Free Eternity in Death by J. D. Robb

new incomings on office unit Dallas, Cop Central.”
    Acknowledged…There is one new incoming transmission on voice mail…
    “Damn it.” She grabbed the ’link out of Roarke’s hand. “I told them to contact me here as soon as they had—”
    Lieutenant Dallas, this is Allesseria Carter, the bartender at Bloodbath.
    “Conscience got to her,” Eve decided, watching the face on screen. “Walking home, it looks like. Looks spooked.”
    I need to talk to you, um, talk to you about Tiara Kent. If you could contact me as soon—
    There was a sound—a rush of wind? Eve saw a black-gloved hand, the blur of it whip in and close over Allesseria’s throat.
    “Fuck! Goddamn it.” Eve’s own hand clamped on Roarke’s arm as the screen image blurred, the ’link struck the sidewalk, and the display went black.
    “Play it back again,” she ordered Roarke as she yanked out her communicator. “Dispatch, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. I need a unit, closest possible unit at…” She flipped quickly through her memory to the address she’d pulled out of Allesseria’s data, then snapped it out. Repeated it. “Possible victim of assault is Carter, Allesseria. Female, Caucasian, thirty-four, black hair, medium build. I’m on my way.”
    “I’ll go with you,” Roarke told her. “I’m closer than Peabody. You can contact her on the way. You know you won’t find her in her apartment,” he added as they rushed downstairs.
    “Maybe she got away. Maybe he just wanted to scare her. Goddamn it, I picked her out for him. I set her up.”
    “You did nothing of the kind.” He snatched up her jacket from the newel, tossed it to her as he snagged his own. “He chose her, the minute he asked her to lie for him, he chose her. I’ll drive.”
    He’d get there faster, Eve knew, and it freed her to contact Peabody, then take the report from Dispatch. There was no response at Allesseria’s apartment.
    “Get inside,” Eve snapped. “The victim’s life is in immediate jeopardy. I have probable cause. Get the fuck inside.”
    She thumped her fist against her leg as she waited, waited, as Roarke maneuvered her police-issue through streams and clogs of morning traffic.
    Dispatch, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Officers report the apartment is currently unoccupied. There is no sign of break-in or foul play.
    No, Eve thought, there wouldn’t be. He didn’t take her there. “Start an immediate search in a five-block radius. Repeating description. Subject is female, Caucasian, age thirty-four, black and brown, last seen wearing black pants, black shirt, red jacket.”
    Eve ended the transmission, stared out the windshield. “I know it,” she said, though Roarke had said nothing. “I know it. He didn’t leave her alive.”
    Seven
    Eve scanned sidewalks, the buildings as they approached Allesseria’s apartment. It was a tough, low end of the lower-middle-class neighborhood. Most self-respecting muggers would hunt for scores a few blocks away in any direction.
    Pickings would be slim here, and the population willing to fight for what they carried in their pockets. Street level LCs would troll for johns elsewhere, too. All in all, the handful of blocks were safe simply because they were poor enough not to warrant much trouble.
    But Allesseria Carter hadn’t been safe.
    Eve’s gaze zeroed in on a subway exit. “Pull over, park wherever you can. She’d take the subway, wouldn’t she? Cheap and quick. If she did, this would’ve been her route home.”
    She slammed out of the car the minute Roarke stopped, then pulled out her ’link to replay the message. Looked for landmarks. “It’s dark, and it’s mostly her face, but…” She held up her own ’link as if relaying a message, then looked over her left shoulder. “See here, could be that building in the background.”
    She kept walking, studying the screen, the street. “Here, he took her right about here. Somebody would’ve picked up her ’link by now, or he did, but it was right