Karen Rose - Silent Scream

David had to smile. “You did that once, when I was six.”

“When you fell out of that tree and I thought you’d broken your arm. It worked then, it’ll work today.” She turned to Olivia, her heart in her eyes. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for trusting us just now. I know waiting and listening was hard to do.”

His mother lifted a visibly trembling hand to Olivia’s face, cupping her jaw. “You saved my son’s life.”

Olivia’s eyes closed briefly, as if absorbing the contact. “It was my pleasure.” Her eyes flickered down to Kirby. “On many levels.” She lifted her gaze to David. “Let’s get you sewn up again.”

He touched the knot on the back of her head. She tried to hide her flinch and failed terribly. “I will if you will,” he said. “You could have a concussion.”

“I can’t go now,” she protested. “I killed Kirby. I have reports to write.”

His mother frowned. “Those reports can wait a few hours, can’t they, Noah?”

“Absolutely,” Noah said. “Go, Olivia. I can handle things here.”

David slid his arm around Olivia’s waist. “Come,” he murmured in her ear. “Let go now. It’s all over. Let me take care of you.”

She leaned into him, and it felt right. “We’ll take care of each other.”

Thursday, September 23, 2:00 p.m.

Excuse me. I’m looking for Detective Sutherland.”

David looked away from the window into Abbott’s office where the team had been debriefing for nearly an hour. A small woman in a dark dress was walking across the bull pen and David came to his feet. Her eyes were red, her face weary, and in her hands she held a large box. Instinctively, he knew who she was. If so, he could guess what was in the box.

“Detective Sutherland is in a debriefing,” David said.

Abbott had called Olivia while they’d been about to sit down to lunch with his family, asking her to come in, that they had some ends to tie off as the investigation wound down. David had insisted on accompanying her, aware that he’d be sitting, waiting until the cops were done. But her eyes still showed signs of strain and he was afraid that after the meeting, she’d lose herself in paperwork, even though she’d taken the day off. He could make sure that didn’t happen. “I’m just waiting for her, but one of the other detectives can help you.”

“No, that’s all right. You’re the firefighter. The one who caught the ball.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m David Hunter.”

“I’m Jennie Kane.”

“I thought so. I’m sorry.”

She nodded once. “Thank you.” She said it determinedly, as if getting used to the taste of the words in her mouth. “I didn’t really come to talk to the detectives. I’m not sure I can right now.” She lifted her chin. “You’re Olivia’s young man?”

“Yes, ma’am. I am.”

Her lips whisked up in a ghost of a smile. “And your mother? She’s well?”

“She is.” David wanted to ask her to sit down, but he sensed Jennie Kane wanted to get out as soon as she possibly could. “Can I help you with something?”

She nodded again, relieved. “I want Olivia to have this. Tell her it was Kane’s favorite. Tell her…” Her voice trembled and she drew a breath. “Tell her she was, too. Of all the rookie detectives he trained, she was his favorite.” She held out the box and David took it, respectfully. She drew another breath, her hands fluttering at her sides. “He worried about her. So did I. But you’ll take good care of her.”

It wasn’t really a question. “Yes, ma’am. I promise.”

“Good. Thank you.” Then she rushed away before anyone saw her.

A few minutes later, the door to Abbott’s office opened and the team filed out, quietly going about their business. Noah went to his desk, a thick folder in his hand.

“Micki’s group got into the files on Kirby’s laptop,” Noah said. “These were his blackmail victims.”

“All those?” David asked. “Are you going to tell them?”

“We have to,” Noah said. “Most of these people are still paying him. You should have seen the operation this guy had. Microphones all over the Deli, recorders in the apartment above. It’s going to take us weeks to go through everything we found.”

David moved from Olivia’s chair to the edge of her desk, sliding the box behind him for the moment. Wearily she sank into her chair. “They found this little gizmo in his pocket. It let him tune in to any conversation that he wanted. I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of what I said to Kane standing in that line, waiting for coffee over the years. We met Val the interpreter there. That had to be where he found out about her.”

“Any idea of where he may have taken her?” David asked her and she closed her eyes. Once the dust had settled last night, finding the interpreter had been uppermost in her mind.

“Yes. Micki found blood in his van, Val’s blood type. Then she realized Kirby had a GPS unit. They worked all night to trace where he’d gone and found he’d taken a drive to the country.” She opened her eyes and he saw sadness and more than a little guilt. “Micki and Bruce had Brie and GusGus go over the area. Didn’t take them long to find Val’s body.”

“Olivia.”

She swallowed hard. “He tortured her.”

“Not your fault, baby.”

“I know. But still…” She sighed heavily. “Dammit. Bruce had to tell her kids.”

David cleared his throat, not wanting to picture that scene but unable to keep himself from doing so. “What did Andy Crawford have to say?” he asked, changing the subject. The FBI agent’s son had been in Abbott’s office when Olivia arrived and had left after a half hour, grim-faced and silent, not saying a word to David as he hurried out.

“When we told him Mary had been an IV drug user, he couldn’t believe it. He said he knew she’d had Percocet once when she started college because she’d had dental surgery. He hadn’t seen her in a long time. Didn’t know she was an addict. But he funded it. He paid all her bills, gave her spending money and never asked questions. He felt guilty that his father had spent the family savings on him, leaving Jonathan and Mary with nothing. But Mary made him uncomfortable, too. So he kept his distance.”

“Why didn’t he mention Jonathan when you talked to him yesterday?”

“Andy said he hadn’t heard from Jonathan since the day he left home. Andy was in medical school by then, too busy with his own life to worry about Jonathan. And he said he was happy that was the case. Andy didn’t like his father too well either. We asked him where Mary could be. We didn’t think to ask about another brother and Andy didn’t think that’s where she’d go. Jonathan and Mary hated each other.”

“Yeah, I got that,” David murmured, thinking about what he’d heard. And seen.

“I know,” she said. “I’m glad you and your mother heard them. Otherwise, we might never have known why.”

“And the blackmailing?” David asked. “When did he start?”

“From his business records, it looks like Jonathan started working part-time at the Deli when he started college, then dropped out of school to work full-time.”

Noah patted the thick folder he was working through. “Which corresponds to the time he started blackmailing.”

“He could make more money that way,” David said. “Immoral, but sensible.”

“He was very sensible,” Noah said coldly. “He knew when not to blackmail, when to stay the hell away.” He held up a DVD. “We found this in his nightstand drawer. It’s the first victim I found hanging in her apartment last February. We knew she’d met her killer at a coffee shop. Our lead suspect at the time went to the Deli every day, so we asked Kirby for his tapes. He said he had cameras only on the register, but he obviously lied. He saw the victim her last night. Saw the killer follow her. He knew.”