Her feet thudded on broken steps, and tears spurted out of her eyes. They bulged in horror when he smiled and she saw, impossibly, the flash of fangs.

In the dark, those gleaming points sank into her neck.

The minute she was dressed in the morning, Eve snagged a second cup of coffee. "I 'm going to check my home office machine, see if I got anything from the lab overnight."

"Being a bit obsessive, aren't you?" Roarke asked from where he sat, scanning the morning financials on the bedroom screen. "I t's barely seven."

"You have your obsessions." She nodded toward the maze of numbers. "I have mine."

"Check it from your pocket 'link then. Have something to eat while you're about it."

"How am I supposed to check my office messages with my pocket 'link?"

Roarke only sighed, rose. He walked to her and held out a hand. "They're all connected, my technology-challenged darling, hence the term 'link ."

"Yeah, yeah, but then you have to remember all these codes and sequences, and it's just easier to..."

He punched a command while she frowned at him. "Relay any new incomings on home unit Dallas," he ordered.Acknowledged...There are no incomings since last operator use on home unit Dallas...

"Huh. Okay, not as complicated as I thought. Can I check my unit at Central?"

He only smiled. "Relay any new incomings on office unit Dallas, Cop Central."

Acknowledged...There is one new incoming transmission on voice mail...

"d.a.m.n it." She grabbed the 'link out of Roarke's hand. "I told them to contact me here as soon as they had-"

Lieutenant Dallas, this is Allesseria Carter, the bartender at Bloodbath.

"Conscience got to her," Eve decided, watching the face on screen. "Walking home, it looks like. Looks spooked."

I need to talk to you, um, talk to you about Tiara Kent. I f you could contact me as soon- There was a sound-a rush of wind? Eve saw a black-gloved hand, the blur of it whip in and close over Allesseria's throat.

"f.u.c.k! G.o.dd.a.m.n it." Eve's own hand clamped on Roarke's arm as the screen image blurred, the 'link struck the sidewalk, and the display went black.

"Play it back again," she ordered Roarke as she yanked out her communicator. "Dispatch, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. I need a unit, closest possible unit at..." She flipped quickly through her memory to the address she'd pulled out of Allesseria's data, then snapped it out. Repeated it. "Possible victim of a.s.sault is Carter, Allesseria. Female, Caucasian, thirty-four, black hair, medium build. I 'm on my way."

"I 'll go with you," Roarke told her. "I 'm closer than Peabody. You can contact her on the way. You know you won't find her in her apartment," he added as they rushed downstairs.

"Maybe she got away. Maybe he just wanted to scare her. G.o.dd.a.m.n it, I picked her out for him. I set her up."

"You did nothing of the kind." He s.n.a.t.c.hed up her jacket from the newel, tossed it to her as he snagged his own. "He chose her, the minute he asked her to lie for him, he chose her. I 'll drive."

He'd get there faster, Eve knew, and it freed her to contact Peabody, then take the report from Dispatch. There was no response at Allesseria's apartment.

"Get inside," Eve snapped. "The victim's life is in immediate jeopardy. I have probable cause. Get the f.u.c.k inside."

She thumped her fist against her leg as she waited, waited, as Roarke maneuvered her police-issue through streams and clogs of morning traffic.

Dispatch, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Officers report the apartment is currently unoccupied. There is no sign of break-in or foul play.

No, Eve thought, there wouldn't be. He didn't take her there. "Start an immediate search in a five-block radius. Repeating description. Subject is female, Caucasian, age thirty-four, black and brown, last seen wearing black pants, black shirt, red jacket."

Eve ended the transmission, stared out the windshield. "I know it," she said, though Roarke had said nothing. "I know it. He didn't leave her alive."

CHAPTER Seven

Eve scanned sidewalks, the buildings as they approached Allesseria's apartment. I t was a tough, low end of the lower-middle-cla.s.s neighborhood.

Most self-respecting muggers would hunt for scores a few blocks away in any direction.

Pickings would be slim here, and the population willing to fight for what they carried in their pockets. Street level LCs would troll for johns elsewhere, too. All in all, the handful of blocks were safe simply because they were poor enough not to warrant much trouble.

But Allesseria Carter hadn't been safe.

Eve's gaze zeroed in on a subway exit. "Pull over, park wherever you can. She'd take the subway, wouldn't she? Cheap and quick. I f she did, this would've been her route home."

