Lisa Jackson's Bentz And Montoya Bundle Part 141

He explained about the names or t.i.tles of the victims being palindromes, how the numbers at the crime scenes read both left to right and right to left, how they also might represent room numbers for the hospital. "Terrence Renner's office was room 101, and Sister Rebecca's was 111. They're not sure about all of the victims, but it's worth looking into." Montoya tugged at his goatee. "Seems kinda far-fetched to me, but we've walked down that road before."

Bentz grunted in agreement. "Far-fetched" sometimes felt like it was the norm.

They continued single file as two officers came through, hurrying the opposite way. Montoya added, "Eve's really freaked because she can't get hold of her sister-in-law, Anna, who has one of those backward-forward type of names."

"Does this Anna have any connection to the hospital?"

"None we've found. Yet. h.e.l.l. But Eve does, and she's obviously already in the killer's sights."

"Maybe they're on to something." Bentz fell into thought as his shoes clicked on the polished floor. "The whole palindrome thing is too much of a coincidence."

"I told Eve we'd meet at her house. She's already got a cleaning crew and locksmith lined up. We're done there, right? We can release the house to her. All the evidence and photographs have been taken. We've got the sheets, blood samples, prints. No reason to keep her out of the house."

"If she wants to go back there."

"I wouldn't," Montoya admitted as they walked outside.

Heavy clouds had rolled in, blocking what was left of the afternoon sun, and the temperature had dropped a few degrees. Traffic, full in the throes of rush hour, sluggishly snarled its way through the streets as, cars, buses, and trucks moved out of the city.

"So, what was it Washington wanted to talk to you about?"

"DNA." Bentz handed the pages to Montoya, who scanned the information quickly.

"So...wait a minute. Ellen Chaney swears Faith Chastain had one baby, a boy, who was stillborn. How do we get from that to a dead pig in a coffin and a woman woman who is very much alive and Faith's daughter?" who is very much alive and Faith's daughter?"

"Read on."

"There's more?"

"Oh yeah." Bentz flexed his hands, still trying to process the information Bonita Washington had handed him. The story wasn't hanging together-the dead baby, Eve's DNA matching Faith's...Something was wrong somewhere. Ellen Chaney was either lying or hadn't gotten her facts straight. That bothered him. He could usually sense bulls.h.i.t, but Chaney had seemed sincere. Now, running a hand through his hair, he felt his stomach begin to roil and thought the h.e.l.l with it. To Montoya, he said, "I'll take that smoke now, if you've got one."

"Sure." Montoya found his cigarettes and handed the pack and his lighter to Bentz.

Bentz lit up, drawing deep, sensing smoke curl into his lungs as his partner flipped through all the pages slowly, his eyes narrowing as he read.

Montoya stopped dead in his tracks and looked up at Bentz. "What the h.e.l.l does this mean?"

Bentz handed over the rest of the pack and the lighter, enjoying the first buzz of nicotine. "Don't know. I never met Faith Chastain."

"But-"

"I can't explain it," Bentz said, but his mind was taking a trip of its own, running down a long, dark corridor with doors to rooms that he'd hoped would never be opened again. No matter how hard he wanted to lock the truth away, it always fought to get out, to be known. His gut gnawed, and he reached into his pocket for his antacids.

Montoya's dark eyebrows slammed together as he read the information for the second time. "For Christ's sake, you must know something. This is your d.a.m.ned family."

"Yours too, if you marry Abby." He plopped a pill into his mouth and chewed. "We might all be related."

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Related?" Montoya shook out a cigarette for himself, jabbed the Marlboro into his mouth. He flicked his lighter to the tip of the cigarette, inhaling as if the smoke were life giving. "That's sick," he said as he exhaled a cloud of smoke.

You don't know the half of it, Bentz thought as he considered all the possibilities of who in his family could be Eve Renner's father. He didn't like where his logic took him and couldn't imagine how to tell Eve or Kristi. Montoya was right. It was sick. "Looks like Abby can start adding Eve's name to the family Bible after all." Bentz thought as he considered all the possibilities of who in his family could be Eve Renner's father. He didn't like where his logic took him and couldn't imagine how to tell Eve or Kristi. Montoya was right. It was sick. "Looks like Abby can start adding Eve's name to the family Bible after all."

"And yours too? Man, what a mess."

