Vanish: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

on the well-coiffed blond woman who was the focus of klieg lights twenty yards away. As he pushed closer, he saw that Zoe Fossey was, at that moment, talking into the camera. She spotted him and she froze, clutching the microphone to her silent lips.
    “Turn it off,” said Gabriel.
    “Quiet,” said the cameraman. “We’re live—”
    “Turn off the fucking microphone!”
    “Hey! What the hell do you think you’re—”
    Gabriel shoved the camera aside and yanked on electrical cords, killing the klieg lights.
    “Get this man out of here!” Zoe yelled.
    “Do you know what you’ve done?” Gabriel said. “Do you have
any
idea?”
    “I’m doing my job,” she retorted.
    He advanced on her, and something she saw in his eyes made her shrink away, until she bumped up against a news van and could back away no farther.
    “You may have just executed my wife.”
    “Me?” She shook her head, and said with a note of defiance: “I’m not the one holding the gun.”
    “You just told them she’s a cop.”
    “I only report the facts.”
    “Whatever the consequences?”
    “It’s news, isn’t it?”
    “You know what you are?” He moved closer, and found he could barely control the urge to throttle her. “You’re a whore. No, I take that back. You’re worse than a whore. You don’t just sell out yourself. You’d sell out anyone else.”
    “Bob!” she yelled at her cameraman. “Get this guy outta my face!”
    “Back off, mister!” The cameraman’s heavy hand landed on Gabriel’s shoulder. Gabriel shook it away, his gaze still fixed on Zoe. “If anything happens to Jane, I swear—”
    “I said, back
away
!” The cameraman again grasped Gabriel by the shoulder.
    Suddenly all Gabriel’s fears, his despair, ignited in a blinding moment of fury. He twisted around and charged straight at the barrel chest. Heard air whoosh out of the man’s lungs, and caught a glimpse of a startled face as the man staggered backward and fell to the ground, landing on a viper’s nest of tangled electrical cords. In an instant, Gabriel was crouched above him, his fist raised, every muscle primed to deliver the blow. Then his vision abruptly came back into focus, and he registered the man cowering beneath him. Realized that a circle of bystanders had gathered to watch the spectacle. Everyone loved a spectacle.
    Chest heaving, Gabriel rose to his feet. He saw Zoe standing a few yards away, her face alight with excitement.
    “Did you get that?” she called to another cameraman. “Shit, did
anyone
get that on tape?”
    In disgust, Gabriel turned and walked away. He kept walking until he was well away from the crowd, away from the glare of klieg lights. Two blocks from the hospital, he found himself standing alone on a corner. Even on this dark street, there was no relief from the summer heat, which still radiated from sidewalks that had baked all day in the sun. His feet suddenly felt rooted to the pavement, melded there by grief, by dread.
    I don’t know how to save you. It’s my job to keep people out of harm’s way, but I cannot protect the one person I love most.
    His cell phone rang. He recognized the number on the digital display, and did not answer it. It was Jane’s parents. They had already called him while he was in the car, right after Zoe’s newscast had aired. He’d quietly endured Angela Rizzoli’s hysterical sobs, Frank’s demands for action. I can’t deal with them now, he thought. Maybe in five minutes, or ten. But not now.
    He stood alone in the night, struggling to regain his composure. He was not a man who easily lost control, yet moments ago, he’d almost slammed his fist into a man’s face. Jane would be shocked, he thought. And probably amused, too, to see her husband finally lose it.
Mr. Gray Suit,
she’d once called him in a fit of irritation because he was so unflappable, while her temper flared hot. You’d be proud of me, Jane, he thought. I’ve finally revealed I’m human.
    But you aren’t here to see it. You don’t know that it’s all about you.
    “Gabriel?”
    He straightened. Turned to see Maura, who had approached so silently that he had not even noticed she was there.
    “I had to get the hell away from that circus,” he said. “Or I swear, I would have wrung that woman’s neck. It’s bad enough I took it out on her cameraman.”
    “So I heard.” She paused. “Jane’s parents just got here. I saw them in the parking lot.”
    “They called me, right after