"I don't know where they are, I swear to you." Like a plea, Younger held out her hands. "I swear it. I was married to a cop, and a cop has been killed. I know what that could mean for my daughter. Mac has lost his mind, Lieutenant. Losing Susann and their baby broke him. Maybe, I don't know, maybe some of this was always there in him, but contained. The way Willow seems contained so much of the time. But he broke, and he'll die trying to finish what he started. Willow's fifteen. Do you remember fifteen, how you feel at fifteen? You feel immortal, and you feel like dying for a cause is romantic, whatever the cause might be. I don't want my baby to die. I'll do anything I can, tell you anything I know."

She took a deep breath.

"His hands shake."

"Mackie's hands shake?"

"Yes, not always, but it comes and goes. I haven't seen him for nearly a month, but the last time I did, he looked... off. On the frail side, shaky. I haven't been a cop's wife for a long time, but I don't think he could execute these strikes. I think, God help her, I think he's trained Willow to make them."

She stared down at the table. "I want to believe it's against her will, but I know it isn't. But he's used her love for him, her admiration. He's made her think what she's doing is heroic, is right, is what her father wants and needs. She's only a child. She isn't responsible."

Yes, Eve thought, she is, but let it go. "Do they have a favorite restaurant, pizza joint? Somewhere they went habitually?"

"I don't know."

"You said she competed, won trophies. Anywhere he'd take her to celebrate when she won?"

"I don't know. She didn't want me there, didn't want to share that with- Wait. Divine's."

"Ice cream." Peabody put in. "They've got frozen desserts and yogurt, but they also have the real deal."

"Yes. Willow loved that place, loved their caramel sundaes. They're pricey, and you often have to wait up to an hour to get seated, but Mac and I started taking her when she was a toddler, and... I guess it got to be their place. He'd take her there on special occasions."

"Peabody, send Uniform Carmichael and Officer Shelby to Divine's, with the ID shots, and the sketches."

"Yes, sir! Peabody exiting Interview."

"Is there anywhere else that strikes you, any other routine they had?"

"The target range the indoor one in Brooklyn, I don't know the name. And there's some other place for target shooting, indoors and out; it's in New Jersey."

Eve shook her head. "Anywhere less structured?"

"I know he took her out west Montana. And I think they went out west without clearing it with me. I stopped asking because they'd lie, and Willow would lie in a way that made it clear she lied. Do you have any children, Lieutenant?"

"No."

"Then you don't know what it's like to fail as a mother." Younger looked away, her eyes shattered. "I don't know how to save her now."

"Ms. Younger, we're going to do everything we can to find her, to bring her in without harming her, to stop her before she causes more harm. What you've told me may help us do that. I'm going to have you taken back to your family. We're going to take all of you somewhere safe until we find Willow."

"Will I be able to see her, to talk to her when you do?"

"Yes."

But she may not talk to you, Eve thought.

11.

E.

ve didn't have time for hysteria, and ten seconds after walking in to interview Alyce Ellison she wished, bitterly, she'd left the woman to Jenkinson and Reineke.

"Why is he trying to kill me?" Ellison's shriek cut a dull, jagged groove through Eve's skull. "I didn't do anything. I didn't hurt anybody! Somebody's trying to kill me."

"Ms. Ellison -"

"The police came to my apartment! I didn't even finish my dinner! People are going to think I've been arrested! I didn't do anything! I could be killed any second!"

As she raved, Ellison whirled around the room, her arms alternately waving like flags, then coiling around her stick-figure body as if to hold what there was of it together. Her eyes, heavily lined in glittery blue, bugged out of her narrow face. Her mouth, heavily dyed in shiny red, never stopped moving.

"Sit down and knock it off."

"What? What? Would you sit down if your life was in danger?"

"Lady, I'm a cop. My life's in danger daily and I know how to sit down. Watch this."

To demonstrate, Eve sat at the Interview table.

"Being in danger's what you get paid for! Someone's trying to kill me."

"Not at the moment, so sit the hell down. Sit!" Eve snapped.

"You can't talk to me like that." Now tears swam, an ocean between glittery shores. "I'm a citizen."

"Right now you're wasting the time of the investigators on a series of homicides. Sit, shut it, or get out."

"I'm not going anywhere. You have to protect me. I'll I'll sue!"

"You have to be alive to sue." Eve got up, walked to the door, opened it. "Sit or get out. Now."

Ellison sat, dissolving into wild sobs. "You're mean. You're just mean."

"I can be meaner because blubbering's wasting my time, too. Suck it up. You're alive and well and in protective custody. We plan on keeping you alive and well. Want that? Pull yourself together and answer some questions."

"I don't know anything."

"You knew Susann Mackie."

"I didn't hurt her!" Ellison lifted her blubbering-splotched face. "I could have fired her, but I didn't. I gave her another warning, that's all."

