Page 8 (2/2)

The little girl had already been dead There was nothing Eve could have done to stop it Please God, don’t let there have been anything that could have been done

The little body hacked to pieces, the frenziedknife Then the look in his eyes when she’d fired on full, and the life had slipped out of them

But that hadn’t been all Not this ti in a pool of satin The knife had becoun, held by the man whose face she’d studied hours before The man called Roarke

He’d sled with terror and sexual desperation even as he’d shot her Head, heart, and loins

And soirl, had been screa for help

Too tired to fight it, Eve simply rolled over, pressed her face into her pillow and wept

“Lieutenant” At precisely seven AM, Coestured Eve toward a chair in his office Despite the fact, or perhaps due to the fact that he’d been riding a desk for twelve years, he had sharp eyes

He could see that she’d slept badly and had worked to disguise the signs of a disturbed night In silence, he held out a hand

She’d put the disc and its cover into an evidence bag Whitney glanced at it, then laid it in the center of his desk

“According to protocol, I’ed to ask you if you want to be relieved from this case” He waited a beat “We’ll pretend I did”

“Yes, sir”

“Is your residence secure, Dallas?”

“I thought so” She took hard copy out of her briefcase “I reviewed the security discs after I contacted you There’s a ten minute time lapse As you’ll see insecurity, a knowledge of videos, editing, and, of course, antique weapons”

Whitney took her report, set it aside “That doesn’t narrow the field overmuch”

“No, sir I have several more people I need to interview With this perpetrator, electronic investigation isn’t priuy covers his tracks We have no physical evidence other than the weapon he chose to leave at the scene Feeney hadn’t been able to trace it through normal channels We have to assume it was black market I’ve started on her trick books and her personal appoint to take time”