Searched In Death - Chapter 2

When Eve and Roarke were alone, she went to the parlor door and closed it. She turned back toward Roarke and held him quietly. She put her hands on his head and looked him directly in the face.

“If Whitney’s information is good, then Joshua Zapper may have killed your brother.”

Roarke nodded. He wasn’t quite ready to speak. Eve understood the battle he was fighting.

Eve says, “If he comes here, I will find a way to get justice for Patrick.”

Roarke said, “I killed the men who murdered Marlena. I cannot just stand aside and hope the law will punish my brother’s killer. I know what Patrick lost; he and Catalina never had an opportunity to live the kind of love that you and I have. It hurts me to know that he missed out on that.”

She responded, “Zapper may have been the tool, but Patrick was killed by those who paid for his murder. Who can be sure when dealing with spooks? What if Whitney’s source is wrong? If Zapper comes here .…”

Roarke interrupted her, “WHAT PROOF do you have that you can use in an American court. The murder did not take place in this country. You have no jurisdiction in this case. Catalina was there but did not know name of Patrick’s killer. Patrick was cremated under fake name remember. If she tries to identify Zapper she will be lost also. Someone will get to her. We faked her death in order to save her life. There was no other option. It is too big a risk to expose her; she has a responsibility to her child and the right to have a life; hopefully find love again.”

His hands trembled with the tightness of the fists he made. The frustration of knowing that his wife’s way could not avenge Patrick and Catalina.

Eve looked him in the eye. “I cannot stand aside and let you commit murder out of revenge. I wanted to kill McQueen. If I had, it would have destroyed me. Roarke, I don’t know where we can find a common ground here, but I think the important thing is to protect Catalina Neville and her child from the Zappers.”

He looked down at his fists and opened them. They looked clean and manicured but he could feel the blood of his past on them. He felt the darkness over his soul. “I don’t know what comes after this life. But I am sure that my soul will have to pay for the sins I have committed. I have never killed for profit or fun. I killed for justice when there was no justice. Is that revenge? Is it wrong to kill in order to stop a killer who will just keep on killing because the system protects him?”

Roarke closed his eyes to keep from crying in frustration. He knew no solution. How did he let it go for Eve’s sake and for Catalina? It was more than his own desire for blood and he did not know how to handle it. Was there a god? Would there ever be retribution. He felt helpless in his inability to find an answer.

He looked into the worried eyes of the woman who was his life.  

He said, “Lord, help me. ….Eve, I feel so helpless. Do I kill him and force you to choose being with a man who has done something that is against everything you stand for or betraying your own beliefs? Do I betray myself and do nothing. How do I trust the law (the system) that cannot stop this monster? I know that he will never be prosecuted for my brother’s death. The evidence does not exist anymore, if it ever did.”

Eve held him tightly as they both went to the floor in each other’s arms.

Eve hesitated in what she should say. She believed in the law, she needed it. What would happen to Roarke if he did this thing? He had once let the men go who had let her be raped by her father. He had done it for her. Now, she needed him not to commit this murder for his own sake. She realized that Roarke needed her to work thru this, but he also needed more than her.

She ran her hand thru his hair. “We will find a way. Staying within the law is doing something. There are times when I have asked you to do something that pushes that line, but I know the cost when I do it. It may not be for Patrick’s murder but we (You and Me together) will find a way to stop Joshua Zapper from continuing to kill innocent lives.”

Roarke nodded in his own embarrassment. He never showed weakness. He was a man who made his own decisions and willingly faced the consequences of his actions. He had come from nothing, the seed of a demon and made himself into what he was. No one had helped the poor Dublin gutter rat until Summerset.  A man who was not his father by blood had saved him from becoming the monster that was his father. But he had still been a lone wolf until he looked across a lawn of the dead. His salvation was walking toward him in an ugly gray suit and big whiskey brown eyes that a man could get drunk on. He felt a strength within him as his woman held him. Where did that come from, what had he ever done in his life to deserve the treasure that she was? What guardian angel had put this woman in his path?

An ancient poem about the lost love of a girl named Lee who died in a kingdom by the sea flashed thru his mind. Had the angels above been jealous of the love that was greater than love? If there really are angels, why had they denied that love for Catalina Neville and Patrick Lee? His mind drifted forward to the present and the everyday fear that one day those same angels would kill his Eve in this city by the sea. Were the seeds of Roarke doomed by fate?

He shook off his fears and clutched Eve with all his might. He was careful not to hurt her, but he could see that she was startled. He thanked the angels for every moment with her and prayed that when their time came…. Well, no. Forget that…. He took a deep breath that only a living man could take. Yes, he and his Eve were alive and their love would last until the end of time. Angels be damned.

He said, “Yes, we will find a way, together.”

