"Oh, G.o.d, Kate, I've needed you," he confessed, his mouth brushing thesh.e.l.l of her ear. "I've missed you so."

Kate kissed his cheek, ran a hand over the short-cropped hair. "I'venever needed anyone the way I needed you .. . need you .. ."

He caught the distinction, and stood back to look at her for a moment.

He didn't ask if she was sure. Afraid she might answer, Kate supposed.

And so was she. There was no certainty in her. There was no logic, nothought of anything beyond the moment, and the tangle of raw feelings,and the need to lose herself with Quinn .. . only with him.

She led him upstairs by the hand. He stopped her three times to kissher, touch her, bury his face in her hair. In her bedroom they helpedeach other undress. Tangled hands, impatient fingers. His shirt on theback of a chair, her skirt in a puddle on the floor. Never losing contact with each other. A caress. A kiss. An anxious embrace.

For Kate, Quinn's touch was a memory overlapping real time. The feel ofhis hand on her skin was imprinted on her mind and in her heart. It drewto the surface the desire she had known only with him.

Instantly, in a warm rush and a sweet ache. As if they'd been apart fivedays instead of five years.

Her breath caught at the feel of his mouth on her breast, and shudderedfrom her as his hand slipped between her legs, and his fingers found herwet and hot. Her hips arched automatically to the angle they'd found somany times before, so very long ago.

Her hands traveled over his body. Familiar territory. Ridges and planesof muscle and bone. Smooth, hot skin. The valley of his spine.

His erection straining against her, as hard as marble, as soft asvelvet.

His thick, muscular thigh urging her legs farther apart.

She guided him into her, felt the absolute thrill of him filling herperfectly, the same as she had felt every single time they'd ever madelove. The sensation, the wonder of it, had never dulled, only sharpened.

For him as well as for her. She could see it in his eyes as he lookeddown at her in the lamplight: the intense pleasure, the heat, thesurprise, the hint of desperation that came from knowing this magichappened only with each other.

The last made her want to cry. He was the one, the only one. The manshe'd married, whose child she'd borne, had never come close to makingher feel what John Quinn made her feel with his mere presence in the room.

She held him tighter, moved against him stronger, dug her fingernailsinto his' s back. He kissed her deeply, possessively, with his tongue,with his teeth. He moved into her with building force, then pulledhimself back, gentled, eased them both away from the edge.

Time lost all meaning. There were no seconds, only breaths and murmuredwords; no minutes, just the ebb and flow of pleasure. And when the endfinally came, it was with an explosion of emotion running head-on fromeach extreme of the spectrum. And then came an odd mix of peace andtension, contentment and completion and wariness, until exhaustionoverrode all else, and they fell asleep in each other's arms.

CHAPTER 23.

"LISTEN UP!".

Kovac leaned heavily on the end of the table in the Loving Touch ofDeath war room. He had been home long enough to fall asleep on a kitchenchair while waiting for the coffee to brew. He hadn't showered orshaved, and imagined he looked like a b.u.m in the same limp, wrinkledsuit he'd worn the day before. He hadn't had time to even change hisshirt.

Everyone on the team was showing similar signs of wear. Dark circles under bloodshot eyes. Deep frown lines etched into pale faces.

The room stank of cigarettes, sweat, and bitter coffee over the originalaromas of mice and mildew. A portable radio on the counter tuned to WCCOcompeted with a ten-inch television tuned to KSTP, both on to catch thelatest reports the media had to offer. Photos from the car fire and ofvictim number four had been hastily pinned to one of the boards, sofresh from the developing trays, they were curling in on themselves.

"The media is going nuts with the stuff from last night," Kovac said.

"Smokey Joe lights up a vic practically under our noses, and we looklike we've been sitting around picking our toenails. I've already hadthe chief and Lieutenant Fowler on me like a couple of trick riders thismorning.

Long story short: If we can't make something happen fast, we'll all beon jail duty doing body cavity searches."

"That'd be the closest thing to s.e.x Tip's had in years," Adler said.

Tippen fired a paper clip at him from a rubber-band slingshot.

"Very funny. Let me start with you, Chunl Mind if I use a crowbar?"

Kovac ignored them. "We managed to keep word of that ca.s.sette tape awayfrom them."

"Thank G.o.d none of them found it," Walsh said, contemplating the stateof his handkerchief, "They'd be playing it on every station in town.Kovac hadn't been able to get the sound of those screams out of hishead. The idea of that tape playing into every house in the Twin Citieswas enough to make his stomach roll.

"The tape is at the BCA lab," he said. "Some techno-geek is going overit, trying to pick up background noise and the like. We'll see what hehas to say later. Tinks, did you find Vanlees?"

Liska shook her head. "No go. It seems the only close friend he's got iswhoever he's house-sitting for. And he sure won't be making any new onessoon. Mary and I managed to p.i.s.s off everyone he knows, calling up inthe middle of the night. One guy said Vanlees was bragging on this housethough. He thought it sounded like it might be Uptown or thereabouts.

Near a lake."

"I've got a car sitting on his Lyndale apartment," Kovac said. "Anotherone at the Target Center, and one at the Edgewater town houses. Andevery cop in town is looking for his truck."

