Whats wrong this time? Jillys eyes asked, and Steph might have laughed, but she was afraid it would come out a scream, because everything was wrong.
Send her back to you in pieces, the dead dark voice whispered at the edge of her mind and it wasnt until Jilly started to squirm that Steph realized she was clutching her daughter even tighter, as though a mothers arms would be enough protection.
At the thought of protection, her mind jumped immediately to the sight of Detective Peters lounging in her kitchen doorway the day before, bulging arms crossed over the wide chest of the cutoff sweatshirt. Snug, faded denim and a gun tucked at the small of his back. Amber, knowing eyes that had changed when theyd looked at the child.
No cops or both the kid and the old woman are dead. No. She couldnt call him. Shed been warned and shed learned her lesson about trusting men. She was on her own, and the only way to be sure of Jillys safety was for her to go to work and run the experiment. The voice had said so.
The Makepeace samples were already prepared, taken from the rape kit Detective Sturgeon had delivered a week ago. Shed seen it in the papers, though she tried not to read anything about the lab cases she handled for the police. The headline had jolted her, Suspect Charged in Chinatown Child Rape, and shed read several paragraphs of lurid details before realizing that the rapists DNA was sitting in her lab fridge.
Now she wondered.
Make sure the Makepeace DNA is a positive match. Or else. Did the voice have reason to believe it wouldnt be a match? Did he know for sure that Makepeace hadnt done it? Because he had raped the little girl himself? If so, that was even more reason to protect Jilly any way she could. Steph shivered in the warm air of a summer morning. She saw a yawning chasm opening up in front of her, a choice shed never thought to make.
If the DNA matched, Jilly and Maureen were safe. If it didnt
The alternative was unthinkable. Therefore, there was only one solution.
The DNA would match. Shed make sure of it.
DOWN THE STREET from Boston General Hospital, Sturgeons voice cut across the usual din of the Chinatown Station. Hi, honey. Im home!
Reid let his feet slide off the edge of the desk and thump to the floor while he glared at his partner. Go suck on a peppermint, Sturgeon, he said, but he didnt really mean it.
Fifty-something, jowly and slightly pop-eyed, Reids partner bore an unfortunate resemblance to his animal namesake. He was also one of the sharpest men in Chinatown, and Reid had been honored when the veteran detective had partnered him seven years earlier.
Sturgeon pulled one of the candies from the breast pocket of his already-rumpled suit and held it out. At Peterss headshake, he shrugged, unwrapped the pinwheel with a deft one-handed flick, and popped it in his mouth.
You have a good day off? he asked around the peppermint.
Reid shrugged. It was fine. You? He didnt need to ask. If itd been a lousy day, Sturgeon would be crunching the candy with a vengeance. The rate at which he devoured mints was a pretty good barometer of his mood.
Took Jennie and the grandkids to that water park in New Hampshire. Theyve got this great new slide that shoots you down the hill almost in freefall. Sturgeons eyes took on a faraway, happy look. The kids loved it, and while we were standing in line this pretty blonde lost her bikini top on the way down. He grinned. Jen tried to act mad that I looked, but later that night she gave me this reenactment Sturgeon trailed off and Reid held up a hand.
Enough! No more, please. Im begging you!
He imagined Sturgeon in swimming trunks, surrounded by his three grandkids and grinned. Tried not to imagine Sturgeon and his trim, zippy wife engaged in a game of Oops, I lost my bikini top! and failed.
Tried to imagine himself taking children and a wife to a water park and scowled.
Sturgeon chuckled and hitched himself onto the corner of Reids desk. You wouldnt be begging me if you had a wife of your own, you know.
Reid rolled his eyes. Dont start.
It was beyond him how Sturgeon had managed to stay married thirty years and counting. He was the guy who threw the curve on cop demographicsthe one half of one percent that was happily married.
The noise level started to rise as the shift changed. Sturgeon didnt bother to lower his voice and a passing rookie snickered when the detective said, I mean, whats the problem here? Youre healthy, employed, only mildly lazy, and although I dont really see it, Jennie tells me that youre H-O-T hot. Apparently, your ass is exquisite.
There was a guffaw from three desks over. Reid glared, but couldnt tell which of his so-called friends it had been.