"What kind of warning?"

"About being late, and about forgetting to check the stock, and about how long she talked to customers. It's not my fault she got hit by a car!"

"When did you give her the warning?"

"Which time?" Ellison sniffled now, blinked fat tears from her sparkly eyes. "I had to talk to her every month, explain again how uneven her evaluations were because she was never on time to work or from her breaks, and she'd end up talking to a customer for like ten minutes instead of selling anything."

"Why didn't you fire her?"

Ellison sighed. "Because when she did sell, she did really well, and a lot of customers came back and went to her, especially. And she was nice, you just had to like her. She had a really good eye for fashion, for what looked good. She always looked good, and she could when she wasn't off daydreaming steer a customer to just the right outfit or accessory. I liked her. We all went to her memorial. I cried and cried."

I bet, Eve thought.

"Did you warn her the day she went to the doctor on her lunch break?"

Those glossy red lips trembled. "I had to. It was evaluation day, and I had to. I told her she had to be on time, just had to show improvement in that area. She said she was sorry and she would. She always said that, and she'd usually be on time for a few days, even a week after eval, and then... But that day, she never came back from lunch."

Ellison started to cry again. "I was so mad. We were really slammed we had a major sale going, and I was really mad. I tagged her 'link, and got v-mail, and I was harsh. I said how if she didn't respect me or the position enough to be back from her lunch break on time, she just shouldn't come back at all. I didn't know she was dead."

"Okay." Since she was actually getting information now, Eve softened her tone. "You were doing your job."

"I was! If she'd told me she had a doctor's thing, or if she'd tagged me up, let me know she was running late because of one, I wouldn't have been harsh. I swear. I don't want to die! I'm only twenty-nine."

Official ID data said thirty-three, but Eve let that pass.

"You're not going to die. Did you speak to Reginald Mackie after the accident?"

"We we sent flowers and a sympathy note. And we went a whole group of us to the memorial."

"Right. Did you speak to him personally?"

"I just couldn't. I couldn't stop crying."

"Did he speak to you, at any time?"

"No. His his daughter..."

"Willow Mackie."

"Yes. She came into the store. I recognized her because she'd come in before, so Susann could help her find clothes. And she came up to me, right up to my face, and said how I had to be sorry Susann got killed because I didn't get to be a big shot and fire her. How Susann and the baby were dead because I wouldn't give her enough time to go to the doctor's. And she said: 'Enjoy your crappy job and your crappy life while you have them.'"

"When did this happen?"

"I guess about a month after the memorial. She didn't even look mad or upset. She was sort of smiling the whole time. I was really upset, and I tried to say I was sorry, but she just walked away. She knocked over a display of T-shirts on her way out. On purpose!"

"Did she ever come back?"

"Not while I was working. I never saw her again, until I saw her picture on the bulletin. All I could think was I wasn't surprised."

"Why is that?"

"Well, I said how she didn't look mad or upset when she came in and said those mean things to me? But she looked a little bit crazy. Darla said so, too. Darla's one of our top salespeople, and she was right there. She saw the whole thing, and she said how that girl's just crazy in the eyes."

Eve headed back toward her office, and Peabody walked briskly out.

"Dallas!" Peabody moved into a jog. "We just confirmed the Mackies in Divine on the afternoons of both attacks. They're on the feed today, at the counter ordering, at fourteen-twenty-five.

"Both?"

"Yeah. The security feed's a twenty-four-hour loop, so we've missed catching them after the first incident, but while Uniform Carmichael reviewed the feed, Officer Shelby talked to some of the staff. Two of them remembered the Mackies, and the day because of the attack. Both agree they came in around quarter to four. Just after the peak of the after-school swarm."

"Were they carrying anything?"

"I -"

"Find out, find out now! Did he have any kind of case, did she? Backpacks, bags, rollies. Now, Peabody."

"Yes, sir."

Eve went straight to her office, snagged the results from EDD the minute she saw them.

"On screen."

Hands on her hips, she studied the buildings highlighted in order of probability. They'd gotten lucky with the first nest, she thought. Maybe that luck would hold.

"She had a backpack." Peabody came to the door. "That's it. No briefcase or luggage or bags of any kind on the feed. Just a backpack. The wits don't remember any bags either from yesterday."

"So they went to their hole after the strike, had time to stow their weapons, then get fucking ice cream. Get me a conference room."

"We've got A. Whitney has it reserved for us for the duration."

"Briefing, everybody, five minutes."

"Do you want EDD?"

"I said everybody."

Eve grabbed what she needed, went straight to the conference room. She updated the board, brought up the EDD map on screen, split it, and began assigning sectors to various officers and detectives.

She glanced over, frowned when Roarke came in.

"I didn't know you were still here."