Alik scowled. He might be a guardian angel, but he didn’t have to put up with that kind of shit.
—
“Nobody at the Farron address,” Salovitz said as the pair of them walked through the practically deserted hubs.
“Yeah?”
“She has a kid, a boy, Alphonse. Our precinct officers asked around; neighbors say they were definitely at home earlier today, but haven’t seen them for a while.”
“Add them to the search list.”
“Way ahead of you.”
The staff at Jamaica Hospital were quite used to NYPD turning up in the bad hours. Salovitz talked to the receptionist, who directed them to the ninth floor. The strata of the hospital’s fifty-year-old brutish carbon-and-glass structure reflected human status in a way the architect probably never intended. If he did, he had a bad sense of irony.
The Koholek Ward was decent enough, several social steps up from the five floors of MedicFare wards directly underneath it. But then again, it was quite a few floors down from the kind of treatment Alik would receive if he was ever, god forbid, admitted.
Samantha Lehito was in a bay off the main ward. There were two beds in there, but she was the only patient. A stack of equipment had been wheeled in, with plenty of tubes connecting it to Samantha. Her face and limbs were sheathed in a blue-tinged membrane that told Alik Kcells were being used to replace chunks of flesh that were missing. In medical terms: superficial flesh. But Riek had really carved a number on her face. Just looking at her, Alik was now regretting giving Colleana help with the insurance.
There was another woman dozing in a chair beside the bed, a short woman in her midthirties, with black hair in a pixie cut, framing a face that was creased with worry. She stirred when Alik and Salovitz came in, confusion rapidly becoming a disapproving frown. Shango ran facial recognition: Karoline Kalin. There was a marriage license for her and Samantha, issued four years ago, registered at City Hall. Her employment record was patchy, but she was currently listed as working in a local store called Karma Energy. Shango couldn’t find a connection between that and any of Rayner’s enterprises.
“What do you want?” she asked in a voice just as weary as Colleana’s.
Alik resisted a sigh. The reaction was so common he’d stopped resenting it years ago. But it was a regular quirk of human nature that anyone who’d been mugged or robbed welcomed the police like they were a lottery win’s delivery committee, while at any other time the boys in blue were as wanted as an IRS audit.
“I want to talk to Samantha,” Alik told her.
“She’s tired. What he did to her…” Karoline reached out a hand and caressed her face. “She’s mending now. That takes so much strength. You leave her be.”
“You know Riek Patterson is dead?”
“Yeah. And I’ve got an alibi, too. I was in here, watching her. There was even a cop on the ward. Good witness, huh?”
“I know you didn’t touch Riek. That was Rayner, right?”
Karoline shrugged, running a hand back through her hair. “If you say.”
“Which means Javid-Lee is going to be looking for payback.”
“No way. It’s over now.”
“Between Rayner and Javid-Lee? No. It is never going to be over until one of them gets taken out of the picture.”
“And who’s going to do that? You? I don’t think so. Not bastards like that. They don’t get arrested, they don’t stand trial, they don’t do time, they don’t need their gorgeous face rebuilt. That’s what they have poor fucks like Sam for.”
“True.”
“You know it’s painful, cosmetic application, having Kcells attach themselves to real flesh? The whole time they’re doing it, adapting to the new host body, it hurts, even with the drugs. And it’s going to take months to rebuild Sam’s features so you can’t tell what he did to her. Some people can’t take that much pain. My Sam can; she’s strong. And when she’s done, when I get her home, she is out of this shit! Away from Rayner and all the other psychos.”
“Nice story,” Alik said. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard it before?”
“I’m not letting her go back. I won’t.”
“Good. Then let me help you. Tell me what she did. Why did Javid-Lee send Riek to do this to her? What was he warning Rayner to stay away from? Once I understand what’s been happening, I can go to town on these guys. We’ve got seven bodies piled up tonight, and that’s not including Riek. The Bureau won’t ever quit on this case.”
“Sam wouldn’t tell you.”
“Of course not, because they’ve sucked her into their world so far she’ll never be able to leave. All your love and pleading, every argument you have, all those dreams about starting fresh someplace—all that’s going to do is make her choose. You or them. Are you certain she’ll choose you?” It was an effort to convince her, harder than polishing turds, but Alik thought he could see the doubt creeping into her expression.
“She’s my fucking wife! She’ll leave. For me.”
“Make certain of that. Tell me what she did. I’ll take it from there. Rayner and Javid-Lee will be gone.”