Unfair Advantage

CHAPTER TWENTY



Trying to avoid Larkin\'s gaze had her a nervous wreck. Add the fear of yet another media circus, instant edgy.



Dani waited just inside the service entrance while Tim and the uniformed officer on duty cleared the alley. Seconds stretched. Unable to restrain concern, she broke silence. "Shouldn\'t I have a disguise like before?"



"We have barricades to shield view and a motorcade ready to disperse and confuse media. Why won\'t you look me in the eye, Dani?"



She closed hers for a moment. In the cramped hall the scent of pine cleaner pervaded. Opening her eyes, she replied, "We made a mistake, Larkin. Dumb luck alone accounts for it not playing on the prime time news."



"Give me some credit. Eight years in the Corps."



"Whatever." A shot of tequila would come in very handy at the moment.



"That\'s not good enough. I\'m putting my career and reputation on the line. I need to know exactly what\'s going on here."



Dani heard the controlled ire. Felt it radiating in waves. Glancing to make certain they remained alone, she finally looked him in the eye. She\'d expected the slam of pure sexual lightning. It didn\'t make it easier to withstand. Recognition flashed in his gaze. She\'d anticipated that, too. You didn\'t fool a man like Larkin.



"I never asked you to do either," she replied. "Point of fact, you told me to let you worry about those things. We enjoyed ourselves. Avoided potential disaster. Back to business."



"We\'ll finish this another time."



Before she could snap a retort, Tim opened the door. "Let\'s roll."



Dani stepped out into the alley. Impromptu canvas barricades blocked both ends of the alley. Four identical dark sedans with tinted windows waited, engines purring, plates taped over. Perceptible masculine outlines in the front seats showed through the windshields of the other three. In each of those, a single female silhouette appeared in the back.



Tim opened the door to the one directly before her. "Your carriage, madam." He grinned, winked.



Dani patted the lapel of his blazer. That same sisterly-motherly affection swelled. "You can carry me back to it after I\'ve done what I intend to do."



She slid in, waited for them to do the same. Doors closed, Tim picked up the radio and called in a report first to precinct dispatch, then to the other cars. Uniformed officers removed both barriers. The motorcade pulled slowly forward, out onto the blocked off street. Diminished, yet still vocal crowds clustered beyond the police tape. Several news vans parked brazenly upon the sidewalks, reporters standing nearby, gesturing to the sedans, speaking into cameras.



Dani felt almost ill. She\'d recover from one assault of unwanted attention, then have to endure the next. For a few seconds she wallowed in the fear and angst. Then, she took firm hold of her boot straps, yanked herself up and resolved to get over it.



"I spoke to the captain today," Larkin said. "I proposed we let you go to the media, tell your story, set the record straight. No more people thinking you\'ve raised the dead. Or considering you as the instant solution to their missing child\'s case."



Dani absorbed his words as she stared out the window. An angry sky glowered over Manhattan\'s skyline. People strode down the walks, cell phones to their ears, leather attaché cases clutched in the other hand.



"Maybe that would work." She spoke the words, disassociated from their meaning.



An ultra-slender woman in an unmistakable Dulce and Gabana dress walked at a brisk, all business clip, supported on envy-worthy Minolo Blanik\'s. Her hair hung straight to her shoulders in a sleek, shiny curtain.



As the car rolled past, Dani stared back at the woman\'s cool, chiseled face. It sent a strange thrill through Dani. It might have been her in the other life. If not for the accident, she would never have sat in a police cruiser, watching a woman who seemed to embody life before it.



She\'d grown up in the mid west, surrounded by Christian dogma and custom. Resented it\'s strictures and set of beliefs until she began to arrive at the conclusion she perhaps simply couldn\'t separate the Christian God and Devil. Both seemed to work in tandem during the same instances. In her early college years she checked out of the religion debate. It provoked no contemplation. Vanished from her consideration altogether during her career. However, after the accident, she\'d had to face the hard facts. Something existed beyond death, and that meant some one or thing must be in charge of it.



