J.D. Robb "Survivor In Death" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Nixie

Nine-year-old Nixie Swisher woke up in the night and snuck down to the kitchen wanting an Orange Fizzy to drink, a move which ultimately saved her life. She hid when she heard an intruder in the house and then crept out to peek through a door, to witness him cutting the throat of the family's housekeeper, Inga Snood, as she slept in her downstairs bedroom.

He then went upstairs where he and his accomplice murdered Nixie's parents, Grant and Keelie, her brother Coyle and her best friend, Linnie Dyson, who was staying the night with the family.

Answer: the surviving daughter hid and called emergency from a 'link

Little Nixie Swisher was mature beyond her years and showed great presence of mind. When the intruder who had murdered Inga had gone upstairs she went into Inga's room and called emergency from her 'link. With the intruders still in the house she then crept upstairs to her parents' bedroom to alert them, only to find them dead and the two intruders going into her brother's room and her own room, where Linnie Dyson was sleeping.

The murderers had mistaken Linnie for Nixie, who hid until Eve arrived on the crime scene and found her, cowering and whimpering in the shower cubicle. As the only witness to the murders, Nixie needed to be taken into protective custody. Rather than hand her over to Child Protection Services, Eve decided to take her to her own home until the murderers were caught, at Peabody's suggestion.

Answer: lawyer

Grant Swisher was a partner in the law firm of Swisher and Rangle. His partner, Dave Rangle, also a family friend, was very distressed to hear about the murders, and most concerned for Nixie's welfare when Eve went to break the news of the murders to him. On a subsequent visit he gave Eve a family photo Grant Swisher had kept on his desk for her to give to Nixie. Dr Mira said the photo, of all four family members, looked like a photo of a happy, united and untroubled family.

Answer: CompuGuard

With his private room secured with titanium shields and his top-range computer equipment unregistered with the fictional CompuGuard, Roarke is able to gain (illegal) access to secure and sensitive files without leaving a computer trail. Eve has always been reticent to ask him to use it to help her and normally pretends not to notice when he does. On this occasion, however, she asks him outright to use his off-record equipment to find anyone the Swisher family had dealings with in the past few years and to search for like crimes, hoping something will turn up that will give her a lead.

Naturally, it does, with the name of Roger Kirkendall, who turns out to be one of the perpetrators.

Answer: she is abducted, tortured and killed

Meredith Newman was the social worker who had earlier wanted to take Nixie Swisher into temporary care before Eve took her in. She was abducted on the street and thrown into the back of a black van which then drove off. Eve is contacted by her friend Nadine Furst, who tells her about the abduction, which was called in to Channel 75 by a young mother who was waiting for Newman to visit and saw everything from her window.

Taken by the gang to their headquarters, Newman was bound and blindfolded, and tortured by them to try to gain information about Nixie's whereabouts. When she told them Eve had taken the child into protective custody, the gang further tortured her into revealing the addresses of any safe houses she knew about before cutting her throat like the other victims and dumping her body.

Answer: guarding a 'safe house' where the killers believed the surviving girl was living

When Eve is notified by restaurant owner and Free-Ager Leah Rames that Meredith Newman's body has been found in an alleyway behind her premises, she suspects the killers may have tortured her into revealing the locations of safe houses and immediately arranges for all people living in them to be evacuated and the premises to be guarded day and night. Officers James Preston and Owen Knight were guarding one of the safe houses when they were ambushed by the killers and slain. Preston managed to hit one of the suspects with his stunner before he died.

Their deaths further increased Eve's desire to hunt the killers down.

Answer: Ident artist

Detective Yancy is the NYPSD's best Ident artist and Eve prefers to use him whenever she can. He will not be hurried in his work, which sometimes irritates her, but he is very gifted. Ophelia Washburn was an LC (Licensed Companion) whose licence had been suspended. She hoped that her licence would be restored in exchange for the information she was able to give Eve, which Eve agreed to.

Ophelia had smelled blood on the two men as they barged past her in the street, which had aroused her suspicions. She described them as two big men who looked alike, wearing caps and sunglasses. One of them was limping, which pleased Eve as it meant the shot from James Preston's weapon had found its target. Through Ophelia's description and Yancy's artwork the two men were able to be identified as Roger Kirkendall and Isaac Clinton.

Answer: martial arts

Master Lu, martial arts expert and three-time Olympic Gold Medalist, is the business partner of Roger Kirkendall, although he is not involved in any of the crimes and indeed has no knowledge of them. He tells Eve and Peabody that he has not had any contact with Kirkendall since agreeing to their business arrangement six years ago. The basis for the partnership was suggested to him by Roger Kirkendall, to give Master Lu the benefit of his own martial arts studio and in return provide income for Kirkendall.

Master Lu tells Eve and Peabody that Kirkendall is an eccentric who spends most of his time abroad, and the correspondence between them is as arranged between them six years ago, which consists of Master Lu sending electronic funds to Kirkendall's account in Zurich, for which he receives receipts.

Answer: Nebraska

Dian Kirkendall took her children into hiding immediately after her divorce from her husband Roger was finalised. Shortly afterwards Kirkendall, Clinton and Isenberry tortured her sister, Roxanne Turnbill, in an attempt to find her and the children's whereabouts, but Roxanne did not know and could not tell them. She never reported the abduction and torture out of fear. Terrified of Kirkendall, she and her husband moved shortly afterwards to start a new life on a farm in Nebraska, with high-level security.

Peabody and McNab interviewed Roxanne and her husband Joshua and found out Dian Kirkendall and the children contacted Roxanne occasionally to say they were safe, but she had never revealed where they were and Roxanne had not seen her sister since she had disappeared.

Answer: twin brothers

Fraternal twins Kirkendall and Clinton had been separated at birth and sold by their birth mother to two different families by a baby broker. They did not meet again until they were training together in the Army, where they recognised their similarities and delved into their backgrounds, discovering they were twins. From then on they worked as a team, together with female accomplice Jilly Isenberry, who had served with the Army in the same unit as Kirkendall.

The motive for the killings of the Swisher family was revenge because Grant Swisher had won the divorce case for Kirkendall's wife, Dian, costing him custody of his children. Other people, including the Judge who had granted custody to Dian Kirkendall, had also been killed by the gang along the way.
In closing the case, Eve and her team were able to take Roger Kirkendall and Isaac Clinton into custody alive, but Jilly Isenberry died after her neck was broken when she fell downstairs while fighting with Eve.

There is a happier future for Nixie Swisher too. Finding no one else willing to take her in, Roarke contacted Richard DeBlass and his family, who had adopted another child, Kevin ('Vengeance in Death'), and Nixie was able to start a new life with them.