A pause worthy of Nance Laurel. "I'm afraid not, sir. The Moreno case has been put on hold for the time being and there are--"
"I'm sorry, on hold?" An open case of a homicide that occurred a week ago? This was the time when the investigation should be at its most intense.
"That's correct, Captain."
"But why? You have a suspect in custody?"
"No, sir. First, I don't know what American connection you're speaking of; the killing was committed by members of a drug cartel from Venezuela, most likely. We're waiting to hear from authorities there before we proceed further. And I personally have had to focus on a more urgent case. A part-time student who's just gone missing, an American girl. Ah, these crimes happen some in our nation." Poitier added defensively, "But rarely. Very rarely. You know how it is, sir. A pretty student disappears and the press descends. Like vultures."
The press. Maybe that was why Rhyme finally got put through. His bluff had touched a nerve.
The corporal continued, "We have less rape than Newark, New Jersey, much less. But a missing student in the Islands is magnified like a telephoto lens. And I have to say, with all respect, your news programs are most unfair. The British press too. But now we have lost an American student and not a British one, so it will be CNN and the rest. Vultures. With all respect."
He was rambling now--to deflect, Rhyme sensed. "Corporal--"
"It's most unfair," Poitier repeated. "A student comes here from America. She comes here on holiday or--this girl--to study for a semester. And it's always our fault. They say terrible things about us."
Rhyme had lost all patience but he struggled to remain calm. "Again, Corporal, about the Moreno murder? Now, we're sure the cartels had nothing to do with his death."
Silence now, in stark contrast with the officer's earlier rambling. Then: "Well, my efforts are on finding the student."
"I don't care about the student," Rhyme blurted, bad taste maybe but, in fact, at the moment he didn't. "Robert Moreno. Please. There is an American connection and I'm looking into it now. There's some urgency."
Task: Al-Barani Rashid (NIOS ID: abr942pd5t)
Born: 2/73, Michigan
Rhyme couldn't begin to guess who this Rashid was, the next name in the STO queue, and doubted he was an innocent soccer dad in Connecticut. But he agreed with Nance Laurel that the man shouldn't die on the basis of faulty, or faked, information.
Complete by: 5/19...
Rhyme continued, "I'd like a copy of the crime scene report, photos of the scene and the nest the sniper was shooting from, autopsy reports, lab analysis. All the documentation. And any datamined information about someone named Don Bruns on the island around the time of the shooting. It's a cover. An AKA for the sniper."
"Well, we don't actually have the final report yet. Some notes but it's not complete."
"Not complete?" Rhyme muttered. "The killing was on May ninth."
"I believe that's right."
He believes?
Rhyme suddenly felt a stab of concern. "Of course the scene's been searched?"
"Yes, yes, naturally."
Well, this was a relief.
Poitier said, "The day after Mr. Moreno was shot we got right to it."
"Next day?"
"Yes." Poitier hesitated as if he knew this was a misstep. "We had another situation, another case that same day. A prominent lawyer was killed and robbed downtown, in his office. That took priority. Mr. Moreno was not a national. The lawyer was."
Two conditions made crime scenes infinitely less valuable to investigators. The first was contamination from people trudging through the site--including careless police officers themselves. The second was the passage of time between the crime and the search. Evidence key to establishing a suspect's identity and conviction could, literally, evaporate in a matter of hours.
Waiting a day to search a scene could cut the amount of vital evidence in half.
"So the scene is still sealed?"
"Yes, sir."
That was something. In a voice he hoped was suitably grave Rhyme said, "Corporal, the reason we're involved here is that we think whoever killed Moreno will kill again."
"Is that true, do you think?" He sounded genuinely concerned. "Here?"
"We don't know."
Then someone else was speaking to the corporal. A hand went over the mouthpiece of the phone, and Rhyme could hear only mumbles. Poitier came back on the line. "I will take your number, Captain, and if I am able to find anything helpful I will give you a call."
Rhyme's jaw clenched. He gave the number then quickly asked, "Could you search the scene again, please?"
"With all respect, Captain, you have far greater resources in New York than we do here. And, to be honest, this has all been a little overwhelming for me. It's my first homicide case. A foreign activist, a sniper, a luxury resort, and--"
"First homicide case?"