Next step? Research every religion, all supernatural matters pertaining to her problem. Before long though, it became too confusing and terrifying. She stopped researching, closed the door and did her best to ignore everything.



What should she think given present circumstances? Who created the person who killed these kids? Savaged their bodies, destroyed their innocence?



Larkin\'s tone cut her esoteric fog. "That all you have to say? Are you all right?"



Dani blinked, turned back around. "I\'m okay with the idea. It might make all this go away."







Brand sat at one end of the glass top dining table, watching Mayan at the other. The Japanese agent from Katana had remained to serve the meal. A first course of miso-crusted sea scallops sat upon Brand\'s own black square plates. She used her chop sticks to nip away at little strands. Her eyes restlessly swept from him, to the kitchen door, back to her plate.



He found himself considering her emotions. "If you don\'t care for scallops, there\'s a second course of prawns."



Her aquamarine eyes locked with his, then dropped to the food. "These are delicious, thank you."



Brand raised his hand. The agent rushed forward, bowed.



Brand took a hundred from his wallet, handed it to the small, trim man. "We no longer require your service."



Her gaze darted like a fearful doe\'s. The agent departed.



He said," Come here."



She pushed back her chair, rose, walked to him. Shoving back his own chair, he pulled her into his lap. She inhaled sharply. He caught the instant scent of arousal.



Brand realized why he wanted her. She craved being caught up in something bigger and more powerful. Longed to lose herself. He felt driven to conquer and possess.



"I\'ll feed you." He halved a scallop, pinched the morsel between the sticks, lifted it to her lips.



They parted. She sighed.



Something down way deep in his physiology responded, twisted.







Dave ventured out to an ultra-modern coffee and computer lab called Get Kix. It provided high speed access computers with gourmet, double caffeine coffee and an astonishing variety of popular energy drinks. Dave eyed the glass front refrigerator cases displaying the sleek, slim colorful cans. Pop culture seemed to have taken the final step into forcing their environment to mirror it.



Nervously he paid cash to get himself on a waiting list for an hour web safari, ordered something called a Java Rush, then took a stool at the window bar to wait. What he intended scared the crap outta him. His uncle would get online at his usual time, when he did, Dave planned to hack him from the web.







Dani left her escorts outside Sergei\'s alley. Already she sensed his presence. Between one second and the next he stood almost at the other end. A heartbeat later right in front of her. Those black tattoos slithered over his shaved head like shiny eels. Pitch colored eyes, mimicking a shark\'s, reflected her image.



"You again."



She steeled herself against his voice. It pierced flesh, scraped over bone with serrated blades. Before he could make another move, she stepped into him.



Have to find that dumpster with the number. I\'ll trade that for a serious score. Maybe enough to sell at a profit. Everything will go my way. Fuck, my skin\'s crawling. I hate this shit. There\'s the dumpster. Squeeze around the back, here it is. Christ fuck all, my eyes won\'t quit blurring. There. Got \'em. Write them down on this 7-11 receipt. I’ll remember his face.



Dani pulled her mind from his, forced a separation. She caught herself before she fell. This time the exit didn\'t leave so nasty a residual. And she stayed on her feet. This was a skill, and she would continue to cultivate it. Gathering her composure she waited for his diminished force to recover energy, reform.



The hazy image of Michael’s kidnapper and killer filled her brain. She’d seen him through an addict’s eyes. Eyes effected by withdrawal.



That agonizing state traveled through to death with his spirit. Coupled with his miserable existence on the streets, his ghost had manifested the horrors and deep emotional scarring.



"Sergei," she said, "This will be difficult to hear."



His head shook from side to side in a sudden, near blur of action.



"Cop bitch. Don\'t talk to me."



"You\'ve passed on, Sergei."



"No. No. No." Blood seemed to pool over his jet eyes, swirl in gory eddies, then drip in red tears. "NO!"



