Origin in Death (In Death #21)(50)

She closed her eyes. "I want peace, Avril. Peace and quiet and days with nothing but both. It's been so long. Do you know what I dream of.

She squeezed Deena's fingers. "Tell me."

"A little house, a cottage really. With a garden. Flowers and trees, and birds singing. A big silly dog. And someone to love me, a man to love me. Days of that, quiet days of that with no hiding, no war, no death."

"You'll have it."

But Deena could look back, year by year. There was nothing but Hiding, nothing but death. "I made you a killer."

"No. No." Avril leaned close, kissed Deena's cheek. "Freedom. That was your gift." She walked back to the wall of glass. "I'm going to paint again. Really paint. I'll feel better. I'll comfort the children, poor little things. We'll take them away from all this as soon as we can. Out of the country, at least for a while. Somewhere they can grow up free. As we never were."

"The police. They're going to want to talk again. More questions."

"It's all right. We know what to do, what to say. And nearly all of it's the truth, so it isn't hard. Wilfred would have respected her mind, this Lieutenant Dallas. It's so fluid, and somehow straightforward. She's someone we'd like, if we could."

"She's someone to be careful with."

"Yes. Very. How foolish of Wilfred, how egocentric of him to have kept personal records in his home. If Will had known-poor Will. Still, I wonder if it's to the good that she knows about the project. Or knows something. We could wait, see if she's able to follow it through. She might end it for us."

"We can't take that chance. Not after we've come this far."

"I suppose we can't. I'll miss you," she said. "I wish you could stay. I'll be lonely."

"You're never alone." Deena went to her, held her. "We'll talk every day. It won't be much longer."

She nodded. "It's horrible, isn't it, to wish for more death. To want it to come quickly. In an awful way, she's one of us."

"Not anymore-if she ever was." Deena eased back, then kissed her sister's cheeks. "Be strong."

"Be safe."

She watched while Deena put a blue bucket hat over her hair, dark glasses over her eyes, then picked up a bag to sling over her shoulder.

Deena slipped out the glass door, jogged quickly over the terrace down the steps to the sand. She walked away, just a woman taking a stroll on a November beach.

No one would know what she was part of, where she'd come from. Or what she had done.

For a long time, there was only the water and sand and birds. The knock on Avril's door was soft, as was her voice command to release the lock.

The little girl stood there, blonde and delicate like her mother, rubbing her eyes. "Mommy."

"Here, sweetie, here, my baby." With love bursting inside her, she hurried over to lift the child into her arms.

"Daddy."

"I know. I know." She stroked her child's hair, kissed her damp cheek. "I know. I miss him, too."

And in a strange way, one she couldn't understand herself, she spoke the pure truth.

Chapter Nine

EVE CLEARED HER MIND AND LET HERSELF SEE.

The quiet house. Familiar. Through the door, alone. She'd gone to the Center alone. Killed alone.

Back to the kitchen. Why the tray? she asked herself as she took the route she imagined the killer had used. To comfort and distract.

Someone he knew. Had he known his father's killer, hidden that?

In the kitchen, she stood a moment, gauging the ground.

"The domestic didn't put the food on a tray. It's unlikely Icove did it for himself."

"Maybe he was expecting her all along," Peabody suggested. "So he shut down the droids."

"Possible. But why lock down for the night? You're expecting company, why set full night security? Could have set it, shut down the droids, then been contacted by her. Came down, let her in himself. Hey, let's have a snack."

But she didn't like it.

"The way he was positioned on the couch up in the office. It's not entertaining company. It's 'I just want to lie down awhile.' Let's try it this way for now. She comes in, knows the code or has clearance. She comes back here, puts the food together. She knows he's upstairs."

"How does she know?"

"Because she knows him. She knows. Could easily verify by the house scanner if she's not a hundred percent. Probably used it, yeah. I would have. Confirm not only his location, but that he was alone in the house. Checks the droids, too, makes sure they're shut down. Carries the tray up."

She turned, walked the way she'd come.

Was she nervous? Eve wondered. Did the plate rattle on the tray, or was she calm as a sea of ice?

Outside the office door, Eve mimed holding a tray, cocked her head "If he's locked in, she'd use voice command to unlock and open. Why put the tray down to free her hands? Let's have EDD take a look, see what they see."

"Check."

Eve walked in, studied the angle. "He wouldn't have seen her, not at first. He'd have heard her if he'd been awake, but he was facing away from the door. Crosses over, sets the tray down. Did they talk? I brought you a little something. You need to eat, take care of yourself. See, that's wifely. She shouldn't have bothered with the tray. That's a mistake."