The Apprentice: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

heard fear in his voice, not for himself but for his wife, and she wondered, with a twinge of envy: What would it be like to be loved so deeply?
    “Does Catherine know he’s out?” she asked.
    “Yes. I had to tell her.”
    “How’s she taking it?”
    “Better than I am. If anything, she’s trying to calm
me
down.”
    “She’s already faced the worst, Moore. She’s beaten him twice. Proven she’s stronger than he is.”
    “She
thinks
she’s stronger. That’s when things get dangerous.”
    “Well, she has you now.”
And I have only myself.
The way it had always been and probably always would be.
    He must have heard the note of weariness in her voice, for he said: “This has got to be hell on you, too.”
    “I’m okay.”
    “Then you’re handling it better than I am.”
    She laughed, a sharp and startling sound that was all bluster. “Like I’ve got time to worry about Hoyt. I’m riding herd on a new task force. We found a body dump over at Stony Brook Reservation.”
    “How many victims?”
    “Two women, plus a man he killed during the abduction. It’s another bad one, Moore. You know it’s bad when Zucker gives him a nickname. We’re calling this unsub the Dominator.”
    “Why the Dominator?”
    “It’s what he seems to get off on. The power trip. The absolute control over the husband. Monsters and their sick rituals.”
    “It sounds like a replay of last summer.”
    Only this time you’re not here to watch my back. You’ve got other priorities.
    “Any progress?” he asked.
    “Slow. We’ve got multiple jurisdictions involved, multiple players. Newton P.D.’s on it, and—get this—the friggin’ Bureau’s stepped in.”
    “What?”
    “Yeah. Some fibbie named Gabriel Dean. Says he’s an
adviser,
but his hands are all over this case. You ever had that happen before?”
    “Never.” A pause. “Something’s not right, Rizzoli.”
    “I know.”
    “What does Marquette say?”
    “He’s rolled over and playing dead, ’cause OPC’s ordered us to cooperate.”
    “What’s Dean’s story?”
    “We’re talking tight-lipped here. You know, the if-I-tell-you-then-I’ll-have-to-kill-you kind of guy.” She paused, remembering Dean’s gaze, his eyes as piercing as shards of blue glass. Yes, she could imagine him pulling a trigger without even flinching. “Anyway,” she said, “Warren Hoyt’s not my number one concern right now.”
    “But he’s mine,” said Moore.
    “If there’s any news, you’ll be the first one I call.”
    She hung up, and in the silence the bravado she’d felt, talking to Moore, instantly collapsed. Once again she was alone with her fears, sitting in an apartment with the door barred and the windows latched and only a gun to keep her company.
    Maybe you’re the best friend I have, she thought. And she picked up the weapon and carried it back to her bedroom.

nine
    “A gent Dean came to see me this morning,” said Lieutenant Marquette. “He has doubts about you.”
    “The feelings are mutual,” Rizzoli said.
    “He’s not questioning your skills. He thinks you’re a fine cop.”
    “But?”
    “He wonders if you’re the right detective to be lead on this one.”
    She said nothing for a moment, just sat calmly facing Marquette’s desk. When he’d called her into his office this morning, she had already guessed what the meeting was about. She had walked in determined to maintain ironclad control over her emotions, to offer him no glimpse of what he was waiting for: a sign that she was already over the edge, in need of being replaced.
    When she spoke, it was in a quiet and reasonable voice. “What are his concerns?”
    “That you’re distracted. That you have unresolved issues having to do with Warren Hoyt. That you’re not fully recovered from the Surgeon investigation.”
    “What did he mean by
not recovered
?” she asked. Already knowing exactly what he’d meant.
    Marquette hesitated. “Jesus, Rizzoli. This isn’t easy to say. You know it isn’t.”
    “I’d just like you to come out and say it.”
    “He thinks you’re unstable, okay?”
    “What do you think, Lieutenant?”
    “I think you’ve got a lot on your plate. I think Hoyt’s escape knocked the wind out of you.”
    “Do you think I’m unstable?”
    “Dr. Zucker has also expressed some concerns. You never went for counseling last fall.”
    “I was never ordered to.”
    “Is that the only way it works with you? You have to be ordered?”
    “I didn’t feel I