Fantasy in Death

“I have no excuse for that,” he began. “Absolutely no excuse for saying those things to you. I’m unspeakably sorry, Eve.”

“Forget it.”

“I can’t. I won’t.” He walked to her, stood with her, but didn’t touch. “And still I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“It’s been a long few days.”

“That’s no excuse. It’s not even a reason.”

“Fine. Give me one.”

“She wept in my arms yesterday. I knew you considered her a suspect, and a part of me wondered, even as she wept in my arms, if she’d had some part in what happened to Bart. More, from what I’ve gathered, she was very likely lying on the floor, alone, broken, bleeding while we were on a rooftop drinking champagne.”

“You’re too close to it.”

“I am. You’re quite right about that, and I can’t fully explain, even to myself, why that is. But I can’t step back. Those might be reasons, Eve, but they’re still not excuses for slapping at you that way, for doing that because I knew you’d take it, could take it.”

“You hurt me.”

“Oh God. I know it.” He took her arms then, lightly. “You know me. You’ll have the satisfaction of being absolutely sure I’ll suffer for knowing it.”

“You weren’t altogether wrong.”

“I was, altogether and completely wrong.”

“No. Whatever I think about that.” She nodded toward the screen. “About any of it, all of it, I have to maintain. It’s not a shagging game for me, but it is for him. I have to calculate how he thinks so I can stop him.”

“I know how you think, and I know how much you care. I can only tell you again I’m sorry.”

She looked into his eyes, felt some of the sickness in her belly recede. “I’ve said things before designed to hurt you. You forgave me.”

“I did, yes. I will again, no doubt.”

“So, let’s put it aside. You get a big black mark on the asshole side of the column.”

He smiled, pressed his lips to her brow. “What’s the score so far?”

“We’re neck-and-neck in that area.”

“You’d best check those stats. I really think you’re ahead.”

“You want another big black mark?”

“I don’t.” He drew her in, letting out a breath when she relaxed against him. “This is better.”

She turned her head so they watched the screen together.

“Why was she a target?” Roarke asked her.

“Because he doesn’t consider anyone indispensable but himself. He’s going to run the show now, and nobody’s going to slip ahead of him, the way Bart did. It probably felt good to soak up all that sympathy over Bart, and exciting to have the cops taking a look at him. Part of the game, and he’s racking up the points, anticipating the next moves.”

She glanced at Roarke. “That’s the way it is for him.”

“Yes. I know it. You’re right.”

“He’s a gamer, so he’d look at what was on the board. Players, scenarios, options. Cill? She was angry, depressed, taking it harder, at least on the outside, than anyone. It made her more vulnerable. She’s the most in tune, it feels to me, with the other staff. And being an attractive female, may be the most logical next public face for the company. He wants that for himself. And he has a taste for it now. That human nature thing.”

She eased back a little. “I’ve got some technical questions, and they may be way out of orbit, but-” She broke off as on-screen the medical team began to move quickly. “Something’s wrong. Something’s gone wrong.”

Roarke ordered the screen to zoom in, enhance. “Her blood pressure’s dropping. Look at the monitor. It’s bottoming out. They’re losing her.”

“Goddamn it, goddamn it. She’s got to fight! Does she want to stay alive or not?”

They watched in silence while Cill hovered between life and death.

19

When Eve stepped into the waiting area, both men jerked to their feet, then seemed to deflate back into their chairs. “We’re waiting for the doctor, for one of the medical team.” Var looked up at the clock. “It’s been a long time.”

“They said they’d update us. But nobody’s been in for more than an hour now.”

“I’ve been observing the surgery,” Eve began, and held up a hand when both men rose again and began talking at once. “Hold it. They’re working on her, hard. There was some trouble-Hold it!” she ordered again over the peppering questions. “I didn’t bring my medical degree, but I can tell you it appears they’re doing everything they can.”

“You got to watch, to see her? Where?” Be

“We could go there, see her. It’s got to be better than just sitting here.”

“You’re not allowed to observe. Only medical perso

“But we’re-”

“You’re not family,” Eve interrupted as Be

“Not legally,” Peabody said more gently. “I understand what you mean about family. I have friends who are family to me. But you’re not legally her family, so they might be sticky about the technicalities right now. It sounds like it’s going to be a while more,” she continued. “You should go get some air, some food, take a walk. It’ll make the time go faster,” she added.

“Something might happen while we’re not here.”

“I’ve got your ’link numbers,” Peabody told Be

“Maybe we could get some air. And they probably have a chapel or meditation center. We could…” Var flushed a little, lifted his hands helplessly. “You know.”

“Yeah. That’s good. That’s a good thing to do. Just for a few minutes. If anything happens-”

“I promise.” Peabody watched them walk out together, nodded at Eve as she pulled out her communicator.

“Tell the shadows not too close,” Eve said. “I don’t want them to know we’ve got anyone on them yet.” She turned to Roarke. “Look, I know you’ve got an interest in this, but if you’re not going back to work to buy up the northern hemisphere, I think Feeney could really use you.”

“Distracting me?”

“That’s a side benefit. Either Peabody or I will be in here, keeping tabs on Cill, and watching the partners. I’m going to see if I can cop a room where I can set up shop and do some work while we switch off.”

“Let me be liaison there. I’ll see about getting you a work area, then I’ll see if Feeney wants me.”

“Good enough.”

“You said you had technical questions, before.”

“Yeah, and I do.” Wrong place, wrong time, Eve thought. “Let me line them up a little better first.”

“All right.” He curled the tips of his fingers in hers briefly. “Stay in touch, will you?”

“Yeah.” She turned back to Peabody. “Anything about the last ninety minutes I should know?”

“No. They’re acting and reacting as you’d expect given the circumstances. I swear, I don’t get any vibe off either of them.”

“If I’m gone before they get back, I want you to get them to agree to having officers go in their apartments to check their alibis. Just getting it off the slate so we can focus on Cill and how this happened to her. You know how to play it.”

“Can do.”

“Get their agreement on record. Then get EDD to send somebody to each place. I want somebody who knows how to look for details that aren’t on a comp. Just observe, note, report. We have the record from yesterday’s search. Let’s see what’s different today, if anything.”

“Yes, sir. How bad was it? Was she? When you were observing?”

“Jesus, Peabody, she’s a mess.” She jammed her hands in her pockets as memories of the dream snuck back in her head.

You couldn’t save them all.

“They’ve got the brain doc messing around in her head, and another guy working on her arm. It must be bad, really bad if they started there instead of the leg. They’ve got that in a sterile cage-whatever they’re called. Her face looks like somebody went at it with a bat. They’re dealing with internal injuries on top of it, trying to tie off bleeders or whatever they do when things inside are bleeding out. It looked to me like she was busted up every-damn-where.”