“I haven’t seen your dog.” But Dawber opened the door another inch to take the flyer.
“Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.”
And Eve kicked the door all the way open. “Police. Put your hands up, Dawber.”
He shrieked. And ran across a dimly lit, empty foyer.
She could have stunned him with the weapon in her hand, but opted for a short chase—he had some speed.
He whipped left, into a big, empty room, toward a side door. Her hard tackle had him skidding over the dusty floor.
“Mommy! I want my mommy!” He beat his fists, kicked his feet, shrieking in a voice she wondered didn’t shatter glass in a radius of ten miles. “She’s gonna beat you up.”
“Yeah? I don’t think so.” Eve yanked his arms behind his back, slapped on the restraints. “Andrew Dawber, you’re under arrest for the murders of Lauren Elder and Anna Hobe, for the abductions of same and of Mary Kate Covino.”
“I hate you. You’re a bad girl.”
“Bet your ass I’m bad.” Rising, Eve stared down as Dawber sobbed and thrashed. “Got him, Peabody?”
“Yeah, I got him.”
“Jenkinson, target secure. I’m heading your way.”
“Copy that. Had to bust the damn window, but we’re through. Mary Kate! Mary Kate Covino. Police! We’re the police.”
She stood, shackles on the floor, keys clutched in one hand, the little Taser in the other.
And looked ready to use it.
Jenkinson holstered his weapon, held up his badge as his partner did the same. “It’s okay now, Mary Kate.” Jenkinson softened his tone. “We’re the cops. It’s okay now. You’re safe now.”
Her breath heaved and hitched before she dropped the Taser. She made a limping run to Jenkinson, threw herself at him.
“Please, get me out of here. Get me out.”
“That’s what we’re going to do. Don’t you worry.”
Eve reached the steps to see Jenkinson stroking Covino’s hair as she wept on his shoulder.
“Bring her up this way. It’s clear.”
Still clinging to Jenkinson, Mary Kate whipped her head toward Eve. “Did you catch him? Did you find him? He’s insane.”
“We have him,” Eve assured her. “He’s secured. We’re going to have you transported to the hospital, and—”
“No, please, no, please. I don’t want to go to the hospital. I want … God, I want my mom. I want…” She buried her face in Jenkinson’s shoulder again.
“Mary Kate.” Eve came down a few steps. “Cop Central’s not far.”
“It’s not? Where the hell am I?”
“About six blocks from where you live. How about we take you to Central, and I contact your mother, your family, your roommate, anyone you want. We can have a medical look you over there.”
“Please. Okay, please. Can you take me out of here?”
“Jenkinson, take Mary Kate into Central, stay with her. Ah, cloak the board in the conference room, use that. Reineke, I’m going to need you here on the search for now. Start on the second floor.”
“You’ll stay with me?”
“Sure I will. I bet that ankle’s sore. You lean on me now.”
With a sob that ended on a sigh, Mary Kate leaned on Jenkinson. She looked at Eve.
“There was another woman here. At least one other. Her name was Anna, that’s all I could hear. I think he killed her. I’m afraid he did.”
“We’ll talk about it.”
Eve walked down as they walked up. When Roarke came down a few minutes later, she stood at one of the cells. “I’m going to contact Louise—she’s closer than Mira for a physical exam on Covino. Mira’ll handle the rest, but her wrist and ankle looked rough. Three cells. Two more like this.”
She gestured. “And he’d have used the bath in the bedroom suite deal to clean them up. He has a work space set up in there—a long table, all the hair stuff, makeup, the tattoo kit, and so on. Wardrobe in the closet.
“She got the keys from him. I need to ask her how the hell she managed to get him to set down the keys, a knife that’s likely the murder weapon, a Taser—a mini, wouldn’t do much, but still. How the hell did she get him to leave all of that within her reach?”
“She must be a very clever woman. She outwitted him. So did you.”
“On our part, good cop work. On hers? That’s grit. Smarts, yeah, but grit. I have to go in, talk to her. I may want a pass at Dawber tonight, we’ll see. Either way it’s going to take awhile.”