Strip Search (42 page)

“There are numbers!” he said, his eyes dancing with excitement. “There are always numbers! The Fibonacci numbers move backward. The numbers are miles.”

“Darcy…I know the FBI experts have been over a map just like this one, looking for a pattern. They didn’t find one.”

“That is because they did not know where to start. Also it is hard, because she never got to put your friend Amelia’s body where she wanted to, so that left a big hole in the equation. I bet the Math Lady must have hated that. I know I would. The FBI men measure the distances from one location to another. But that is wrong. They needed to measure distances in miles from each drop-off place to the center point.”

“The center point? What’s that?”

“The center of the spiral. The place all the drop-off locations are dancing around. If you measure the distance between the body locations and the center point in miles, look what you get.” He pointed at the place where the first body was found. “Twenty-one miles.” He moved his finger to the next one. “Eighteen miles.” Then thirteen, then eight, then five, each location describing a circle around the center point and coming increasingly closer, the distance in miles always perpetuating the Fibonacci relationship.

“All of this has been building toward the final stroke against the Sefirot,” I said, the light slowly dawning. “All the mutilations have been moving toward her final cataclysmic act of destruction. And all the drop-off locations have been pointing toward her final target.” Hearing it aloud made it seem more convincing, almost logical, in a perverse sort of way. “This time, she won’t have to move the body. Or bodies. They’ll already be there.” I looked up at him. “This is more than just the center point, Darcy. This is Ground Zero.” I yanked the center pin out of the map, then gasped. “The county courthouse?”

“I know. I thought that was very strange. Do you think that is strange? Why would she want to hurt a whole courthouse?”

I turned the ignition and peeled toward downtown. “She doesn’t want to take out the whole courthouse. She has a more specific target in mind.”

ESTHER BROKE THE WINDOW and crawled into the room, careful not to cut herself on the broken glass. She’d already hurt herself once today; she didn’t want to repeat the experience. Her illness made her weaker every day and she had to remain healthy—for her little girl’s sake. She kicked the ladder away behind her, as soon as she didn’t need it anymore. Sure, it would be found in time, if it wasn’t destroyed in the explosion. But she would be long gone by then.

Esther preferred a more direct approach, but the metal detectors in the front lobby made that impossible. Still, security here at the county courthouse wasn’t remotely comparable to that at the federal courthouse; it had only taken her a few visits, and some abstract mathematics, to figure out how she could get in undetected.

She smoothed her clothes and dusted off her all-important briefcase. Deciding how to dress had been a challenge. She had to look professional, so the baggy muumuus she had favored of late were out of the question. At the same time, her photograph had been in the newspaper; she was forced to dye her hair, wear glasses she didn’t need, and shoes that made her taller. There was one detail that she couldn’t disguise, of course, but she didn’t think it would be a problem. No one was ever suspicious of pregnant women.

Esther stepped out of the storeroom into the main corridor. Eyes straight ahead, slightly intense, focused, as if she belonged here (which she did) and as if there was nothing unusual about her presence. She knew exactly where she wanted to go. All she had to do was get there without any interference.

“Excuse me, ma’am. May I see your badge?”

The security guard was strictly going through the motions and she knew it. She smiled and remained calm. “I don’t have one yet. I’ve been appointed to act as guardian ad litem in the Merriwether juvenile case, but I haven’t seen the judge yet.” It was useful to have a little experience in these matters.

The guard nodded with understanding, or perhaps it was just intense ennui. “You’d better wait inside. I’ll tell the judge’s clerk.”

Who would just assume the judge forgot to tell him about something and do nothing whatsoever. Esther compliantly entered the room as the guard directed—since it was exactly where she had wanted to go in the first place. The architectural plans she’d pulled off the Internet indicated this was the dead center of the entire family court division. The court system she knew all too well. The system that had shuffled her from one horror home to the next, never once caring about her, never honoring their supposed duty to act as parens patriae—to protect a friendless child.

They were the worse parents of all.