Dani almost sank to one knee from the force. "Remember the fire. You\'re dead. Leave this place. Find peace."



His apparition twanged in the fashion a struck tuning fork might. Began to erode in the vibration. Blue white and yellow flame engulfed his image. The heat flowed around her, unbelievably hot. But, left her untouched.



A single sob erupted from deep within. Dani wiped her eyes, pulled her composure about her in a protective shroud. She left that alley determined never to visit again.





Roarke flexed his shoulders, rolled his head upon them to lessen the tension in his neck.



Fielding scuffed at the brittle brown leaves on the walk, chain-smoked Camels. Announced, "This helpless goddamn waiting blows."



He\'d seen the way Fielding adored and revered Dani, how freely she touched him. They\'d formed a psuedo-sibling bond. Roarke envied the freeness between them. He watched his partner smoke, considered the variant reaction to that smart-mouthed Miss Mathews. Maybe the relationship with Dani gave him something he\'d never had. A woman he cared about, felt familial ties for, who accepted him as is. Now Fielding could change his MO.



His thoughts lingered on Dani. She’d provided the Chevchenko guy’s name. Roarke ran it through the data bases and came up with a rap sheet that covered jeuvi arrests for assault and theft, to a stint in Rikers’ waiting to face meth charges. Roarke had tracked down the arresting officers and learned that during transport to the first court date, a moving van ran a red light, T-boned the DOC bus. In the chaos, Chevchenko escaped and disappeared.



Although they never saw him, the team working the meth lab case believed him a regular customer and low level employee. They intended to pick him up when they had a better case, get info from him, then send him back to Rikers. The explosion changed everything.



If not for Dani, Sergei Chevchenko would have vanished, fate unknown.



Soft footfalls on the gravel-strewn pavement. Roarke whipped around. Dani strode from the alley head high, her elegant features cool and serene.



A face that could launch a thousand ships.



Roarke exhaled. With brutal honesty he admitted he cared less about her success than the fact she returned unharmed. He and Fielding came close to bumping into each other as they rushed to question.



"You found him?" Roarke asked.



Fielding jumped in. "What about the dumpster he scratched on? We can probably get records to trace it, get the imprint."



Dani pushed a strand of caramel and pale honey hair from her eyes. "I saw the number. Let\'s call it in."



Fielding made the report as they drove to where city workers discovered the last vic, Nathan Narrows. Before they stopped, a response came back. The car registration came under the name Hale Barton.



“Get officers on that,” Fielding replied. “Address, place of employment or business, DL number, everything. We need the captain‘s input on procedure. He might have to consult Chief Grace.”



Roarke stopped just down the street from the video store. Small and neat, it seemed out of place between the rowdy bars flanking it. A family known in the neighborhood as intensely moral and conscientious, the owners closed at ten due to nightlife in the area. They had said many prayers for the slain boy whose naked body had been dumped behind their store. Roarke had interviewed them, admired their sense of family and duty.



He let his partner open the door for Dani. Together the three of them walked down the busy sidewalk. His cell rang.



Dani said, “I’d like a few minutes alone at the site.”



“I’ll wait nearby for her, Larkin.”



Roarke nodded, flipped open his phone. “Larkin.”



“Ferelli, here.”



“What do you have for me?”



“I sent a car unit on duty near the address on the license. It’s bogus. No apartment B9. Just a set of single family town houses.”



“Fuck.”



“Gets worse. I pushed a search and found he was issued a passport two years ago. Same name and addy. Reading my mind?”



“Shit. Yeah, I read it. If he has one, he’s probably got another.”



“We can probably revoke his tags on the grounds of false information. Put out an APB and hope to get lucky.”



Roarke cursed more, replied, “No APB. Do everything else you can. Including keep this quiet as possible and as few involved as feasible. We don’t want this crap on the evening news.”



Ferelli grunted. “This blows up in our faces, we may be done.”