When she had taken the shoebox from the shelf she had slipped the .25 inside. The box now sat on the bed.

Abby turned away from Kolya, slipped out of her sweats and fleece top. She was grateful she was wearing a bra.

“Don’t get all shy on me now,” Kolya said.

Abby stole a glance at Kolya in the dresser mirror. He parted the curtains for what seemed like the tenth time, glancing down at the driveway. He was worried about Aleks returning.

“I’ll do anything I have to do for my daughters, you know,” Abby said.

“Yeah?” Kolya asked. “Anything?”

She slipped the dress over her head, moved the shoebox closer to the edge of the bed. “Anything.”

“I’ve got a few ideas.”

Abby backed up a few inches, pulled her hair out of the way. “I need you to zip me up.”

Kolya laughed. “Why? You’re just going to take it off in a minute.”

Abby shifted the top of the shoe box, but didn’t open it fully. “Please,” she said. “This is how it has to be.”

She sensed him getting up behind her. He ran his hands along her hips. The revulsion she felt was complete.

“Goddamn you are one fine looking woman,” he said. “This is even better than the nurse uniform.” He reached over, zipped up the back of her dress. She slipped on her high heels.

When Abby turned around to face him, she picked up a small atomizer of perfume, spritzed twice. She put the atomizer down, slipped her arms around his neck. “I don’t like it rough, okay?”

“You can have it any way you want it.”

Abby glanced down at Kolya’s waist, back up. “I don’t think I can relax if you have that gun on you. Guns scare me.”

“Forget it.”

Abby ran a hand through his hair. “Look. Kolya. What am I going to do? Aleks has my girls. You have me. I’m not going to do anything stupid.” Abby ran a finger over his lips. “If I’m nice to you, maybe you’ll be nice to me. Maybe we can work something out.” She moved even closer. She could see Kolya’s nostrils widen slightly, taking in her perfume. “You said yourself that you just met Aleks. Maybe you don’t have any loyalty to him. Maybe you could be loyal to me.”

Kolya studied her for a few moments. He wasn’t buying all of this, but other engines within him had been engaged. He peeked out the window one more time, turned back to Abby. “You try something, I’m gonna get really fuckin’ mad.”

“I know,” Abby said. “I won’t.”

Kolya, took the pistol from his waistband, ejected the magazine. He flipped on the safety, racked the slide, checked the chamber. Seeing it empty, he put the magazine in his jeans pocket, the pistol on top of the dresser. He turned back to Abby, sliding his hands around her hips. He squeezed her hard, pulled her into him. Abby could feel his thickening erection. “That’s not a full clip in my pocket, lady. I’m just happy to see you.” He laughed at his own joke.

Abby leaned in, kissed him gently on the lips. When she pulled back, Kolya’s eyes glazed for a moment, and Abby Roman knew she had him. She shifted her weight onto her left foot, centered herself, and brought her right knee up as hard as she could, slamming it into Kolya’s groin.

Kolya barked in pain, releasing a lungful of sour breath, doubling over. Abby stepped back, grabbed Kolya’s weapon from the dresser, flung it into the hallway. While Kolya’s hands covered his damaged testicles, Abby pivoted and delivered a second blow, this time with her right foot, delivered full force to the center of his face. With her years of Pilates training she knew her legs were toned and strong, and when the pointed toe of her high heel caught Kolya square in the jaw, she could hear bone break. A spurt of blood shot onto the bedspread. Kolya folded to the floor.

Abby spun around, knocked off the top of the shoebox and took out the .25. When Kolya rolled onto his back, clutching his stomach, his eyes widened at the sight of the pistol.

“You . . . fucking . . . cunt!”

Abby stomped on his crotch, driving in her spiked heel. Kolya screamed, rolled onto his side, a fat cord of foamy pink-and-green bile leaking out of his mouth. Muscles corded in his neck. His face was bright scarlet, raked with blood.

Abby kicked off her shoes, leaned over. She put the barrel of the gun to Kolya’s head.

“Say that word again.”

THIRTY-EIGHT

While the forensic team processed the Arsenault house, Powell and Fontova returned to the office. Sondra and James Arsenault had followed them into the city, and would be looking at mugshots in hope of identifying the man who had broken into their home.

Back in the office, Powell and Fontova had run thirty-five names, and found that many of the people whose cases Harkov had lost no longer lived in New York. Of the seven who did, two were currently in jail, five were gainfully employed, more or less, and had, since their incarceration, kept their noses clean.

None had records that would suggest anything near the propensity for extreme violence seen in that room. This was not an ag assault that had gone too far, or an accidental death that occurred as the result of some pushing match that went terribly wrong. This was the work of a bona fide psychopath.

Things were not always so straightforward. There was recently a case where an employee of a gas station was robbed at gunpoint. Thirty minutes later, while being interviewed by detectives, the man had a heart attack, collapsed and died at the scene. In another instance, one that occurred before Powell became a homicide detective, a man was attacked on a Forest Hills playground, wounded with a knife. The man slipped into a coma, where he remained for years. In the meantime, the attacker was arrested, prosecuted, and convicted of aggravated assault, for which he served eight years on a fifteen year sentence. Three weeks after the attacker’s release the man in the coma died.

Were these homicides? There was no question in Desiree Powell’s mind – or indeed the mind of any detective Powell had ever worked with – that they were. The decision, however, was not up to the police. It was up to the district attorney. Plus, it was one thing for a police officer to be certain of someone’s guilt or culpability in a crime. It was another matter to be able to prove it.

Powell studied the possibilities. Nobody jumped out.

She handed the list to Marco Fontova. The addresses were spread out over Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Briarwood, Cypress Hills. In other words, all the way across Queens County, and halfway across Brooklyn.

Fontova reached into his pocket, handed Powell a dollar.

“What’s this for?” she asked.

“I have to go to fucking Cypress Hills?”

Powell nodded, took the bill. “Reach out to Brooklyn Homicide if you have to.”

Fontova pulled a face. There was no love lost between Brooklyn detectives and Queens detectives. Sometimes they had to work together, but they didn’t have to like it.

Grumbling under his breath, Fontova grabbed his coat and left the office.

Powell sank back in her chair. Seniority had its perks, she thought, one of which was certainly not the part where she was older than half the people she worked with.

She checked off a list of people she would be interviewing, then poured herself some coffee. Contrary to popular belief, the cop-shop coffee at Queens Homicide was good. Somebody’s wife or girlfriend – Powell could never keep the rosters straight – had signed somebody up for a Coffee of the Month-type club and either on a lost bet, or under threat of exposure for some office indiscretion, the coffee ended up in the small fridge they kept. Today it was a Kona blend.

Powell sat down at the computer.

She popped in the CD that had been duped from Viktor Harkov’s hard drive. It seemed the man saved everything, including JPEGS of menus from all the takeout restaurants near his office. Powell waded through the first half. Nothing.