In Death 17 - Imitation in Death

eye."
     
     
"Really?"
     
     
"About the tear? No. However, all those points you make are why he's still on the list."
     
     
"But when you lean toward a guy like Breen, I just don't see it. A man that sweet with his kid. And if he does know about the affair, isn't it more likely he's holding it together because he loves his wife and son, and just wants it to go away? As long as he doesn't acknowledge it, it's not real. I can see how somebody'd handle it that way. He could convince himself it doesn't count because she's not with another man. She's going through a phase, experimenting, whatever."
     
     
"You could be right."
     
     
"I could?" Emboldened, Peabody pressed on. "And Renquist. He's just too prissy or something., The whole Sunday brunch at ten routine. Then there's his wife. I can see her looking the other way if he likes to try on her underwear occasionally in the privacy of their own home, but I can't see her living with a psychopath. She's too prissy. And she'd have to know. You could tell she has her finger on the pulse of that household, so she'd have to know something.
     
     
"I think you're right about that. Nothing gets by her. But I think she could live with a psychopath just fine. As long as he doesn't drip any blood on, her floors. I met the woman who raised him, Peabody. He married the same basic type, just more upscale and stylish. But you think Fortney, I'll tell you what. If we haven't closed this by the day after tomorrow, you take him."
     
     
"Take him where?"
     
     
"Work him, Peabody. Make him your focus and see what comes up."
     
     
"You think we're going to close it."
     
     
"Soon. But you may get your shot."
     
     
They checked out three outlets before Eve decided it was time to go by the hospital to check on Marlene Cox. She acknowledged the guard she'd stationed outside the door, and told him to take a ten-minute break while Peabody stood as relief.
     
     
Inside, she found Mrs. Cox reading aloud from a book beside the bed while machines kept her daughter tethered to the world.
     
     
Sela looked up, then marked her place before setting the book aside. "They know people in comas can often hear sounds, voices, and respond to them. It can be like being behind a curtain you can't quite open."
     
     
"Yes, ma' am."
     
     
"One of us takes turns reading to her." Mrs. Cox reached over, fussed with the sheet that covered Marlene. "Last night we put in a disc. Jane Eyre. It's one of Marley's favorites. Have you read it?"
     
     
"No.
     
     
" It's a wonderful story. Love, survival, triumph, and redemption. I brought the book today. I think hearing me read it would be comforting, for her."
     
     
"I'm sure you're right."
     
     
"You think she's already gone. That's what they think here, though they're very kind, and they're working very hard. They think she's gone. But I know she's not."
     
     
"It's not for me to say, Mrs. Cox."
     
     
"Do you believe in miracles... I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name."
     
     
"I'm Dallas. Lieutenant Dallas."
     
     
"Do you believe in miracles, Lieutenant Dallas?" "I've never thought much about it."
     
     
"I believe in them."
     
     
Eve crossed to the bed and looked down. Marlene's face was colorless. Her chest moved gently up and down to the rhythm of the machine that breathed for her in constant, whooshing notes. She saw death all over her.
     
     
"Mrs. Cox, he would have raped her. He would have been brutal. He would have done his best to keep her conscious during it so she'd have felt the pain and the fear and the helplessness. He would have reveled in that, and he would have taken some time to torture her. There were... instruments in the van he would have used on her."
     
     
"You want me to know that because she fought, she escaped that. She stopped him from doing those terrible things to her, and that's a kind of miracle." Her breath shuddered as she fought back a sob. "Well, where there can be one, there can be another. As soon as she can open the curtain she'll tell you who it was. They told us she probably wouldn't live through the morning. It's past noon now. Can you tell me, if you believe she's done, why you came in today?"
     
     
Eve started to speak, then shook her head and looked back at Marlene. "I was going to tell you it's routine. But the fact is, Mrs. Cox, she belongs to me, too, now. That's the way it is for me."
     
     
When her communicator signaled, she excused herself and stepped out into the