Suite 606 by J. D. Robb

would.”
    “Silas Pratt participated in the murder of Ava Marsterson?”
    “He cut her throat. She just stood there, and he cut her throat, and the blood gushed out of her. She didn’t accept. She didn’t know what was happening, so how could she accept?”
    “Accept what?”
    “Her sacrifice. That she would be the gift.”
    “Whose gift?”
    “The gift from us to the prince. To Lucifer.”
    “How long have you been a satanist?”
    “I am not a satanist. I am a disciple of the One.”
    Eve gave it a moment, unsure if she was amused or irritated by the obvious insult in Leah’s voice. “Okay. And does the One demand the murder of innocents?”
    “Your God murdered my child.” Leah’s hands balled into fists, beat lightly on the table. “He took her, and what had she ever done? She was just a baby. I found my way back. I found my strength and my purpose.”
    “Silas Pratt showed you the way back.”
    “He’s a great man. You’ll never understand. A man of power. You’ll never hold him with your pitiful laws and your bars.”
    “But he lied to you, this great man, this man of power,” Peabody put in. “He lied to you about Ava and Jack.”
    “No, I think . . . No, he wouldn’t lie. I think he miscalculated, that’s all. She just wasn’t ready. Wasn’t as strong as Silas thought. Or maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m weak. I couldn’t stand what they did to her.”
    “Tell me who they are. Every name of everyone who was in Suite 606.”
    “Silas and his wife, Ola. Larry—Dr. Collins, and his wife, Bria.” In a dull, empty voice, she gave Eve a dozen names in addition to her own. “And Ava and Jack.”
    “Dr. Slone?”
    “No. Peter and the others from the clinic who weren’t there aren’t disciples or priests. It’s important, Silas thinks, that there are those who aren’t part of us—and to know who is open to our faith, and who would be closed. Everyone who is of our group attended. It was an important ritual, a celebration.”
    “A celebration?”
    “Yes. It was Silas’s birthday.”
    “I’ve seen his records. It wasn’t his birthday.”
    “His date of rebirth in the One.”
    “Right.” Eve sat back again. “Why Ava and Jack?”
    “Ava was the gift. Silas recognized her as such the day she came in to interview for the position. And Jack . . . the sexual energy between them would be a vital element to the ritual.”
    “Why that room?”
    “We’d considered other venues, but . . . A palace, it seemed right. And Larry’s connection to the head of security gave us the way in. I’m only a disciple. I don’t plan.” She folded her hands now, bowed her head. “I follow.”
    “You followed them into that suite. But first you helped drug Ava and Jack at the clinic.”
    “We gave them what would open them to the coming ritual, what would help them accept, and embrace Silas’s power.”
    “He used hypnosis, Leah, on top of hallucinogens.”
    Tears continued to gather and spill. “You don’t understand. You’re closed.”
    “Fine. You used chemicals to open Ava and Jack, without their knowledge or permission.”
    “Yes, but—”
    “And once they were under that influence, you took them to the hotel. Correct?”
    “Yes.”
    “There, Mika Nakamura and Brian Trosky had also been drugged, and embraced by Silas’s power. That power caused them to shut down the security cameras to the lobby, and to the elevators for the sixtieth floor. It also, as had been done to Jack, caused them to forget what had been done, or suffer pain.”
    “The pain is only if they refuse to accept, only to help them—”
    “Inside the room, you ate and you drank, you engaged in sexual activity.”
    Color flushed into her cheeks. It was amazing, Eve mused, what embarrassed murderers.
    “Sex is an offering.”
    “Ava didn’t offer, did she? After you’d feasted and stoked up, painted your pentagram, lit your candles, said whatever it is you people say, you stretched out a drugged, helpless, naked