He felt a need for her. He had an overwhelming need to feel alive with her. He kissed the mother of his child on the mouth. He would honor his child and Patrick's child by being a good man, (whatever the hell that was).

Eve responded with a kiss for the man who was the father of her child. They held on tight as clothing fell away from their bodies. He touched her skin, her face and her body. He knew every pore, every dent and every hair. He felt the strength below her sweet limbs as he took her and she gave.

The need of love and life filled the passion between them as it expelled the wrongness of the world and left what was right. It left the love between a man and a woman that builds onto itself.  He pulled her hips toward him as he entered what she offered. They melted into one being. When the heat of his loins cooled, he rolled to his side and looked at her long lean body. He touched that dent on her chin. It's very imperfection made her perfect. She was his and he was hers.  

He repeated, “We will find a way.”

He tossed her shirt over to her as he started putting his own clothes back on and said, “You haven’t returned to duty yet, so technically, any actions you take are simply as a concerned citizen. We need to warn Catalina and I want to do my own background check on this guy.”

She said, “Ok, we start there.”



Roarke headed upstairs to the unregistered and Eve went looking for Summerset. She found him in a secure sitting room with Galahad and Basil. He had taken them there when the house went on lockdown. They were all sitting on the floor. Basil was giggling as he was playing with Galahad’s tail. Galahad was trying to maintain dignity and failing as the boy wrapped his arms around the fat cat and hugged him.

She sat down next to her son and pulled him off the cat. Galahad hopped to safety on a chair while acting very nonchalant and started grooming himself as if nothing had occurred. Eve laid on her back, holding her son in a standing position on her stomach. She noticed something so she got up off the floor and took Basil over to the nanny droid. The droid looked like a matronly woman wearing a long full dress. It was made of a new improved Kevlar. The dress hid various compartments for supplies and such. Its soft apron became rigid and rose up to make a table. Eve put Basil on the changing table and started changing his diaper as she told Summerset about the Zapper family.

Summerset made no comment on her ability to discuss murder, tickle the baby and efficiently change a diaper all at the same time.

Summerset said, “Roarke will want blood for the blood of his brother. We need to find a way to keep that from happening.”

“I know. I can’t let him do it, but I don’t know how we would ever get justice. We don’t even have real proof that Joshua Zapper killed Patrick Lee. Just 3^rd hand information.”

Summerset quietly said, “You are right. We can’t let him do it.”

Thoughts ran thru his head on what could be done.




Eve nodded as she put Basil on her hip and went upstairs. She put him in his crib next to their bed with the nanny droid watching over him. She found Roarke sitting in his chair as the data danced across the screens. She went to him and he pulled her into his lap. He shuddered as he looked at the information before him.

“Joshua Zapper is a monster. He has excellent electronic skills and cold blood. If anyone ever needed killing it is this man. Not just for my brother, but for others. He has killed children and ruined innocent lives.”

“Roarke, if he comes here, let me do my job. I will do what I can to put him in a cage.”

“You can’t hold a ghost in a cage. He will just disappear in the wind.”

Roarke pulled out his link and made a call to the new manager of one of his hotels in Canada.

“Ms. Smith, my wife and I will be arriving tomorrow for a short stay, one night, please make the arrangements. Also I want petunias in the room for my wife.”

“Yes sir, the arrangements will be made.”

Katy Smith scheduled his reservation and ordered the flowers while she had him on the phone. Her fingers flew over the keyboard. As soon as the call was ended she walked over to her assistant and said, “Take over, I am going to dinner.”

She walked out of the hotel and made a phone call on the throw away she always carried. When her mother picked up the phone she said, “Hi. Just call to let you know that I will be late for dinner, just freeze it.”  Her mother acknowledged and was gone from their house with the baby within 5 minutes.

She stepped into a local book store and looked at a few books before speaking to the clerk who was working a crossword puzzle on the counter.

“Hey Julie, how has it been going?”

“It’s been quiet. Are you on dinner break?”

Katy nodded and said, “Yea, I just wanted to take a break. Listen, can I use the employee restroom in back.”

Julie nodded yes and never looked up. Katy was a good customer who purchased books and magazines on a regular basis. She never even noticed that Katy went out the back door without stopping at the ladies room.

Katy had a safe house that she kept nearby. It was a small efficiency in a big apartment building that she rented in the name of Lizzy Clemm.  The place was empty except for a twin bed that had never been used, a single table and chair. She checked the hidden security system for intruders and found none.

Once inside she went to the closet and took out the fake wall on one side. Behind it was a bag with a change of clothing, wig and face makeup and new ID and bank account. There was also some cash for running

She called the assistant at the hotel and said,

“Sign me out for the rest of the shift. I will see you later.”

After tossing the link and her hotel clothes in the recycler, she went out thru a side door without looking back.