In Death 03 - Immortal in Death

shortly."
    "That explains a lot," Casto began. The transmission perked up his appetite enough for him to dig into the pasta again. "Somebody helped her, like you said. Or she copped it from one of the nurses' stations during the confusion."
    "Clever girl," Eve murmured. "Very clever girl. Times it all like clockwork, goes down, unkeys what she wants, then takes the additional time to ditch the master. She sure was thinking clearly, wasn't she?"
    Peabody drummed her fingers on the table. "If she took a hit of the Immortality first -- and it seems likely she would, it probably jolted her back on full. She probably realized she could be caught there, with the master. If she ditched it, she could claim she'd wandered off, that she was confused."
    "Yeah." Casto flashed her a smile. "That works for me."
    "Then why stay?" Eve demanded. "She'd had her fix. Why didn't she make a run for it?"
    "Eve." Casto's voice was quiet, sober, as were his eyes. "There's a possibility we haven't touched on here. Maybe she wanted to die."
    "A deliberate OD?" She had thought of it, didn't like what it did to her stomach muscles. Guilt descended like a clammy mist. "Why?"
    Understanding her reaction, he laid a hand briefly over hers. "She was trapped. You had her. She had to know she was going to spend the rest of her life in a cage -- in a cage," he added, "with no access to the drug. She'd have gotten old, lost her looks, lost everything that mattered most to her. It was a way out, a way to die young and beautiful."
    "Suicide." Peabody picked up the threads and wove them. "The combination she took was lethal. If she was clearheaded enough to get into the hold, she would have been clear-headed enough to know that. Why face the scandal, imprisonment, another withdrawal if you could go out quick and clean?"
    "I've seen it happen," Casto added. "In my line, it's not unusual. People can't live with the drug, can't live without it. So they take themselves out with it."
    "No note," Eve said stubbornly. "No message."
    "She was despondent, Eve. And like you said, desperate." Casto toyed with his coffee. "If it was an impulse, something she felt she had to do and do quick, she might not have wanted to think long enough to leave a message. Eve, nobody forced her. There's no sign of violence or struggle on the body. It was self-induced. It may have been an accident, it may have been deliberate. You're not likely to fully determine which."
    "It doesn't close the homicides. No way she acted alone."
    Casto exchanged a look with Peabody. "Maybe not. But the fact is that the influence of the drug may explain that she did just that. You can hammer away at Redford and Young for a while. Christ knows, neither one of them should get off clean in this. But you're going to have to close this thing sooner or later. It's done." He set his cup down. "Give yourself a break."
    "Well, this is cozy." Justin Young stepped up to the table. His eyes, hollow and red-rimmed, fastened on Eve. "Nothing spoils your appetite, does it, you bitch?"
    As Casto started to rise, Eve lifted a finger, signaling him down. She shoved pity aside. "Your lawyers manage to spring you, Justin?"
    "That's right, all it took was Jerry dying to push them into granting bail. My lawyer tells me that with these latest developments -- that's just how the fucker phrased it -- with these latest developments, the case is all but closed. Jerry's a multiple murderer, a drug addict, a dead woman, and I'm all but in the clear. Handy, isn't it?"
    "Is it?" Eve said evenly.
    "You killed her." He leaned forward on the table, the slap of his hands rattling cutlery. "You might as well have rammed a knife in her throat. She needed help, understanding, a little compassion. But you kept hacking away at her until she fell to pieces. Now she's dead. Do you understand that?" Tears began to swim in his eyes. "She's dead and you get a nice big star next to your name. Bagged yourself a mad killer. But I've got news for you, Lieutenant. Jerry never killed anyone. But you did. This isn't over." He swept an arm across the table, sending dishes to the floor in a mess of broken crockery and spilled food. "No way in hell is this over."
    She let out a long breath as he walked away. "No, I guess it's not."

CHAPTER TWENTY
    She'd never known a week to move so fast. And she felt brutally alone. Everyone considered the case closed, including the PA's office and her own commander. Jerry Fitzgerald's body was reduced to ashes, her