Fantasy in Death

Be

“Jesus, Ben.”

“I’m not waiting.” Again he used the swipe, the palm, and the two sets of codes. He pushed the door open partway, called her name.

“Cill! Hey, Cill! It’s Be

“Yeah, don’t pull out the pepper spray!”

“Cill?” Be

“I’ll look in the office.”

They separated.

“She’s not in here,” Be

“She’s not in the office, the spare, the kitchen. She’s-”

“The holo-room!” Spi

“It’s not locked, man.” Var jerked a head up to the green light, opened the door.

Be

Var whipped out his ’link, hit the emergency key. “Is she alive? Be

“I don’t know.” He took her hand, stroked her cheek. And as Var’s voice came from behind him, as if through a long, dark tu

In her office, Eve prepped for the briefing. She’d requested Mira’s attendance. She needed a professional opinion of her conclusions after having seen and analyzed each partner’s apartment. With any luck, EDD would give her something concrete to add to that, and they could pull in her lead suspect.

She looked up as McNab pranced in.

“She’s good,” he said as he offered Cill’s journal to Eve. “I’m better. Thought you’d want it right away.”

“You thought right. Did you read it?”

“No, I wasn’t authorized to… maybe a couple pages,” he admitted under Eve’s cool stare. “It’s just-or what I read was just stuff. Daily stuff, some work shit, that kind of thing. Maybe she wrote a little about this guy she went out with a couple months ago. She decided he was a loser. I have to agree.”

“Just a couple pages.”

“Maybe what you’d call a few. Just to make sure there weren’t any glitches.”

“I’m going to let you get away with that because you saved me from having to press her to open it. You’ve got over an hour before the briefing. Go away-and don’t bother my partner.”

“I wouldn’t be a bother,” he began, but her communicator signaled and he slipped out.

“Dallas.”

Dispatch, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Report to 431 Spring Street, Apartment 3.

“Cilla Allen’s residence. Is she dead?”

Negative. Allen, Cilla, is being transported to St. Ignatius Hospital by emergency unit. Condition critical, multiple injuries. Report to officers on-scene and secure.

“Copy that. Dallas out.”

She swung into the bullpen. McNab, who was bothering her partner, started to grin. Then saw her face. He laid a hand on Peabody’s shoulder briefly. “Shit.”

“Cill’s being transported to St. Ignatius, critical condition. Let’s go.”

“What happened?” Peabody asked as she shoved up to follow Eve’s long stride.

“That’s what we’re going to find out.” She shook her head as Peabody started to speak again. “Try U-Play. I want to know if Var and Be

Peabody followed orders as they rode down to the garage. “Not there. Both of them left, together, about a half hour ago.”

“Together,” Eve murmured, nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good play. I want a guard on her-in the ER, the OR, ICU, whatever and wherever. She’s under our watch as of now, twenty-four/seven. See if we can get any details on her injuries, her condition. I don’t want to hear multiple injuries, critical. I want some fucking details.”

“Yes, sir.” Peabody slanted a glance toward Eve as they jumped into the vehicle.

She braced herself as Eve peeled out.

18

Eve ignored the retro-style elevator and bounded up the steps. “Report,” she ordered the officer on the door as she grabbed Seal-It from her field kit.

“Sir. Nine-one-one came in from Levar Hoyt at nine fifty-six from his ’link and from this location. My partner and I were dispatched as was a medi-unit. We arrived on-scene at ten-oh-two, ahead of the mediunit by approximately two minutes.”

Good response time, Eve thought, and gave him a go-ahead nod.

“We were met at the door by Mr. Hoyt, who immediately showed us into the holo-room at the east side of the unit. The victim, Ms. Cilla Allen of this address, was on the floor, unconscious, and appeared to be seriously injured. A Be

“I returned to speak to the MTs regarding the victim’s injuries, which they described as critical and including a fractured skull, a shattered elbow, a broken leg, and at least two broken ribs as well as numerous lacerations and contusions. They transported her to St. Ignatius Hospital, departing at approximately ten-fifteen.”

“That’s some report, Officer Kobel.”

“I like to be thorough.”

“Stay on the door,” she ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

She moved directly to the holo-room where Cill’s blood, she assumed, stained the floor.

“Let’s get samples of that, make sure it’s all hers.”

She walked over to the control. “There’s a disc in here, and it’s going to be Fantastical.”

“Same setup as Mi

“Then why didn’t he finish the job? She’s down, broken, unconscious. Why leave her breathing after you’ve gone to all that trouble?”

“Maybe he got spooked, or thought she was dead.”

No, Eve thought. Just no. “He’s too smart to leave her breathing. It’s a really big mistake.”

“Not if she doesn’t make it.”

Eve shook her head. “Go ahead and call the sweepers, and EDD. We’ll see if the partners know her security code. Maybe we can get this disc out without frying it. Either way, I want to know when she started the game, how long she played it.”

“On it. Do you want me to take one of them in another room to get his statement?”

“No. We’ll take them together. Let’s see how they play it. Come in when you finish up here. Then interrupt me, take me aside to give me some news. Keep it low, but I want them to hear you say EDD, breakthrough, recovered data.”

“If they’re-or one of them is guilty, it’ll be bad news.”

“Yeah. Sometimes you have to water the seeds.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing.” She left Peabody to go into the viewing room. Both men leapt to their feet and started talking at once.

“Stop! Officer, if you’ll join your partner and keep the scene secured. Sweepers and EDD are being notified. No one else gets in.”

She turned to the two men. “Sit.”

“They wouldn’t let us go with her. They won’t even let us check with the hospital. Please. Please, Lieutenant.” Be

She pulled out her ’link. “This is Lieutenant Dallas,” she began and gave her badge number. “I need to know the status of a patient, Cilla Allen, who was just brought in.” She held up a finger before either man could speak again, and walked to the other side of the room. She listened, murmured back, then slipped the ’link back in her pocket before going back across the room.