Eve saw his reaction, the desire and delight flicking fast into rage.
“You know her problem?” he demanded.
“I don’t.”
“Playing it safe, locking herself into society’s rules. Look at her. I mean, just look at her. She’s got it all. The face, the body. Beauty and style and sexuality that doesn’t quit. She’s got it all,” he repeated, trailing his finger over the face in the picture. “Except for one thing.”
“Let me guess. I bet I know. Vision.”
Obviously pleased, he lifted the finger, shot it at Eve. “Right in one. No vision. She’s stuck in this rut with a loser, just coasting along.”
“And you could offer her so much more.”
“I did offer her more.”
“And she chose the rut.” Eve shook her head, studied the photo. “I bet she gave you the kiss-off, but in a way that left that door open, just enough to keep you dangling.”
“Neville makes her some bullshit necklace out of beads for her birthday, and she makes like it’s the crown jewels. I gave her a ring, something real, told her what I felt, how it should be. She wouldn’t even take it. She tells me I’m confused. How I’m sweet, and she’s flattered, and more bullshit about how I’m going to find the perfect girl one day.”
“How old were you?”
“I was fifteen, and already more of a man than that Brit pussy she married. She humiliated me.”
“You don’t strike me as the kind of man who takes no for an answer so easy. You don’t take the pussy way.”
“I waited. Figured I needed some experience under my belt.” He smiled, patted himself. “Get me?”
“Oh, yeah. Some of that experience was with…” Eve pulled another photo out of the file.
Kyle studied it, shrugged. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“You were eighteen when she accused you of sexual assault, recanted after your father gave her a cool million. Does that ring the bell?”
“That one?” He leaned forward, jabbed a finger in the eye of the photo. “She wanted it, then got all whiny when I gave her what she wanted. She cost me three months in some fucking rehab center. I lost my whole goddamn summer break.”
“That’s tough. But you gave Astra another chance, didn’t you?”
“Right after my twenty-first birthday, I went to London on my own, booked the best suite in the best hotel. I asked her to come.”
“How’d you get her there? You had to be subtle about it, right?”
“Wanted to take her to dinner. The asshole’s off on location, and Neville’s still at university. I’m in town, let me take you to dinner. Drinks and dinner, fancy and elegant.”
“And she bought it.”
“She knew what I was saying. I was just giving her cover. I had champagne and flowers, her favorite foods, everything all set up. She wore a blue dress.” He closed her eyes, lips curved. And when he opened them, the rage came back. “And she pretended to be shocked when I kissed her. Shocked and angry. She slapped me. Slapped me and stormed away before I could…”
“She humiliated you again.”
“I should’ve shown her, that was my mistake. I should have shown her. I apologized. I shed tears.” He tapped his cheeks, grinning. “You have to think of the long view.”
Eve nodded. “You have to have vision.”
“Exactamundo. I could wait. Plenty of substitutes. She’d see how successful I was, how important I was. How I could have any woman I wanted, and she’d come to me.”
“But you couldn’t have any woman you wanted. You couldn’t have Rosa.”
“I saw her first!” His voice rang with sheer and sincere outrage. “You think I could let them get away with that, doing the same thing to me? You think I could let that bitch brush me off, give me the same line as Astra—I’m confused, she’s with Neville?”
“Playing the same game.” Eve expelled a long breath that signaled perfect agreement. “Teasing you, daring you. Holding out on you to stir you up. But you know how to wear the mask, right? The loving cousin, the solid business partner, the loyal friend.”
“There’s nothing I can’t do.”
“Because you learn, you don’t make the same mistakes. With Rosa, you didn’t make the same mistakes you’d made with Astra. You needed to show her, and you did.” Eve tipped back in the chair. “If she wanted to stay in that rut—with Neville—that was her loss, but she’d have a taste of a real man first. The Dracula bit, that was genius. Symbolic. The vampire—the king of vamps—he takes the woman he wants, takes her over, body, mind, soul, right?”
He smiled, shrugged, looked away.
“Come on, Kyle, take the credit. You earned it. The planning, down to the last detail. Using the robbery as cover—it worked. And beating the crap out of both of them. Especially Neville.”
“He deserved it. I saw her first.”
“But you thought of Astra when you raped Rosa.” Eve took Rosa’s photo out of a file, laid it beside Astra’s. “Look at them. Rosa could be Astra’s daughter.”
“You see that, too.”
