In Death 24 - Innocent in Death

sweet-faced school girl.”
    “If you’re right…what if there are more?”
    Letting out a breath, Eve switched displays on screen manually, brought up Rayleen’s ID
    photo. “Yeah, that’s gone through my head, and stuck in my gut. What if there are more?
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    Sick kids, sick elderly. Did she put one down? She’s got activities scheduled all over hell and back. How many people does sheintersect with every day, every week, month, and so on? Was there another accident, another death, another unsolved murder? Going to find out eventually.”
    “She must be very, very sick.”
    “I don’t know what she is, but I know I’m going to do everything I know how to do so she pays for what she’s done.” She saw his face, felt her muscles tighten. “You think I should feel sorry for her?”
    “I can’t say, that’s God’s truth. I’m not sure what to think, but the fact is you believe, and you’ve crafted a very convincing argument that thischild has committed cold-blooded murder.”
    He stepped up to her triangle again, her family gallery. “Let me argue back. Have you considered that one or both of her parents killed, that somehowshe knows. That this is what you sense in her.”
    “We’ll keep it on the table.”
    “Eve.” He turned to her, his intense eyes in contrast to his gentle hand as he touched her hair. “I need to ask. Is there something in you that wants it to be her?”
    “No. No. There’s something in me that doesn’t want it to be her. So I let it slip by, I didn’t look close enough. Then today, standing with her in that perfect little girl’s room, I couldn’t not look. I couldn’t not see. I’m not going to feel sorry for her, Roarke. But I can feel sick about it.”
    “All right, then.” He rested his brow on hers. “All right. What can I do?”
    “Can you think like a homicidal ten-year-old girl?”
    “It’s not in my usual repertoire, but I can give it a try.”
    “If you kept a diary, and didn’t destroy it, and were smart enough to know you had to get it out of the house, where would you put it?”
    She turned away, paced around the board once more. “She’s got dance class, probably has a locker of some kind there, or she could have a hidey-hole at one of the wards she visits. The school’s too risky, she wouldn’t be that careless. Maybe-”
    “Who’s her closest mate?”
    “Her what? I figure her for a killer, but I don’t think she’s already having sex.”
     
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    “Friend, Eve. Her best friend.”
    “Oh.” Eve narrowed her eyes. “I’d vote for Melodie Branch. That’s the kid who was with her when they found Foster. She has regularly scheduled socialization dates with her.
    That’s a strong maybe. I’m going to tag Peabody for some OT. We’ll pay a visit to Melodie tomorrow, and to Allika. I need to talk to Mira.”
    “Eve, it’s nearly eleven at night.”
    “So? Shit,” she muttered when he only sent her a mild stare. “Okay, I’ll save that for the morning. Better, probably. It’ll give me time to write this all up, set it up, lay it out. I’m going to need a lot of muscle-mine, hers, Whitney’s-to pull the kid in for a formal interview.”
    She went back to her desk, sat, and prepared to get started. “So…I figure I should ask so it’s not hanging anywhere. Did Magdelana contact you after she tried your ’link before?”
    “No.”
    “Have you thought about how you’re going to handle it-her-whatever, when she does?”
    “If and when, I’ll take care of it. She won’t cause us more trouble, Eve. My word on that.”
    “Good. Well, this is going to take me a few hours.”
    “I’ve some work I can catch up on.”
    “Are we still on for that date tomorrow? Schmaltzy hearts and flowers followed by crazed sex?”
    “I believe I have it as ‘inventive sex’ on my schedule. I’ll just amend that to ‘crazed.’”
    “Why can’t it be both?”
    He beamed those blue eyes at her. “There’s my Valentine.”
    She expected the nightmare, and still wasn’t prepared for it. She wasn’t prepared to see herself as she’d once been-small and thin-standing in Rayleen’s pink-and-white room.
    She didn’t like the dolls, she didn’t like the way they stared and stared like dead people, but still seemed to watch her. But it was so warm, and the air smelled so nice.
    The bed looked like something out of the fairy tale she’d once watched on screen when no one was around to stop her. A princess bed. Nothing bad would