Criminal Minds (Fox Meridian Book 4) (13 page)

‘Undoubtedly the man who killed six of the women I was imprisoned for. I hope you catch him and then, perhaps, I can see justice done.’

‘The MO is different–’

‘More violent, more extreme, yes.’ His eyes lit up again. ‘An escalation of aggression. My belief is that he was locked up for some, unrelated, crime and has returned to old habits wound up from lack of expression. Why, he was probably in this very building for seven years. They had him and they let him go.’

‘I believe it’s more likely that this is an imitator.’

‘One of my “disciples,” Tara? The fools who follow me around like sheep?’

‘What do you know about them?’

‘Only what I’m told. I’m not allowed access to the internet. All my contacts are screened. I find them pathetic. Fixating on someone who denies most of the acts they believe show such… godlike powers.’ He smiled with a mouth full of stained teeth. ‘They are… bent in two by their desire to emulate the myth of me and their inability to act.’

‘Bent in two… Clever.’

‘I believe Mister Bent is indicating that he
does
have access to the internet,’ Kit said into Fox’s head.

‘Quite possibly. We’re going to go see Vali later.’

‘He may still be reluctant to give names, and I have been unable to track anything down.’

‘I’m not going to ask for names, yet.’

‘There are the women, of course,’ Bent went on. ‘So many women see me for what I am. Misunderstood. A product of my upbringing. Once they get to know me, they come to love me. I’d certainly like to get to know you, Tara. I find you… fascinating.’

‘Which upbringing would that be?’ Fox asked, a hard edge developing in her voice. ‘The abusive mother? The rapist mother? The smothering one? The hooker who made you watch or the nurse who never had time for you?’

‘My mother was–’

‘As for getting to know me,’ Fox interrupted, leaning forward and placing her elbows on the table, ‘well, that’s not going to happen. I mean, you’re in here until they ship you to the Moon or you croak, and I’m out there in the sunlight. And, let’s face a few facts here, I am so far out of your league I’m on another continent.’ She was smiling now, amused.

‘I–’

‘I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole and full protective gear. God, I could do better than you if I trawled the Sprawl for ten minutes.’

The sudden change in attitude had Bent’s cheeks reddening. Anger replaced the sparkle in his dead eyes. ‘Bitch, I’ll–’

‘You’ll
what
? You’re a spent force. An impotent, useless pervert who couldn’t get a woman with half a brain to put out.’ He jerked forward, stopped an inch or so away from Fox’s face by the chains. Fox did not move. ‘And that’s another thing. I like to move when I fuck, Silas, not just twitch. You couldn’t handle it. You’d pop like a cork after five seconds and I like a man who can satisfy.’

‘You’re dead,’ Bent growled. ‘I’ll see to it. You’ll see.’

Fox got to her feet. ‘I expect you’ll have company in here soon, Silas. And people have threatened me before. Never twice. If one of your idiot followers comes after me, I’ll bury him, and then I’ll make it my life goal to get you sent to Cold Harbour. Guy like you won’t last a week up there before someone teaches you what a real tough guy is. Seriously, “covering your ass” takes on a whole new meaning.’ She walked to the door and hit the buzzer to request exit. Bent said nothing as she walked out.

‘Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone play him like that,’ Ungar said as he emerged from the observation room with Prank.

‘We’ll probably have to sedate him to get him back to his cell,’ Prank said.

‘Bigger problem,’ Fox told them. ‘Somehow or other, he’s getting internet access.’

Ungar frowned. ‘You’re sure?’

‘Ninety per cent. He was being smart about it. Couldn’t resist letting a little hint drop. If I can get something more on it, I’ll let you know, but you might want to start checking.’

‘Oh, I’ll have my techs crawl up his ass with a microscope.’

‘Eww, better them than me. Can we get the process started to get me out of here? I want to go home and take a
really
long, hot shower.’

‘Of course. Sure.’ Ungar started off down the corridor and Prank fell into step beside Fox as she followed.

‘You know,’ Prank said a little warily, ‘if he
does
have internet access, his threat could be real.’

‘I know,’ Fox replied. ‘So was mine.’

Vali’s Homestead, Niflhel.

‘You seem very relaxed, Zorra,’ Vali said as he set cups of mead down before Fox and Kit.

