J. Robb - Fantasy in Death

Frustration in every line of his face, he turned back. “You’re sure she didn’t say anything to you about not coming in today?”

“No, I told you, just the opposite. She said she’d be in early. She didn’t want to stay at her place any longer than she had to. I told her she could bunk at my place. You know how she is about her things, her space.”

“Yeah, she said the same to me, and that if she didn’t go back and stay the night, she’d probably never go back at all. Goddamn it.” He looked at the time. “She’s probably just overslept, that’s all. Maybe she took a sleeper-”

“Maybe she took too many sleepers.”

“Jesus. We should go over. We’ll go over and check on her. Just in case… Probably just tuned out for a while, but we should check.”

“Let’s go now. Neither of us is going to get any work done until we do. She logged out her copy of Fantastical,” Benny added as they caught an elevator down.

“She did? Well, that’s good. That’s good. Work’s good for her, and it’s probably why she’s tuned out. Sure. She got caught up, worked late, took a sleeper. Probably didn’t crash out until dawn or something.”

“That’s probably it. Yeah, that’s probably it, but everything’s so screwed up.”

He looked at the flowers, thought of Bart.

“I know.” Var laid a hand on Benny’s shoulder. “Let me tell Stick we’re going off-site for a few minutes.”

When they got outside, they walked fast. “She’ll probably be steamed supreme that we woke her up,” Var commented and managed a smile.

“Yeah, I can hear her now. ‘WTF! Can’t I catch a few extra zees?’ We’ll cage some coffee off her.”

“Now that’s a plan. Hell of a storm last night, huh?”

“The sky was lit up like the raptor battle in Third Planet. Serious window-shaking storm. Cooled things off a little.”

“Yeah.” When they reached the building, Var punched in the code for Cill’s visitor alert.

They waited, hands in pockets. Moments later, the comp announced no answer at the residence. When Var started to try again, Benny shook his head.

“Let’s just go in. Let’s go.” He used the swipe Cill had given him, the palm plate, then the entry codes.

“Just tuned out,” Var said under his breath as they headed to her apartment. “That’s all it is; she’s just tuned out.”

Benny used the side of his fist, gave the door a good pounding.

“Jesus, Ben.”

“I’m not waiting.” Again he used the swipe, the palm, and the two sets of codes. He pushed the door open partway, called her name.

“Cill! Hey, Cill! It’s Benny and Var.”

“Yeah, don’t pull out the pepper spray!”

“Cill?” Benny shoved the door open the rest of the way, hesitated a moment as he looked around the living area. He saw the shoes, the new ones, her bag. Pointed to the bag. “She’s here. She never walks out the door without her sack full of stuff. I’m going to check the bedroom.”

“I’ll look in the office.”

They separated.

“She’s not in here,” Benny hurried out again. “I can’t tell if the bed’s been slept in because it always looks like that.”

“She’s not in the office, the spare, the kitchen. She’s-”

“The holo-room!” Spinning on his heels Benny ran for it. He started to enter the code.

“It’s not locked, man.” Var jerked a head up to the green light, opened the door.

Benny shoved by him. “God! Oh God, Cill!” He sprinted to where she lay crumpled and bloody, and very, very still. “Call nine-one-one!” he shouted. “Hurry. Hurry.”

Var whipped out his ’link, hit the emergency key. “Is she alive? Benny, Benny, tell me she’s alive.”

“I don’t know.” He took her hand, stroked her cheek. And as Var’s voice came from behind him, as if through a long, dark tunnel, he gathered the courage to press his fingers to the pulse in her throat.

In her office, Eve prepped for the briefing. She’d requested Mira’s attendance. She needed a professional opinion of her conclusions after having seen and analyzed each partner’s apartment. With any luck, EDD would give her something concrete to add to that, and they could pull in her lead suspect.

She looked up as McNab pranced in.

“She’s good,” he said as he offered Cill’s journal to Eve. “I’m better. Thought you’d want it right away.”

“You thought right. Did you read it?”

“No, I wasn’t authorized to… maybe a couple pages,” he admitted under Eve’s cool stare. “It’s just-or what I read was just stuff. Daily stuff, some work shit, that kind of thing. Maybe she wrote a little about this guy she went out with a couple months ago. She decided he was a loser. I have to agree.”

“Just a couple pages.”

“Maybe what you’d call a few. Just to make sure there weren’t any glitches.”

“I’m going to let you get away with that because you saved me from having to press her to open it. You’ve got over an hour before the briefing. Go away-and don’t bother my partner.”

“I wouldn’t be a bother,” he began, but her communicator signaled and he slipped out.

“Dallas.”

Dispatch, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Report to 431 Spring Street, Apartment 3.

“Cilla Allen’s residence. Is she dead?”

Negative. Allen, Cilla, is being transported to St. Ignatius Hospital by emergency unit. Condition critical, multiple injuries. Report to officers on-scene and secure.

“Copy that. Dallas out.”

She swung into the bullpen. McNab, who was bothering her partner, started to grin. Then saw her face. He laid a hand on Peabody’s shoulder briefly. “Shit.”

“Cill’s being transported to St. Ignatius, critical condition. Let’s go.”

“What happened?” Peabody asked as she shoved up to follow Eve’s long stride.

“That’s what we’re going to find out.” She shook her head as Peabody started to speak again. “Try U-Play. I want to know if Var and Benny are there, and if so, I want you to verify that by speaking to them.”

Peabody followed orders as they rode down to the garage. “Not there. Both of them left, together, about a half hour ago.”

“Together,” Eve murmured, nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good play. I want a guard on her-in the ER, the OR, ICU, whatever and wherever. She’s under our watch as of now, twenty-four/seven. See if we can get any details on her injuries, her condition. I don’t want to hear multiple injuries, critical. I want some fucking details.”

“Yes, sir.” Peabody slanted a glance toward Eve as they jumped into the vehicle.

She braced herself as Eve peeled out.

Eve ignored the retro-style elevator and bounded up the steps. “Report,” she ordered the officer on the door as she grabbed Seal-It from her field kit.

“Sir. Nine-one-one came in from Levar Hoyt at nine fifty-six from his ’link and from this location. My partner and I were dispatched as was a medi-unit. We arrived on-scene at ten-oh-two, ahead of the mediunit by approximately two minutes.”

Good response time, Eve thought, and gave him a go-ahead nod.

“We were met at the door by Mr. Hoyt, who immediately showed us into the holo-room at the east side of the unit. The victim, Ms. Cilla Allen of this address, was on the floor, unconscious, and appeared to be seriously injured. A Benny Leman was found in the room with her. He stated that he had not moved the victim in fear of adding to her injuries, but had checked her pulse, and attempted to ascertain the extent of said injuries. He was somewhat incoherent at the time. My partner and I removed the two men and placed them in what appears to be a viewing room where Officer Uttica remains with them. They became increasingly agitated and expressed strongly the desire to remain with the victim, who they identified as their business partner.