She slammed out of the car the minute Roarke stopped, then pulled out her 'link to replay the message. Looked for landmarks. "I t's dark, and it's mostly her face, but..." She held up her own 'link as if relaying a message, then looked over her left shoulder. "See here, could be that building in the background."

She kept walking, studying the screen, the street. "Here, he took her right about here. Somebody would've picked up her 'link by now, or he did, but it was right about here he attacked."

She scanned again, focused on a narrow building sagging between a Thai market and a boarded-up storefront. I t was plastered with graffiti, and what looked like an old, torn CONDEMNED sign.

Eve took out her communicator, requested backup at the location. Then drawing her weapon, she started toward the door. "You carrying anythingbesides half the wealth of the world in your pocket?"

"Burglary tools, though this won't require them."

She nodded, reached down, and took her clutch piece out of its ankle holster. "You're deputized, ace." She sucked in a breath, kicked in the door.

She went in low and to the right while he took high and left in a routine they'd danced before. Sunlight dribbled through the broken windows, striking off shards of gla.s.s, filth, vermin droppings.

And blood.

Eve could smell it-not just the blood, but the death. That heavy human stench.

Roarke took out a penlight, shone it on the trail of smeared red.

He'd left her splayed on the floor, arms and legs spread out so her body formed a gruesome human X. Most of her clothes had been torn off, leaving only ragged remnants of black clinging to skin mottled with bruises.

Her blood spread out in a pool from the puncture wounds in her throat. Her eyes hadn't lost their horror with death, but stared at the ceiling in a fixed expression of abject terror.

"Didn't take her blood with him this time," Eve said quietly. "Didn't come prepared for that. But he made sure to hurt her plenty before he bled her out. Got off on her pain, got off on the power. See how he spread her out? Motherf.u.c.ker."

Roarke touched a hand to Eve's shoulder. "I 'll get your field kit."

She worked the scene; it's what she did. What she had to do. She could follow the trail of blood, of smeared footprints, and see Allesseria being dragged inside.

Kicking, Eve thought, her work shoes thudding hard against the broken concrete steps. Hard enough to cut through the cheap canvas before he'd hauled her inside.

He'd punctured her throat immediately, only steps inside the door. There was spatter against the dirty wall where she'd gushed. Where she'd collapsed. Dragged her unconscious from there, she noted. Gave himself a little more room to work. T o beat her with his fists, to rape her. All while the blood ran out of her.

But he'd taken some, too. Ingested it, bottled it. She'd find out.

"Time of death oh-three-thirty," she said for the record. "T ook her about an hour to die." She sat back on her haunches. "A block and a half from home."

She looked over at Roarke. He stood, his hands in the pockets of his jacket. The morning air fluttered in the broken windows, stirred his dark hair.

And lifted the smell of ugly death all around them.

"He could've taken her in the club, anywhere in the underground. She might never have been found, and we'd never prove a thing if she'd been murdered down there."

"He wanted you to find her," Roarke agreed. "He's making a statement."

"Yeah, oh, yeah, because he didn't have to do this. Even if she recants, he'd find ten others to back his alibi. T en others he'd bribe or intimidate. He didn't have to kill her, and certainly not like this."

"He enjoyed it." Roarke shifted his gaze, met Eve's eyes. "Just as you said. Payback was secondary to the killing."

"And he wanted it to be me who found her," Eve added. "Because of that click last night, that mutual recognition. But he's too c.o.c.ky for his own good. There'll be DNA again, and he'll have picked up some of this dirt. Shoes, clothes. He'll have transferred some of this dirt, this blood, and the sweepers will find it."

"He attacked her while she was on the 'link-to you, Eve." Reaching out, Roarke took her hand, lifted her to her feet. "That's another statement."

"Yeah, and I 'm hearing him. Just like he's going to hear me, really soon." She looked over as Peabody came in.

"Nothing on the canva.s.s so far," Peabody reported. "I got in touch with the ex-husband. He lives a few blocks from here. He's on his way."

"We'll take him outside. He doesn't need to see this." n.o.body needed to see what cops had to see. "Body can be bagged and tagged. There's nothing else she can tell us here. Let's see what she says to Morris."

She went out, grateful for the sunlight, and for the smell that was New York rather than death. She started to reach for her 'link to nag the lab yet again, when she spotted a six-and-a-half-foot black man with a body like a linebacker sprinting across the street against the light.

