Ten Plagues

The first two tapes had nothing new. Paul said, “You hear where he talks about what I did to him? We think—”

Dyson waved his hand abruptly at Paul as if he were an annoying bug. Paul fell silent and stood by the door with his jaw clenched so tight Keren thought he might break some teeth.

The last tape, when Paul called Pravus back in the basement of the crack house, held all their attention. Paul sounded steady and strong as he tried to reason with Pravus. Keren thought of how he fell apart afterward.

He was a courageous man with the power of God in his voice. She suddenly decided she’d find time to sit in on one of Paul’s sermons, even if she had to steal a shopping cart and live on the street for a few days to qualify for admittance. She knew he’d be riveting when he spoke of his faith. God was using him powerfully, or he could never have led two girls as lost as LaToya and Juanita to the Lord.

Pravus’s voice pulled her attention back to the tape. “I saw them, the dancer and her mother. But you never knew.”

Keren had forgotten he’d made that statement.

“What does that mean, the dancer and her mother?” Keren hit the PAUSE button. “Can you remember a case involving a dancer, either as the victim or the perp?”

Paul shook his head. “It doesn’t ring a bell.”

“That would be the two people,” O’Shea said. “A dancer and her mother. Were there any mother and child murders in those files?”

Dyson said, “You’re assuming the dancer is a child. Why is that?”

“Good point.” Keren nodded. “We could be reaching. The dancer could be a boy or a man, or an adult woman. Adults have mothers.”

“I don’t remember a mother and daughter murder,” Paul said, “but there were a couple of child murders. Let’s look more closely at them.”

“He might mean something else,” Higgins cautioned. “Narrow your search for now, but don’t get married to this theory.”

“We won’t,” Keren said. “It’s just a starting place.”

Keren glanced at Higgins. “Are you done with us?”

“For now.” Higgins waved at the door.

They left the office, but Keren could still feel Dyson’s probing eyes hunting around in her brain.

O’Shea stood and went to the coffeepot. “It’s been nearly twelve hours since his last contact. Why don’t you try the phone again, Paul?”

“I’ve tried every hour on the hour and a dozen more times when I couldn’t control myself.” Paul was dialing before O’Shea quit talking. “He’s got it shut off. He’ll leave it shut off until he has something to say to me.”

“Don’t drink that coffee, O’Shea. You’ve got to go home and get some sleep.” Keren pressed the heels of her hands to her burning eyes. “I’m losing my ability to read the English language, let alone Latin. I haven’t slept since about three yesterday morning. We’ve got our people and the FBI going twenty-four hours a day.”

“And chances are,” Paul said in a bleak voice, “we’re going to wake up tomorrow with the discovery of LaToya’s body.”

“It was two days before we found Juanita, Paul. We might get tomorrow still. And our synapses are going to french fry the rest of our brains if we don’t sleep.”

“You go ahead,” Paul said. “I can find Higgins and see if he needs help. I got a couple of hours of sleep this morning while I was waiting for Pravus at the mission.”

“You got two hours of sleep?” Keren was almost violent with jealousy.

Paul tried to smile. She could tell he really tried. He said, “I won’t sleep tonight. Impossible.”

“You’re asleep in that chair. We’re not getting anywhere.”

“Did I ever tell you I have a wife?” O’Shea asked.

Paul shook his head. “No, you’ve never mentioned that.”

“I forget it myself sometimes.” O’Shea glanced at his watch. “She’s way nicer about this job than I deserve. It’s ten o’clock now. She’ll still be awake if I hurry. I’m going to go see if she recognizes me. See you in the morning.” He stood and began pulling on his suit coat. “If you don’t want to take the time to go home, Keren will show you where the bunk beds are. A few hours’ sleep will help clear the cobwebs.”

O’Shea didn’t hang around to see if they took his advice.

Paul sagged back in his chair. “I’m afraid if I fall asleep I’ll wake up to the news that LaToya’s body has been found floating in a frog pond somewhere.”

Keren stood so quickly her chair rolled back and smacked into the desk behind her. “Why not? Why not a frog pond somewhere? Where would this nut go to find frogs?”

Paul eyes jerked wide open, all sleepiness gone. “A pet store?”

“Good, where else?”

“Is there a park in Chicago that has frogs? Some kind of reptile garden or a zoo?”

Keren snapped her fingers. “How about a petting zoo? There’s one in the park where Juanita was found. Pravus has been working solely in the area around the mission.”

“I think there is some kind of pond at that petting zoo,” Paul said. “Let’s go take a look. If we could stake it out and Pravus came—maybe he won’t kill her until he gets there. Maybe we can—”

“Paul, chances are he won’t do anything tonight. It wasn’t until two days later that Juanita showed up.”