"Well, yes."
"Corporal, with all respect--" Echoing the man's own line. "--could I speak to a supervisor?"
Poitier didn't sound insulted when he said, "One moment, please." Again the hand went over the receiver. Rhyme could hear muted words. He thought he could make out "Moreno" and "New York."
Poitier came back on a moment later. "I'm sorry, Captain. It seems my supervisor is unavailable. But I have your number. I will be glad to call you when we know something more."
Rhyme believed this might be his only chance. He thought quickly. "Just tell me one thing: Did you recover bullets intact?"
"One, yes, and--" His conversation braked to a halt. "I'm not sure. Excuse me, please. I must go."
Rhyme said, "The bullet? That's key to the case. Just tell me--"
"I believe I may have been mistaken about that. I must hang up now."
"Corporal, what was the department with the police force you transferred from?"
Another pause. "Business Inspections and Licensing Division, sir. And before that, Traffic. I must go."
The line died.
CHAPTER 15
JACOB SWANN PULLED HIS GRAY Nissan Altima past the house of Robert Moreno's limo driver.
His tech people had come through. They'd learned that Moreno had used an outfit called Elite Limousine when he was in the city on May 1. He discovered too that Moreno had a particular driver he always used. His name was Vlad Nikolov. And, being the activist's regular chauffeur, he probably had information that the investigators would want. Swann had to make sure they didn't get those facts.
He'd made a fast call via his prepaid--"Sorry, wrong number"--and learned the driver was home at the moment. His thickly Russian-or Georgian-accented voice sounded a bit groggy, which meant he'd probably worked the late-night shift. Good. He wasn't going anywhere soon. But Swann knew he'd have to move fast; the police couldn't datamine with the same impunity as his technical services department but traditional canvassing could reveal the driver's identity too.
Swann climbed out of his car and stretched, looking around.
Many livery workers lived in Queens. This was because the parking situation in Manhattan was so horrific and the real estate prices so high. And because limo work often involved shuttles to and from LaGuardia and JFK airports, both of which were located in the borough.
Vlad Nikolov's house was modest but well tended, Swann noted. A spray of flowering plants, thick and brilliant courtesy of the delicate spring temperature and a recent rain, bordered the front of the beige brick bungalow. The grass was trim, the slate slabs leading to the front door had been swept, possibly even scrubbed, in the past day or two. The centerpiece of the yard was two boxwood bushes, diligently shaped.
The utility bill information, including smart electric meter patterns, and food and other purchasing profiles that the tech department had datamined, suggested that the forty-two-year-old Nikolov lived alone. This was unusual for Russian or Georgian immigrants, who tended to be very family-minded. Swann supposed that perhaps he had family back in his native country.
> In any event, the man's solitary life worked to Swann's advantage.
He continued past the house, glancing briefly at a window, covered with a gauzy curtain. Lace. Maybe Nikolov had a girlfriend who came to visit sporadically. A Russian man would be unlikely to buy lace. Another person inside would be a problem--not because Jacob Swann minded killing her but because two deaths increased the number of people who might miss a victim and bring the police here all the more quickly. It made a bigger news splash too. He hoped to keep the driver's death quiet for as long as possible.
Swann came to the end of the block, turned and slipped a plain black baseball cap over his head, pulled his jacket off, turned it inside out and slipped it back on. Witnesses see upper garments and headgear mostly. Now, if anyone was looking, it would seem that two different people had walked past the house, rather than one man doing so twice.
Every grain of suspicion counts.
On this second trip he looked the other way--at all the cars on the street in front of and near the house. Obviously no NYPD cruisers but no unmarkeds either that he could sense.
He walked up to the door, reaching into his backpack and withdrawing a six-inch length of capped pipe, filled with lead shot. He wrapped his right hand around this, making a fist. The point of the pipe was to give support to the inside of the fingers so that if he happened to connect with bone or some other solid portion of his victim when he swung, the metacarpals wouldn't snap. He'd learned this the hard way--by missing a blow to the throat and striking a man on the cheek, which had cracked his little finger. He'd regained control of the situation but the pain in his right hand was excruciating. He'd found it was very difficult to flay skin with the knife in one's non-dominant hand.
