Jonathan Nasaw - Fear itself

“I kind of feel like that about Abruzzi-as if when I open her office door tomorrow, she’s going to be there behind the desk as usual, grinning up at me from behind a stack of autopsy reports. She never complained, Ed-sometimes she was so tired I had to help her up from her chair, but she never let up and she never complained.”

“She saved our lives,” said Pender simply. “Mine and Dorie’s.”

“I know.” Pool brightened a little. “Hey, guess what’s in the works? Hall of Honor. She’s going in as a Service Martyr.”

“No shit!” Pender was impressed. The Hall of Honor was for special agents killed in the line of duty; the Service Martyr plaque was reserved for those who died as a direct result of adversarial action. As of three days ago there’d been only thirty-three Service Martyrs in the entire history of the Bureau; now there were thirty-four. “There’s not gonna be any problem about her not being an SA?”

“There’d better not be. She told me once that the day she got to write Special Agent in front of her name was the proudest day in her life. So that’s what it’s going to say under her picture in the Hall: ‘Special Agent Linda Abruzzi.’ And her parents are getting a Memorial Star, and that’s going to read ‘In Memory of Special Agent Linda Abruzzi.’ And if either of those things doesn’t happen,” Pool continued, with the air of one who knows where the bodies are buried and has snapshots of the funeral to prove it, “then the divorce rate in the highest echelons of the Bureau is going to spike like you wouldn’t believe.”

“I’ll bet.” There used to be a saying among LSU agents: If you can’t get God on your side, get Pool.

“Speaking of the highest echelons, I have it on good authority that the OPR is going along with your story about how Childs pulled a knife on Miss Bell, and you had to shoot him to save her.”

“What do you mean, going along with my story?”

“I mean, I don’t buy it. In your statement, you said you sent her over to check on Childs-if Childs had been in any condition to pull a knife, you never would have let her anywhere near him. Not that I care-I only wish you’d shot him lower and slower.”

Pender leaned forward confidentially. “This doesn’t leave the room, but the truth is, if I hadn’t shot him when I did, Dorie would have used that knife to cut his throat.”

“The more I learn about that woman, the better I like her,” said Pool.

Talking to Pender must have helped-Pool decided to attend her own party. They found Dorie downstairs, giving out trick-or-treat bags to the vampires, ghosts, and Power Rangers as they emerged from the haunted house in the basement. She had changed her mind about the tux and was wearing a witch costume cut so low and sexy it would have convinced Billy Graham to convert to Wicca.

“Oh, Pen,” she cried, from under her conical hat. “Aren’t they cute?”

“They sure are,” said Pender, waggling his eyebrows.

“The kids, you lech-I mean the kids. Especially the little girls, the ballerinas and the fairy princesses-my God, I just want to eat ’em up.”

“This is all new to you, isn’t it?” asked Pool.

“It’s my first Halloween since-I guess since I was three.”

“No problem with the masks?”

“There was one kid. It was a boy, he must have been fourteen or fifteen. He was wearing-I don’t even know what to call it-a ghoul or a zombie mask or something like that. It had these gaping wounds, and there was this fake eyeball hanging by a string from this gory eye socket. He had his little sister with him-I could tell by his body language he wasn’t real thrilled about it. I didn’t see him coming-I just turned around and there he was. I jumped about a mile-almost peed my panties-and when I finally came down, I said, ‘Jeez, you scared me.’ And he brings his face right up next to mine, and you know what he says? He says, ‘It’s Halloween, lady-that’s the general idea.’”

Pender laughed, raised his glass. “To Halloween,” he said. “To ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties, and things that go bump in the night.”

“That’s not how it goes,” said Dorie. “First of all, it’s not to, it’s from. Second of all, you left out the most important line:

From ghosties and ghoulies and long-leggety beasties

And things that go bump in the night,

Good Lord, deliver us!

“Amen,” said Pool.

“I’ll drink to that,” said Pender.