Six
Goren saw Logan go for the handcuffs, but he shook his head frantically. If they put Julia LoPresti under arrest now, she would invoke her right to remain silent and wouldn't give them any information about Millie.
"Why were you pretending to have an affair with Kolchov?"
"Will you protect me?" she asked, weak from hyperventilating.
He relaxed his hold slightly. "We won't let on to Millie that you gave her up."
"I thought I was doing a favor for a friend."
"Where did you really meet Millie?"
"On the Mitchell Street Publishers message boards, two years ago. They'd just published my novel, and she said she had one coming out too. It was inspired by her love for her sister's partner. Hannah brought Gary around to the house sometimes, and Millie fell for him, but he never fell for her back, and then Hannah wound up with him. So sad … I thought."
"And he never slept with Millie, either."
"No, but she loved him. It was just like a novel … it wasn't fair. I was supposed to pretend there was an affair and accept a couple of credit card bills so Hannah would leave him … I didn't know she was going to have her killed."
"And you were afraid she'd do the same to you if you talked to us."
"Yes." She turned her head and her teary eyes pleaded with Goren.
"Look," he said softly, "we have to put you under arrest. But if you tell the DA everything you told me, he'll go easy on you. Do you trust me?"
"Okay," she said, and the tears ran down her face.
Goren placed Julia under arrest and handed her off to the state troopers who would escort her to Manhattan. After Falacci explained the situation to Mrs. LoPresti and Goren put out an APB for Millie, they were back out on the road again, with Logan driving this time.
"So," Falacci said, leaning forward so that her head was practically on Goren's bicep, "you just fucked up our case. Any case we might have been able to put together, in fact."
"I needed to know what the story with Millie was."
"You needed to be able to tell your partner that all was right with the world."
Goren didn't answer; he just thumped his leg up and down repeatedly so that the whole vehicle shook.
"She'll repeat the whole story in interrogation," Logan told his partner.
"And a defense lawyer will say that because we – you – initially interrogated her knowing we were going to arrest her five minutes later, anything else she says should be tossed."
"I'll – I'll take care of it." He continued to move his leg up and down.
"You've made too many mistakes. I'm going to ask Ross to take you off this case. You with me, Logan?"
Falacci wouldn't let it go. And she was right – ever since his mother's death and the events surrounding it – events he didn't want to think about, but gnawed at him anyway – he'd been making mistakes. This was the second investigation in a row where he'd allowed a suspect to send him in the wrong direction; he should have been able to read Millie better when he'd spoken to her after the funeral.
"I'll take myself off the case when we get back." And maybe it was time for him to force himself into early retirement.
Eames would tell him that he had simply come back to work too early, that he should have taken his full three weeks' leave, that he needed an extended break, not retirement. She'd assure him that it wasn't over.
Three cell phones rang simultaneously as they passed a Thruway exit thirty miles south of Albany.
Goren flipped open his cell phone and heard Ross greet him with a "you're needed back in New York now," and his free ear was bombarded with the sounds of Falacci shouting instructions at another Major Case detective, the siren which Logan had quickly set on the dashboard, an Amber Alert going out over their radio …
"Gary Kolchov was shot in the stomach," Ross explained. "In his own apartment. Neighbors called the cops half an hour ago, and the woman who lives below them saw Millie take off with Marina. Logan and Falacci are going to join the hundred guys we've already got looking for them, and you're too meet me at Gary's apartment."
"Right."
Goren closed his eyes, took half a breath, and heaved his phone at the windshield.
"If I can go 90 at least up to the Bronx, we'll be at Kolchov's in an hour," Logan promised.
"No. No, no, no!" Goren unbuckled his seatbelt and shifted around, unable to sit still.
"You shouldn't – if we're going so fast –"
"Don't you see? Millie set this whole thing in motion just before Marina was born." Each word took on a different pitch from the last. "In Millie's mind, Marina is what stands between her and Gary. This two-year-old is Millie's worst enemy."
Thinking quickly, he recovered his phone and dialed Ross back. "TARU's going to want to go through all of Millie's posts on the Mitchell Street message boards. These people who fell for the publishing scam, she must have seen them as easy marks. There's got to be more of them involved."
"They've got three quarters of Major Case, most of the First Precinct and a couple of the Special Victims guys on this too," Falacci noted.
"She's gonna kill her," Goren whispered, the words painfully stopping up his throat. "She couldn't get what she wanted from Gary, even after Hannah was dead. She's going to kill the kid."
Back in Manhattan, he expected to find Eames on the scene, but there was no time to ask questions about her whereabouts.
"He's alive?" Goren asked when he saw a splatter of blood on the floor but no body in sight.
"Just barely," Ross told him. "He's in surgery, hospital tells us it's not entirely likely he'll wake up."
"I wonder if she was trying to send a message to Eames by shooting him in the stomach. It must have been a deliberate choice."
"Right now, our only concern is finding Marina. Eames is out there looking, too."
"TARU's going through the message boards?"
"You were right. She chatted up people up and down the Eastern seaboard about her undying love for her brother-in-law. She could have a whole network of support with these idiots."
Goren shuffled his feet. "Hell of a time to be right."
"Captain." One of the officers on the scene stood before them, radio in hand. "We just got word from Special Victims that they found … something … ten blocks from here."
"We're on our way."
Goren's heart dropped to his feet when he saw the Special Victims detectives standing on boxes, pointing flashlights into a dumpster. One of the detectives, a woman with high cheekbones and short brown hair, stepped down.
"Detective Goren?"
"Yes."
"Olivia Benson, Special Victims Unit. We're having some trouble identifying the girl. Do you think you can help?"
Goren nodded, swallowing hard, bracing himself for what he was certain was the worst. He stood on tiptoe and peered into the dumpster.
Quickly, he spun around and covered his mouth with his hand, letting one uncomfortable not-so-dry heave pass through.
"Detective?" Benson braced him by holding on to one of his arms with both of her hands.
"It's not her. It's not her. It's not her."
"You're certain."
"Yes. She's too old, the eyes are different, Marina's shorter. Get them back out there."
"Thank you." Benson left for a minute and returned with a towel so that Goren could clean up.
"I don't know how your unit handles it," he told her. "My partner and I have seen all there is to see when it comes to murder, but children … children always get to us."
"It's okay," she said, reassuringly holding his arm again. "I'll catch up with you and your partner later – looks like we've just caught another case, so I'll –"
"But –"
"Marina's the priority. It's been three hours. There's a chance – well, we'll keep working."
Benson hurried off. The sun was setting and the polluted New York City sky was glowing red. Scanning the scene, he spotted Eames at the end of the block, sitting on the sidewalk, her knees drawn to her chest and her short leather jacket around her shoulders. He saw Ross kneel down next to her and mumble something; he lent her an arm and helped her up.
Surprisingly, her face was dry when she approached him. He opened his arms to her, offering comfort or admitting defeat, whichever she needed.
She accepted neither. "Bobby," she said, looking at her feet in order to avoid his eyes, "I'll never forgive you."
With that, she walked off to rejoin the search.
