J. Robb - Indulgence in death

Book 38 in the In Death series, 2010

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THE ROAD WAS A KILLER, HARDLY WIDER THAN a decent stream of spit and snaking like a cobra between giant bushes loaded with strange flowers that resembled drops of blood.

She had to remind herself that the trip had been her idea-love was another killer-but how could she have known driving in western Ireland meant risking life and limb at every curve?

Rural Ireland, she thought, holding her breath as they zipped around the next turn on the Journey of Death. Where the towns were barely a hiccup on the landscape, and where she was pretty damn sure the cows outnumbered the people. And the sheep outnumbered the cows.

And why didnt that cause anyone concern? she wondered. Didnt people consider what could happen if armies of farm animals united in revolt?

When Murder Road finally carved its way out of the blood-drop bushes, the world opened up into fields and hills, green, green, eerily green against a sky stacked with clouds that couldnt decide if they wanted to rain or just sit there ominously. And she knew those dots all over the green were sheep and cows.

Probably discussing war strategy.

Shed actually seen them hanging around those weird-and okay, a little bit fascinating-stone ruins. Towering, tumbling places that had maybe been castles or forts. A good place for armies of farm animals to plot their revolt.

Maybe it was beautiful in a hang-the-painting-on-your-wall kind of way, but it just wasnt natural. No, it was too natural, she corrected. That was the deal, too much nature, too much open. Even the houses scattered over the endless landscape insisted on decking themselves out with flowers. Everything blooming, colors smashed against colors, shapes against shapes.

Shed even seen clothes hanging on lines like executed prisoners. It was 2060, for Gods sake. Didnt people out here own drying units?

And speaking of that-yeah, speaking of that-where was all the air traffic? Shed barely spotted a handful of airtrams, and not a single ad blimp lumbered overhead blasting out its hype on sales.

No subway, no glide carts, no tourists blissfully providing marks for street thieves, no maxibuses farting, no Rapid Cab drivers cursing.

God, she missed New York.

She couldnt even risk driving to take her mind off it, as for some cruel, inexplicable reason people over here insisted on driving on the wrong side of the road.

Why?

She was a cop, sworn to protect and serve, so she could hardly get behind the wheel on these death-trap roads where shed probably end up mowing down innocent civilians. And maybe some farm animals while she was at it.

She wondered if theyd ever get where they were going, and what the odds were of getting there in one piece.

Maybe she should run some probabilities.

The road narrowed again, boxed in again, and Lieutenant Eve Dallas, veteran murder cop, pursuer of psychopaths, serial killers, homicidal deviants, fought to hold back a squeal as her side of the car lightly kissed the hedges.

Her husband of two years-and the reason shed suggested this leg of their vacation-took his hand off the wheel to pat her thigh. Relax, Lieutenant.

Watch the road! Dont look at me, look at the road. Except its not really a road. Its a track. What are these damn bushes, and why are they here?

Its fuchsia. Lovely, arent they?

They made her think of blood spatter, possibly resulting from a massacre by a battalion of farm animals.

They ought to move them away from the stupid road.

I imagine they were here first.

Ireland wound through his voice a lot more appealingly than the road wound through the countryside.

She risked a glance in his direction. He looked happy, she realized. Relaxed, happy, at ease in a thin leather jacket and T-shirt, his black hair swept back from that amazing face (another killer), his eyes so rich a blue it made the heart ache.

She remembered theyd nearly died together a few weeks before, and hed been badly wounded. Shed thought-she could still remember that breathless instant when shed thought shed lost him.

And here he was, alive and whole. So maybe shed forgive him for being amused at her expense.

Maybe.

Besides, it was her own fault. Shed suggested they take part of their vacation, their anniversary celebration, here so he could visit the family hed only recently discovered. Shed been here before, after all.

Of course, that trip shed taken in a jet-copter.

When he slowed as they entered what could very loosely be called a town, she breathed a little easier.

Nearly there now, he told her. This is Tulla. Sineads farm is a few kilometers from the village.

Okay, theyd made it this far. Ordering herself to settle down, she scooped a hand through her choppy cap of brown hair.

Look there. The suns breaking through.

She studied the miserly opening in the gray, and the watery beam that struggled through. Wow, the light. Its blinding.

He laughed, reached out to smooth a hand over the hair shed just ruffled. Were out of our element, Lieutenant. Maybe its good for us to be out of the norm now and again.

She knew her norm. Death, investigation, the insanity of a city that ran instead of walked, the smells of a cop shop, the rush and the burden of command.

Some of that had become Roarkes norm in the last couple years, she mused. He juggled that with his own world, which was buying, selling, owning, creating pretty much every freaking thing in the known universe.

His beginnings had been as dark and ugly as hers. Dublin street rat, she thought, thief, conniver, survivor of a brutal, murderous father. The mother hed never known hadnt been so lucky.

From that, hed built an empire-not always on the sunny side of the law.

And she, cop to the bone, had fallen for him despite the shadows- or maybe because of them. But there was more to him than either of them had known, and the more lived on a farm outside of the little village of Tulla in County Clare.

We couldve taken a copter from the hotel, she said to him.

I like the drive.

I know you mean that, so it makes me wonder about you, pal.

Well take a shuttle when we leave for Florence.

No argument.

And well have a candlelight dinner in our suite. He glanced toward her with that relaxed, happy smile. The best pizza in the city.

Now youre talking.

It means a lot to them that wed come like this-together-for a couple of days.

I like them, she said of his mothers family. Sinead, the rest. Vacations are good. I just have to work myself into the mode and stop thinking about whats going on back at Central. What do people do here, anyway?

They work, farm, run shops, tend homes and families, go to the pub for a pint and community. Simple doesnt mean unfulfilled.

She let out a little snort. Youd go crazy here.

Oh, within a week. Were urban creatures, you and I, but I can appreciate those who make this way their own, who value and support community.