J. Robb - Chaos in Death

“Everyone’s capable,” Eve stated.

“Yes, you’re right. All of us are capable under certain circumstances of extreme and violent behavior. We control it, channel it—in some cases medicate it. Justin’s a doctor, dedicated to healing, a scientist and man of reason. The person who did this rejects reason and humanity. He’s given himself a monster’s face. Humanity means little to him.”

“Okay. How about Eton Billingsly?”

“A skilled therapist, and an enormous pain in the ass.”

Eve had to grin. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you call anybody a pain in the ass.”

“I don’t like him so it’s hard to be objective. He’s a pompous snob who sees himself as perfect. He’s rude, annoying, and full of himself.”

“A god complex?”

Mira’s eyebrows rose. “Yes, I’d say. You wonder if he’s capable. I don’t know him well enough. He’s skilled—he has an MD, and would have done some time with a scalpel before he focused on his specialty.”

“Hypno-voodoo.”

Mira let out a quick, exasperated laugh. “I know you’re suspicious of the technique, but it’s valid, and can be very effective. Billingsly certainly wants to be noticed and rewarded and praised. But . . .” She studied the sketch again. “It’s very difficult for me to envision a man like him deliberately making himself hideous. He’s also vain.”

“Something to think about, though. I appreciate the time.”

“I’m happy to give it. Tell me how you are.”

“I’m fine.”

“You haven’t been back long. How’s your arm?”

Eve started to dismiss it, then settled on the truth. “A little sore in the morning, and by the end of the day. Mostly good, though.”

“That’s to be expected with that kind of injury. Nightmares?”

“No. Maybe just being back in New York’s enough. At least right now. Isaac McQueen’s back in a cage where he belongs. That doesn’t suck. I’m not thinking about my mother, what happened there,” she said before Mira could ask. “Not yet. It’s done, and right now I’m okay with it.”

“When and if it’s not, you’ll talk to me?”

“I know I can. That’s a pretty big start, right?”

“Yes, it is.”

Eve got up, started for the door. “Is she like you?” she asked. “Arianna Whitwood?”

“Like me?”

“That’s the sense I got from her. She made me think of you. Not just because she’s an attractive female shrink. It was . . . I don’t know, a sense. If she is like you, then she’s got no part in this. And thinking that, I hope to hell Justin Rosenthall doesn’t, because you believe she loves him. I hope he’s clear.”

“So do I.”

“I’ll let you know,” Eve said, and left.

Eve glanced over at Peabody as she walked back into the bullpen, got a shake of the head.

So no luck, yet, on masks or makeup. She went into her office, got coffee, then sat at her desk, put her boots up, and studied the board.

Everybody liked Rosenthall; nobody liked Billingsly. Instinct dictated a push on Billingsly—and she intended to listen. But she’d give a little push on the good doctor as well.

Arianna Whitwood. Beautiful, rich, smart, dedicated, caring. The good daughter, and again, the good doctor.

Didn’t that make an interesting triangle? Billingsly wanted her—and didn’t bother to (ha-ha) disguise it. Rosenthall had her.

And what did that have to do with the three vics?

They were Arianna’s. Her patients, her investment, her success—at least so far. Rosenthall’s, too.

Maybe Arianna had given them too much time, attention, made too big an investment. A man could resent that. She sometimes wondered why Roarke didn’t resent all the time, the attention, the investment she put into the job.

But there weren’t a lot of Roarkes in the world.

Maybe the three vics—or any one of them—overheard Arianna and the good doctor going at it over her work, that time and attention again. Hey, bitch, what about me ? Shouldn’t I be the center of your world? Maybe he’d lost his temper. Couldn’t have the gossip mills grinding that one.

And no, just not enough for that kind of slaughter.

Maybe the vics, or one of them, overheard the two doctorsin-love arguing because Rosenthall was sampling product. Experimenting. That’s what you did in a lab. You experimented. Maybe he’d developed a problem of his own during those experiments. Now that, combined with being found out, could lead to bloody, vicious murder. Could be Arianna didn’t know. Can’t have her find out he’s become what he’s supposed to cure.

That could play.

Or, onto Billingsly. He pushed himself on his beautiful associate, and again one or all of them saw the incident. Possible.

Or the annoying doctor fooled around with a patient, maybe—hmm—maybe tried a move on Darnell. Rejected, humiliated, worried she’d tell Arianna. He’d lose any chance with the woman he wanted, and his license to practice.

That could play, too.

But none of it played very well. Maybe she just needed to fine-tune a little.

For now, she read over Peabody’s notes on her interviews at Slice and the twenty-four/seven, the diner hangout. Nothing buzzing there, Eve thought, but continued as Peabody had started or completed a number of deeper runs on the players in those arenas.

Rising, Eve got another cup of coffee, then started deeper runs of her own on Rosenthall, Billingsly, Arianna, Marti Frank, Ken Dickerson, and Pachai Gupta.

Gupta came from some wealth, and an upper-class social strata, and she considered the fact that his parents, also doctors, had worked with Rosenthall years before.

Now Gupta had the plum position of the renowned doctor’s lab assistant on a major project. Couldn’t something like that make a career?

How would Gupta’s upper-class parents feel about him pining for a recovering addict? Possibly he wanted to keep that on the down low, and possibly Darnell wanted to go public.

Possibly.

Both Marti Frank and Ken Dickerson came from the ordinary, and in Dickerson’s case the rough, with his dead addict of an abusive father. Both had excelled in school, she noted. Frank top of her class in college—on a full scholarship. Dickerson third—accelerated path. He’d graduated high school at sixteen, college—again on scholarships—at nineteen, and straight into medical school.

And they were both still on scholarships, she noted, in the intern program at the Center.

She brought the lab setup back into her head. Working together on the project, she mused, but they’d seemed very separate, hadn’t they? With Rosenthall center. Neither Dickerson nor Frank had gone to Gupta when he’d broken down.

So not friends—not especially.

Competitors? Didn’t you have to have a competitive streak to come in first in your class, or in the top tier with acceleration?

And was it interesting, she wondered, or frustrating to learn that all six of them had sufficient medical training to have performed the amputations?

She’d eliminate the females, except one of them might have acted in collusion. Dead low on the list, she decided, but it felt too soon to eliminate.

All of them knew the vics’ location. None of them had alibis for the time in question. All of them knew and/or interacted with the vics. All of them had access to drugs and could easily put their hands on the protective gear.

She picked her way through the data on each suspect, added to her notes, her board. When the sweepers’ initial report came through, she pounced. More paint flakes, some black fibers from the window casing, some hairs—no roots. All sent to the lab.

None of the victims’ ’links had been found on scene. So he’d taken them. Taken the ’links, she mused, but not the money. Fibers on the windowsill, footprints in blood. So he’d only sealed his hands, or worn gloves.