Jack.

    Looking back now he recalled little of his meeting with the undertaker, or arranging the burial plot out here in Bayside. He'd been too numb. He vaguely remembered Abe, Julio, Alicia Clayton, Lyle Kenton, and a few others at the graveside. Father Edward Halloran had somehow heard about Emma and showed up, insisting on saying a few words over the grave.

    And so whenever Gia wanted to visit, Jack would take her. Because he needed a visit now and again too, and didn't like the idea of her alone in a cemetery.

    He'd been pla

    Perfect.

    She sat on the ground now, ru

    To give her some space, he wandered off across the grass with no particular destination. St. A

    He headed in that direction and found a gardener kicking at the dirt of a bare patch near the high stone wall. When the man realized he had an audience, he stopped and flashed Jack a sheepish, gold-flecked grin.

    "Excuse my words, señor." He gestured at the headstones. "Especially here among the dead."

    Jack shrugged. "I haven't heard any complaints. What were you kicking there?"

    "This ground… nothing will grow on it. I mix in the finest topsoil, I seed it, I water it, yet no grass will grow. I put sod down, it dies. I become very angry."

    "I saw that. Ever think of trying some ground cover?"

    "I have planted periwinkle, pachysandra, and ivy. They all die. I think the soil is poisoned, so I dig down six inches, bring in new earth. Still the same. Nothing will live here. Not plants, not even ants. Nothing."

    Jack stared down at the four-foot oblong patch of bare ground. It looked like normal topsoil. The grass around it was in beautiful shape. Just this one patch…

    He spotted a beetle scurrying through the grass toward the bald spot. He watched it veer left just before it reached it. The bug walked around to the far side of the patch, then continued on its way.

    A chill ran over Jack's skin. What the hell was wrong with that patch of ground that even bugs wouldn't cross it? Had something been spilled there? Or more unsettling, was something buried there?

    "I've got your solution," Jack said. "Astroturf."

    The gardener shook his head. "No. I shall win. This dirt will not beat me."

    Jack waved and headed back toward Gia and Emma. "Good luck."

    He found Gia waiting for him on a rise.

    "Ready?"

    She took a deep shuddering breath and nodded. "Why?"

    "Why what?"

    "Why do I have to come here to be with her? Why isn't she with me? Why did this have to happen?"

    "I wish I could tell you, Gia."

    And that was true to the extent that Jack found himself unable to speak the words that would answer her question.

    He still hadn't found the right time to tell her the truth. Maybe he'd never find the right time to say, Because of me, because of your importance to me, because some cosmic something beyond knowing thought it could better use me if you and Vicky and Emma weren't around.

    As he took her hand and they started back toward the car, he remembered how Gia had said the dream-Emma wanted to be here at St. A

    He looked back at the gardener raking up the soil of the bare spot.

    Could it be…?

    Nah.

    "I want to come home with you, Gi. Vicky's at school so I was hoping maybe we could…"

    "Talk?"

    "Yes. Talk. And do other stuff."

    "Other stuff?"

    "Other stuff."

    "I am in need of other stuff, Jack. Especially after being here. I need to lose myself for a little while."

    "Me too."

    She smiled that smile. "Goody."

    Hideo had wanted to search further through the police database last night but the need for sleep and the time zone change had caught up with him. He'd awakened late this morning fully refreshed and ready for the next step.

    His target was anyone co

    He went back to the crime itself and found the arrest record. His spirits lifted as he read through it: Gerrish had not been alone on the break and enter. He'd been captured along with a man named Alonzo Cooter.

    Hideo searched the database for that name and found the mug shot. A beefy, surly black face stared back at him. Not a cooperative face. The belligerence in his eyes said he was not a man who would frighten easily.

    But that was what the yakuza were for.

    He called for Kenji, then hit the print button. While he was waiting, Hideo found Cooter's last known address—he hoped it was good—and printed that screen too. Then he sca

    "Takita-san," Kenji said with a quick bow upon arrival.

    Hideo wrote the building's address on one of the printouts, then handed him the sheets.