Sacred Evil. Heather Graham

vet who had just shot and killed his wife. His partner had been doing all the right things, and the soldier, in tears, was ready to hand his weapon over to Monty. Instead, a frightened vigilante neighbor who’d snuck up the fire escape had taken a shot and missed; the frightened vet had fired at Monty, before turning the gun on himself.

      Jude had been waiting quietly next to Monty who had been doing a damn good job talking the man down. He felt the bullet whistle by, but too late to stop the lethal action that had all taken place in less than ten seconds. He’d managed to stanch the flow of blood emitting from his partner while praying for the medics to hurry.

      The vigilante was walking the streets, his case having been dismissed, portraying himself to the press as a hero. How he was managing that, since his actions had caused the crippling of a veteran cop with twenty years’ experience and a slew of medals, Jude didn’t know.

      God, he hated the press.

      And the press was going to have a field day with this.

      He looked through the crowd of television vans and camera crews setting up near the scene. He noticed Melissa Banks, who tended to be a responsible newspaper journalist in a world where sensationalism had become everything.

      He strode straight for her. “Ms. Banks,” he said, acknowledging her. “We have found the body of a woman on Broadway, and look, I suppose that’s evident, but it’s all I can give you at the moment. Headquarters will make a statement later. Pending notification of next of kin, I can’t release her name.”

      “They’re saying that her throat was slashed and that she was—ripped to shreds. Do we have our own Jack the Ripper in the city now, Detective Crosby? A Jack the Slasher, as it were?” Melissa asked him. He winced. His killer had a name now.

      “We don’t know if this was an isolated incident or not, Ms. Banks. As soon as we have information, we will certainly bring it to you in the best interest of the public. Now, if you’ll excuse me …?”

      The officers who had been first on the scene had done their best to keep the details hidden, but it was New York. People had seen. They’d seen beyond the crime scene tape and the wall of bodies, and they had seen the amount of blood around the victim. People were going to talk; speculation would run high, and if his killer was a sensationalist trying to prove a point, he would be savoring the attention he was getting this very minute. He would be somewhere, watching, and gloating over his victory.

      “Should women in this vicinity be worried to walk about at night?” Melissa Banks asked him.

      He stared at her; she tended to be an intelligent woman. “Women should always be careful walking about at night. However, since the financial district is relatively quiet at night, yes, I would definitely take extra care.”

      One of the other reporters had heard his words and moved in. “Did you just say that it’s not safe to walk the streets at night?”

      Jude stepped toward her. “What I just said was that any single woman should take care at any time—anywhere. Sadly, there is evil in this world, and there are those who will hurt others. I’m suggesting women not be alone late at night on quiet streets. Period. I’m also suggesting that journalists be responsible and not create panic where panic will avail no one. I’m promoting common sense, and if you’ll really excuse me now, I have work to do.”

      Jude walked back to the body, and looked at the corner. He paused, and motioned to a crime scene tech, who hurried over. “Blood, I’m pretty sure,” Jude told him, and the fellow nodded gravely and went to work. On the sidewalk, he found more drops of blood, and motioned as well.

      A photographer followed the techs, taking pictures as they took samples of the substances on the ground.

      He was certain that Fullbright had been right; his victim had been walking uptown, as if she was trying to find a busier spot on Broadway, perhaps to hail a cab. The assailant had waited for her on the corner behind the building. Jude didn’t like his audience, though the uniforms were doing the best they could to control the scene. He was still downtown on a busy Monday morning, and blocking off an entire street in the vicinity of the stock market, city hall, Trinity, St. Paul’s and the Woolworth Building was not easy. Still, he called one of the young officers over, took a position behind the first building and had the officer walk toward him.

      He couldn’t be seen until the last minute. When he stepped out, it was easy to accost the man, spin him around and ascertain that a strong man could have certainly caught a woman so; he would have had to have dragged her as she bled, and thus the trail to the street.

      Why leave her in the street?

      So she would be found, and found as she was.

      He scanned the crowd, wondering if any of the men hovering about in their business suits, construction vests, chef’s outfits, messenger tees or other attire might be a killer. He wouldn’t be bloody anymore; he’d be fitting in with the crowd.

      Jude walked down the sidewalk to where the bakery manager still stood, trembling with two officers. She was shaking badly.

      Dorothy Hannigan was a woman with a thin face and thinner body; she obviously did not indulge frequently in her bakery’s items. She looked at him with wide brown eyes and an expression that still denoted the horror of her discovery.

      “Ms. Hannigan, I’m Detective Jude Crosby. I know you’ve already given the officers your statement, so I really just want to thank you for so quickly summoning help, and for all that you’ve done to assist us in the investigation.” She hadn’t really done anything—she’d screamed instinctively. But he had discovered that the right tone of questioning always produced more than dismissal or rudeness.

      She nodded, seeming to get a bit of a grip. “Shall we have some coffee?” he asked her.

      She looked nervously at the corner bakery. “I open. I gave the keys to one of the boys … but I guess no one is really going to be hungry around here for a while.”

      He smiled. “They’ll be hungry,” he said. Don’t kid yourself, he thought. People will be converging to talk. When the crime scene tape is gone, they’ll be fighting each other to get in the street and photograph the position where the body lay.

      “But come in … the police will clear this with your boss.” He nodded to Smith, who hurried on in ahead of him. He ushered Dorothy Hannigan to a booth at the rear of the bakery. Apparently, the boy she had given the keys to had gotten things going; customers were already in the shop, but other than Dorothy Hannigan’s white face, little gave away the fact that Jude was anything other than an ordinary customer. His suit was a good one, not that a homicide detective in New York made the big bucks, but he had a great apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, thanks to his father’s savvy with real estate, and it seemed, lately, that he lived to work. That meant decent suits—and suits that blended in well with the business attire in the moneyed district where he worked.

      “So, Dorothy, please, tell me exactly how you came upon the body this morning,” he said quietly. He lifted a hand so that she would wait. Officer Smith had apparently seen to it that the owner, now in, was aware that his manager was helping the police; a waiter brought them two cups of coffee and quickly disappeared. She shook her head. “I saw … the body. It was barely light, you know. And there was no traffic—no, wait, there was one car, but it was in the other lane, and it just drove on by. You can only go the one way, you know.”

      He nodded, taking a sip of his coffee.

      She shivered suddenly. “I come off that subway every morning. I’m the only person who gets off half the time. That could have been me.”

      He set a hand on hers. “She was killed late last night, Miss Hannigan. I don’t think this killer was looking to stalk victims in the morning—someone would have come. You saw how quickly the streets got busy.”

      She swallowed audibly.

      “Is there someone you can ride in with for the next week or so?” he asked her.

      She stared