“Hmm. Fake fruit or fake caramel?”
“Fake caramel. Did you have time to read the report on Napier?”
“Only to scan it, I’m afraid.” Mira made the selection, and the machine—in what Eve considered particularly snotty tones—raved about the Booster Bar’s delicious flavor, energy snap, and on-the-go convenience before reciting the ingredients and nutritional data.
“There ought to be a mute feature on these things. There really should.” Eve ripped the wrapper, bit in. “Do you need more time to study the case file?”
“I’ll certainly take it, but I can tell you what you’ve probably already concluded. He’s escalating. Since he killed again so quickly, it’s logical to assume he’s already selected and stalked more targets. Your on-site indicates no defensive wounds, and a more violent beating premortem.”
“She was smaller than Maplewood. Sort of delicate. And he clocked her in the face first off, I’d say. Broke her jaw. Didn’t have any fight in her.”
“From the premortem injuries, my conclusion would be he was more angry, more frustrated, by the fact this victim didn’t fight. He can only truly demonstrate his superior strength and power if his victim struggles.”
“Beating on somebody’s not much fun if they can’t feel it.”
“In this case, I’d agree with that. She would have been somewhat of a disappointment to him.”
“If he’s disappointed, he may kill again more quickly. He may need the satisfaction.” Eve took another bite of the bar, paced up and down the corridor while Mira waited patiently.
“I’ve got a media conference coming up. Do I tell women with long brown hair to stay off the streets after dark? Jesus. I feel like I’m building a box around him. I feel that, but I haven’t got all the sides steady in place yet. While I’m getting them, while I’m looking for the goddamn lid, he’s going to get another one.”
“Yes, he probably will.” Mira spoke with complete calm. “He may very well kill more than one before you finish the sides of that box and close the lid. And those deaths will be his doing, his responsibility. Not yours.”
“I know that, but—”
“But it’s hard for you to think there’s a woman out there, going about her day, her life, unaware that someone’s planning to end it, violently. Horribly. It’s hard for you to know he may succeed despite everything you’re doing.”
“While he’s planning it, I’m going to a fricking dinner party tonight.”
“Eve.” Mira took her arm, eased them a little farther away from the traffic pattern in the corridor. “There was a time you did nothing but the work.”
“Dinner party.” Eve held her hands out like scales, juggled the right. “Stopping a killer.” And dropped the left as if with great weight. “No-brainer.”
“It’s not that simple or clear-cut, and you know it.” The stubborn set of Eve’s jaw had her pushing the point. “I’ll tell you now that I estimated you had two, maybe three more years before you burned out. Before you couldn’t stand over another body and keep your sanity. That would’ve been a tragedy, for you, for this department, for the city.”
Even the thought of it rolled ice into Eve’s gut. “I wouldn’t have let it happen.”
“It’s not a choice. Two years ago February,” Mira said quietly. “You came in for standard Testing after terminating a suspect.”
“Suspect’s a little vague description-wise when the guy was holding the bloody knife with the kid he’d just ripped apart in the blood pool at his feet.”
“You almost didn’t make it through Testing. Not because of the termination, which was justified and necessary, but because of the child. You got through it on sheer will. You know it, and so do I.”
She remembered. She remembered perfectly the way she’d raced up the stairs, the screams tearing through the air, tearing through her head. And what she’d seen when she’d broken in the door. Too late.
She’d looked like a doll. A tiny, staring doll in the hands of a monster.
“I can still see her. Her name was Mandy.” Eve eased out a breath. “Some hit you harder than others.”
“I know it.” Unable to prevent herself, Mira laid a hand on Eve’s arm, rubbed lightly from elbow to shoulder. “You did the job, but couldn’t save the child. And it hit you, very hard. You’ve had others, will have others, that hit you equally. And the fact that you’ve opened your life, that you will go to a dinner party tonight, even if the job is still circling in part of your mind, may or may not make you a better person, a better cop, but I can promise you it’s given you more years. A great many more years on the job.”
“There was a time what you’re saying would’ve just pissed me off.”
A smile quirked Mira’s lips. “Something else I know.”
“Since it doesn’t—much—maybe you’re right. It’s just dinner. You gotta eat.” She looked down at the wrapper in her hand, gave a half laugh. “Eventually.”
“I’ll read the case file more thoroughly. If there’s anything else, I’ll contact you right away. And I’m going to red-flag this investigation. I’ll be available to you for consult anytime. Day or night.”