Sibs. Part 2

"Sure. I'll be right outside."

Once she was alone, the sobs began, echoing up from an empty pit that had opened inside her, quaking through her chest, making her whole body heave.

11:22 A.M.

"Want another coffee?" Rob said. "No thanks."

"Corn m.u.f.fin? They're really good here."

They were seated by the front window of a tiny luncheonette on East Thirty-third. The noontime rush was still half an hour away so they had the place almost to themselves. The rich, heavy aroma of chicken soup filled the air; the peppery tang of hot pastrami wafted across their table.

"No. Thank you." A sudden thought broke through the haze that enveloped her. "They're 'good here'? You recommend them?"

"Yeah. Could use a touch more sugar, but they're almost as good as mine."

A fond memory forced its way through the gloom- Friday nights in Rob's apartment as he buzzed around the kitchen, heedless of how his amateur chef act clashed with his tough cop image, watching him follow a recipe just so far and then deciding he could improve on it, usually with disastrous results.

"You really ought to have something to eat."

"You sound like my mother."

"Fine. Listen to your mother: Eat something."

Kara allowed herself to smile. "Buzz off, Mom."

"Okay. You still smoke?"

"No. I quit years ago."

"Mind if I do?"

"Yes. I'm surprised you're still puffing those things. They're poison."

"Buzz off, Mom," he said.

Kara smiled and surrendered to the memory of how she had fallen for Rob soon after she'd arrived in the city. They met in a room full of men, in McSorley's Old Ale House, a formerly men-only tavern that had recently been forced by the courts to serve both s.e.xes. Kara had been braver and less wise then-the Central park incident was a long way off. She'd led Kelly down to one of the toughest parts of the Bowery just so she could have a beer in that old bastion of male exclusivity. After a long wait they each were served two mugs of porter-McSorley's sold them only in pairs. Some of the men present made some rude comments, but most just stared, as if she and her sister had crawled out from under a rock. One of the starers was Rob.

Even amid all those other men, Rob stood out. He wasn't in uniform, and it had nothing to do with size, although his six-two, tightly muscled frame didn't exactly blend in with the paunches around him. It was something else. Even when there were bigger, more physically imposing men present, something about Rob subtly but undeniably announced to any room he entered that a man man was on the premises. He maneuvered himself to their table and, despite the catcalls from his friends at the bar, sat with them. was on the premises. He maneuvered himself to their table and, despite the catcalls from his friends at the bar, sat with them.

The three of them left together, but it was Kara who fell so hard for Rob. It was Kara and Rob from then on. At least until Kara ended it.

She gazed out at the street where people hurried through the stark cold suns.h.i.+ne. Through the fog of condensation on the window they were motley blurs, actors on a tv with a bad tube. Kara was glad she couldn't see their everyday faces as they scurried by, going about their lives as if nothing terrible had happened. For Christ sake, Kelly was dead! Didn't they know know? Didn't they care care?

G.o.d, how she hated this city. And all the people in it, too.

One of them had killed her sister.

"Who did it?"

"We don't know."

"Not even a suspect?"

"Not a one."

"Great detective work!" Kara said and instantly regretted it. "Sorry. That was a cheap shot. But you must know something something."

Rob nodded. "We know that somewhere around one A.M. she left the Oak Bar with two men in their mid-thirties. We have descriptions of both and a good set of prints off one of the gla.s.ses in the room-you have no idea how many sets of prints you can find in a hotel room-but no ID as yet. We don't think they were registered in the Plaza. Shortly after two A.M. she came through a twelfth floor window."

Kara closed her eyes and shuddered.

"Was she conscious?"

"Witnesses say they heard her scream."

"Oh, G.o.d."

The coffee turned rancid in her mouth. Again she felt her stomach heave, but she forced it down. There was something else she had to know. She couldn't bring herself to look at Rob as she asked it.

"Was she... was she raped?"

There was a long pause. Finally she opened her eyes and looked at him. His face was tight.

"You're not going to like it."

"Tell me!" she said, the rage within her tearing at the surface of her control, screaming to break through and strike at someone. Anyone. "Tell me!"

"There was evidence of s.e.m.e.n in both the v.a.g.i.n.al vault and oral cavity," Rob said. His voice was robot-like, as if he had gone on autopilot and was reading from a report. "DNA a.n.a.lysis indicated two different men as sources. There was no sign of forced penetration. Kelly appeared to be a willing partic.i.p.ant."

Kara's anger suddenly turned to ice. She could barely speak.

"I don't believe it. A couple of guys drag her up to their room, rape and sodomize her, then throw her out a window and you have the nerve to say that she enjoyed it? I should have known! Is this what being a cop in this city has done to you?"

Rob stared into his coffee in silence. When she was through, he spoke in a low voice.

"It was Kelly's room."

"What?"

"Kelly rented it."

"Rob, what are you saying?"

He continued to stare into his coffee.

"I'm saying that Kelly Wade, your sister, took that room herself. She signed in as 'Ingrid' Wade."

"No. There has to be a mistake."

