Page 103 of Unnatural Death

There are no lights of our neighbors flickering through the trees. It appears that the power outage has affected the entire historic district. Taking off my suit jacket, I unbutton my blouse as I walk into the pitch-dark bathroom. Setting the candle on the edge of the sink, I continue to undress in wavering light and shadow, dropping my clothes on the subway tile floor.

I wash my face, brush my teeth in the near dark. I’m putting on soft flannel pajamas when Benton walks into the bedroom, the door shutting behind him with a solid click.

“Were you not worried all this time?” I pull back the covers, crawling under cool clean sheets and the down-filled duvet. Merlin jumps up and is purring. “What must it have been like, Benton? To look me in the eye day after day and not tell me that Carrie Grethen was returned to Russia on a private jet? That she’s alive and well? Only more hateful and deadly? And now? What fresh hell are we dealing with after she’s had seven years to be creative?”

* * *

“I know you’re upset, Kay …” Benton carries a drink and a candle that he sets down on his side of the bed.

“I don’t think you know how I feel. Because I’m not sure I do. I’m still trying to make sense of everything I’ve learned today.” I pet Merlin. “It’s redefined my entire universe.”

“I know.” Benton is stripping down to his boxer shorts, neatly placing his clothes on the chair next to the Victorian walnut dresser.

“I didn’t believe I had to think about her anymore.”

“I know.” Opening a drawer, he pulls out a folded set of pajamas. He begins putting them on.

“Do you also know what’s it like to have such a truth kept from me? Do you regret keeping it from me?”

“I don’t. What I regret is that it was necessary to tell you ever.” He buttons his pajama top. “The heat’s definitely working, but I’m afraid it may be a bit chilly by morning.”

“Not between us,” I reply. “There can be no chilliness, Benton.”

“No. Not between us, Kay.”

“We can’t give her that power. She’d like nothing better than to have us at each other’s throats.”

“Destroy from within. That’s what the enemy does.”

“Did Janet know?” I ask as he slides into bed next to me. “I’m talking about the Janet we used to know.”

“She and Lucy were working with the Yard, together they were hunting down Carrie. So yes, Janet knew.” He puts his arm around me, pulling me closer. “Now that you know the facts of the case, we can talk about it. The briefing today opened that door.”

He explains that the Mansons’ murders have pulled Marino and me into this, and now we know that Carrie is alive and well. She wants us to know it and made sure of that by posting the recruitment video on the Dark Web.

“I’m sorry it has to be like this,” Benton says into my hair. “And I hate what happened on your way home tonight.”

“I don’t think Fruge believes me. She assumes I just lost control of my car because I’m tired.”

“Take another hit of whisky. It will help the pain.” He hands me the glass.

“I’m much better. Dorothy’s tincture seems to be doing the trick. What’s on the micro hard drive I removed from Brittany Manson’s body? What’s so important? Or are you going to keep that a secret too for the next umpteen years?”

“Had you been told the truth sooner, what difference would it have made?”

“I have no idea.”

“We have our ways of monitoring certain individuals. She’s not been back in the United States since we flew her to Moscow.”

“I’m not sure I trust that. But okay. I’ll hope I can take your word for it.”

“She knows if she gets caught in the U.S. on land, air or sea the jig is up,” Benton says in the gloom of artificial candlelight. “She’s not going back next time and will rot in jail. The shittiest place we can stick her. Maybe the federal supermax in Florence, Colorado.”

“Why does she want the micro hard drive? And what might we expect her to do when she realizes she’s not getting it?”

“She’ll go ballistic and likely already knows. Whoever killed the Mansons didn’t find it and will have reported this to her,” Benton says, and he’s careful of my injuries.

He explains that the old gold mine inside Buckingham Run is a subterranean labyrinth twice the size of the Pentagon and destined to become a similar facility. It’s increasingly commonplace to repurpose mines no longer used, and there are thousands of them around the world. The tunnels and shafts are turned into multilevel hotels, amusement parks, farms where the produce can be perfectly controlled.

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