“Sure. Just like I see she was meant to be yours. Both of them are. First Neville’s father’s in your way, and now Neville, after all you’ve done for him. I’m surprised you let him live.”
“Thought about killing him, but we’re family. And it was about making them live with it. About watching them try to live with it.”
“Oh, I get that. You were in a little bit of a hurry with Rosa and Neville. I get that, too. It had all built up, and you needed to have her, show her, make her admit she wanted it. You ripped her clothes. With the others, you had them strip. So much more seductive. And more humiliating for the man.”
When he said nothing, she shook her head. “We’ve got the evidence, Kyle. You’re not stupid, you know what we found in your loft. So we’ve got what we need. I’m just … well, I’ve got to admit, I’m pretty fascinated by how you played all this.”
“His lawyer’s going to fix it,” Peabody added. “He can afford a damn platoon of high-priced lawyers.”
Now Eve shrugged. “That’s not our problem. We did our job. I just like hearing how anybody could plan all this out, time after time. The precision, the planning, the smallest details. Well, it’s exquisite actually. Did you really decide on the woman at that gala? The ah, yeah, here it is. The Celebrate Art Gala? What pulled that trigger?”
“They couldn’t stop talking about wedding plans. Rosa and Neville going on and on and fucking on about them. Everybody we know who comes by the table starts up on the wedding. Can’t wait, how perfect they are together, what a beautiful bride she’s going to be. Made me sick to my stomach. Made me want to puke.”
“So you looked around, milled around, and began to see all the women you could have. All the married women. Women you’d show, men you’d punish. Did you already have the cameras in Neville’s place?”
“I did him a favor. He’s got the nerve to ask me if I can hang out at his place, wait for a delivery while they’re moving in together? The asshole doesn’t even notice.”
“You watched them whenever you wanted. Watched them in bed together.”
“So what? All it did was prove to me how much better I was at it.”
“Your timing was—bears repeating—exquisite. Right after their honeymoon. Just as they’re really starting the whole married gig together.”
“Now she’ll know, for the rest of her life, she settled. He’ll know she had the best sex of her life with another man.”
“And Lori, Lori Brinkman.” She pulled out the photo. “How did you pick her?”
“Ah, Lori. That face, that body, the laugh. It was her laugh that got me. The laugh said sex. Pulled one of her scripts out of the vault—not bad.”
“Astra’s a screenwriter, too, isn’t she?”
“It’s more a hobby, just like with Lori. And they wouldn’t need a hobby, would they, if they weren’t married to losers. If a man keeps a woman satisfied, she doesn’t need anything but him.”
“You could see Lori wasn’t satisfied, sexually.”
“Stuck with that boring fuck? Give me a break. Lori was really the one who inspired it all. Why stop at Rosa, that’s what I thought. I thought, right here, in this room there are a dozen women like that. Stuck in that rut, trapped in the rules. I picked them out, and saw how it could be. And after Rosa, I knew how it could feel.”
“You planted the cameras.”
“You’re a cop, right? I don’t have to tell you people think they’re secure in their own homes, and they’re not. You just have to be observant, take the time, be smart. I could’ve made a living with e-work. Everyone said so.”
He shook back his hair, obviously comfortable now, completely in the groove of his own arrogance.
“But, Jesus, how many electronics experts get covered by the media, have stars coming to them? Do on-screen interviews? E’s just a hobby. And watching all those lives, those small lives on screen? Hell, I almost ran out of popcorn.”
He laughed, finished off the tube of ginger ale.
“Watching, you got to know their routines, and their secrets.” Eve’s hand flowed over Lori’s photo. “It made it easy for you to time when to break into Lori’s house, set everything up, wait for them to get home from vacation. Hell of a welcome back, right?”
“She was excited. You were right, I wasn’t in such a hurry this time, so I had her strip. She was so ready for it, trying to pretend, pulling out the tears when I went for that loser she married, but so ready. I gave her a break, told her to beg for more. And I gave her more. That asshole she married—what’s his name?”
“Ira.”
“Right, old Ira won’t be able to satisfy her now.”
“Why did you wait so long between Rosa and Lori, then for Daphne?”
“I believe in rehearsals. If you want a performance to shine, and I do, you rehearse.”
“You had the droid for that?”
“The droid, LCs. And Daphne? She was going to be special.”
“Why is that?”
