Naked in Death (In Death #1)(79)

“I can help you there.” Roarke took a final, thoughtful drag before crushing out his cigarette. “What do you think the media would do if it received an anonymous transmission of Simpson’s underground accounts?”

She dropped the hand she’d lifted to rake through her hair. “They’d hang him. If he knows anything, even with a fleet of lawyers around him, we might be able to shake something loose.”

“Just so. Your call, lieutenant.”

She thought of rules, of due process, of the system she’d made herself an intregal part of. And she thought of three dead women — three more she might be able to protect.

“There’s a reporter. Nadine Furst. Give it to her.”

She wouldn’t stay with him. Eve knew a call would come, and it was best if she were home and alone when it did. She didn’t think she would sleep, but she drifted into dreams.

She dreamed first of murder. Sharon, Lola, Georgie, each of them smiling toward the camera. That instant of fear a lightning bolt in the eyes before they flew back on sex-warmed sheets.

Daddy. Lola had called him Daddy. And Eve stumbled painfully into an older, more terrifying dream.

She was a good girl. She tried to be good, not to cause trouble. If you caused trouble, the cops came and got you, and put you in a deep, dark hole where bugs skittered and spiders crept toward you on silent, slithery legs.

She didn’t have friends. If you had friends you had to make up stories about where the bruises came from. How you were clumsy when you weren’t clumsy. How you’d fallen when you hadn’t fallen. Besides, they never lived in one place very long. If you did, the f**king social workers came nosing around, asking questions. It was the f**king social workers who called the cops that put you away in that dark, bug crawling hole.

Her Daddy had warned her.

So she was a good girl, without any friends, who moved from place to place when she was taken.

But it didn’t seem to make any difference.

She could hear him coming. She always heard him. Even if she was sound asleep, the creeping shuffle of his bare feet on the floor woke her as quickly as a thunder clap.

Oh, please, oh, please, oh please. She would pray, but she wouldn’t cry. If she cried she was beaten, and he did the secret things anyway. The painful and secret thing that she knew, even at five, was somehow bad.

He told her she was good. The whole time he did the secret thing he would tell her she was good. But she knew she was bad, and she would be punished.

Sometimes he tied her up. When she heard her door open, she whimpered softly, praying he wouldn’t tie her this time. She wouldn’t fight, she wouldn’t, if he just didn’t tie her up. If he just didn’t hold his hand over her mouth, she wouldn’t scream or call out.

“Where’s my little girl? Where’s my good little girl?”

Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes as his hands slipped under the sheets, poking, probing, pinching. She could smell his breath on her face, sweet, like candy.

His fingers rammed inside her, his other hand coming down hard over her mouth as she drew in breath to scream. She couldn’t help it.

“Be quiet.” His breath was coming in short gasps, in a sickening arousal she didn’t understand. His fingers dug into her cheeks where bruises would form by morning. “Be a good girl. There’s a good girl.”

She couldn’t hear his grunts for the screaming inside her head. She screamed it over and over and over.

No, Daddy. No, Daddy.

“No!” The scream ripped out of Eve’s throat as she reared up in bed. Gooseflesh prickled on her clammy skin, and she shivered and shivered as she tugged the blankets up.

Didn’t remember. Wouldn’t remember, she comforted herself and drew up her knees, pressed her forehead against them. Just a dream, and it was already fading. She could will it away — had done so before — until there was nothing left but the faint nausea.

Still shaky, she got up, wrapped herself in her robe to combat the chill. In the bath she ran water over her face until she was breathing evenly again. Steadier, she got herself a tube of Pepsi, huddled back into bed, and switched on one of the twenty-four-hour news stations.

And settled down to wait.

It was the lead story at six A. M., the headline read by a cat-eyed Nadine. Eve was already dressed when the call came through summoning her to Cop Central.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Whatever personal satisfaction Eve felt on finding herself part of the team who questioned Simpson, she hid it well. In deference to his position, they used the office of Security Administration rather than an interrogation area.

The clear wrap of windows and the glossy acrylic table didn’t negate the fact that Simpson was in deep trouble. The beading of sweat above his top lip indicated he knew just how deep.

“The media is trying to injure the department,” Simpson began, using the statement meticulously prepared by his senior aide. “With the very visible failure of the investigation into the brutal deaths of three women, the media is attempting to incite a witch-hunt. As chief of police, I’m an obvious target.”

“Chief Simpson.” Not by the flicker of an eyelash did Commander Whitney expose his inner glee. His voice was grave, his eyes somber. His heart was celebrating. “Regardless of the motive, it will be necessary for you to explain the discrepancy in your books.”