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“She did? Well, that’s good. That’s good. Work’s good for
her, and it’s probably why she’s tuned out. Sure. She got caught up, worked late, took a sleeper. Probably didn’t crash out until dawn or something.”
“That’s probably it. Yeah, that’s probably it, but everything’s so screwed up.”
He looked at the flowers, thought of Bart.
“I know.” Var laid a hand on Benny’s shoulder. “Let me tell Stick we’re going off-site for a few minutes.”
When they got outside, they walked fast. “She’ll probably be steamed supreme that we woke her up,” Var commented and managed a smile.
“Yeah, I can hear her now. ‘WTF! Can’t I catch a few extra zees?’ We’ll cage some coffee off her.”
“Now that’s a plan. Hell of a storm last night, huh?”
“The sky was lit up like the raptor battle in Third Planet. Serious window-shaking storm. Cooled things off a little.”
“Yeah.” When they reached the building, Var punched in the code for Cill’s visitor alert.
They waited, hands in pockets. Moments later, the comp announced no answer at the residence. When Var started to try again, Benny shook his head.
“Let’s just go in. Let’s go.” He used the swipe Cill had given him, the palm plate, then the entry codes.
“Just tuned out,” Var said under his breath as they headed to her apartment. “That’s all it is; she’s just tuned out.”
Benny used the side of his fist, gave the door a good pounding.
“Jesus, Ben.”
“I’m not waiting.” Again he used the swipe, the palm, and the two sets of codes. He pushed the door open partway, called her name.
“Cill! Hey, Cill! It’s Benny and Var.”
“Yeah, don’t pull out the pepper spray!”
“Cill?” Benny shoved the door open the rest of the way, hesitated a moment as he looked around the living area. He saw the shoes, the new ones, her bag. Pointed to the bag. “She’s here. She never walks out the door without her sack full of stuff. I’m going to check the bedroom.”
“I’ll look in the office.”
They separated.
“She’s not in here,” Benny hurried out again. “I can’t tell if the bed’s been slept in because it always looks like that.”
“She’s not in the office, the spare, the kitchen. She’s—”
“The holo-room!” Spinning on his heels Benny ran for it. He started to enter the code.
“It’s not locked, man.” Var jerked a head up to the green light, opened the door.
Benny shoved by him. “God! Oh God, Cill!” He sprinted to where she lay crumpled and bloody, and very, very still. “Call nine-one-one!” he shouted. “Hurry. Hurry.”
Var whipped out his ’link, hit the emergency key. “Is she alive? Benny, Benny, tell me she’s alive.”
“I don’t know.” He took her hand, stroked her cheek. And as Var’s voice came from behind him, as if through a long, dark tunnel, he gathered the courage to press his fingers to the pulse in her throat.
In her office, Eve prepped for the briefing. She’d requested Mira’s attendance. She needed a professional opinion of her conclusions after having seen and analyzed each partner’s apartment. With any luck, EDD would give her something concrete to add to that, and they could pull in her lead suspect.
She looked up as McNab pranced in.
