J. Robb - Ritual in Death

“Please come in. Won’t you sit down? Can I get you some coffee? Tea?”

“Aren’t you well, Mika?”

“I’m just a little off. I had my husband take Aiko out for breakfast because I can’t seem to pull it together.”

“Long night?” Eve asked, and Mika gave her a puzzled look.

“I… sorry?”

“My wife, Lieutenant Dallas, and her partner, Detective Peabody. I’ve been trying to reach you, Mika.”

“You have?” She pushed her hands at her hair in an absent attempt to straighten it. “Nothing’s come through. Did I…” She pressed her fingers to her temple. “Did I turn the ’links off? Why would I do that?”

“Sit down.” Roarke took her arm, led her to a chair in as bold a red as her robe. He sat on the glossy black coffee table to face her. “There was an incident at the hotel last night.”

“An incident.” She repeated the words slowly, as if learning the language.

“You were on the com, Mika. You ordered Paul to cover the main hotel, though it was already covered. And you dismissed the tech from the screen room, telling them you’d be running some maintenance on the cameras.”

“That doesn’t sound right.” She rubbed at her temple again. “It doesn’t sound right.”

Eve touched Roarke’s shoulder, and though impatience flashed into his eyes, he rose. Eve took his place. “Just before sixteen hundred, you shut down the cameras in the VIP lobby and the private elevator for Suite 606. They remained off until approximately twenty-three hundred.”

“Why would I do that?”

Not a denial, Eve noted. A sincere question. “A group checked into that suite. The Asant Group. Do you know them?”

“No.”

“During the time the cameras were shut down, from your com, a woman was murdered in that suite.”

Even the sickly color faded from Mika’s cheeks. “Murdered? Oh, God. Sir-”

“Look at me, Mika,” Eve demanded. “Who told you to turn off the cameras, to send your relief away, to dismiss the tech?”

“Nobody.” Her breath went short as her pale face bunched with pain. “I didn’t. I wouldn’t. Murdered? Who? How?”

Eve narrowed her eyes. “Got a headache, Mika?”

“Yes. It’s splitting. I took a blocker, but it hasn’t touched it. I can’t think. I don’t understand any of this.”

“Do you remember going to work yesterday?”

“Of course. Of course I do. I…” Her lips trembled; her eyes filled. “No. No. I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything, it’s all blurred and blank. My head. God.” She dropped it into her hands, rocked herself, much as Jackson Pike had. “When I try to remember, it’s worse. I can’t stand the pain. Sir, something’s wrong with me. Something’s wrong.”

“All right now, Mika.” Roarke simply nudged Eve aside, crouched, and put his arms around the weeping woman. “We’ll take care of it. We’ll get you to a doctor.”

“ Peabody, help Ms. Nakamura get dressed. We’ll have her taken down to Central.”

“Damn it, Eve.” Roarke shoved to his feet.

“Dr. Mira can examine her,” Eve said evenly, “and determine if the cause is physical or psychological. Or both.”

Roarke eased back, turned to help Mika to her feet. “Go with Detective Peabody. It’s going to be all right.”

“Someone’s dead. Did I do something? If I did-”

“Look at me. It’s going to be all right.”

It seemed to calm her. But as she continued to tremble, Peabody put an arm around her to lead her from the room.

“Same symptoms as Jackson Pike,” Eve commented. “Down the line.”

“Eve-”

“I’m cutting you a break by not getting pissed off. Don’t push it.”

He merely nodded. “I’ll stay until she’s ready to go. Then I’ve other things to see to.”

“Good.” She took out her communicator to arrange for Mika’s transportation, then contacted Mira’s office. She plowed through Mira’s admin. “I’m pulling rank, are you hearing me? If necessary I’ll go to the commander on this, and nobody’ll be happy about that. I’m ordering a priority. Dr. Mira will clear her schedule as of now. Jackson Pike, currently in custody, will be brought down to her for examination. She has the file. If she has any questions, she can reach me. In an hour, she will examine Mika Nakamura, who will be brought to Central shortly. If you have a problem, you can take it up with me later, but you’ll do exactly what I’ve told you, and you’ll do it now.”

Eve clicked off. “Ought to hook her up with Summerset.” she muttered. “Couple of tight-asses.” While Roarke watched thoughtfully, she contacted her own division and arranged for two uniforms to deliver Pike to Mira’s office, ASAP. Satisfied, she shoved the communicator back in her pocket.

“Someone used her,” Roarke began.

“Maybe.”

“Used her,” he repeated. “And a woman’s dead because of it. Mika won’t ever forget that.”

“You can worry about that now. I can’t.”

“Understood. We’re not on different sides, Eve. Just slightly different angles. She’s in pain, and afraid, and confused. And she’s mine. You understand that.”

“Yeah.” She understood that right down to the bone. “And Ava Marsterson’s mine. Do I think your head of security suddenly thought it would be fun to help a bunch of lunatics carve someone up in the name of Satan? No. But there’s a reason they used her, a reason they used your place, that room, that victim. There’s a reason for Jackson Pike.”

Eve stepped over as Peabody led Mika back into the room.

“Ms. Nakamura, do you use the West Side Health Clinic?”

“What? Yes. Aiko’s pediatrician is there, and my doctor.”

“Do you know Ava Marsterson?”

“I-” Mika staggered back, one hand pressed to her head. “Who? I can’t think through the pain.”

Eve glanced at Roarke. “I take that as a yes.”

“She’s straight, Dallas.” Peabody brooded out the window of the AT. “She could barely stand for the pain, but she fought to push through it. Worried about her husband and kid, sick-seriously sick-at the idea someone died while she had the com.” She glanced at Eve. “Just like Pike. So you have to think, given the circumstances… Ritual magic, on the black side, the gathering of, well, power. By all appearances and all evidence, the ability to cause two straight arrows to behave in a way opposed to their character. We could be dealing with a spell.”

Eve’s brown eyes narrowed. “I knew you were going to get around to that.”

“It’s not unprecedented,” Peabody insisted. “There are sensitives, unscrupulous sensitives who’ve used their gifts for their own gain, their own purpose. Black magic’s taking those gifts, that power, and distorting it.”

“Jackson Pike was loaded with drugs.”

“Add drugs to the mix, it’s easier to bend the will. There was something in that suite, something left over.” Peabody rubbed her arms as if suddenly chilled. “You felt it, too.”

She didn’t argue, because that much was true. “I’m not buying that some witch can…” Eve waved a hand in the air. “And get some normal guy to start hacking someone with a knife.”

“I don’t think he did. I think he was supposed to be another sacrifice-or maybe just the patsy.” When Eve didn’t respond, Peabody scowled. “You don’t want to buy into the power deal, but going straight logic, why does this group plan all this and include some young doctor who’s only been in New York a couple of weeks, and has no ties, none to anything off prior to that? You don’t bring some newbie in on the big deal. You don’t-”

“You’re right.”

“Listen, I’m just saying… I’m right?”