I dont, he said in measured tones, want to talk about your wifes opinion of my ass. Though he was flattered in a sick sort of way. I dont want to talk about my sex life. Or lack thereof. He hadnt dated steadily since hed accidentally yelled the wrong womans name in the throes and had been summarily dumped on his head. When hed gone to find the witness whose name he had yelled, hed arrived at her house only to learn shed been put in the hospital by a man whod been on his list of suspects to question the next day.
He hadnt yet forgiven himself for that one. Nor had he quite escaped the feeling that there was something not quite right about her kids reappearance the day before.
And He pushed the thought aside and pointed at his partner. I most certainly dont want to talk about your sex life.
Unperturbed, Sturgeon unwrapped another mint and popped it home. He shrugged. Then what do you want to talk about? You gonna tell me whats bugging you, and why therere enough coffee cups on the desk to prove you spent the night here on your first day off in over a month?
Reid scowled at the telltale cups. I was working.
On what? Theres nothing on our desks except some leftover paperwork and old coffee cups. Dont tell me you came in to do paperworkthats really sick. And dont tell me you like the coffee.
Stephanie Albertss kid was snatched yesterday.
Sturgeon inhaled his mint. Come again?
Remember Stephanie Alberts? Redheaded lab tech from last years trouble over at Boston General?
Sturgeon nodded and sketched a set of curves in the air to indicate that he remembered her. She was hard to forget, and both of them had been burned by that case when her boyfriendwho was barely even a suspecthad beaten her into a coma.
There had been a police detail outside the house where she was attacked and it hadnt made a damn bit of difference. Shed still ended up in Boston General, hooked to more machines than Reid had ever seen.
Yeah, I remember her. The daughter was snatched? Why didnt you call me?
Reid shrugged. It was over quick enough. Uniforms from Patriot District found the girl across the street in a park.
Then she just wandered off, right? No snatch.
Looks that way, Reid answered.
But you dont think so.
Sturgeon knew him well. Reid nodded. It doesnt feel right. The kid was gone for a couple of hours and the aunt swears she checked the park right away when she disappeared. Kids not even four, so she couldnt have gotten very far in any case
You ask Jilly?
Reid was surprised that Sturgeon remembered the little girls name when he hadnt. But then again, Sturgeon had kids of his own. It was probably in the daddy manual that you had to remember other kids names.
Too bad Reids old man hadnt read that particular owners manual. Reid shook his head. Kid doesnt talk.
Sturgeon frowned. No?
The doctors say shell talk when shes ready. The aunt made it sound like the parents marriage ended badly and slowed her down. Reid wondered what messy meant. He hoped it hadnt been abuse, though hed seen enough of it over the years. She was just starting to talk when Steph was hospitalized last year.
Steph? Sturgeon wrinkled an eyebrow.
Ms. Alberts. Anyway, questioning the kid was out, and Murphy over at Patriot didnt think much of my suspicions.
Leanne Murphy is a good cop, Sturgeon commented, and Reid heard the subtextIf she doesnt think theres anything suspicious, shes probably right.
Reid shrugged. So I took a walk around the park. Talked to a few neighbors. And had gotten more information about Stephs ex than he had about her daughters disappearance.
Hed checked. Luis Monterro was still in prison on an embezzlement conviction. But the itch between his shoulder blades hadnt gone away.
Any evidence of a snatch? Sturgeon asked, Or are you just looking for an excuse to sniff around a lady whos already turned you down twice?
I dont sniff. The only reason Sturgeon got away with comments like that was that he was a good partner and friend. Otherwise, Reid wouldve shot him a long time ago. And no, theres no evidence she was kidnapped.
Then lets get to work. Still perched on Reids desk, Sturgeon reached over to his own and snagged a pile of torn notebook paper. He shuffled through. Lets seewe have cleanup work on those two Santos punks, mostly paperwork. He tossed the scrap back on his desk. A visit with D.A. Hedlund, and a lab run for the last batch of results.
Reid snagged the last piece of paper from Sturgeons hand and tucked it into his own neat notebook. Ill take the lab, you deal with Hedlund.
Fine. Sturgeon cut him a glance and grinned. And say hi to her for me, will you?
