Anatomy of Fear

38

Denton plucked a paper clip off the file and began to bend it.

Had Rodriguez actually seen into his head?

No, that was impossible. But who knew what sort of voodoo shit went through these people’s minds?

Psychics. ESP. All bullshit.

But what if it wasn’t bullshit?

Denton skimmed through the files, father and the son, Juan and Nathan. The father had been a narc. Before his time. Had worked with his current chief of operations, Mickey Rauder.

Could Rauder know anything?

He had to know Vallie too. Were they still in contact? Had Vallie said something to Rauder?

The paper clip snapped.

No, he was getting carried away. If Vallie had so much as hinted at anything to straight-arrow Rauder he’d have heard about it by now. And so would everyone else. He had taken care of everything. There was nothing to worry about. He was just being paranoid.

It was Rodriguez’s fault for looking into his head.

And Russo’s. For bringing him into the case.

Oh, yes. I understand all about protecting your reputation.

Russo’s words echoed in his mind, her thinly veiled threat. She wouldn’t dare say anything. It was her career on the line too.

Russo. Rodriguez.

Denton picked up another paper clip and started to twist it.

Of course if Rodriguez fucked up, it was Russo’s fuck-up too. She’d go down, he’d see to that. One less cop around who could do him damage.

Terri wasn’t sure why she was looking at the crime scene photos again. Maybe she wanted to feel as if she still owned them, these dead bodies she had come to think of as under her care even if they were now federal property, the bodies flown to Quantico for more slicing and dicing. And Rodriguez was right: What more could the bodies possibly reveal? If the G found anything she and her team had missed, she’d be surprised.

Rodriguez.

She had not expected anything like this to happen; she’d been down this road one too many times to be a wide-eyed romantic, and she didn’t need it. But hell, he’d apologized. Apologized. Now that was a first. Maybe she’d been right, that he was different. Not that she was looking for a relationship. Right now, all she was looking for was a solution to this case. Her case. No matter what the G said.

Maybe she should be happy the G were taking over, let it be their headache, the way Denton thought, right?

Denton.

She pictured him, chest puffed out, needling Rodriguez. It would not have surprised her if he’d whipped his dick out. A contest he would have lost. The thought brought a smile to her lips, but it didn’t last. She couldn’t figure it out, what Rodriguez meant to her: Was he the talented cop who she’d thought could win her the case, or the guy she was falling for, or both?

She cracked open a new jacket: a cabdriver murdered, something that might knock the Sketch Artist off the front page, the press always hungry for a fresh kill. She tried to read the report, but the words blurred.

Was it too soon to check back with Perkowski and Tutsel, see if they had looked into that old murder book yet?

Terri closed the file on the taxi driver and stood up. As she had told Rodriguez, she liked to have all the facts-and wouldn’t he?

By the time I got back to the city it was dark.

I knew there was nothing in my fridge but a six-pack and a block of cheddar past its prime, so I stopped at the Cupcake Café and bought a wedge of quiche and two cupcakes. Whoever said real men don’t eat quiche didn’t know it was okay if you washed it down with real beer and finished it off with real cupcakes.

The daytime workers had cleared out of my building, the lobby empty.

The elevator was a mess, small anthills of dust in the corners, scraps of crumpled paper on the floor. Likewise, my rusty apartment door covered with peeling alarm warnings that had been there since I’d moved in, all bogus.

I balanced my drawing pad and art supplies along with the quiche and cupcakes in one hand and put the key in the lock. It got stuck and took ten minutes to get out. In the process I dropped the cupcakes. By the time I got inside I was in a really bad mood.

My apartment looked worse than usual-walls dingy, wooden floors scuffed, my clothes draped over my Goodwill furniture. Maybe it was my overnight stay in a sterile hotel that made everything look worse.

I asked myself: Is this the home of a man or a teenage slacker?

I set the food down, plucked my clothes off the furniture and stuffed them into the laundry bag. My bed was unmade and Terri’s smell was still on the sheets. It made me miss her. I flipped open my cell to call, then closed it, went back to the kitchen, glanced across the room, and noticed my iPod was on the floor. I picked it up, saw the crack, and stared at it trying to will it back to life. I felt like a little kid whose favorite toy had been busted.

One of my big anatomy books had fallen off the shelf and landed on the iPod docking station. But when I checked the shelf it looked secure, and no other books were out of place. It seemed odd.

I glanced at the drawings on my work table and started sorting through them. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but something seemed wrong. I tugged my drawing pad out from under the table and opened it. I had a really weird feeling and needed to see if my drawings were all there. They were. I looked at the most recent one of the face I’d been trying to draw.

That’s when I felt it, a presence accompanied by a chill so palpable I was afraid to turn around. But when I did, there was nothing.

I made a beeline for the closet. My Smith & Wesson was still there, and for the first time in seven years I put in a new clip. I went around the apartment, checking closets, the bathroom, even under my bed, holding my breath, heart pounding. But nothing was out of place. So why did I feel as if someone had been here?

Santerian gods were in my head, Akadere, who protected the home, Abaile, messenger in charge of moving things from one place to another. I went over to the window and gazed out at Thirty-ninth Street, the face I could not complete shimmering in my mind. The candle my abuela had given me for protection was sitting on the sill.

There is a man in that room with you, Nato.

I found a match and lit the candle.

Dolores Rodriguez had slept fitfully, her mind replaying the vision, her nieto in a burning room with someone evil.

She had already consulted her shells, and lit candles, made appeals to Santa Barbara, and bought quail eggs as an offering to the powerful Babalu-Aye. But the bad feeling, the algo malo, had persisted. It was the strongest feeling she had experienced since her son was killed.

She knew her grandson was not a believer, but it made no difference. She spread a clean white cloth over the bóveda, filled seven glasses with water, added a crucifix and a string of rosary beads, glanced up at the photograph of her son, Juan, and asked that he keep a watchful eye over Nato. She believed this was the moment Juan’s ori had been waiting for, that it was being called upon to fulfill his destiny on earth; after that, he would stand before Olodumare and Orunla, and they would finally allow his soul to rest.