Tess Gerritsen - The Mephisto Club

She glanced at Lily, who stood beside her. It must be even worse for you. You knew him. You killed him. But Lily did not turn away; she remained at Jane’s side, her gaze fixed on the quarry below.

The cable strained, lifting its burden from the black waters, where chunks of fractured ice bobbed. Already a diver had been down to confirm the car was there, but the water had been too murky, the swirling sediment too thick to clearly view the interior. Now the water seemed to boil, and the vehicle surfaced. The air in the tires had caused it to flip upside down when it had fallen in, and the underside emerged first, water streaming off rusted metal. Like a whale breaching, the rear bumper broke the surface, the license plate obscured by a decade’s worth of algae and sediment. The crane’s engine revved harder, the piercing whine of machinery drilling straight into Jane’s skull. She felt Lily cringe against her and thought that the young woman would now surely turn and retreat to Jane’s car. But Lily managed to hold her ground as the crane swung its burden away from the quarry and gently lowered it onto the snow.

A workman released the cable. Another rev of the engines, a nudge from the crane, and the car rolled right side up. Water streamed from the vehicle, staining the snow a dirty brown.

For a moment, no one approached it. They let it sit there, draining water. Then Dr. Kibbie pulled on gloves and trudged across the now-muddy snow to the driver’s door. He gave it a tug, but it would not open. He circled to the passenger side and yanked on the handle. He jumped back as the door swung open, releasing a sudden rush of water that drenched his boots and trousers.

He glanced at the others, then focused again on the open door, which continued to drip. He took a breath, steeling himself against the view, and leaned inside the car. For a long moment he held that pose, his body bent at the waist, his rump poking out of the vehicle. Abruptly he straightened and turned to the others.

“There’s nothing in here,” he said.

“What?” asked Jane.

“It’s empty.”

“You don’t see any remains?”

Dr. Kibbie shook his head. “There’s no body in this car.”

“The divers came up with nothing, Lily. No body, no skeleton. No evidence at all that your cousin was ever in that water.”

They sat in Jane’s parked car as flakes of falling snow gently settled on the windshield in an ever-thickening veil of lace.

“I didn’t dream it,” Lily said. “I know it happened.” She looked at Jane with haunted eyes. “Why would I make it up? Why would I confess to killing him if it wasn’t true?”

“We have confirmed it’s your mother’s car. The registration hasn’t been renewed in twelve years. The keys are still in the ignition.”

“I told you they would be. I told you exactly where you’d find the car.”

“Yes, everything you said has checked out, except for that one small detail. There’s no body.”

“It could have rotted away.”

“There should still be a skeleton. But there’s nothing. No clothing, no bones.” Jane paused. “You know what that means.”

Lily swallowed and stared at the windshield, now blanketed in snow. “He’s alive.”

“You haven’t been running from a ghost or an evil spirit. He’s still living flesh and blood, and I’d guess he’s pretty damn pissed at you for trying to kill him. That’s what this is all about, Lily. Revenge. Twelve years ago, he was only a kid. But now he’s a man, and he can finally get his payback. Last August, he lost your trail in Italy and had no idea how to find you. So he went after Sarah and Lori-Ann for information. But they didn’t know where you were, either; they were useless to him. He had to figure out another way to locate you.”

“The Mephisto Foundation,” Lily murmured.

“If Mephisto’s as well regarded as Sansone claims, then its reputation has probably spread beyond law enforcement. Clearly, Dominic’s heard about them, too. He certainly knew how to entice them. That phone call to Joyce O’Donnell. The Latin words, the seashell, the satanic symbols-it made Mephisto think they were finally tracking Satan. But I think they were being played.”

“Dominic used them to find me.”

“And they did a good job, didn’t they? In just ten days, Mephisto found you.”

Lily thought about this for a moment. She said, “There’s no body. You can’t charge me with any crime now. You can’t hold me any longer.”

Jane stared into eyes glittering with fear and thought: She wants to run.

“I’m free to go, right?”

“Free?” Jane laughed. “You call it freedom, to live like a scared rabbit?”

“I’ve survived, haven’t I?”

“And when are you going to fight back? When are you going to take a stand? This isn’t the Devil we’re talking about, this is a man. He can be brought down.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one he’s hunting!”

“No, but I’m hunting him, and I need your help. Work with me, Lily. You know him better than anyone.”

“That’s why he can’t afford to let me live.”

“I promise, you’ll be safe.”

“You can’t keep that promise. You think he doesn’t already know where I am? You don’t know how meticulous he is. He misses no detail, no opportunity. He may be alive and breathing. But you’ll never convince me he’s human. ”

Jane’s cell phone rang, startling them both. As she answered the call, she could feel Lily’s gaze, tense and questioning. She assumes the worst.

It was Barry Frost on the phone. “Where are you right now?”

“We’re still in Norwich. It’s late, so we’ll probably check into a motel tonight and get back to the city tomorrow.”

“I think it’d be better if you don’t bring her back here.”

“Why not?”

“Because we have a big problem. Oliver Stark is dead.”

“What?”

“Someone used Stark’s phone to call nine-one-one, then left the receiver off the hook. That’s how we found out about it. I’m in his house right now. Christ, it’s a bloody mess in here. He’s still tied to his wheelchair, but you can’t even recognize him. The poor kid never had a chance.” There was a silence as he waited for her to speak. “Rizzoli?”

“We have to warn the others. Sansone and Mrs. Felway.”

“I’ve already called them, and Dr. Isles as well. Mephisto also has members in Europe, and they’re all taking precautions.”

Jane thought of what Lily had just said. You’ll never convince me he’s human. What precautions could anyone take against a killer who seemed able to walk through walls?

She said, “He’s hunting them all down.”

“That’s what it looks like. This has grown way bigger than we thought. It’s not just about Lily Saul. It’s about the whole foundation.”

“Why the hell is he doing this? Why’s he going after all of them?”

“You know what Sansone called it?” said Frost. “An extermination. Maybe we’re wrong about Lily Saul. Maybe she’s not the real target.”

“Either way, I can’t bring her back now.”

“Lieutenant Marquette thinks she’ll be safer outside Boston, and I agree. We’re working on a long-term arrangement, but it’ll take a day or two.”

“Until then, what do I do with her?”

“Sansone suggested New Hampshire. A house up in the White Mountains. He says it’s secure.”

“Whose house is it?”

“It belongs to a friend of Mrs. Felway’s.”

“And we’re going to trust Sansone’s judgment on this?”

“Marquette okayed it. He says the brass doesn’t have any doubts about him.”

Then they know more about Sansone than I do.