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"You did the right thing"

Reilly glanced over the felt lip of her cubicle Her supervisor was leaning against the partition, her coat on, her briefcase in one hand, her keys dangling froo ho up"

"No offense, but bullshit - I&039;h"

"Thank you" Reilly stretched her arot to do this For my own sanity"

On the screen of her computer was that preliminary list of evidence that had come out of Kroner&039;s i and was now scanning the descriptions and first-impression photos one by one

She had about fifteen h the master list, which had been finalized just this afternoon

Stuff like this she had to see for herself

Her supervisor nodded "No, I get it And FYI, DelVecchio hasn&039;t returnedthere, either"

"When are you going to issue an arrest warrant for him?"

"Noontime to before then"

The charge would be ta with evidence Both she and her supervisor, as well as the sergeant, had screened the security video of the evidence rooone in, looked through all the cataloged objects, and then rifled through the box of things that had yet to be logged in That was his opportunity, and he had made several passes in and out of his pocket with his left hand

It was not ironclad proof, but paired with Bails&039;s stateh to at least arrest hi to calls, there was a good chance they were right

"Be honest with me," her boss said "Do you fear for your own personal safety"

"No" Maybe

"Do you want me to put a patrol on your house?"

"Good idea And consider the patrol done" The woman put her hand on Reilly&039;s shoulder "Don&039;t blame yourself for any of this"

"How can I not?"

"You can&039;t control other people"

But she could choose whether or not to sleep with the the subject, she said, "So are you finished talking to Bails?"

"Yup, his statement&039;s on file You can read it if you like - it&039;s exactly what he told you He just left a little while ago"

"I&039;ll do that And before you say it, yes, I proht"

Her boss was al to talk to the Bartens about this?"

"Not until our ducks are in a row Those poor people have been through hell and back, and the idea that a copto make it so much worse Especially with the name DelVecchio associated with the case"

And in light of the fact that Veck had been in their house

At that moment, his oords replayed in her head I took that man into a victim&039;s home

God, he was such a liar

"Call me if you want to talk," her boss ain"

As she was left by herself, she thought of Jient, the one who had "shown" them the cave where Sissy&039;s remains had been found

Veck had played that scene brilliantly So surprised when it happened So professional thereafter

And as for the lack ofdown there for hours as he waited for Veck to lead her in the right direction, the soles of his shoes drying off until he raced away in another direction And they&039;d all been so transfixed by finding the body, no one had looked for him Which had been a major mistake

It was clear that Heron and Veck had to be working together

Reilly cursed and refocused on her screen The last of the prelih, and as she&039;d expected, there was no dove anything to be found Just as Bails had said

After she raphs taken with awas so succinct it was the work of aThe discrepancy hadn&039;t been noted; it would be soon, however

"What a mess," she murmured, as she went over to Sissy&039;s file to review the autopsy pictures again

God, they were physically painful to look at

In the course of her years on the force, she had seen a lot of gruesoot to her Maybe because she&039;d become personally involved, thanks to some criminally stupid decisions on her own part

Unsettled, but unable to leave yet, she decided to waste so the naave her over one h the tally, she clicked over and scanned sos and the Web sites - only to become seriously unimpressed with humanity

Not that she needed the help in that department

There was just soreasons, and she had to wonder how hter or mother had been one of the victims Or if they themselves had fallen into DelVecchio&039;s handsand knives

Refining her search to victims, she found plenty of references to the first wo so a side-by-side comparison between Sissy Barten and Suzie Busss were the sae to your father God, even the na deeply into her chair, her eyes went back and forth between the two halves of the screen - and she found herself praying that they found enough to nail Veck All they had to go on right noas the planted earring, Kroner&039;s stateard to the quarry, and the fact that Veck had been in the Barten house Then again, everyone had approached the case as if Kroner had done it No one had been looking at Veck - and that was changing now His desk, co in the cased And as soon as he showed up, he was going straight into interrogation

Although one on the run -

Reilly jerked up and wrenched around in her chair

Her heartbeat roared in her ears, drowning out the sound of the heat co of computer equipmentand the creak she&039;d heard behind her

Glancing to the ceiling, she looked at the security caht on its belly was slowly blinking, the lazy cycle of flashes telling her it was operational

"Who&039;s there"

Of course no one answered Because there was no one there

Right?

She listened to her own breathing for a while, and then thought, Okay, this is bullshit She was not going to be bullied in her own godda out of her chair, she marched down the lane of empty cubicles and checked the conference rooms and offices On the trip back, she went all the way to the main door, pushed it open, and looked down the hall both ways

Pivoting quickly, she half expected to find so under her breath, she returned to her desk, sat down, and -

When her cell phone went off, she jumped and put her hand to her throat "Oh, shut up"

Hard to tell whether she was addressing her BlackBerry or her adrenal gland

Grabbing the thing and accepting the call, she barked, "Reilly"

"How&039;re you doing"

At the sound of Detective de la Cruz&039;s voice, she took a deep breath "I&039;ve been better"

"Sarge called me"

"What a

"Yup"

There was a long pause, filled by the same kind of silence that had marked the drive back from the hospital for her and Bails: What the hell happened was all over the line without a word being spoken

"Did anyone tell you the other part of it?" she asked