He wore short dreads, sweatpants, and a T-shirt, and an expression of fear in his topaz eyes. When he tried-and was well on his way to succeeding-shoving past the uniforms at the crime-scene barricade, she called out, went over.

"Rick Sabo?""Yes. Yes. My wife-my ex-wife. A detective called and said..."

"Let him through. I 'm Lieutenant Dallas, Mr. Sabo. I 'm sorry about your ex-wife."

"But are you absolutely sure it's her? She had a panic b.u.t.ton, a ministunner. She knew how to handle herself. Maybe-"

"She's been identified, I 'm sorry. When did you-"

She broke off when he just crouched down, dropped his head in his hands as a man would if pierced by a sudden and unspeakable pain. "Oh, G.o.d, oh, G.o.d. Alless. I can't...I told her to quit that G.o.dd.a.m.n job. I told her."

"Why did you tell her to quit her job?"

He looked up, but since he didn't straighten, Eve hunkered down with him. "She worked in this cult club-vampire s.h.i.t-which is bad enough. But it was underground, off Times Square. I t wasn't safe, it's not safe down there, and she knew it."

"Then why'd she work there?"

"Made three times what she made on street level. Sometimes four with tips. No doubles. She wanted to buy a house, a little house, maybe in Queens. We've got a boy." His eyes watered up. "We got Sam, and she wanted a place out of the city. We share custody of Sam. But, Jesus, I told her it wasn't worth it. I went down to check it out right after she took the job. G.o.dd.a.m.n pit in a G.o.dd.a.m.n sewer. Alless."

There was love here, Eve thought. Maybe not enough to make a marriage work, but there was love. "Did she talk about her work, the people she worked with? For?"

"No, not to me. Not after we went a round about it. Haven't fought like that since we split. Don't know that we fought like that before we split. I was scared, if you want to know the truth. Scared for her, and I handled it wrong."

His hands dangled between his knees now, and he stared at them as if they were foreign objects. "Flat out told her she was going to quit, and I know that's just the way to make her dig into something. I f I 'd handled it better, she might've..."

He looked up, looked past Eve. There were people gathered on the other side of the barricades, as people always did.

What happened? They'd ask, and as word trickled down, they'd think how awful, how terrible, even as they continued to gawk, to linger, to hope to catch a glimpse of the dead body before they had to head off to work.

Because it wasn't them, it wasn't theirs the city had swallowed up. So they could gawk and linger and congratulate themselves that it wasn't them or theirs-and the next time it might be.

Sabo didn't see them, Eve knew that, too. Because for him, it was the next time.

"Mr. Sabo, did you meet any of her coworkers or her employer while you were in the club, or after?"

"What? No. No." He scrubbed his hands hard over his face. "Didn't want to. I only stayed about twenty minutes. I llegals pa.s.sing around like party favors. People coming out of the private rooms licking blood off their lips, or it looked like it. She wanted a d.a.m.n house in Queens."

"Mr. Sabo, I have to ask. I t's routine. Can you verify your whereabouts between two and four A .M. this morning?"

"In bed, at home. I got Sam. I can't leave Sam alone at night." He rubbed at his eyes now before his hands dangled uselessly again. "I have building security. In and out. You can check. Whatever you have to do so you don't waste time, so you find who hurt Alless. Was she raped?"

Before Eve could respond, he shook his head. "No. No. Don't tell me. I don't think I want to know either way. Walk from the subway, after two in the morning, alone. Because of that d.a.m.n job. Now what am I going to tell our boy? How am I going to tell our Sam his mama's gone?"

"I can have a grief counselor contact you, one who works with children."

"Yes. Please. Yes." His throat worked on a swallow. "I 'll need help. Alless and I , well, we couldn't stay married, but we were a team when it came to Sam. I 'll need help. I have to get back to my kid. I left him with the neighbor. I have to get back to Sam. Can you let me know when...when I need to do whatever I need to do?"

"We'll contact you, Mr. Sabo." Eve watched him walk away. "Peabody?"

"I 'll take care of the grief counselor. Poor guy."

"Murder kills more than the victim," Eve said quietly. "We need to wrap up here, get into Central. Feeney may be able to clean up some of her last transmission from my unit. We get even a glimmer of this b.a.s.t.a.r.d..."

"I could help with that." Roarke stepped up beside her.

"You've got your own work."