She left her briefcase under the table, then fixed the lock so that if anyone tumbled upon her little package too early…they would be sorry. And then, as unobtrusively as she had arrived, she left, smiling.

I’D DRIVEN AS FAST as possible, but it was still less than twenty minutes till four. While I broke every traffic regulation imaginable, Darcy called Dispatch to call off the manhunt for him, then tried to call Granger, then his father, but he couldn’t reach either. Presumably because they were all still out looking for him. I called for backup to comb the courthouse, then parked illegally just outside the front steps.

“Darcy, I’m going in.”

“I do not think that is a good idea.”

Of course it wasn’t a good idea, but I was going to do it anyway, and fast. I hadn’t been here since the last custody hearing over Rachel; I’d forgotten how damn long it took to climb all these stairs. I was almost at the top before I realized that Darcy was dogging my steps.

“Darcy! Go back to the car!”

He rotated his hands in circles around themselves. “I think that maybe it would be best if I stayed with you.”

“No! It’s too dangerous.”

“You might need me.”

“I will not—” I grabbed him by the shoulders. “Darcy, you have been a great help to me in this case. But this is police work.”

“I want to be a policeman.”

“I know. But you’re not! And you never will be if I let you get killed.”

“No one ever wants to let me do anything, even though I help them over and over again. You are just like my dad.”

“Darcy—” I glanced at my watch. Barely ten minutes till four. I had to hurry. “Darcy, I can’t sit here and argue with you. I’ll explain it all later. But for now—go!”

I turned my back on him and ran as fast as I could. We had only ten more minutes. But I knew where she would strike.

At least I thought I did.

I raced past security, flashing my badge and telling them not to let anyone leave the building. I knew the elevators would be too slow. I jumped into the stairwell and bounded up to the third floor, taking the steps three at a time. Long legs were occasionally an advantage, assuming you didn’t kill yourself. I broke through the door and into the corridor leading to the family court division.

If it hadn’t been for the dinging bell of the elevator doors as they began to close I wouldn’t have noticed. My head turned—

And there she was. No clumsy dye job or fake glasses were going to fool me, especially when the woman was nine months pregnant and looked ten. She recognized me, too. She slunk to the back of the elevator. I lurched, jutting my hand forward. It hurt like hell, but I managed to get my palm in sideways, fast enough to prevent the doors from closing. They reopened, and just as I prepared to step into her domain, she caught me off guard with a very heavy shoe to the gut.

I doubled over and she tried to run past me. I grabbed her leg. My head was flooded with conflicting emotions and motivations. I wanted to twist the ankle around and fling her to the ground, but I reminded myself that she was pregnant. The baby was an innocent. On the other hand, the mother was a psychopathic mass murderer. I couldn’t let her escape.

I wrapped myself around her waist; she tried to drag me down the corridor, beating on me and clawing me with her nails. Where the hell were all those officers who were supposed to be combing the building? I grabbed her hand and gave her the Vulcan Death Grip—three fingers pressed into the soft spot between her thumb and forefinger. Her knees buckled, but she somehow managed to bring her other arm around and slam it into the side of my face. Maybe it was the protective maternal instinct at work. For a woman who was supposedly dying and about to give birth, she fought like hell.

“You are the Math Lady again!”

God in heaven, it was Darcy. Why didn’t he listen to anything I ever said? He was grinning at her like she was some long-lost friend. “That was pretty funny when we played chase at my house. Did you know that I would be faster than you? I bet you thought you could sneak up on me and catch me. But you could not sneak up and catch me. I smelled you and heard you before you got into the kitchen.”

Esther made a sort of growling noise and took a swing at him, well off the mark. It was just the distraction I needed. I grabbed her other arm and twisted it hard behind her back. The sudden pain forced her to her knees.

“I guess you could not catch Susan, either, could you?” He grinned, then sniffed the air. “She smells like Aqua Velva.”

What? Aftershave lotion? Why would she—

No. It had to be something else. Something that smelled like Aqua Velva.

Plastique.

I dug my knee into the small of her back. She cried out. I could tell Darcy didn’t like it; he didn’t like to see anyone hurt. But he didn’t interfere. “Where’s the bomb, Esther?”

