Possession in Death

"Possession in Death"
from The Other Side anthology

Book Number

31.5

Release Date

November 30, 2010

Publisher

Jove

ISBN

978-0515148671

Publication order
Previous	Next
Indulgence in Death	Treachery in Death

Plot Summary[]

“The devil killed my body. I cannot fight, I cannot find. I cannot free her. You must. You are the one. We speak to the dead.”

Immediately after hearing these words, uttered to her by an old Romanian woman bleeding to death in the street, detective Eve Dallas begins to notice that her latest case has come with a number of interesting side-effects: visions of the deceased, instant familiarity with rooms she’s never seen before, and fluency in Russian. Likewise, there appears to be a force inside of her, a spirit other than her own, that won’t let her rest until she’s found Beata, the old woman’s great-granddaughter, whose disappearance two months prior remains a mystery. Desperate to be free of her new “gifts”, Eve pursues the facts until she discovers a link between Beata’s disappearance and the disappearance of eight other young women, all of whom attended the same dance classes, none of whom were ever heard from again.

- (from Amazon.com)

Map[]

Please reference the Possession in Death Map for locations or approximate locations of sites listed here.

Timeline[]

Spoiler warning!
This article contains plot details about an upcoming episode.

Approximate Story Start Date: July, 2060, starting the day after Indulgence in Death^[1]

Day 1: Saturday[]

Chapter 1[]

Eve spends the morning interviewing Sylvester Moriarity III in the hospital, the day after he and Winston Dudley IV tried to kill her. Driving home from interrogating him, she thinks of the cruelty and injustice of two spoiled men who had considered murder a game.
Eve drives through the gates of home determined to put the case behind her and enjoy the day's cookout with cops and friends. She comes inside through the side entrance to avoid Summerset, wondering why she hadn't thought of that sooner (although she actually did, in Witness in Death).
Roarke comes into the bedroom, notices she's sad, and talks her through it. She finally spews out what made her the angriest was that the prize for winning the competition was a single dollar. She just got done notifying all of the victims' families, letting them know the killers have been caught and will be prosecuted, but that there was no real reason for the murders, just arrogant, entitled assholes playing a game.
Peabody and McNab arrive first, bearing Peabody's granny's homemade wine. Soon the back patio is crowded with cops and friends all eating and talking.

Chapter 2[]

While everyone is eating, Nadine comes over to chat with Eve. She points out that at Eve's gatherings there is always a diverse and interesting collection of people.
Father Lopez [sic] approaches Eve and Roarke to thank them for the invitation. He needs to leave to prepare for priestly duties, so Eve volunteers to drive him back to St. Cristóbal's. As they drive, Lopez talks with Eve about Morris; without breaking confidences, he lets her know that Morris is healing from his grief. Eve expresses her frustration about the dead, wondering if they are pissed off, because they won't let go of her. She comments, "Sometimes I wish I could see, or feel... No, I wish I could know, even once, that it's enough."
In her peripheral vision, Eve notices a bloody old woman staggering down the sidewalk and falling into the street. She rushes to help. The old woman mentions Beata, who is trapped behind a red door and needs Eve's help. She mentions the devil and that Dallas is the warrior.
The woman says her name is Gizi and demands Eve let her in and keep her promise to help. The woman digs her nails into Eve's hand, sharing blood with her, and demands Eve take her in. Not knowing what was happening, she agrees. She is pulled into a vision of Beata and goes into a trance.
Lopez pulls Dallas out of the trance. The woman is dead. The MTs indicate she has been dead for almost four hours. Eve insists that's impossible, that they saw her fall.

Chapter 3[]

As other police arrive, Eve starts the investigation, identifying the clothes as handmade, and noting the tattoo of a peacock feather on Gizi's left ankle. Her gauge indicates that she died at one, but knows Lopez and she talked to her at almost 5 p.m.
While Peabody and Morris work the scene, Dallas starts following the blood trail. Several blocks away, she turns into a narrow alley and finds the location where the stabbing occurred. Beneath a bag of garbage, Eve finds an old metal key. As Eve recreates the scene in her head, she feels an attack and stabbing from behind. When she comes to, she is shocky and then realizes that she wasn't stabbed.
Peabody joins her in the alley just then and they discuss the crime scene. Eve heads off to look at the buildings and as she leaves the alley, her system clears.
In a market on the ground floor of the nearest building, the owners tell her that Gizi Szabo rents an apartment upstairs. Karrie and Zach Morgenstern express their shock and mention that she was Hungarian and Romany (a gypsy), and had come to find her great-granddaughter, Beata Varga. They tell her that Beata came to New York to be a dancer on Broadway, worked at Goulash, a Hungarian restaurant, had an understudy spot in a small musical review, and just landed a part in the chorus in a new off-Broadway musical at the Carmine Theater. Peabody tells Eve that TOD was 1 p.m.; Eve gets frustrated hearing that, and slaps back at Peabody, hinting that the Gypsy spirit was at work.

