She tried the senator's cell phone, but it went straight to voice-mail, just as it had the two other times she'd called on her way into the city. He would be at the charity breakfast by now. Normally she would have double-checked with him first thing to make sure he had everything he needed for the event. Normally she would have been in the office for at least an hour already, getting a jump-start on the day's tasks while he was out courting his public.
Normally ...
Nothing about the past few days seemed normal.
Not even close.
Tavia walked along the City Hall plaza toward the senator's offices, her head down, face dipped into the folds of her knit scarf as another wintry gust rolled up. She cut between the pair of towers and the squat government building next to them, hearing the cacophony of a gathered crowd even before she rounded the corner and saw the commotion.
News vans and camera crews from every local network and a couple of national cable channels lined New Sudbury Street like vultures. Police vehicles, not an unusual sight at the government offices when a large precinct sat directly across the street, were blocking the entrance and exit, shadowed by black federal-issued SUVs parked in front of the building doors and all along the arched fire lane at the curb.
Dread squeezed her stomach, turning it into an icy fist in her gut.
"Excuse me." Tavia approached a reporter from Channel Five who was fluffing her unmoving helmet of blond hair and performing a sound check. "What's happening here?"
"Get in line, honey," the woman replied. "That's what we're all waiting to find out. The police commissioner just called a press conference for eight o'clock."
Tavia stepped through the groups of hovering reporters and the gawkers who'd been drawn from around the neighboring streets by all the noise and activity. She weaved between the sea of bodies, trying to make her way closer to the building entrance where most of the police and federal agents had clustered.
Someone took sharp hold of her arm. "Ms. Fairchild."
"Detective Avery," she said, the kick in her chest relaxing a bit as she met the older man's sober gaze. "What's all this about?"
"Come with me, please." He walked her through the crowds and into the front entrance of the building. The lobby was busy with more uniformed officers and armed men in SWAT gear. The detective paused with her, his face fatigued, aging him even more. "When did you last speak to or see Senator Clarence, Tavia?"
The cold knot in her stomach got even harder. "Last night, when he dropped me off at home." "Do you remember what time that was?"
She shook her head. "I'm not sure. It was right after we left the police station. Has something happened to him? Is that what all this is about?"
Detective Avery braced his fists on his h*ps and exhaled a heavy sigh. "There's no easy way to say it, I'm afraid. Someone broke into his house overnight and ... attacked him. He was killed, Tavia. He and a couple of his security guards as well."
"What?" She struggled to process the news, even though her instincts had already been warning her that something terrible had occurred. Shock crept over her - shock and disbelief. "This can't be happening. Senator Clarence can't be dead. He was supposed to give a speech today at a hospital charity breakfast ..."
Avery laid his hand consolingly on her shoulder. "We're gonna catch this guy. Don't you worry about that, all right?"
She mutely shook her head, trying to make some sense out of the awful news. Looking for explanations, answers. "The man last night at the station - he warned that the senator was in danger. You heard what he said, didn't you? He said someone wanted to kill Senator Clarence. Someone called Dragos."
A harsh scoff sounded from beside her. Tavia looked over and met the hard gaze of a uniformed policeman who had drifted over while she and Detective Avery were talking. A scar split the dark slash of his left eyebrow, making his scowl look even more severe. "Nothing but bullshit out of that bastard. Shoulda pumped his skull full of bullets. Maybe that woulda kept him down."
At Tavia's confused look, Avery said, "The man we had in custody ... he escaped last night from the infirmary."
"Escaped," she murmured. "I don't understand. How is that possible?"
"We're trying to figure that out ourselves. I saw the guy when he was brought out of the lineup room. He was in bad shape. Somehow he managed to overcome a two-hundred-pound male nurse, knocking him unconscious before slipping out of the building unnoticed. I mean, the guy shouldn't have been able to walk out of there on his own motor, let alone find his way to Marblehead to go after the senator like he did. I've never seen anything so brutal. So goddamn bloody."
Tavia swallowed past the lump of sadness and horror that had lodged in her throat.
"I'm sorry," Detective Avery said, looking at her in concern. "I realize you probably don't need to hear the ugly details. You've been through quite a bit yourself lately."
"It's all right." She drew in a quick breath, regaining her composure. "I'll be fine." "We'd like you to come into the station, if you feel up to it. We have some more questions for you, and the feds will want to talk to you as well - "
"Of course."
He gestured toward the door of the building, to where the reporters had seemed to multiply in the time since she'd been inside. "We can go now, before this place really turns into a zoo." Tavia nodded, falling in behind him as he and a small group of uniformed officers escorted her out to a waiting police sedan.
For a moment, as she stepped outside into the cold morning, she felt as though she were walking through a different world, one that didn't belong to her. There was an unreal quality to everything, as though she were peering through the gauze of a veil, unable to see anything clearly.