„Yeah, that’s what I need. Baubles and beads. I could use them to – “
„Picking up something,“ Feeney interrupted.
„I hear it.“ Eve went silent, and as she focused, the sound – a humming – took on the pattern of a tune, and a female flavor. She drew her weapon.
„Exits and egresses,“ she murmured to Feeney.
„Undisturbed,“ he said in her ear. „I’ve got no motion, no visual, no heat-sensor reading on anything but you and Peabody.“
So it was on a timer, Eve decided. An electronic loop EDD had missed.
„ Dallas?“ Peabody ’s voice was a frantic hiss. „You read? I see – “
The earpiece went to a waspy buzz. And the air went to ice.
She couldn’t stop the chill from streaking up her spine, but no one had to know about it. She might have cursed the glitch in communications and surveillance, but she was too busy watching the amorphous figure drift toward her.
Bobbie Bray wore jeans widely belled from the knees down, slung low at the hips and decorated with flowers that twined up the side of each leg. The filmy white top seemed to float in a breeze. Her hair was a riotous tangle of curls with the glitter of diamond clips. As she walked, as she hummed, she lifted a cigarette to her lips and drew deeply.
For an instant, the sharp scent of tobacco stung the air.
From the way the image moved, Eve decided tobacco wasn’t the only thing she’d been smoking. As ghosts went, this one was stoned to the eyeballs.
„You think I’m buying this?“ Eve pushed off the wall. But when she started to move forward something struck out at her. Later, she would think it was like being punched with an ice floe.
She shoved herself forward, following the figure into what had been the bedroom area of the apartment.
The figure stopped, as if startled.
Ididn’t know you were up here. What’s it about? I told you, I’m bookin. So I packed. Don’t give me any more shit, Hop.
The figure moved as it spoke, mimed pouring something into a glass, drinking. There was weariness in the voice, and the blurriness of drugs.
Because I’m tired and I’m sick. I’m so fucking messed up. This whole scene is fucked up, and I can’t do it anymore. I don’t give a shit about my career. That was all you. It’s always been all you.
She turned, stood hipshot and blearily defiant.
Yeah? Well, maybe I have lapped it up, and now I’m just puking it out. For Christ’s sake look at us, Hop. Look at yourself. We’re either stoned or strung out. We got a kid. Don’t tell me to shut up. I’m sick of myself and I’m sick of you. I will stay straight this time.
The image flung an arm out as if heaving a glass against the wall.
I’m not humping some other guy. I’m not signing with another label. I’m done. Don’t you get it? I’m done with this, and I’m done with you. You’re fucking crazy, Hop. You need help more than I do. Put that down.
The image threw up its hands now, stumbling back.
You gotta calm down. You gotta come down. We’ll talk about it, okay? I don’t have to leave. I’m not lying. I’m not. Oh God. Don’t. No. Jesus, Hop. Don’t!
There was a sharp crack as the figure jerked back, then fell. The hole in the center of the forehead leaked blood.
„Hell of a show,“ Eve said, and her voice sounded hoarse to her own ears. „Hell of a performance.“
Eve heard the faint creak behind her, pivoted. Maeve stepped into the room, tears pouring down her cheeks. And a knife gleaming dully in her hand.
„He shot me dead. Dead was better than gone – that’s what he said.“
Not John Massey, Eve realized. The Bray/Hopkins legacy had gone down another generation.
„You look alive to me, Maeve.“
„Bobbie,“ she corrected. „She’s in me. She speaks through me. She is me.“
Eve let out a sigh, kept her weapon down at her side. „Oh step back. Ghosts aren’t ridiculous enough, now we have to go into possession?“
„And he killed me.“ Maeve crooned it. „Took my life. He said I was nothing without him, just a junky whore with a lucky set of pipes.“
„Harsh,“ Eve agreed. „I grant you. But it all happened before you were born. And both players are long dead. Why kill Hopkins?“
„He walled me up.“ Her eyes gleamed, tears and rage and madness. „He paid off the cops, and they did nothing.“
„No, he didn’t. His grandfather did.“
„There’s no difference.“ She turned a slow circle as she spoke, arms out. „He was, I was. He is, I am.“ Then spun, pointed at Eve with the tip of the knife. „And you, you’re no different than the cops who let me rot in there. You’re just another pig.“
„Nobody pays me off. I finish what I start, and let me tell you someming: this stops here.“
„It never stops. I can’t get out, don’t you get it?“ Maeve slapped a hand over her lips as if to hold back the gurgle of laughter that ended on a muffled sob. „Every day, every night, it’s the same thing. I can’t get away from it, and I go round and round and round, just like he wanted.“
„Well, I’m going to help you get out of here. And you can spend every day, every night of the rest of your natural life in a cage. Might be a nice padded one in your case.“
Maeve smiled now. „You can’t stop it. You can’t stop me, you can’t stop it. ‘You’re never leaving me.’ That’s what he said when he was walling me up in there. He made me, that’s what he said, and I wasn’t going anywhere. Ever. Fucking bastard killed me, cursed me, trapped me. What the hell are you going to do about it?“
„End it. Maeve Buchanan, you’re under arrest for the murder of Radcliff Hopkins. You have the right to remain silent – “
„You’ll pay for leaving me in there!“ Maeve hacked out with the knife she held and missed by a foot.
„Jesus, you fight like a girl.“ Eve circled with her, watching Maeve’s eyes. „I’m not an overweight dumbass, and you don’t have a gun this time. So pay attention. Stunner, knife. Stunner always wins. You want a jolt, Maeve?“
„You can’t hurt me. Not in mis place. I can’t be harmed here.“
„Wanna bet?“ Eve said, and hit Maeve with a low stun when the redhead charged again.
The knife skittered out of Maeve’s hand as she fell back, hit hard on her ass. There was another swipe of cold, this time like ice-tipped nails raking Eve’s cheek. But she pushed by it, yanking out her restraints as she dragged Maeve’s arms behind her back.
Maeve struggled, her body bucking as she gasped out curses. And the cold, whipped by a vicious wind, went straight down to the bone.
„This stops here,“ Eve repeated, breathless as what felt like frigid fists pounded at her back. „Radcliff C. Hopkins will be charged with murder one in the unlawful death of Bobbie Bray, posthumously. That’s my word. Period. Now leave me the hell alone so I can do my job.“
Eve hauled Maeve to her feet as the wind began to die. „We’re going to toss in breaking and entering and assault on an officer just for fun.“
„My name is Bobbie Bray, and you can’t touch me. I’m Bobbie Bray, do you hear me? I’m Bobbie Bray.“
„Yeah, I hear you.“ Just as she heard the sudden frantic squawking of voices in her ear and the thunder of footsteps on the stairs.
„I couldn’t get to the stairs,“ Peabody told her. „All of a sudden the place is full of people and music. Talk about jeebies. My communication’s down, and I’m trying to push through this wall of bodies. Live bodies – well, not live. I don’t know. It’s all jumbled.“
„We went to the doors soon as communications went down,“ Feeney added. „Couldn’t get through them. Not even your man there with his magic fingers. Then all of a sudden, poof, corn’s back, locks open, and we’re in. Damned place.“ Feeney stared at Number twelve as they stood on the sidewalk. „Ought to be leveled, you ask me. Level the bastard and salt the ground.“