Part 2 (1/2)
”Sure. I'll be right outside.”
Once she was alone, the sobs began, echoing up from an empty pit that had opened inside her, quaking through her chest, making her whole body heave.
11:22 A.M.
”Want another coffee?” Rob said. ”No thanks.”
”Corn m.u.f.fin? They're really good here.”
They were seated by the front window of a tiny luncheonette on East Thirty-third. The noontime rush was still half an hour away so they had the place almost to themselves. The rich, heavy aroma of chicken soup filled the air; the peppery tang of hot pastrami wafted across their table.
”No. Thank you.” A sudden thought broke through the haze that enveloped her. ”They're 'good here'? You recommend them?”
”Yeah. Could use a touch more sugar, but they're almost as good as mine.”
A fond memory forced its way through the gloom- Friday nights in Rob's apartment as he buzzed around the kitchen, heedless of how his amateur chef act clashed with his tough cop image, watching him follow a recipe just so far and then deciding he could improve on it, usually with disastrous results.
”You really ought to have something to eat.”
”You sound like my mother.”
”Fine. Listen to your mother: Eat something.”
Kara allowed herself to smile. ”Buzz off, Mom.”
”Okay. You still smoke?”
”No. I quit years ago.”
”Mind if I do?”
”Yes. I'm surprised you're still puffing those things. They're poison.”
”Buzz off, Mom,” he said.
Kara smiled and surrendered to the memory of how she had fallen for Rob soon after she'd arrived in the city. They met in a room full of men, in McSorley's Old Ale House, a formerly men-only tavern that had recently been forced by the courts to serve both s.e.xes. Kara had been braver and less wise then-the Central park incident was a long way off. She'd led Kelly down to one of the toughest parts of the Bowery just so she could have a beer in that old bastion of male exclusivity. After a long wait they each were served two mugs of porter-McSorley's sold them only in pairs. Some of the men present made some rude comments, but most just stared, as if she and her sister had crawled out from under a rock. One of the starers was Rob.
Even amid all those other men, Rob stood out. He wasn't in uniform, and it had nothing to do with size, although his six-two, tightly muscled frame didn't exactly blend in with the paunches around him. It was something else. Even when there were bigger, more physically imposing men present, something about Rob subtly but undeniably announced to any room he entered that a man man was on the premises. He maneuvered himself to their table and, despite the catcalls from his friends at the bar, sat with them. was on the premises. He maneuvered himself to their table and, despite the catcalls from his friends at the bar, sat with them.
The three of them left together, but it was Kara who fell so hard for Rob. It was Kara and Rob from then on. At least until Kara ended it.
She gazed out at the street where people hurried through the stark cold suns.h.i.+ne. Through the fog of condensation on the window they were motley blurs, actors on a tv with a bad tube. Kara was glad she couldn't see their everyday faces as they scurried by, going about their lives as if nothing terrible had happened. For Christ sake, Kelly was dead! Didn't they know know? Didn't they care care?
G.o.d, how she hated this city. And all the people in it, too.
One of them had killed her sister.
”Who did it?”
”We don't know.”
”Not even a suspect?”
”Not a one.”
”Great detective work!” Kara said and instantly regretted it. ”Sorry. That was a cheap shot. But you must know something something.”
Rob nodded. ”We know that somewhere around one A.M. she left the Oak Bar with two men in their mid-thirties. We have descriptions of both and a good set of prints off one of the gla.s.ses in the room-you have no idea how many sets of prints you can find in a hotel room-but no ID as yet. We don't think they were registered in the Plaza. Shortly after two A.M. she came through a twelfth floor window.”
Kara closed her eyes and shuddered.
”Was she conscious?”
”Witnesses say they heard her scream.”
”Oh, G.o.d.”
The coffee turned rancid in her mouth. Again she felt her stomach heave, but she forced it down. There was something else she had to know. She couldn't bring herself to look at Rob as she asked it.
”Was she... was she raped?”
There was a long pause. Finally she opened her eyes and looked at him. His face was tight.
”You're not going to like it.”
”Tell me!” she said, the rage within her tearing at the surface of her control, screaming to break through and strike at someone. Anyone. ”Tell me!”
”There was evidence of s.e.m.e.n in both the v.a.g.i.n.al vault and oral cavity,” Rob said. His voice was robot-like, as if he had gone on autopilot and was reading from a report. ”DNA a.n.a.lysis indicated two different men as sources. There was no sign of forced penetration. Kelly appeared to be a willing partic.i.p.ant.”
Kara's anger suddenly turned to ice. She could barely speak.
”I don't believe it. A couple of guys drag her up to their room, rape and sodomize her, then throw her out a window and you have the nerve to say that she enjoyed it? I should have known! Is this what being a cop in this city has done to you?”
Rob stared into his coffee in silence. When she was through, he spoke in a low voice.
”It was Kelly's room.”
”What?”
”Kelly rented it.”
”Rob, what are you saying?”
He continued to stare into his coffee.
”I'm saying that Kelly Wade, your sister, took that room herself. She signed in as 'Ingrid' Wade.”
”No. There has to be a mistake.”