J Robb - Imitation in Death

So unlike the cool, stagnant home he shared with his wife when he wasNiles.

When he was in this warm, deeply toned room, he wasVictorClarence. A small, amusing joke and a play on His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, who some credited with the Ripper murders of Whitechapel.

Renquist liked to believe it, enjoyed the notion of a killer prince. He considered himself no less.

A prince among men. A king among killers.

And like that famed stylist of death, he would never be caught. But he was more than his prototypes. Because he would never stop.

He drank a brandy and smoked a thin cigar laced with just a whiff of Zoner. He loved these times alone, the quiet, reflective times when all the preparation was done.

He was pleased he’d decided to feign a business trip, to get away on his own for a few days.Pamela was irritating him more than usual with her long, speculative stares, her pointed questions.

Who was she to question him, to look at him?

If she only knew how many times he’d imagined killing her. The many and creative ways he’d devised. She’d run screaming. The image of his cold and rigid wife running for her life made him chuckle.

Of course, he would never do it. It would bring it all too close to home, and he was no fool.Pamela was safe simply because he was stuck with her. Besides, if he killed her, who would handle all the annoying details of his social life?

No, it was enough just to have these periodic rests from her, and the female she’d saddled him with. Irritating, sneaky little brat. Children were, as he’d learned from his dear old nanny, meant to be neither seen nor heard.

If they rebelled or failed to obey smartly, they were to be put somewhere, in the dark. Where they were no longer seen, where they couldn’t be heard no matter how loud they screamed.

Oh yes, he remembered-remembered the dark room.NannyGable had had a way about her. He would like to kill her, slowly, painfully, while she screamed and screamed as he’d once done.

But that wouldn’t be wise. LikePamela, she was safe because he was stuck with her.

In any case, she’d taught him, hadn’t she?NannyGable had certainly taught him. Children were meant to be raised by someone paid and paid well to discipline and tutor. Not that the sly little Italian thing disciplined his girl. Spoiled her, coddled her. But she was convenient. Her fear and loathing of him gave him such a rush of pleasure.

Everything in his life had finally fallen into place. He was respected, admired, obeyed. He was comfortable financially, and had an active and rarefied social life. He had a wife who presented the proper image, and a young mistress who was just fearful enough to do anything, absolutely anything, he required.

And he had the most fascinating and entertaining hobby.

Years of study, of planning, of strategy. Of practice. It was all coming to fruition now in ways even he hadn’t anticipated. How could he have known how much fun it would be to assume the guise of one of his heroes, and follow in their bloody footsteps?

Men who took charge, who took life. Who did what they wished to women because they understood, as others couldn’t, that women needed to be debased, hurt, killed. They asked for death with their first breath.

Trying to run the world. Trying to run him.

He took a slow drag of the cigar, letting the Zoner calm him before one of his rages could take over. It wasn’t the time for rage, but for cool, calculating action.

He worried that he’d been too clever. But really, could one be too clever? Some might consider it a mistake to have deliberately put himself forward as a suspect. But it was so much more satisfying, so much more exciting that way. It allowed him to participate on two levels and made it all so intimate.

In a way, he’d already fucked the whore cop. What a thrill it was to watch her scramble around, unable to outthink him, to anticipate him. Being forced to come to him and apologize. He hugged himself as he played that scene over in his head. Oh, that had been a moment.

SelectingEveDallas had been a brilliant stroke, if he did say so himself. And oh, he did.

A man wouldn’t have given him nearly the same buzz. But a woman, a woman who like most of her kind considered herself superior to a man simply because she could trap him between her legs. That added spice to the brew.

He could think about choking her, beating her, raping her, gutting her even as she watched him with those cool, flat eyes.

He would never have known the same level of excitement with a male adversary.

She would be punished, of course, when she failed to stop him. When others were killed, as the accountant bitch would be killed. The lieutenant would be punished and disciplined by her superiors, as it should be.

And she would suffer, never knowing who’d bested her, she would suffer until the laser blast struck her in the back of the head.

If only he could find a way to let her know, to tell her, reveal himself to her an instant before her death. Then it would be perfect.

There was time, of course, to work that out.

Content, he settled into bed, to dream his terrible dreams.

– -«»--«»--«»--

They had obviously been off by a night,Eve thought, as she set up the morning briefing in her home office with a small, tight team. She didn’t want to risk Central, or a larger operation. A leak, even a trickle might send Renquist into the wind. Now they could tighten the trap so he’d never get away.

She used her board, the wall screens, and one of Roarke’s new toys, a portable holo-unit.

“We’ll have units set here, and here.” She highlighted the map on-screen with a laser pointer. “They are for observation only. I want to take Renquist inside the loft where he can be contained and no civilians are at risk. We movedMitchell ’s across-the-hall neighbor out at oh seven hundred on the pretext of a broken water pipe. The cooperation of the building super is ensured and we’ve got him under wraps in case he gets an itch to share any of this with the media. The empty loft will be Observation Post C.”

She highlighted the third floor of the building blueprint on the second screen. “We’re installing cameras. The loft will be under constant observation. It’s unlikely Renquist will use the elevator, but we’ll have cameras there as well. And once he’s inside the loft, the power to the elevator will be shut down, giving him only one exit. A team will move in to block that exit, another will be set on the street below in case he decides to take a header from the windows.”

“Rat in a trap,” Feeney commented.

“That’s the idea. I’ll be inside the loft, as will Officer Peabody, who will be briefed when her examination is finished. Captain Feeney will run electronics from Mitchell’s home office inside the loft, and Detective McNab will head Observation Post C.”

She ordered up the holo and brought a scaled-down version of the Mitchell loft into her office. “Memorize it,” she ordered. “Officer Peabody will be decoy. She and the target are approximately the same size and coloring. She’ll be in the bed here, I’ll be posted in this closet. Getting Renquist in the bedroom is optimum. No windows, no escape route.”

“He’ll be armed,” McNab put in.

She nodded, noting the worry in his eyes. That was the trouble, she thought, when a cop fell for another cop. “So will we. It’s possible he’ll bring his own blades, or that he’ll detour into the kitchen first to avail himself of Mitchell’s kitchen stock. He may have a blaster or another weapon, though he has yet to utilize one. We will go into this assuming he’s armed, as Marsonini habitually carried a blaster or stunner, and act accordingly.”