“You’ll know soon enough.”

“I want to know now.”

“There’s nothing you can do to me that would make me tell you.”

I checked my watch. “The bomb goes off at four, right?” I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her as hard as I thought I could without inducing premature labor. “Where is it?”

Her only response was a placid smile.

“It isn’t going to work, you know,” I said. “God—if He even exists, which I have serious reason to doubt—isn’t going to come down and have a chat with you just because you killed a lot of innocent people.”

Now I had her attention. She was desperate to know how I knew what she wanted, how much more I might know. But she wouldn’t allow herself to ask.

“You think Timothy McVeigh got a private audience with God? In this world or the next? I don’t.”

“He didn’t do it right.”

“No, and neither did you. This is a delusion, Esther, and somewhere deep inside, you know it. You are not accomplishing anything good here, not for you or your daughter. You’re not Jesus Christ. You’re Jack the Ripper.”

Her eyes narrowed. Her breathing quickened. “You’re wrong. Because you’re still trapped in the prison. In the darkness. But I’ve found the pathway out. I’m on my way to becoming—”

“I have seen that briefcase before!” Darcy was screaming at me from the opposite end of the corridor, pointing at a window. “It is hers.”

“Darcy! Come back!” I pushed Esther down the hallway, toward the conference room Darcy had just entered. Through the window, I watched him pull a briefcase out from under the table. Before I could yell at him not to do it, he had popped the latches.

Even from my distance, I could see the LED readout.

Barely more than four minutes left on the clock.

I ran around to the door, dragging Esther with me. It was locked.

She smiled at me. “I jammed the lock. You can’t get in, and he can’t get out.” She closed her eyes. “I’m afraid your gifted friend is going to die.”

“DARCY! GET OUT OF THERE!” I screamed, but he wasn’t listening, wasn’t even looking at me. He was staring at the digital readout. I didn’t know why. All I could see was a bunch of numbers. I called the bomb squad, then checked on the backup that was supposed to be coming. Neither one would arrive in time.

“Darcy! Get out!”

Esther shook her head. “I told you. He can’t.”

“We’ll see about that.” I pulled my gun out of its holster. I could probably shoot the lock off the door, but that would take longer. “Darcy! Get down!” Careful to aim away from the bomb, I fired two shots into the window.

Glass flew everywhere. Darcy crawled under the table, trying to get away from the noise and the flying shards. I grabbed Esther by the throat.

“Is there any way to shut that bomb down?” I shouted at her.

“Of course. But he won’t figure it out. Not in time. The math is much too complex. The fractions just continue.”

I whipped out my cuffs and locked Esther to the doorknob. “If that bomb goes off, you’ll die.” I paused, looking her square in the eye. “You and your baby girl.”

Her face twitched, ever so slightly. “You won’t go through with it.”

“Watch me!”

“Fine. Then we both die. Better to die in flames than be subjected to the torment of being born unloved. Shuttled from one cruel home to another. Tortured and abused and—”

I didn’t have time to relive her tragic life story. I shoved her down onto the floor. “Darcy! Crawl through the window.”

He didn’t answer. He was doing something, punching the numbers on a keypad beneath the readout. I would’ve been afraid that would trigger a premature explosion, but it didn’t, thank God.

“Darcy! What are you doing?”

“I think—I, maybe if—” He was concentrating; obviously, I was a distraction. “I think it is a puzzle.”

“A puzzle? Like what?”

“Like if I can solve this equation she wrote on the metal part, maybe it will stop the timer.”

I turned back to Esther. “Is that true?”

She looked up at me but didn’t answer. I was certain that meant the answer was yes.

“But there are so many different ways to solve it,” Darcy continued, more to himself than to me. “I do not know which way is right.”

“Darcy, there’s no time. If you don’t crawl out of there, I’m coming in after you.”

“I want to solve the puzzle.”

“Darcy, if you don’t get out in time, you’ll die.”

For the first time, he looked up. “But there has not been time to evacuate the building, has there?”