"We've got no probable cause to arrest him," Yurek pointed out.

"You won't need it," Quinn said, walking into the middle of theconversation. Flecks of snow melted in his hair. He shrugged out of histrench coat and tossed it on the counter. "It's not an arrest. We're asking for his a.s.sistance. If this guy is Smokey Joe, then he's feelingc.o.c.ky and smug. He made us look like idiots last night. The idea of thecops asking him for help will have enormous appeal to his ego."

"We don't want to lose the guy on a technicality, that's all," Yurek pointed out.

"The first person to screw up that way, I will personally shoot in the kneecaps," Kovac promised.

"So, G," Tippen said, eyes narrowed. "You think this guy is it?"

"He fits the picture pretty well. We'll get him in here and have a chat,

then I'd recommend a b.u.mper-lock surveillance. Make him sweat, see whatwe can get him to do. If we can rattle him, get him to spook, doors willopen. If things fall right, we'll end up with cause for a searchwarrant."

"I'll head over to the Edgewater," Liska said. "I'd like to be on hand, try to put him at ease, get his guard down."

"How did he seem at the meeting last night?" Quinn asked.

"Fascinated, a little excited, full of theories."

"Do we know where he was Sunday night?"

"The ever-popular home alone."

"I want to be there when you get him in the box," Quinn said. "Not in the room, but watching."

"You don't want to question him?"

"Not right off the bat. We'll have you in there, and someone he's never seen before. Probably Sam. I'll come in later."

"Beep me as soon as you've got him," Kovac said as a phone rang in the

background. Elwood got up to answer it. "Tip, Charm, did you find anybody who saw the Dimarco girl get in a truck Sunday night?"

"No," Tippen said. "And the going rate for that answer is ten bucks.

Unless you're Charm. In which case, you can get that answer and a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b for a smile."

Yurek gave him a dirty look. "Like it's some kind of treat to get the clap for free."

"It is for Tip," Liska pointed out.

"Charm! Telephone!" Elwood called.

"Stay on it," Kovac ordered. "Get some fliers printed off with the girl's picture and a picture of a GMC Jimmy. Ask Lieutenant Fowler about a reward. Chances are someone just hanging out in that area at that time of night will be willing to turn in his mother for a couple hundred bucks."

"Will do."

"Someone diplomatic has to go to the Phoenix and talk again to this hooker that knew the second vic," Kovac went on.

"I'll do it," Moss offered.

"Ask her if Fawn Pierce had a tattoo," Quinn said, forcing himself tosit ahead. He rubbed at a knot in the back of his neck. "Lila White had a tattoo exactly where that chunk of flesh was missing from her chest.

Smokey Joe may be an art lover. Or an artist."

"Where'd you get that?" Tippen asked, skeptical, as if maybe Quinn hadjust pulled it down out of the sky.

"I did something no one else bothered to do: I looked," he said bluntly.

"I looked at the photographs Lila White's parents gave Agent Moss. Theywere taken days before her death. If it turns out Fawn Pierce had atattoo removed by the killer, you'll need to find where both women gotthem done and check out the parlors and everyone a.s.sociated with them."

"Do we know if Jillian Bondurant had any tattoos?" Hamill asked.

"Her father says none he knew of"

"Her friend, Michele Fine, claims not to know of any either," Liskasaid. "And I think she'd know. She's a walking scratch pad herself."

"Did she ever come in to get printed?" Kovac asked, digging through amessy stack of notes.

"I haven't had time to check."

A cell phone rang, and Quinn swore and got up from the table, digging inthe pocket of his suit coat.

Adler pointed at the television, where scenes from the car fire filledthe screen. "Hey, there's Kojak!"

The sun guns washed Kovac's skin out to the color of parchment.

He frowned heavily at the cameras and shut down the questions with astiff rendition of "The investigation is sensitive and ongoing. We haveno comment at this time."

"You need to lose that mustache, Sam," Liska said. "You look like Mr.Peabody from Rocky and Bullwinkle."

"Any mutilation on the latest vic?" Tippen called from the coffeepot. I"Autopsy's scheduled for eight," Kovac said, checking his watch.

Seven-forty. He turned to Moss. "Rob Marshall from legal services willmeet you at the Phoenix. That's the bra.s.s making public nice-nice withthe Urskines after the b.i.t.c.h Queen of the North kicked up that stinklast night.

"Personally, don't care how offended they are. I want someone to have aheart-to-heart with Vampira's mate at the station later today.

Mary, ask him to come in, and be vague when they demand to know why.

Routine procedure, like that. And ask if they have a credit card receiptor canceled check from the cabin they were in the weekend Lila White waskilled.

"Gregg Urskine was one of the last people to see our witness last night.

The first vic was a guest of theirs. The second was a friend of one oftheir current hookers. That's too many close calls for me," Kovacdeclared.

"Toni Urskine will be on the phone to every news outlet in the metro,"Yurek cautioned.

"Ifif we're polite, that only makes her look bad," Kovac said. "We'rebeing thorough, leaving no stone unturned. That's what Toni Urskinewanted."

"Did we get anything from the meeting last night?" Hamill asked.