“She likes it rough. That rich doctor she hooked knocked her around plenty, and she’d come back for more. He’d tie her up, blindfold her, and bang the shit out of her. Choked her, too, just enough. Then he’d get out his med bag, fix her up. She’d cry and cry, but she did what the hell she was told. He knew how to run that house. I had to respect that.”
“He was stronger than the others.”
“He wasn’t a pussy, I’ll say that. A man who knows what a woman’s for, and how to make her show respect. She said what he told her to say, wore what he told her to wear, fucked the way he told her to fuck.”
“Like a droid?” Peabody put in.
“Hey, he paid for her, didn’t he? He put the roof over her head, the food in her mouth, the clothes on her back. If she needed reminding, he reminded her.”
“I bet you got off watching him remind her.”
He answered Peabody with a cocky grin.
Homeland had watched her father beat her, Eve thought. Had watched him rape her, a child of eight. Had done nothing. The thought of it made her insides want to shake, so she pushed that new echo away, blocked it out, focused on the moment.
“You respected him,” Eve repeated. “It even sounds like you admired him. But you killed him.”
“Hey, he brought it on himself. Absolutely self-defense. He came at me.”
“You know, I did read the scene like that.” She looked at Peabody, who gave a grudging nod. “Walk us through that, Kyle. To me, it looked like he broke out of the chair you had him restrained in while you were out of the room.”
“That’s just what happened.” Kyle shoved the empty tube aside so he could lean in closer. “Let me set it up for you. I’ve got Daphne in bed. She’s half out of it—that’s what some serious sex will do to a woman, right? I choked her a few times to give her a better orgasm. Might’ve held it a little long on the last because we were both into it, but she was breathing, and going in and out. He’s out, all the way, so I leave them to pick up a few things I’d earmarked, get a drink. He kept some exceptional unblended scotch in his room upstairs. When I come back, holy hell.”
“He’d busted out, and charged at you.”
“He’d busted out and was screaming at Daphne, smacking her, choking her. Said how he’d kill her. ‘I’ll kill you, you whore’—he’s screaming that. She’s still tied up, not much she can do about it. I’ve gotta say, made me hard. Then he spots me, then he charges. He was crazy, out of his fucking mind. Moved damn fast, too, knocked me back some, and that’s when I grabbed that big vase. I had to defend myself, so I smashed it over his head, put him down. Lots of blood,” he said, reminiscing. “He’s flat out, she’s barely conscious, all glassy-eyed. I figured she was dead at first, but she was breathing. I did her again, real quick because the whole thing stirred me up. Then I let her go, like I do. She just lay there, out of it. She ought to thank me for bashing that vase over his head. If I hadn’t, she’d be as dead as he is. Anyway, I broke down the set, got my things, and left. Yeah, she ought to thank me. She’ll be a rich widow now instead of a dead whore.”
He flicked his fingers on the empty tube. “I could use another.”
“Go ahead, Peabody. Kyle’s doing thirsty work.”
As Peabody exited, Eve took him back over the Strazza assault to refine details. When Peabody came back in, she shifted to the last murders.
“Why did you kill Miko and Xavier Carver?”
“I was getting into a rut. Before I bashed the crazy doctor, I was already getting into a rut. If you don’t change and grow, that’s what happens. I wanted the experience. I wanted to know how it felt. The whole thing with—what’s his name?”
“Anthony Strazza.”
“Yeah, Strazza, it was fast, so in the moment. Whack and done. I like to plan and anticipate. It’s why I’m good at what I do. And I wanted to experience it while I was still revved from before.”
“You went in planning on killing them?”
“It was time to change things up. Take it to a new level.”
“You knew she was pregnant. You had the cameras.”
“Didn’t apply.” He waved that off. “Anyway, they pissed me off with their perfect little lives, their perfect little plans. I gave them a big, important death.”
“They should thank you.”
He laughed, sucked on the tube. “None of this is going to matter.”
“Why is that, Kyle?”
“Because your scowling friend there is right. I can hire a platoon of lawyers. Hell, an army of them. The kind who’ll keep this in the courts for years while I’m out on bail. The kind who’ll piss all over your evidence and make this go away. The kind who’ll have every woman I banged admitting they wanted just what I gave them. We can put together a deal now, save us all time and trouble. Putting together deals is one of my specialties.”
“What sort of deal do you have in mind?”