‘Well, I’m on wireless and my body’s in a hot tub,’ Fox told him, grinning.

Kit decided not to comment on that, but she had been through the stage before the hot tub, where Fox had spent thirty minutes furiously washing every part of herself, three times. At one point, Fox had asked for a scrubbing brush and both Kit and Belle had suggested that was unwise. ‘We have a favour to ask, concerning some of the posters on your forums,’ Kit said.

‘I went to see Silas Bent today,’ Fox said and Vali raised a hand.

‘I would be loath to give out names for my users without good reason.’

‘That’s what Kit said, and I understand that. Actually, I find it commendable, which is why I won’t ask for them.’

Vali frowned. ‘Go on,’ he said warily.

‘I believe Bent has somehow managed to get internet access. He shouldn’t have it, but he made certain comments which suggest he has. Kit will give you a full recording of my interview with him and you can see for yourself. If you agree that it seems probable, I’d like you to see if you can work out how he’s doing it, because I think he’s coming to your forums. If you can find evidence suggesting access to your servers from within Rikers, we can do something about it.’

‘That… I can do,’ Vali said.

Kit beamed at him and took a small, wooden box from, apparently, nowhere to place on the table. ‘I knew you would agree to that. This has the visual and auditory recording in it. I hope the design meets your theme.’

‘It does, thank you.’

‘If nothing else, I think you’ll enjoy Zorra’s performance.’

‘It wasn’t bad,’ Fox said, ‘even if I do say so myself.’

Vali raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m looking forward to it.’

New York Metro, 7
^th
October.

Someone had tipped off the news channels and there was coverage of the discovery of a woman’s body in Jersey all over them. Fox’s preferred news source, IB-62, was being fairly level-headed about it, but Fox had no doubt, as she streamed the report in the shower, that there was far more sensational reporting going on.

‘INN is not too bad,’ Kit reported, ‘but IB-Nineteen has rather more detail than one might expect and is playing on the connection to the email they received. Several of the smaller channels are hyping the hysteria with suggestions that “Jack” may strike at anyone.’

Fox gave a grunt and switched to the dryers. ‘Is anyone reporting a response from NAPA?’ IB-62 had said the police were unavailable for comment, but had noted that Rutherford had been assigned to the case.

‘No. They are staying very quiet.’

‘Fox,’ Belle’s voice cut in, ‘there is a Detective Rutherford at the door demanding admittance.’

‘Really?’ Fox replied. ‘She can’t have been to bed. Let her in, and put her in the downstairs lounge. If Sam or Marie are awake, let them know she’s here and keep them out of the way.’

Rutherford was standing in front of the mock fireplace when Fox walked into the lounge and closed the door. The detective’s demeanour was dour. You could almost see the black cloud hanging over her head. ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’ Rutherford roared immediately.

Fox raised an eyebrow and sat down on the loveseat, crossing her legs casually at the ankles. ‘Perhaps you could enlighten me. What is it that I’m doing that warrants an f-bomb?’

‘The media leaks. It has to be–’

‘Stop right now. You either back up this assertion with some hard facts, or I set the Palladium legal team loose on you. Let me remind you that NAPA have the case files and I don’t get them until tomorrow.’

‘IA say that–’

‘Inspector Robbard?’

Rutherford’s anger stalled. ‘How did you know that he was involved?’

‘Didn’t, but it makes sense. We stung him on the Doran and Deedle murder cases. He doesn’t like me. Which is fair since I don’t like him.’

‘Well, he’s crawling up my ass about these leaks.’

‘So you thought you’d blame me? What possible reason would I have for giving the media
anything
about this case?’

‘Well…’

‘So you’re fishing. Going to try the Sisters next? I think you should look closer to home. Robbard won’t like it, unless he can pin it on a cop he doesn’t like. So don’t make him pissed off at you. He’ll hang you out to dry so fast you’ll wonder how you missed the washing machine.’

‘I’m the primary on the case.’

‘And the bigger the media attention gets, the more likely it is they’ll take it off you and hand it to someone more senior. If he kills in the MCD, you’re fucked. As it is… What’s that? Five dead?’

‘Not sure,’ Rutherford mumbled. She was worried about getting the case taken off her, Fox could tell.

‘Not sure?’

