That ruined his plans.
He’d been anticipating torturing her until she was out of her mind with fear, then taking her when she least expected it.
“I guess the time-line just moved up for us, sweetheart.”
“What’re you goin’ t’ do t’ ’er?”
He ignored the girl’s frantic slur and checked the sister, who wasn’t looking so good. Nice handiwork. He congratulated himself.
And then he shook her. Hard.
“Hey, wake up. Hannah! You want to see your sister alive, open those eyes right now!”
If she heard him, it was in some faraway place. Her eyes flicked open to slits in the swelling, but they didn’t focus.
“Sit up.” He tried to force her, but she merely moaned, and her eyes shut again.
“Stop it! You’re ’urting ’er!”
Obviously he wasn’t going to rouse Hannah. She’d gone to a place he couldn’t reach, so he abandoned the idea of doing the sisters in tandem.
Disappointed.
At least he had the one he really wanted. A real challenge for once. He would take her to the forest preserve and get rid of the sister and girl later.
PUCINSKI WAS driving with lights and sirens flashing, DeSalvo and uniformed backup spread out a short distance behind him. He navigated straight through a red light at an intersection and narrowly missed a jerk who wasn’t paying attention. Pissed him off good. He’d like to give the careless bastard a ticket but couldn’t stop.
“Can’t you go any faster?” Wyndham urged. “We’re already more than ten minutes behind Lilith.”
“I’d fly if I could; believe me. Settle down. We’ll be there in two minutes.”
Wyndham was near basket-casenervous over the Mitchell woman. Apparently, she’d gotten to him good. Pucinski wondered how exactly that had happened under the circumstances
“Interesting how this all turned out,” he mused. “You were one of our chief persons of interest.”
“If so, why are we going after O’Malley just on Lilith’s word?”
“Something I should have picked up on earlier, if I hadn’t been so worried about Carrie… Caresse… Officer Walker. Why did Lilith Mitchell think O’Malley was involved in the investigation unless he made her believe that?”
“Your undercover officer never suspected him?”
“She did identify O’Malley as a person of interest, but only as a customer in the club night after night.”
“I don’t understand,” Wyndham said. “O’Malley is a cop. Why is he doing this? What the hell is his motive?”
Pucinski didn’t know why he hadn’t put it all together before, other than you didn’t usually suspect someone on the job, at least not in a vile case like this.
He said, “O’Malley’s ex-wife, who happens to be alive, is the motive. She blew the whistle on him about his brutality issue after he made his last arrest. He’d been abusing her for years, and she knew what he was doing on the job. He finally pushed her too far. Her deposition got him suspended, then reassigned as a paper pusher while he was working on his anger management. He needed a psych evaluation to clear him, to get him off desk duty. In the meantime, the wife left him and got full custody of his kids.”
“And he’s one of our finest.”
“Don’t equate him with everyone else on the job!” Pucinski snapped. “Most of us eat out our guts trying to bring fucks like this one in.”
He could use a swig of Pepto-Bismol now.
Approaching the side street where he would turn, Pucinski cut his siren and flashing lights. He’d already cautioned backup to do the same. He hit the intersection, From the address, he knew the building was on the next block. Plenty of parking. He pulled to the curb and got out in tandem with Wyndham. The building was numbered. This was it, but it was dark. Shuttered tight as far as he could tell.
Abandoned.
“What are we waiting for?” Wyndham asked.
“Keep your shorts on.” He nodded to the car pulling up behind his. A patrol car was coming down the street. And he could see a second patrol car turning in from the main artery. “That’s what I was waiting for. Backup.”
DeSalvo was out of his car before the squad pulled up. “What’s the plan?”
“We circle the building, don’t leave an opening in case he’s still inside. I want the others in place near any other doors before we go in.”
“I’m going with you,” Wyndham said.
“You’re staying out here at the curb until I say otherwise.”
“But Lilith–”
“Is in better hands than yours for the moment. You make a wrong move, and she’s dead.”
“Yeah, okay.” Wyndham stepped down.
Pucinski figured he’d been watching too many movies with average Joes turning into heroes. Real life didn’t work like that.
Seconds later, Pucinski was surrounded by officers and gave them their orders. Then with a last glance at a very frustrated Wyndham who stood sour-faced at the curb as ordered, he and DeSalvo headed down the drive alongside the building. They found a door with a metal hasp and lock.
“I’m gonna bet this lock in place means he’s already long gone,” Pucinski said in a low voice.
The lock was rusty, and Pucinski broke it open with the butt of his flashlight. Guns and lights aimed together with two hands, he and DeSalvo went inside. Steps just inside led downward to the basement.
His gut knotting, Pucinski stopped for a minute to collect himself. He’d seen all kinds of things working homicide. For once he was hoping for something better than he expected.
“What are we waiting for?” DeSalvo was practically on top of him, agitating to get down there.
A faint light shone from below.
Did that mean O’Malley was still down there, after all?
Snapping off his flashlight, Pucinski nodded to the younger cop to do the same and then moved. Adrenaline shooting through him, he had to hold himself back from running to the basement, gun blazing. He carefully took the last steps and looked around.
A girl handcuffed to a radiator turned his way, looking frightened through a swollen mask of bruises and blood. The way she was dressed, this had to be Carmen, but he didn’t think even her parents would recognize the poor kid the way she looked now.
He put a finger to his lips but she cried, “Not ’ere! Took Lilith, an’ I think ’e’s going to kill ’er!”
“Unlock that handcuff,” he told DeSalvo as he went to the girl who lay so freaking still on the cot.
Hannah. He couldn’t see the resemblance to her sister through the ravages of a brutal beating, but she had the same long, dark hair and was wearing what was left of a too-tight, too-short dress. Checking to make sure she still had a pulse, a small part of him was relieved. He retrieved his own handcuff key and unlocked her constraint, then pulled out his cell and called for an ambulance.
Carmen limped to the cot. One look at Hannah and she started to sob. “My fault she’s ’urt.” Her voice slurred from her injuries. “I thought we could take ’im.”
Shaking his head, Pucinski rose and almost put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her before realizing she might be hurt there, too. “None of this is your fault, Carmen. The bastard who did this to you girls — he’s gonna pay. And that’s a promise I can keep.”
His mind was spinning, already making connections, telling him where to find O’Malley. He hoped to God he could get there before the bastard did the Mitchell woman.
“I’m leaving you in charge, DeSalvo. You stay with them until the paramedics get here. I want you at the hospital. Get the girl’s statement.”
“Yeah, sure. Where are you going?”
“To bring down a murderer.”
Once outside, he told one of the uniformed officers what was going on. Told him and his partner to stay with DeSalvo. Told the other team to follow.