“Then we got the bag and the bricks.”
Sensing Banner’s rage, Eve squeezed his wrist under the table. “Okay, Darryl, we’re on track now. Let’s go back to the beginning. You can’t leave anything out, or I can’t protect Ella-Loo. Was Jansen, on Highway 12, the first person you killed together?”
“That guy in Arkansas? We didn’t set out to kill him. We just needed a car as the truck was finished. Ella-Loo got him to stop, but then he started to fight me, and she had to hit him with the tire iron, and he fell hard. It was pure accident that time, that’s the truth. We had to give him another whack or two, just to be sure, then we dragged him off into the brush, and we wiped down the truck real good, loaded our things into the car. Ella-Loo was all keyed up, you know. The blood and all. And we pulled off a ways down the road, and when we made love…”
His face lit up, all but glowed. “It was like riding a shooting star. We knew nobody’d ever felt what we did. It wasn’t the same when we did it again the next day, and we knew to reach up to heaven again that way, what we needed to do. It’s what we had to do to fulfill ourselves and our destiny. What it was, was our true love right.”
“So the next time, you looked for someone.”
“Well, the next time, he kind of found us. We were just borrowing this cabin, over near Silby’s Pond, and this guy, he comes in and he asks what we’re doing, and says we shouldn’t oughta be in there, ’cause we broke the lock. Just this pissant guy, talking a little crazy. So I hit him with the poker from the fireplace, then we thought maybe if we kept him around, took our time with it, we’d ride that shooting star longer. And we did. Lord knows, we rode that star.”
“Details, Darryl, and they need to match with Ella-Loo’s.”
For the next two hours, he took them through every horrific detail of the bloody route across country.
Twice she sent Banner out for the sweet soft drinks James requested – and to give him a short break from the interview.
When it was done, she looked at the two-way glass, nodded.
“That’s it, Darryl, that’s all of it?”
“I swear to God, it is. If I left anything out it’s ’cause I don’t remember or got mixed up is all. You’re going to fix it now so Ella-Loo and me can be together, so I can see nothing bad happens to her.”
“The deal’s good as long as I’m in charge.”
On cue, Zweck stepped in with two agents he’d contacted. “Darryl Roy James, you’re under arrest for the murder of twenty-nine human beings, for the abduction, forcible imprisonment and torture of same. For the abduction, forcible imprisonment and torture of Jayla Campbell and Reed Mulligan, the attempted murder of Jayla Campbell and the rape of both Campbell and Mulligan.”
“I don’t understand. I thought I was already under arrest.”
“By the NYPSD,” Eve said as she rose.
“You are now charged with federal crimes, and the FBI hereby takes jurisdiction of all matters pertaining. You’re in federal custody, and will be transported to a federal facility.”
“With Ella-Loo?”
“Not a chance in hell.”
“But you promised!” Darryl rounded on Eve. “You said!”
“As long as I was in charge.” She shrugged. “Now I’m not. We’re done.” She walked to Zweck, murmured something. He nodded.
“Hold him here,” Zweck ordered.
Eve walked out with Zweck and Banner while Darryl shouted for Ella-Loo.
“Peabody and I will wrap her up. Banner, you don’t have to hear all this again.”
“I’m in it till it’s done. I’m just going to contact my boss. I want to talk to him, then I’ll be back to watch.”
“Same play?” Zweck asked as Banner walked off.
“Same play. Do me a solid, Zweck. Vendings hate me. Get a Pepsi.”
When she started to pull out credits, he shook his head. “On me. I owe you more than a tube.”
“I’ll take it.” And she drank deep, not deep enough to wash the sickness out, but deep.
Then she went in to do it all over again, hear it all over again, with Ella-Loo.