In Death 27 - Salvation in Death

you’ve got a friend, someone who understands what you’re doing tomorrow. Who understands why you have to.
    I’ve been praying, all day, all day, asking God to help me. To help me find the strength to do the right thing. To see the right thing. I’m not sure—
    He raped me again tonight.
    No, oh, no.
    I got through it. With prayer, and by knowing it wouldn’t happen again. It would never happen again because you were going to stop him. I think, I’m afraid, if I didn’t know that, I couldn’t get through. I think, I’m afraid I might take my own life to escape the hell he’s brought me in this one.
    No! Pen—no, you must never, never think that. Must never take the most precious gift. A life. A life. And that’s what I’m asking myself, asking God. Even after everything, do I have the right to take his?
    He killed your son, your husband. He’s killed so many, and no one stops him. Now he’s laughing at God. And . . . tonight, after he raped me, he said he’s getting bored. He may leave—make me go with him. But before he does, he’s going to put a bomb in church. He wants to blow it up. Some Sunday, he said, when we’d never know, when the church was full of people, he’d set it off.
    No. No. My God, no.
    You’re our only hope. God’s put this in your hands. You’re the only one. You are God’s hand now. Tomorrow. Tell me you’ll stop him tomorrow, or I don’t know if I can get through the night. Tell me, promise me you’ll end this, so he’ll finally know God’s punishment.
    Yes. Yes. Tomorrow.
    Promise me. Swear it on your son. On your murdered son.
    I swear it. I swear it on my Quinto.
    Destroy the ’link. Don’t forget. As soon as it’s done, destroy the ’link.
    God bless you.
     
    “Voice print match, sender Penny Soto, receiver Juanita Turner. Absolutely, positively,” McNab said. “Smells like conspiracy to murder to me.”
    “Yeah, we’ll get that. And we’re going to pile it on from there.”
    “My ass is now available for grabs,” McNab announced, and was ignored by both women.
    “I guess Juanita forgot to toss the ’link,” Peabody commented.
    “No. She didn’t forget. She needed it, needed to play it back before she did him, after she’d done him. She needed to hear what Penny fed her, to help ease her conscience. We’ll get Soto on this count, and we’ve got some weight toward the bombings. But we haven’t got a lock there.”
    Need to turn the key a little more, Eve thought. Just a little more.
    “Then there’s the accessory after the fact on Flores and Ortega, the fraud,” she continued. “The fraud’s going to help lock down the accessory. If we do this right, she’s never going to see the light of day again. So we’re damn well going to do it right.”
    Her ’link beeped. A glance at the incoming display told her Roarke was tagging her back. “Get me a conference room. I want Baxter and Trueheart.”
    “They’re on Penny.”
    “Relieve them, bring them in. Briefing in thirty. Now,” she added, “and take your ass with you.” She answered the ’link. “Dallas.”
    “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?”
    “Have you got a property—commercial or residential—preferably on the Upper East Side that’s not tenanted?”
    “I imagine I do. Why?”
    “I need it for a few hours.”
    “Are we having a party?”
    “Sort of. In El Barrio or close would be the icing.”
    “How about a nice four-story duplex on East 95th, currently being rehabbed?”
    “Did you just pull that out of your ass?”
    “No. I looked it up.” He sent her a quick, cocky smile. “Is that what you had in mind?”
    “Pretty much nailed it. I need the exact address, a legal description, current market value, all that kind of crap. If I could get it, and the pass codes for the locks, by . . .” She checked the time. “. . . by sixteen hundred, it would hammer that nail.”
    “I thought we were icing a cake. In any case, I’ll get back to you.”
    Eve studied the map again. It could work. It would work. She contacted Feinburg again. “You’re going to need to come down to Central.”
    “Lieutenant, as I tried to explain before, I have clients scheduled all day.”
    “You’re going to have to reschedule anything you’ve got cooking for the rest of today. I need you here, Homicide Division, within the hour. You don’t want it getting out, to those clients, that you’ve been strung along on a major fraud scam, which included multiple murders, for the