Amen, brother, Bentz thought, crushing out his cigarette on the sidewalk. A-d.a.m.ned-men. A-d.a.m.ned-men.

Eve couldn't believe her ears. Stunned, she stood next to Cole in the backyard of her grandmother's house. The wind was sighing through the branches of the magnolia tree, dusk was slowly creeping across the land, and Bentz's shocking statement still hung in the air as if it were a living being.

"The DNA tests prove that you're Faith Chastain's daughter. And I'm afraid there's more. It looks like you're related to me as well."

She stared at Detective Rick Bentz, and he stared back. "How...I mean..." She held up her good hand and processed the unlikely information all over again. She was related to Bentz. And she also was She was related to Bentz. And she also was Abby Chastain's half sister. And Faith's daughter. But not Jacques Chastain's child. "I don't believe it." "I don't believe it."

Cole, too, was skeptical, but then he'd never trusted the police. "You're sure?" he asked Bentz, his gaze moving from Montoya, who was resting a hip against the fender of his car, to Bentz, who was standing closer, delivering the unlikely news.

"I understand this is difficult."

"Difficult?" Cole laughed silently at the understatement.

"I have the reports. The tests were run three times. I had trouble believing this too. Believe me. But the DNA markers are clear," Bentz said.

Eve regarded him with new eyes, trying to decipher if there was any resemblance between them. The answer to that question was a firm no. Eve had a slim build, curly reddish hair, a short nose, and blue eyes tinged with green. Bentz was stocky, with brown hair showing hints of gray, a square jaw, and flinty, deep-set eyes. "Related how?" she asked suspiciously. She needed more specifics before she could swallow this story. She saw no reason for him to lie, but...this just couldn't be true! What was he saying? That he was her father father, her brother? brother?

He must've read the questions in her eyes. "I'm not exactly certain how we're related, but no, I'm not your father. I never met Faith Chastain."

Eve was more than a little relieved. She'd suffered too many blows in the father department as it was. Terrence Renner had just been brutally murdered, not even as yet buried, and she couldn't come to grips thinking this rugged detective with whom she'd been so combative could be the man who had sired her. Bentz, along with Montoya, had doubted her word from the moment they'd met, and both men had been dogged in their quest to see Cole put behind bars.

Nonetheless, she was convinced by his expression that he believed the news he was delivering was the truth.

"Could you be my half brother?" she asked, rubbing the arm that was still in a sling. "Could we have the same father?"

Montoya found his cigarettes and fired one up.

Bentz responded, "I don't see how. My dad was shot in the line of duty, long before you could have been conceived."

"An uncle, then?"

"I don't have the answers yet. But believe me, I'll get 'em." His jaw set determinedly.

"But Abby's my half sister?"

"Yes."

Montoya, leaning against his car, gave Eve a searching look. "I was going to tell her tonight, unless you want to."

She didn't have to think twice. "I'll leave that to you, Detective. But ask her to call me when she wants to."

Montoya nodded. "Knowing her, it'll probably be as soon as she hears the news."

"Anytime would be fine." She felt strange. At sea. If it were true...if...then Abby and Zoey Chastain were both her half sisters, and somehow Rick Bentz was part of her family as well.

"You should also know that we found a grave, the one that was supposed to have held Faith's child, her boy child," Bentz said.

"A grave?" Eve froze, felt Cole step closer to her. "With a baby?"

"There was no baby, at least none that we could find."

She pressed the heel of her palm to her head and closed her eyes. "You found an empty grave for Faith's baby, for me me, is that what you're saying?"

"We think it was originally for Faith's child, but it had been tampered with, the earth fresh, and when we opened the casket we found a dead pig inside."

Repulsed, she wrapped her good arm around her middle and turned into the safety of Cole's arms.

Montoya added, "Not just a dead pig. There was a message inside as well, written in blood. 'Live not on evil.'"

Cole said, "'Live not on evil.' Another palindrome." His expression grew darker. "The hits just keep on coming."

"The blood we found in your bedroom-it was the pig's."

"Oh for the love of G.o.d, why?" she whispered, digesting the news. Though she was relieved that the blood splashed all over her room hadn't been human, she was still sickened by the idea of the horrible, gruesome mess, that someone was perverted enough to mutilate a doll, pour blood onto her bed, then take the time to write a cryptic message in that blood. It was sick and psychotic and chilled her to the bone.