Reid scowled and straightened his tie.
THE WALLS were watching her. She was sure of it. She could feel him out there, somewhere, watching to make sure she didnt make a mistake. Or was he watching the house instead? That was an even more terrifying thought. Though shed insisted that Maureen keep Jilly inside for the day, he knew where they lived. How she walked to work.
He knew.
Stephanie glanced down at the blue latex-encased hands working their way through a plate of samples, and wondered whether they were still attached to her body. She hadnt consciously told them to set up the experiment, but they seemed to be doing fine without her.
What was she going to do? She looked quickly around the lab for the zillionth time, half expecting to find a stranger standing over by the ultra-low temp freezer, watching her. But there was nobody there.
Molly was at her bench working on the last few experiments theyd need to finish before they announced the discovery of the Fentons Ataxia genea coup for their boss Genie Watson, whose best friend had died of the disease.
Terry was at the computer, his Adams apple bobbing now and again as he struggled with the last part of his dissertation. Though a laboratory genius, Terry was a disaster at putting things into words. Normally, Steph wouldve been at the computer with him, helping make the science into language. But today she was frozen at her bench, afraid that the watcher would interpret the least social contact as betrayal.
Ill send her back in pieces.
She glanced out past the reception area, to where the lab leaders offices were dark. Genie and Nick were at a two-week genetics conference in Hawaii. Steph wished they were around. After everything theyd been through the year before, which had culminated with Nick subduing the murderous madman, Steph thought they would know what to do.
But then again, the lab leaders would probably insist on going to the police, and that wasnt an option.
There was no way Steph was endangering her child or her aunt by making yet another catastrophic error in judgment. She was going this one alone. She had no choice.
Beep-beepbeep-beepbeep-beep.
She glanced at her lab timer, a sophisticated clock that allowed her to monitor up to ten different experiments at once. Today, there was only one display in action, and it was blinking 00:00.
The Makepeace film was ready for processing.
Glancing around one more time, still convinced that she was being watched, Steph collected the freezer cassette from the counter where shed let it defrost. Be a match, she prayed, though she feared it wasnt.
Normally, DNA gels didnt need to be frozen down with their films, but since one of the samples in this experiment had been badly degraded seminal fluid from the little girls rape kit, Steph had needed to intensify the radioactive signal before she could see the results. Freezing the trapped radioactivity at minus eighty slowed the particles down long enough for them to bounce off a reflective screen and pass through the X-ray film a second time, effectively doubling the signal.
Ignoring the bite of cold metal through the thin latex gloves, Steph lugged the lightproof film cassette to the developer room and tried not to look back over her shoulder as she stepped into the hall.
Last year, Genie had been attacked inside the black, close room. Shed been badly beaten and left for dead. Though the space had been cleaned and repainted since, going through the revolving door and hearing it rubba-thump behind her still gave Steph the willies, particularly today. What if he came in while she was developing the film? Shed be trapped.
The light lock gaped at her like a screaming black mouth, and she stepped into it on unsteady legs and let it roll shut behind her. When nothing sprang out of the darkness to grab her, she processed the clammy film as quickly as possible and escaped back into the lighted hallway. She snatched the processed X-ray film from the delivery port before it was completely dry.
And cursed sharply. Hopelessly.
At the other end of the hall, one of the techs looked up at her oath. Everything okay, Steph?
Sure, Jared. Everythings fine, she answered automatically as her brain raced.
Make sure the Makepeace DNA is a positive match.
Everythings fine, she repeated to herself just in case saying it made it true.
But it wasnt fine.
The Makepeace DNA wasnt a match.
What the hell was she going to do now?
REID PAUSED in the elevator lobby of the thirteenth floor and buzzed to be let in. He remembered the first time hed seen Boston Generals Genetic Research Building, and the big, hulking machines and the crisp, white-coated people that moved among them. It looked like something out of one of the science-fiction movies hed watched as a kid when there wasnt a cops-and-robbers flick playing.
But this wasnt science fiction. It was real. And in the nine months the Chinatown station had been subcontracting its DNA forensics out to the Watson/Wellington lab, their conviction rate had risen ten percent.
Even D.A. Hedlund was grudgingly impressed.