Ritual in Death

Nine

Eve rushed through Central, dodging other cops on the glides on her way to Homicide. The time with Isis had put her behind. She needed to meet with Mira, go over her notes, organize them. Then talk the PA into issuing more than a dozen arrest warrants.

And God, she needed coffee.

She veered toward her bullpen just as Peabody came out.

“I was about to tag you. Grabbing an energy bar first. You want?”

Eve started to decline, the things were disgusting. But they worked. “Yeah. I need to put a couple of things together, then meet with Mira.”

At Vending, Peabody plugged in some credits. “You want the Razzmatazz or the Berry Burst?”

“What difference does it make? They’re both revolting.”

“I kinda like the Berry Burst.” As Peabody made the selections, the machine cheerfully congratulated her on her choices, then listed the ingredients and nutritional information. “I checked in with Mira since you were late getting back.”

“Ran into stuff. Fill you in. Coffee.”

Peabody hiked after Eve to Eve’s office. “She said she needed another thirty minutes, that was about five minutes ago. Down-the-hall neighbor at the vic’s apartment states the vic never came home after work yesterday. They were supposed to do the girl thing together for the date. Hair, outfit, like that. Ava never showed. Nothing in her apartment to indicate an interest or connection with the occult. EDD’s got her electronics.”

“She never went back to the apartment because they took her at the clinic.” Eve took a bite of the energy bar, washed it down with coffee. She filled Peabody in, and as expected, her partner’s eyes went big as planets.

“You-you did like a ritual?”

“You had to be there,” Eve muttered.

“No, really happy to pass. Was it scary?”

“The point is, while I’m not sure how much weight the woo-woo might carry in court, Isis fingered every single one of the people on my list. Damn smug is what they are, alibied up. Alibiing each other. Break one, break all. If Mira’s got anything solid, we top it off. We’ve got enough to push for a search warrant on the clinic-and if we push right, on the residences of the staff. Contact the PA. Get them.”

“Me? Me?” If she’d just been ordered to run naked through the bullpen, Peabody would’ve been less stunned. “But you should do it. They listen to you over there. What am I supposed to do?”

“Jesus, Peabody. Sing, dance, shed a goddamn tear. Put the package together and get it done. I’ve got Mira in fifteen. Go.”

She all but shoved Peabody out the door, then closed it. Locked it. She two-pointed the rest of the energy bar into the trash. It wasn’t doing the job. She needed five minutes down, she admitted. Just five. She set her wrist unit to alarm, sat at her desk, laid her head down on it, and shut her eyes.

She went straight under.

A sound woke her, a kind of humming. Voices, tinny with distance, tapped on her subconscious. One-young, male-spiked with excitement.

“Look! Flying cars. Look out the window! That is so cool.”

Eve allowed herself a groan, started to slap at her wrist unit. Opening bleary eyes, she stared groggily at the swirl of luminous blue light, and the man, woman, and child cloaked in its circle. Instinct had her reaching for her weapon even as she registered them-tall man, a lot of gold hair, slim brunette with startled green eyes, and a shaggy-haired boy.

She thought she heard the woman say, “Oops.” Then they were gone, and her wrist unit was beeping.

“Okay, with a dream that weird, I need more than five minutes down.” She turned off the alarm, scrubbed her hands over her face. After downing the rest of her now lukewarm coffee, she gathered what she needed for Mira.

As she left the office, she shot a frown over her shoulder. Weird, she thought again. The whole damn day was weird.

Mira’s admin gave Eve a glare that turned the room into an arctic cave. Knowing the way to Mira lay at the dragon’s feet, Eve cut through the bull. “I kicked you, and kicked you hard this morning.” She pulled out one of the crime-scene photos. “She’s why.” And laid it on the desk.

The admin sucked in a breath, held it, let it out slowly. “I see. Yes. She’s waiting for you, Lieutenant.”

“Thanks.” Eve picked up the photo and walked into Mira’s office.

Mira wasn’t at her desk but standing at the window, her back to the room. She looked smaller somehow, Eve thought. Almost delicate in her quiet lavender suit.

“Dr. Mira.”

“Yes. Such a lovely day. Sometimes you need to remember the world is full of lovely days. You’ve had a very long one, haven’t you?”

“It’s got a ways to go yet.”

Mira turned. Her sable hair curled around her pretty face, but her eyes looked tired and troubled. “Where do you want me to begin?”

“I know what happened, and I know who’s responsible. At least the main players. I need to know what was done to Jackson Pike and Mika Nakamura, how it was done, and who did it. What was done to them was also done to the desk clerk at the hotel, and he bashed his own brains out with a hammer. So I need to know if it was done to anyone else.”

Rather than sit in one of her cozy scoop chairs as was her habit, Mira continued to stand. “First, the toxicology screening showed a combination of drugs in their systems. I have that list for you. Both had a hallucinogenic in their bloodstream and a drug we sometimes use to control patients with violent tendencies. As you know, both Pike and the victim were also given sexual drugs.”

“Would that explain the headaches, the memory blanks?”

“The combination would likely result in a kind of chemical hangover, but no, not the violent pain. There may be blank spots as well, but again, no, that’s not my conclusion.”