“I’ll cop to going into the houses, setting the stage. Hell, let’s face it, I can eat out on that story for years. I did it for research, for firsthand experience for upcoming projects. I pay a fine, even do some community service, no problem.”
“You killed people, Kyle.”
“Strappo—”
“Strazza,” Eve corrected.
“Whatever, that was self-defense. You said so yourself. I gave him a whack in self-defense. The others, I got caught up in the moment. I lost it. Temporary insanity as a result of taking a life, right? I’ll agree to therapy, even make some financial restitution. Which would include a generous donation to the NYPSD. Say, a million.”
“You’re offering to give a million dollars to the NYPSD.”
“I can afford it. With, say, another ten percent of that to each of you. Petty cash considering who you married, but this one?” He jerked his head toward Peabody. “I bet she can use it. A nice little bonus for clearing this all up without wasting my time.”
“He’s offering you a hundred thousand to smooth this all over, Peabody.”
“I heard. That’s a lot of money against a detective’s salary.”
“There you go. You ditch this recording, or I’ll help you edit it so we can all cover our asses. I pay some fines, do some good works, talk to a shrink, and donate a nice chunk to the police. Win-win.”
“That sounds really interesting, Kyle, except for the fact three people are dead, four women were raped, beaten, and terrorized, four men were brutalized.”
He actually rolled his eyes as she spoke.
“Lives were violated, lives were taken, and everything you’ve said here, on record, in this room, demonstrates unequivocally that you knew exactly what you were doing, planned what you would do, and feel no remorse whatsoever.”
He turned to Peabody. “Better talk to the rich bitch, sweetie, or you’re going to be out a hundred K.”
“You can take your hundred K and stick it up your ass.” Peabody pushed up, slapped her hands on the table as she leaned into his face. “You’d better hire those lawyers, you fuck, because no matter how many, no matter how much they cost, you’re going down. All the way down. You’ll be whining in a concrete box for the rest of your life. You can live another hundred years, and I hope to Christ you do, and every morning you’ll wake up to the same view. A box and bars. And I hope to God there are some big, sweaty guys with dicks the size of jumbo kielbasas serving with you who’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, he wanted it,’ after they’re done with you.”
“Get out of my face, you stupid cunt, or I’ll make you sorry.”
“Try.”
Eve rose, nudged Peabody back, put herself in Kyle’s face. “In case my partner hasn’t explained it clearly enough, you’re now further charged with attempting to bribe police officers. It’s just a nice little cherry on top. No deals, you son of a bitch. Peabody, arrange for this revolting piece of garbage to be taken back to his cell.”
“I’m not going into a cell. I want to talk to your superior, right now!”
“That’s not included in your rights.” Eve gathered her files. “Got you cold, Kyle. My only regret? As bad as Omega is, we don’t have worse. You deserve worse.”
“I’ll be out on bail in an hour!” he shouted.
Knowing it ranked as the biggest insult, Eve just laughed as she all but shoved Peabody out of the room.
“I want to punch something.”
Eve eyed her. “If you punch me, I’ll punch you back, which would be a shame as I’ve never wanted you more than at this moment.”
Peabody choked out a laugh, scrubbed her face.
“‘Dicks the size of jumbo kielbasas’?”
“I couldn’t think of a better metaphor in the heat of the moment.”
“Gave me an image. Shake it off. Go hit the gym later if you need to, take it out on a sparring droid, but shake it off, get a couple of big, sweaty uniforms—no measurement on dick size—to haul that miserable bastard back to a cell.”
“You were good cop.” Peabody took a breath, then another. “You reeled him in acting interested, even fascinated. It worked. I got to be pissed-off cop. Sort of bad cop.”
“You were badass cop. Badass cop,” Eve said more sharply as Peabody’s eyes filled. “Don’t fuck it up now.”
“It made me sick. You’d think after all this time, seeing what we see, dealing with the excuses for humans we deal with, it wouldn’t. But he made me sick.”
“We got him, Peabody. We did the job, did it right, and we got him. See that he’s put back in a cage. Then write it up, okay? Write it up, and go home. Beat up a droid, bang McNab, make some soup, whatever it takes to shake it off.”
“You said ‘bang McNab.’”
“Don’t make me regret it.”
She walked toward Observation as Reo came out.
“You make my job easy.”
Eve glanced back toward the Interview room. “I figure it’ll take a full year on Omega before he starts to actually consider he may be fucked.”
