Ritual in Death Read Online Free

pretty much brand-spanking-new, and just took a position on staff at—”
    “The West Side Health Clinic.”
    “It’s annoying to do the run if I don’t get the payoff. Interview A. They got him cleaned up.”
    “The victim?” Eve asked as they walked.
    “Clean to the squeaky level. Moved to New York about two years ago from Indiana. Both parents and younger brother still back there. We’ll have to notify them.”
    “We’ll take Pike first. They can wait a few hours to have their lives shattered.” She pushed open the door to the interview room, nodded to the uniform.
    The uniform stepped out, and Eve walked to the table where Jack sat in the orange pants and shirt of a con. “Record on. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, and Peabody, Detective Delia, in interview with Pike, Jackson, regarding the investigation into the death of Marsterson, Ava.”
    “Ava?” Jack looked up, his face squeezed tight as if he struggled on the name. “Ava?”
    “That’s right, Ava. You’ve been read your rights, Mr. Pike, is that correct?”
    “Ah, I don’t know.”
    “Then we’ll refresh you.” Eve recited the Revised Miranda. “Do you understand your rights and obligations?”
    “I think. Yes. Why? Why am I here?”
    “You don’t remember?”
    “My head.” He pressed both hands to his temples. “Was I in an accident? My head hurts.”
    “What do you remember about today?”
    “I . . . I went to work. Didn’t I? What day is it? Is it Tuesday?”
    “It’s Wednesday.”
    “But . . .” Jack stared up at her. “What happened to Tuesday?”
    “What drugs did you take, Jack?”
    “I don’t, I don’t take drugs. I don’t do illegals. I’m a doctor. I’m on staff at . . .” He held his head again, and rocked. “Where? Where?”
    “The West Side Health Clinic.”
    He looked at Eve, his eyes, his face slack with relief. “Yes. Yes. That’s it. I just started. I went to work. I went to work, and then . . .” He moaned, shuddered. “Please, can I have a blocker? My head’s pounding.”
    “You’ve got something in you, Jack. I can’t give you a blocker until I know what it is. Did you go to the Palace Hotel with Ava? To Suite 606?”
    “Ava . . . I can’t . . . Ava works at the clinic.” Sweat shone on his face from the effort. “Ava, manages . . . Ava. We . . .” Then horror covered it. “No. No. No.”
    “What happened to Ava, Jack?”
    “No. No.”
    “What happened in 606?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t—”
    “Stop!” She reached over, grabbed a fistful of his shirt. “You tell me what happened.”
    “It’s not real. It didn’t happen.”
    “What isn’t real?”
    “The people, the people.” He surged to his feet, and Eve signaled Peabody to stay back. “The lights. The voices. Smoke and fire. And hell came.” He lurched around the interview room, holding his head. Tears leaked out of his eyes. “Laughing. Screaming. I couldn’t stop. Did I want to stop? We had sex. No. Yes. I don’t know. Bodies and hands and mouths. They hurt her. Did I hurt her? But she was smiling, smiling at me. Then her blood.”
    His hands ran over his face as if wiping at it. “Her blood. All over me.”
    His eyes rolled up in his head. Peabody managed to break the worst of his fall by going down with him. “Jesus, Dallas, no way this guy’s faking it.”
    “No. Let’s get him into a cage. I want him on suicide watch. I want eyes on him.” She stepped to the door at the knock.
    “Screening on your suspect, Lieutenant. They said you wanted it ASAP.”
    “Thanks.” She took the report from a tech, scanned it. “Jesus, what doesn’t this guy have in him? Erotica, Rabbit, Zoner, Jive, Lucy.”
    “Sleepy, Dopey, and Doc,” Peabody finished. Then shrugged at Eve’s frown. “Bad joke. No wonder his head’s screaming. Coming down off a cocktail like that’s gotta rip it up.”
    “Get him into a cage, have a medic treat him. He’s had enough for one night.”
    “He doesn’t come across like