Purity in Death (In Death #15)(82)

Roarke came in, closed the door. Locked it.

"I need the whole team in here, except for Jamie, to update them on the latest homicides."

"In a minute." He crossed to her, took her shoulders, turned her to face him. Her eyes were shadowed. Some was fatigue, he knew. But most of it was the nightmare.

"I can see it in you." He pressed his lips to her brow. "The pain from it."

"It's not getting in my way."

"No, can't have that, can we? Hold on for a minute, Eve. Just for a minute."

His arms were already around her, and now hers wrapped around him in turn. "It wasn't the same. It wasn't anything like the same. But . . . it shoved me back. It shoved me right back there. I stood there, looking down at her, at him. I was so cold. I've seen that kind of thing before, and he hasn't pushed me back there."

"This was a girl. A young girl."

"Older than I was. Twice as old as I was. She could have been me." She let out a long breath after she said it. "That's what I thought when I stood there. When I stood over her. If I hadn't killed him first. If I hadn't gotten away from him, she could've been me."

Steadier, she turned her head on his shoulder, looked back at the board with clear eyes. "Do you see what they did to her?"

As much as he'd seen, as much as he'd done in his life, the image of Hannah Wade still made his blood run cold.

The girl had been hacked to pieces. The shirt and shorts she'd been wearing were in tatters, and soaked red with her own blood.

"You can," he said quietly. "You see it time and time again, and no matter how often you do, it still matters. That's what makes you."

"I need to do this now." Take the step, she thought. Do the work. "I want Jamie kept busy somewhere. He's not going to see this. I'll take the stills of her down between briefings."

"I'll send him off to the pool or the game room, have Summerset monitor him to make sure he stays well away from here until you're done."

She nodded, stepped back. "One thing. Did I coerce, bribe, or threaten you into opening sealed files?"

"No. You asked, with some reluctance and teeth gnashing."

She nearly managed a smile. "Except for the teeth gnashing, that's how I saw it. If 'requested' had been on the list, I still would've said no in the IAB query. I'd've lied. I don't like knowing that, but I can live with it."

She looked back at Hannah Wade's photo. "Yeah, I can live with it."

***

When her team was assembled she ran the details for them.

"Nick Greene provided services. His employment is listed as an entertainment consultant. While he did have some straight clientele, the bulk of it ran below the surface. Illegals, vids that push code as they tend to involve minors, authentic violence, and bestiality. He also provided unlicensed companions, either sex, for those looking for a little more than the law allows or who just like the thrill of breaking it. He's got a sheet, which indicates he often auditioned these companions personally.

"He'd been picked up for questioning a total of eight times, but never charged. His business apparently paid well. His digs were Park Avenue smooth."

"Is he linked to Price or Dwier?" Baxter asked.

"I don't find their names on any of the data. I have no doubt he was known to Child Services. Of the eight times he was hauled in for questioning, two involved complaints involving a minor. One of those complaints is sealed. And under that seal we'll find one or more members of Purity."

"Lieutenant." Trueheart raised his hand like a kid at a school desk. "Isn't it possible Greene was infected because of what he was alone, without any other connection to the group?"

"It's too early for them to target that way. The first wave involves personal agendas."

"Gotta be," Feeney agreed. "You start up a group like this, people are risking a hell of a lot. Most aren't going to do it just on a principle. They need some payback first. Have to have incentive for the rank and file. You'll have some raving fanatics, too. Sociopaths who just like the idea of taking somebody out without getting bloody."

"Disciples," Roarke continued, "eager to follow the path. Frustrated cops, city officials, social workers, and the like who've seen the guilty walk away free once too often. And some, I'd think, who are simply intrigued, intellectually, at the idea of this sort of man-made selection."

"They've got their first wave in place." Eve gestured to the board. "Working quickly. My opinion is they've infected or set to infect their entire first wave by this time. Give their membership bulk gratification, quick and multiple successes, and keep the media hot on the story. Focusing on targets who have, in some way, victimized children is very deliberate. Even cops have a different attitude when the victims are children."

She looked at the board again.

"According to statements from the knock-on-doors, Hannah Wade was first seen in the building ten days ago. It's possible she was there longer as her parents haven't seen or heard from her in three months. They didn't bother filing a police or CS report on her this time. She was a habitual runaway. McNab, you'll review the building's security discs and pin down the exact date she took up residence with Greene."