‘This latest one has some inconsistencies.’ Rutherford frowned, avoiding Fox’s eyes. ‘Damn. You’re going to see the reports tomorrow anyway. This last one, the throat cut was done with a long-bladed weapon. The previous ones were precise cuts with a short blade. This one was sloppier about the abdomen cut too.’

‘Copycat. You’ve got two killers out there. If the media get that detail, all Hell will break loose.’

‘I haven’t written it down in so many words yet.’

‘You should. Cover your ass, Rutherford, even if you write it down as a suspicion. IA will have your butt in a sling if there’s
anything
wrong with your files, and your captain can assign more manpower. And, on the bright side, tomorrow I’ll be able to actually help properly. I’m good, Detective, and I have
way
better toys than you.’

‘You’re going to need them. We got trace with this last one, nothing definitive, but some. That’s another difference. The other four… It’s like this guy’s a ghost. He leaves
nothing
behind but a corpse.’

8
^th
October.

‘Two things of import,’ Kit said into Fox’s head as the rush of water from the shower heads washed away sleep.

‘Of import? Someone’s been reading a dictionary.’

‘I don’t need to read one; I am one. Vali sent me a note early this morning. Username BentInTwo accesses Niflhel from a terminal in the prison. He got the terminal’s IP address and equipment ID, but that’s as far as he can go without committing the kind of illegal act which would negate the purpose.’

‘It’s nice to know your boyfriend is as bright as he seems. Forward the data to Captain Ungar with as much explanation as you feel is needed. Shouldn’t need much. “Someone in your prison is accessing a murder discussion forum” should have him turning over rocks pretty quickly.’

‘He seemed like a good cop.’

‘He
was
a good cop. Now he’s a good warden. Takes one to run that place. What was the other thing?’

‘The request for the case files from NAPA cleared and I’m already integrating the information into the murder room.’

‘That was fast.’

‘The request was put through at one minute after midnight. The judicial analysis was done by AI soon after. Our case was quite clear-cut and did not require human intervention. Final clearance was granted at eight oh three, by Detective Rutherford. I took a few cycles to consider this turn of events and concluded that Detective Rutherford is quite desperate, but you may have got through to her a little yesterday.’

‘Sounds like a reasonable assertion. You have the details on the new homicide?’

‘Miss Belladonna Anders, registered prostitute with a regular pitch on Ravine Avenue in the Jersey Housing Combine. She was killed just after midnight yesterday. The perpetrator used a steel blade, fifteen to thirty centimetres in length. Metallurgical analysis of fragments found in the wounds and the wound patterns suggests a hunting knife. Detective Rutherford was not quite correct about lack of trace on the previous victims, however.’

‘They got evidence of surgical steel in the wounds before, right?’

‘You are, of course, correct. This, combined with the frankly amateur nature of the cutting on Miss Anders’ body, suggests a different person is involved. There are two mutilation murderers in the metro.’

‘Swell.’ Fox shut off the water, squeezed water from her hair with her hands, and turned on the air streams. ‘Well, the second one isn’t BentInTwo. We’ll leave him to Ungar. Concentrate on RipperFan. Identifying him could lead us to killer number two.’

‘I’ll do my best, but I should point out that I am not hopeful. I believe this identity is kept only for accessing Niflhel.’

‘You might get lucky. We’ll go over and look around where Anders was killed, get a feel for it. Then we’ll go see Naomi. This is closer to their house than the others and they’re obvious targets.’

~~~

The Jersey Housing Combine had grown from a need for affordable housing to service the metro in the forties. Grown was the operative word: design had had little or nothing to do with it. It was not the Sprawl, but it was as close as you got while still having an income. Huge, multi-occupancy blocks rose haphazardly into the sky, grey and ugly for the most part, linked together above street level by bridges and slideways. Down on the ground, the old street layout was still there, but if you flew over it, you would be hard-pressed to tell.

In the south, around what had been Downtown Jersey City, things were a little better. There was adequate transport from the LI-line and the housing was a little higher in quality. To the north, up as far as the disused Lincoln Tunnel, things got worse. As jobs had decreased, some of the far northern buildings had become little more than squats for sprawlers with the muscle to hold a roof against challengers. Belladonna Anders had not plied her trade in the best of locales.