“I really hope to make him realize that sooner, but I’d take it. Do you want me to contact the victims, tell them we have him?”
“Anyone we spoke to on the potential target list. That would help. Olsen and Tredway should tell the Patricks in person, and the Brinkmans. I’ll take Daphne Strazza.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Reo squeezed Eve’s arm, then walked away to do her part of the job.
Eve waited while Mira came out with Roarke, held up a finger and moved to speak to Olsen and Tredway.
“Fried him up like a kielbasa,” Tredway said.
“I’m never going to be able to eat one of those again, but, yeah, he’s fried. His ego and entitlement made it pretty damn easy. It’s not going to be easy on the Patricks.”
“No.” Olsen shook her head. “It’s going to gut them.”
“It should come from you. They have a closer connection with you. The Brinkmans, too.”
“We’ll take them,” Tredway agreed. “We’ll handle it. Damn good working with you again, Dallas. Feeney’s got a hell of an eye.”
“Let’s get this done before it leaks. Then you and me, partner?” Olsen tapped a fist to Tredway’s arm. “We’re going for a couple of brews.”
“I hear you.”
Eve stepped away, up to Mira and Roarke.
“I guess you caught some of the interview,” she said to Roarke.
“Most, I think. You played him perfectly.”
“He wanted validation, wanted his dick stroked—so to speak. It was easy to see that, and to give it to him. We had him without it, but it’s tied in a bow. He’s not insane,” she added, turning to Mira.
“Sick, delusional, sociopathic, psychopathic, but no, he’s legally sane. It wasn’t easy to give it to him, but by doing so, you tied that bow.”
“That part’s done. I could use you—or Daphne could use you. I need to tell her face-to-face.”
“I cleared time. When can you leave?” Mira asked.
“Pretty much now if that works. We found her,” she said to Roarke. “I think—unless Mira says otherwise—it would be good for you to be there, too.”
“I’ll take you both.”
“I’m going to let her know we’re coming. She might want her family there. The Patricks and Brinkmans have each other. Give me five minutes. I’ll meet you in the garage.”
When Eve strode away, Mira laid a hand on Roarke’s arm. “She has you. This has been brutally hard for her in many ways, but she has you.”
“And you.”
“Yes. And the next victim.”
* * *
Eve thought of the next victim as she rang the buzzer on the door of Daphne’s suite.
Tish answered, eyed all three. “Daphne’s in her room. Has there been another? You said there hadn’t, but—”
“No, there’s not going to be another.”
“You caught him.” Tears sprang to Tish’s eyes. “Why didn’t you say so when you tagged us? God, God, what a relief. Our parents are out. We talked them into going out, taking a walk in the park, but—”
“I really need to speak to Daphne.”
“Sure, sorry. God, thank God. Are you Dr. Mira?” She asked as she gestured them into the parlor area. “Daphne described you.”
“Yes.”
“I’m glad you came. She feels—says she feels—calmer with you. You’re Roarke. I recognize you. I know you found her, helped get her to the hospital. I’m her sister. Please, everybody sit down. I’ll get her. This is going to help her so much.”
She started toward a bedroom, stopped. “Shit, sorry. I should offer you something. We’ve got a nice little kitchen area.”
“Why don’t I make some tea?” Mira took off her coat as she spoke. “Daphne may like some.”
“I’m for popping some champagne, but, yeah, tea. Thanks. We’ll be right back.”
Eve went to the window, looked out. “I love New York. Despite the fact that people like Knightly inhabit it, I love it. It’s helped make me what I am. It gave me my place.”
“You’re still sad.”
“In Dallas, those last days in that awful room, I could see out the window. But there was nothing real, nothing I knew or understood. My world was that room, and my world was a nightmare. Even after I got out, after I killed him and got out, it wasn’t my world. It was like something on screen. Sometimes he let me watch screen. It was like that, and sometimes there were monsters on screen, just like in my world. We’ve got monsters here, but I know them. I’m not afraid of them.”
She closed her eyes a moment. “When this is done, can we—I know it’s cold—but can we go home and take a walk? Just walk in the cold and snow for a little while?”
“I’d love to take a walk with you.”
“If it’s dark—”
“We’ll turn on all the lights.” He walked to her, laid his hands on her shoulders, kissed the top of her head. “It’ll be our world.”
She reached back, laid a hand over his. Let it drop when she heard the bedroom door open.
She turned her back on the city she loved.