Epilogue
There was a multitude of toasts lifted to the new baby, to the mother, to the family of four. Eve drank her share of them.
At just before two in the morning, she washed off Trina’s magic makeup, brushed the fancy out of her hair.
The mirror told her it would take days yet before people stopped staring at her, but what the hell.
She had the weekend.
By two-thirty, she’d been wanded and lay with Roarke and the cat.
“That was a hell of a party, in ways expected and not. You’re going to have to wait until tomorrow to do all the work.”
“I can wait.” But he kissed her. “We’ll get some sleep, and rest up for the requested visit with brunch tomorrow.”
“Less people, more food. Anyway, I like the McNabs and the Peabodys.”
“As do I.”
Closing her eyes, she drifted off with the intention of sleeping until she had to get up for the visit.
Her ’link woke her at eight.
“It’s Mercy Hospital. Shit. Who’s hurt? Block video. Dallas.”
“Lieutenant Dallas, this is Dr. Colby at Mercy? I have a patient asking for you. He gave me your ’link number. Steven Redman.”
She shot straight up. “He needs to be restrained, guarded. He—”
“Lieutenant, trust me. He won’t get out of his hospital bed again. He’s in massive organ failure, and doesn’t have much time left. His family is here, saying their goodbyes, but he’s asked to see you, speak with you. ICU, room three.”
“I’m on my way.”
“I’ll get your clothes.”
“Have to skip the wanding. No time.”
“We’ll do it later. I’m going with you. Are you calling in uniforms?”
“He told me the serum was killing him. He meant it. He isn’t asking to see me to take off before he does.”
She threw on the jeans, the sweater, added her weapon, her badge, the rest. Took the jacket Roarke handed her.
“You drive,” she told him. “I have to let Whitney know.”
She reported as Roarke sped across Manhattan.
“Uniforms meeting me. Have to do it, but I’m keeping them back, keeping them out. Keeping him alive, he said. Killing him. He stopped taking it. He said less time if he stopped.”
“I’ll park, meet you,” Roarke said as he pulled up to the hospital.
She rushed in, held up her badge. “ICU, room three.”
“That corridor, left elevator banks.”
When she reached the floor, she saw Redman’s sister weeping, a man holding her.
She pushed up when she saw Eve.
“Our parents are with him. He—Steve, he contacted them last night, and they came. He contacted me. The doctor . . . He’s dying. My brother’s dying. He won’t let them do anything for him. And they . . . they say there’s nothing they can do but keep him comfortable.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know he did that to you, and he’s sorry. I know what he did, but—”
“I’m going to go talk to him.”
She held up her badge as two uniforms got off the elevator. “Stay out here,” she ordered. “Stay out of the way.”
“You can’t arrest him now! He’s dying.”
“I’m not, but I’m going to follow procedure. He’d expect me to. I need to go in.”
“Let me get his parents out. I’m Liv’s husband. I’ll get them. He said he wanted to talk to you alone.”
When he left, Olivia gripped Eve’s hands. “Please. You have to understand.”
“I do, or I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have those police officers standing back.”
“Here’s his doctor. Dr. Colby, this is Lieutenant Dallas.”
“Yes.” He glanced over to the uniforms. “That’s really not necessary.”
“It’s procedure. They’ll stay out here.”
“Olivia, why don’t you sit down? Your parents are coming out. I need to explain Steve’s condition to Lieutenant Dallas.”
He drew Eve aside.
“He came in a few hours ago. I honestly don’t know how he walked in on his own.
He’d self-diagnosed, which proved to be correct.
His lungs, his heart, his kidneys, liver, all failing.
In the last hour, his bones have started to deteriorate.
I’ve never seen anything like it. He said his family was coming, and after he’d spent some time with them, he wanted, needed, to speak to you. ”
“How long does he have?”
“Frankly, I don’t know how he’s still alive. Minutes, an hour? Even if he’d consented to treatment, there would’ve been nothing we could do for him. If you know what he’s taken to cause this—”
“I don’t. I need to go in.”
“Please, take it easy on him. Dying’s hard enough.”
He took her in, where the man who’d lifted her as if she’d weighed nothing lay corpse pale in the narrow bed, where monitors scanned his heartbeat—very slow—and all the rest.
“Steve. Lieutenant Dallas is here.”
He opened sunken eyes. “Good. Good. Could you leave us alone?”
Obviously reluctant, the doctor stepped out.
“I’m sorry I hurt you.” His voice was hoarse, frail, hardly more than a whisper.
“So you said.”
“I’d never hurt anyone innocent until you.
I regret it more than I can say. I can’t regret the rest. Even knowing it was wrong.
I regret there wasn’t someone like you, someone I knew I could trust. Before.
Before. I know I’ve hurt my family, and I can never make up for that.
But I listened to you in the elevator, after I hurt you.
I listened when you were on-screen, and I knew you were right. ”
“You stopped taking the serum.”
“Yes, and destroyed it, destroyed the formula, all my work.”
“You did that knowing this would happen?”
“Yes. I’ve been on borrowed time since the first injection. I listened to you yesterday, what you said about justice, about no one being above the law. About Calvin Banner and Jack O’Brian—I understood what you said, to me. To me.”
“Yes, to you, Steve.”
When he reached for her hand, she held his.
“I wanted to tell you I heard you. There was no going back for me, but I heard you. They’ll pay? You swear it? They’ll pay for my family?”
“Banner’s going to die in prison, and he’s taking others with him. So will O’Brian. If there are more, tell me. I’m promising you justice there, too.”
“I don’t know any others, not for certain. And I had to be certain to do what I did. I decided to put justice for Ari, for our daughter, for our son, in your hands. And you gave it. I’m grateful.
“I’m not afraid to die. I welcome it. If there’s punishment after death, I accept it. But I hope I can see Ari again, and our boy, and maybe, a miracle, the baby we nearly had. Chloe.”
She could see him fading, feel the life slipping out of him.
“I hope you do. I’m going to get your family now.”
“Yes, it’s time. Thank you for coming. Thank you for listening again. I wanted to make the world a better place. Maybe I would have. But you are.” He held her gaze another few seconds, then closed his eyes. “I believe you are. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, Steve.”
She laid his hand back on the bed, stepped out.
“His family should go in. I don’t have to have your medical degree to know it’s down to minutes.”
When Dr. Colby nodded, she stepped out of the way to where Roarke waited. “I’m going to dismiss the uniforms. No need for them. I still need to wait until he’s pronounced.”
“All right.”
After dismissing them, she stood and waited with Roarke.
It didn’t take long before she heard the weeping from room three.
The doctor stepped out again.
“He’s gone. Do you need to verify?”
“No. His family’s free to make arrangements for him. Thank you.”
In the elevator down, Roarke put an arm around her, said nothing.
She waited until they stepped outside.
“I need to walk for a minute.”
“As long as you like.”
“He suffered more than he needed to at the end. I could tell.” And walking, she told Roarke what was said in the room.
“Evil has no conscience. He never lost his. It makes you sad.”
“Lives taken, lives wasted. Yeah, it makes me sad. I’ll report this to Whitney, then it’s done. Has to be done.”
“Do that, then after a stop at home to wand and ice, we’ll go from dark and death to light and life.”
“Okay, yeah. Who couldn’t use some light and life?” She took his hand and knew she held what, for her, was light and life.
“And we’ve got enough time for you to do some work.”
He laughed. “There’s nothing like some good work to lift body and spirit.”
At the car, she turned to draw him into a hug. Because he always lifted hers.