Chapter 4[]

Eve and Peabody enter Szabo's simple apartment. There are two boxes of Beata's things in the closet and Eve feels sorrow as she looks through them. Peabody says that Beata Varga was 22, and had worked at Goulash until three months ago. Detective Lloyd is the investigating officer on her missing persons case.
In one of the drawers is a small chest with tools of the fortune telling trade. Eve is about to put it back, but impulse has her pressing her thumbs in the patterns on the box and a small drawer slides out, with a lock of Beata's hair, a crystal, and a heart of white stone inside.
They arrange to meet Detective Lloyd at Goulash. One of the owners, Mirium Frido, takes Eve and Peabody into the kitchen and fills them in on what a good worker Beata was and what she knew about her life. She expresses her sadness about Gizi's death and tells them that she had predicted that Mirium and Jan Frido would have a son, and Mirium just found out she's pregnant. Szabo had been in around 11 a.m., saying she felt she was getting close to her great-granddaughter, that Beata was toward the setting sun, below the rays, locked behind a red door.
Lloyd joins them, gives them a copy of his files on Beata, tells them about her, and walks them through the timeline of the day of Beata's disappearance. People thought she packed a bag and just left, but he thinks she is dead.

Chapter 5[]

Dallas and Peabody next go to the ballet studio, West Side School for the Arts, where Eve is somehow able to read and understand a Russian insult on the door of an elevator. They enter the studio on the fourth floor and see a tall, thin woman in black leading a class. Natalya Barinova thinks that Beata ran off to Las Vegas, saying she was not the first student to leave unexpectedly and doesn't think she will be the last. Natalya is shocked to hear of Madam Szabo's death. They had become friends and often had tea together, including the previous day.
Her son Alexi, who made them as cops the minute they walked into the studio, comes out next. He is arrogant and full of attitude as they ask him questions, and Peabody finds a laundry list of past brushes with the law. He is followed by his uncle, Sasha Korchov, who doesn't believe Beata ran off - he thinks she's dead. Peabody runs him and sees that he had been a famous ballet dancer until a car wreck severely injured him and killed his cohab.
Alexi's alibi was brunch at Quazar’s after sex with another dancer, Allie Madison. She confirms the alibi and mentions that she is the Angel to Alexi's Devil. They are working on the final pas de deux from Diabolique.

Chapter 6[]

Peabody says she and McNab will retrace the restaurant to the alley to the studio, and time it all; she and McNab will also go by the theater to interview people who know Beata. In the car, Eve hears a voice in her head telling her "Alive. Trapped. Help. Keep your promises!" so loudly that she reaches for her weapon. Nobody else is there, of course, so she calls Roarke for comfort; he says he will meet her at the morgue because, "Where else does a man meet his wife - when they're you and me?"
Eve gets lost and disoriented on the way to the morgue and puts her vehicle on auto so she can close her eyes and rest. She is so upset that she's planning to grab a Power Bar from vending, along with her usual Pepsi. A woman is sitting on the floor next to the machines weeping, saying she's scared and nobody sees her now. Eve says she can see her and she needs medical attention, but then sees the gaping wound on the back of the woman's head and her hand passes through the woman as she reaches out. The woman, Janna Dorchester, tells Eve it was Rennie Foster, that he was mad at her because she helped get Sara away from him, he killed her with a rock in Riverside Park and will probably kill Sara next.
When Roarke arrives, Eve is still sitting on the floor. Roarke can't see Janna and tells Eve she's burning up. She asks him for a cold drink and to get Morris. Morris confirms that he's working on Janna Dorchester, she was found beaten to death in Riverside Park, and Stuben is primary. Eve tells Roarke what's going on and he asks her how she is in Russian, and then tells her despite her extremely fluent answer, he doesn't believe she's fine. She calls Stuben to give him the homicide information, claiming a CI. Janna tells Eve she's not as scared or cold anymore, but she still wishes she wasn't dead. Unfortunately, Gizi didn't pass along the power to resurrect, so all Eve can do is get justice for her.
Morris asks her if she just had a conversation with a dead woman, Eve asks him not to spread that around, and Morris confirms Gizi's TOD as 1 p.m. He tells Eve that, according to Lopez, there was a blast of light and energy when Gizi took Eve's hand, and then Eve went blank. Morris says there's more in the world than science. Eve says let's stick with science for now, and gets the weapon information - a dagger, stabbed into Gizi's back. She knows the killer is a coward and dressed like the devil.
Roarke tells Eve he doesn't know if she needs a doctor or a priest (for an exorcism), Eve says that's not funny, and Roarke agrees.

Chapter 7[]

On the drive home, Eve recites part of a goulash recipe at Roarke's request, until he cuts her off, saying he believes her. She tells Roarke exactly what happened, including the accidental blood pact she made with a Romany. Once home, Eve is delighted to use her newfangled talents to tell Summerset to f- off in Hungarian. Roarke agrees to run names for her if she rests for an hour. Since she's starving (a side effect of possession, according to Roarke), she has pizza and a soother. Galahad is wary of her. She tells Roarke she lives with the dead, but she doesn't want to chat with them, although she sees the advantages for closing cases.
She asks Roarke to have sex with her, not the 96 year old Gizi that keeps peeking out. After that Roarke tells her who she is and what she is to him, and then shows her the new tattoo of a peacock feather on her ankle.