She did sit now. “The drugs were used to begin a process, and to enhance it.”

“They’ve been hypnotized.”

“You’re ahead of me.”

“No, but I’m hoping we’re on pace. At least two of the suspects are sensitives. They took a pass at me. Since I’ve dealt with a homicidal psychic before, I used the same method to block them, to steer them away. One of them, Silas Pratt, he’s… Look, I know you’ve got a daughter who’s Wiccan, and I get there are theories and faiths and even documentation, studies, blah, blah. I’m not big on that. But this guy?”

It went against the grain to admit it. “He’s got a punch,” Eve told her.

“You don’t want to use the word ‘power.’ ”

“It doesn’t take power to load people up with drugs, or to hypnotize them. It’s a technique. You use it.” She stuffed her hands in her pockets and began to pace. “One of these bastards is Mika’s kid’s doctor. She took the kid in for a standard checkup three weeks ago. So, we theorize Pratt hypnotizes her. Maybe they slip her something first to make her more susceptible, but he takes her under, and gives her the assignment. Posthypnotic suggestion, right?”

“Yes.”

“It needs a trigger-something she sees, hears. Easy enough to take care of that while she’s on her way to work, maybe give her a booster shot. She goes in, shuts down the cameras. They had to get to the desk clerk. We’ll find the intersect there, but they turned him on like a damn droid. They waltz Pike and the victim right in. They go along like puppies. They’re loaded by then, and under…”

“A spell?”

“If that’s the word. Pike’s left as patsy, with that trigger still cocked in his head. The pain’s impossible, and trying to remember takes it up to excruciating.”

“I believe if you hadn’t gotten them to me, into a controlled, medical environment when you did, they’d have ended it as the desk clerk did. I’ve had to use that pain to try to get to the trigger. It’s… difficult.”

Understanding, Eve moved to Mira’s AutoChef. “What’s that tea you’re always drinking?”

Mira managed a smile. “It varies. I think jasmine would be nice. Thank you.”

Eve programmed a cup, brought it to Mira, took a seat. “You’re not hurting them. You know that. The one who cocked the trigger is.”

“They, both of them, begged me to kill them.” Mira sipped the tea, then eased wearily back in the chair. “It’s taken hours for me to find the right method to dial the pain down. Not turn it off, not yet, but lower it from inhuman to hideous. Enough that Jack remembered a little. He remembered that Dr. Pratt called him into his office at the end of the day. He’s not sure of the time, it’s cloudy, but thinks it was after his last patient. Pratt gave him a cup of coffee, and after he drank it, it’s more jumbled. He remembers being in a limo with Collins and Ava. He thinks there were more. I recorded everything, of course. He remembers having sex with Ava.”

“Does he remember the murder?”

Her eyes troubled, Mira shook her head. “He’s suppressing. Even without the trigger, his mind’s not ready to go there. He next remembers waking in a bed, covered with blood, and a woman he called Leah sitting beside him, crying.”

“Leah Burke. Good, that’s good. I can break her, and she’ll take them all down with her.”

“It wasn’t just a young woman killed in that suite, Eve. Parts of the two people I have sedated and restrained for their own safety were murdered in there. When I find the way to remove the trigger and they remember what was done, their part in it however unwilling, they’ll never be the same.”

“You’ll help them deal with it, or find someone who’ll help them deal with it. It’s what you do.”

“Take them down, Eve. Take them down hard. When I can tell Mika and Jack that’s been done, we can start on the healing.”

In all the time they’d worked together, Mira had never asked. Eve rose. “Like you said, it’s a lovely day. Before it’s over, they’ll be down.”

As she walked out, Eve whipped out her communicator to contact Peabody. “Search warrants?”

“It’s looking good on the clinic. I just need to-”

“Put a hold on it. We’ve got a wit who puts Leah Burke in Suite 606. We’re bringing her in. Book an interview room.”

“You want me to have her picked up?”

“Here’s how it goes. Two uniforms at her door. If she’s not home yet, I need to know ASAP. She’s not under arrest, and she’s not to be read her rights. Got that?”

“Got it.”

“She’s needed down here for further questioning. That’s all they know. She’s not to be permitted to contact anyone. She’s not under arrest. I’ll finish up with the search warrants.”

Eve was still listing the names for the APA when she approached Homicide. What sounded like a small riot had her quickening her steps.

Then she smelled the pizza. “Yeah, I mean even the house in the Caribbean. I’ve got goddamn probable cause right down the line. I’ve got witness statements, and within two hours I’m going to hand you a confession on a goddamn platter that will take down every son of a bitch on the list I just gave you. They’re going to have hoodoo voodoo crap tucked away,” Eve said meeting Roarke’s eyes as she stepped into the bullpen. “Because they believe it. A dozen blades were used on the vic. We’re going to find some, most, or all of them.”

She clicked off. “Figured you’d be back around after you got your witch home.”

“You haven’t eaten.” He picked up a box of pizza while her men swarmed like ants over the five others he’d brought in. “Eat now.”

She grabbed a slice, chomped a huge bite. “Oh. God. Good.” She swallowed, took another. “I got them.”

“I can see that. Can I watch?”

She took the tube of Pepsi he offered, guzzled. “It’s a good bribe. Take Observation.”