"What kind of a pervert are we dealing with?" Cole asked as a thick, starless twilight stole over the city.

Montoya pushed away from the car. "This guy's a psychopath. Sick. Deranged. And yeah, if you're asking, for some reason he's focused on Eve. We're just not certain why."

She knew about psychoses, had witnessed for herself the results of such severe mental disorders, and yet, faced with an unknown killer who somehow drew great satisfaction, perhaps even s.e.xual excitement, in gruesomely terrorizing her, she felt sick inside.

"Police protection is available," Montoya offered.

"You think I'm in serious danger."

"Don't you?"

"I think that if he had wanted to kill me, he would have by now. I'm sure he's had opportunities."

"But he's stringing it out, getting off on scaring the h.e.l.l out of you," Cole said. "I think you should accept."

She was astounded. Cole never trusted the police. Never. His eyes met hers, and she saw that he was wrestling with his own conscience, that he was really worried.

"It couldn't hurt. Might deter the maniac," he said.

Bentz added chillingly, "He's going to escalate. He's already taken lives."

She quivered inside. But police protection? Someone watching her around the clock? Having zero privacy?

"I'll be with her," Cole said when she hesitated.

"Well, that's all fine and good, but as far as I know, you don't own a gun. At least none that you admitted to during the Kajak investigation. So how're you going to protect her?" Montoya's gaze slid from Cole to Eve. "If I were you, I'd take my chances with the professionals."

"How would that work?"

"We'd stake out the place. Have someone watching the house."

"Do it, Eve," Cole said.

"I'll think about it. Tonight I'll be at a hotel, so it won't be an issue. But after I get the place cleaned up and move back in, then I'll let you know."

"You're sure?" Bentz asked.

"I'll be okay," she said, thinking of Cole. She didn't doubt that he would protect her. Gun or no gun. That much she trusted.

"And we do have a revolver, still registered to my grandfather. It's just a matter of buying bullets."

"I'd feel better if you had an officer trained with a weapon right now," Bentz said tightly.

"I'll call you if I change my mind."

"Do it. In the meantime, we'll look this over," Bentz said, holding up Cole's notes about the numbers and names. "I'll also keep trying to reach your sister-in-law. So far, she hasn't shown up, hasn't called."

"Please do," Eve said, worried sick. She'd left Anna three voice mails on her cell phone during the course of the day and had even called her house in Atlanta. It was just odd that Anna had been so desperate to get in touch with her after Terrence's death then had gone ghostly silent, completely incommunicado.

While people all around Eve were being slaughtered.

Montoya's cell phone rang. He glanced at the screen. Then, turning a shoulder to Eve, Cole, and Bentz, he wandered off to take the call.

Eve said to Bentz, "Would you please let me know if you hear from either of my brothers?" After demanding to meet with her and the police, both Kyle and Van seemed to have disappeared. Neither was answering his d.a.m.ned cell phone. True, it had only been a few days, but as eager as they'd been to divvy up Terrence Renner's estate, it was strange that they had gone completely and inexplicably silent.

Bentz nodded as Montoya hung up, shoved his phone into the pocket of his jacket, and turned back their way. He looked at his partner and said curtly, "We gotta roll."

"I think we're done here anyway." To Eve, he added, "I'll be in touch."

"Thanks."

Bentz jogged back to the Mustang. Montoya was already inside, behind the wheel. Bentz opened the pa.s.senger-side door, and the car's engine roared to life. A second later the tires chirped, and Montoya pulled away from the curb.

Eve watched them leave. "How strange was that?" she murmured, still trying to digest everything Bentz had told her.

"Too strange," Cole said as the taillights of the Mustang disappeared around the corner. "Dead pigs, new siblings. You being related to Bentz himself and and Montoya's fiancee? It's out there. Waaay out there. It's almost like a setup of some kind." Montoya's fiancee? It's out there. Waaay out there. It's almost like a setup of some kind."

"A conspiracy? What do you mean?"

"To tell you the truth, I don't know what to think," he admitted, glancing back at the house, which was still surrounded by pieces of crime-scene tape that flapped and caught in the breeze. "But I do think you should take them up on their offer."

"Not tonight. Okay? I just want...to shut it all down for one night."

"You think you can?"