Chapter 8[]

Eve thinks Alexi is too hotheaded to carry off a planned killing, and she dismisses Natalya because she's sure the kidnapping was done by a man. She thinks Sasha looks benign, a little dreamy, but then she sees pictures of him from before the accident, including one where he and the cohab who died in the accident, Arial Nurenski, danced the Diabolique, and Eve knows he took Beata.
Roarke pulls up the blueprints for the dance studio, which Sasha owns. She remembers Natalya saying that Beata wasn't the first dancer who left to go to Vegas, and she thinks he's been taking dancers who look like Nurenski and/or were scheduled to dance the angel part of Diabolique. They look for other women reported missing, beginning with Vanessa Warwich, age 22, missing for two years, and find seven more, for a total of nine over twenty-three years, including Beata.

Chapter 9[]

Eve and most of the same people who were at her barbecue (including Father Lopez) assemble in a conference room at Cop Central. All the missing women were dancers in their early to mid twenties, with dark hair and a slim build, and Mira thinks he's been killing them and taking a new one each time.
Reo gets a warrant, and Eve asks Roarke to make sure Gizi doesn't take Eve over and try to get revenge on Sasha. He promises that "while preventing you from taking a dead Gypsy's revenge, I'll do whatever I can to preserve your dignity."
Feeney tells her there are heat sources for two people in an apartment, but nothing in the suspect's and there are a lot of voids in the basement due to thick walls, jammers, or sensor blocks. Eve thinks he's down in the basement with Beata now, and gets the location of the voids. Her master doesn't work on the basement door, so Roarke unlocks it (because "battering rams are crude, and they're noisy").
As she's heading toward one of the voids, Vanessa stops her to tell her "we can't get out" and ask for help. Eve sees all of the dead women, and tells Vanessa she has to wait. She tells Eve that when she couldn't dance anymore he killed her, and touches her fingers to the gaping slice across her throat.
Roarke leads her away but needs to jam the sensors first because he thinks they will alert Sasha that they are coming and he may kill Beata. Roarke unlocks the door to the monitoring room, and when Eve sees a blood red door, she knows that's where Beata is and they go in on three.

Chapter 10[]

The room is set up with a stage, and a gold haloed Beata is exhaustedly dancing with Sasha, who is dressed as the devil. As soon as the dancers leap apart, Eve trains her stunner on Sasha, telling him to freeze or she will drop him off his twinkle toes. He tells her she has interrupted the performance, and pulls out the dagger from his belt, saying "she's my Angel, and here she lives forever."
As he lunges for Beata, who tells him she is Beata Varga, not his Angel, and he should go to hell, Eve stuns him. She wraps her arms around Beata, who says she knew someone would come, Peabody restrains Sasha, and Baxter and Trueheart haul him to his feet and arrest him. Beata tells Eve the horrors of her prison sentence, that she was locked in and drugged if she didn't put on her costume and dance with him, which he came to do every night. She says Natalya and Alexi didn't know about it.
Eve hears the other women calling to her from inside another void, the empty room Peabody found, so she sends Roarke to get tools. She starts to pry open the boards, and then Roarke breaks down the brick wall with a sledgehammer. There are bodies stacked on top of each other, Roarke says, "like berths on a bloody train." Eve sends for a recovery team, sweepers, and Father Lopez. She finds Vanessa and tells her she's found now, she's free now.
Gizi steps to Eve and tells her she (Eve) found Beata. Eve says she would have in her own way, but Gizi says how could she risk it when Beata was so precious to her. She offers to leave the "gift" with Eve but she declines. Gizi thanks Eve in Russian, Eve replies in Russian and then corrects herself to say "you're welcome" in English.
Roarke asks how she is and she lifts up her pant leg to show him that under her clutch piece the tattoo is gone. She asks him to say something in Russian, he does, and she is relieved that she doesn't understand it. Beata says she will thank Eve every day for the rest of her life.
Eve and Roarke decide that they will spend the next day at home, watching old vids, eating junk food, drinking a bunch of wine, and having half-drunk sex.

Character List[]

List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Secondary Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Recurring Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Peripheral Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]

Other Covers[]

Additional covers here

UK edition cover	German 1st edition cover	German Book Club edition cover
UK edition cover	German 1st edition cover	German Book Club edition cover	Brilliance Audio unabridged edition cover

Footnotes[]

↑ This story takes place the day after the previous novel (Indulgence in Death) ends and is just that one day. Eve notes that she has been interviewing the man (name redacted for spoilers) who had "tried to kill her less than twenty-four hours before," chapter 1.

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[1] This story takes place the day after the previous novel (Indulgence in Death) ends and is just that one day. Eve notes that she has been interviewing the man (name redacted for spoilers) who had "tried to kill her less than twenty-four hours before," chapter 1.

[1]