"No mistake. She's been a regular at the Plaza for the past few months. Paid cash every time. She was known to quite a few of the staff as a good tipper, and, um, a real swinger. She'd rent a room, pick up a guy in the bar-sometimes two guys-and take them upstairs."

"No!"

"And we found a vial of c.o.ke in her purse."

Suddenly numb, Kara slumped back in the chair.

Over Christmas she had sensed that something was bothering Kelly when she was out at the farm. She'd thought her sister was still in a funk over her break-up with that Tom creep the previous year. Kara had never dreamed it was anything like this. One night stands. Cocaine. She hadn't noticed any signs of drug abuse. But out in the heart of Amish country, who knew those signs?

An awful thought struck her. Was her habit bad enough to...

"She... she was a prost.i.tute?"

"I don't think so. The M.E. said there was no sign of a heavy c.o.ke habit. And as far as we can tell, she didn't charge for her favors. One of the bartenders at the Plaza had spoken to a few of her, um, dates after they'd been up in her room. They said they couldn't believe they'd gotten what they'd, um, gotten for free."

Kara stared at him.

"This is true, Rob? Really true?" She fought to keep a growing sob from choking off her voice. "It can't be! You're not talking about my sister, Rob! We're twins. We spent every day of our lives together. I knew knew her! her! You You knew her! This can't be Kelly you're talking about! There's got to be a mistake!" knew her! This can't be Kelly you're talking about! There's got to be a mistake!"

Sadly, he shook his head.

"I wish there were. Midtown North is just a block from the Plaza. When I came in the next morning and saw the name Wade on the report, I took the case. On a whim. I never dreamed it would be Kelly. When I saw the body I... I thought it was you. And the more digging I did, the more bizarre it became. I mean, I haven't seen Kelly since you and I-since you left town. That's ten years, but you're right, this kind of lifestyle doesn't fit with my memory of her. Not one bit."

"She was a nurse nurse, for G.o.d's sake!" Kara said. "She worked at St. Vincent's! Whenever she'd visit the farm she'd tell me horror stories about all the drug addicts and the VD and AIDS. She saw all that stuff first hand! I can't believe she'd become a... a swinger!" The very word left such a foul taste in her mouth that she wanted to spit. "Tell me there's a chance you're wrong, Rob."

His expression was pained.

"I wish I could, Kara, I really do. But there's too much corroboration. The Plaza people knew her. According to them, she was fast becoming a legend in the Oak Bar."

"A legend legend," she said acidly. "My sister the legend. That's just great."

Gradually, her shock and disbelief ebbed away, and Kara became aware of a growing anger at her twin. Kelly hadn't been a completely innocent victim of one of New York's myriad acts of violence. She had been an enabler. She had put herself in a situation that simply begged for trouble.

Kara was furious. It was this city, this rotten lousy city that had done it to Kelly. She hadn't come here a swinger and a c.o.ke head, but she'd ended up one.

This d.a.m.n city... Kara had to get out of it all over again. And right now. If she had to spend much longer here, she'd start to scream.

She glanced at her watch.

"I've got to be going. Thanks for the coffee and for your help and your time."

"No trouble. Where's your car?"

"I took the train. I didn't trust myself to drive."

"Good thinking. But even so, maybe you should stay over a night."

She gave him a sidelong stare. Was he thinking...?

"I don't mean anything like that," he said. "I just mean you don't look so hot. You're welcome to my place."

"You still rooming with Tony?"

"No. He's married. The rent got too high so I'm over on the East Side now. But seriously, I'll sleep on the couch. No problem."

"Thanks, but I don't know when my mother's coming in and I left Jill with a neighbor so-"

"Who's Jill?"

Good G.o.d, why had she mentioned Jill? She'd never intended to. But somehow it had slipped out. d.a.m.n d.a.m.n. Well, she couldn't take it back now. She had to tell him something.

"My daughter."

Rob hoped he didn't look as shocked as he felt. "A daughter? You have a child child?"

Automatically, he reached for a cigarette, then remembered she'd asked him not to smoke. He really needed one now.

"Yes. Jill Marie. A real little beauty."

Kara's mood had lightened visibly with the change in subject. Her eyes were alight with love.

Why should he be so stunned? He and Kara had had no contact in ten years. He had never married. Was that why some part of him a.s.sumed that Kara too had remained single?

"Wait a sec. You signed in at the morgue as Kara Wade. That's your maiden name."

"It's my married name, too."

"You married a guy with the same last name?"

"No, Rob," she said with exaggerated patience. "I simply kept my name when I got married. There's no law that says I've got to take my husband's name."

"Oh." He remembered how Kara had been into women's lib. Apparently that hadn't changed. "How old's your little girl?"

"Hmmm?" Kara seemed to come back from faraway. "Jill? Oh, she's eight."

Eight?

"You didn't waste much time, did you!" he blurted, then wanted to kick himself. "Sorry."

"That's okay." Kara smiled. "No, I guess I didn't. He was an old high school beau who'd been carrying the torch for me all the time I was away."

"Imagine that."

Rob remembered carrying the torch for Kara a long while himself, hoping she'd come back, or at least call. Hoping...