Swann took a blank, sealed envelope from his bag too.
A glance around. Nobody on the street. He rang the bell with his knuckle, put a cheerful smile on his face.
No response. Was he asleep?
He lifted a paper napkin from his pocket and tried the knob. Locked. This was always the case in New York. Not so in the suburbs of Cleveland or Denver--where he'd killed an information broker last month. All the doors in Highlands Ranch were unlocked, windows too. The man hadn't even locked his BMW.
Swann was about to walk around behind the house and look for a window he might break through.
But then he heard a thud, a click.
He rang the bell again, just to let Mr. Nikolov know that his presence was still requested. This is what any normal visitor would have done.
A grain of suspicion...
A voice, muffled by the thickness of the door. Not impatient. Just tired.
The door opened and Swann was surprised--and pleased--to see that Robert Moreno's preferred driver was only about five feet, six inches and couldn't have weighed more than 160 pounds, 25 fewer than Swann himself.
"Yes?" he asked in a thick Slavic accent, looking at Swann's left hand, the white envelope. The right was not visible.
"Mr. Nikolov?"
"That's right." He was wearing brown pajamas and was in house slippers.
"I've got a TLC refund for you. You gotta sign for it."
"What?"
"Taxi Limousine Commission, the refund."
"Yeah, yeah, TLC. What refund?"
"They overcharged fees."
"You with them?"
"No, I'm the contracting agent. I just deliver the checks."
"Well, they pricks. I don't know about refund but they pricks, what they charge. Wait, how do I know they not ripping me off? I sign, I sign away my rights? Maybe I should get a lawyer."
Swann lifted the envelope. "You can read this. Everybody's taking the checks but it says you don't have to, you can talk to an arbitrator. I don't care. I deliver checks. You don't want it, don't take it."
Nikolov unlatched the screen door. "Lemme have it."
Swann appreciated that he had no sense of humor but he couldn't help but be struck by the man's unfortunate choice of words.
When the door opened, Swann stepped forward fast and drove his right fist, holding the pipe, into the man's solar plexus, aiming not for the ugly brown cloth of the PJs but for a spot about two inches beyond--inside the man's gut. Which is where blows should always be aimed, never the surface, to deliver the greatest impact.
Nikolov gasped, retched and went down fast.
In an instant Swann stepped past him, grabbed him by the collar and dragged him well inside before the vomiting started. Swann kicked him once, also in the belly, hard, and then looked out a lacy window.
A quiet street, a pleasant street. Not a dog walker, not a passerby. Not a single car.
He pulled on latex gloves, flicked the lock, slipped the pipe away.
"Hellooooo? Helloooo?" Swann called.
Nothing. They were alone.
Gripping the driver by the collar again, he pulled the man along the recently waxed floor, then deposited him in a den, out of view of the windows.
Swann looked down at the gasping man, wincing from the pain.
The beef tenderloin, the psoas major muscle tucked against the short loin and sirloin, lives up to its name--you need only a fork to cut it when prepared right. But the elongated trapezoid of meat, known for Wellington and tournedos, starts in a much less agreeable state and takes some prep time. Most of this is knife work. You have to remove any tougher side muscle, of course, but most challenging is the silverskin, a thin layer of connective tissue that encases much of the cut.
The trick is to remove the membrane completely but leave as much flesh intact as you can. Doing this involves moving the knife in a sawing motion, while keeping the blade at a precise angle. You need to practice a great deal to get this right.
Jacob Swann was thinking of the technique now as he withdrew the Kai Shun from its waxed wooden sheath and crouched down.
CHAPTER 16
EN ROUTE TO THE HOUSE of Robert Moreno's limo driver, Amelia Sachs enjoyed being out from under the Overseer's thumb.
Okay, she thought, not fair.
Nance Laurel was seemingly a good prosecutor. From what Dellray said, from the woman's preparation for the case.
But that doesn't mean I have to like her.
Find out what church Moreno went to, Amelia, and how much he donated to good causes and how many old ladies he helped across the street.
If you would...
I don't think so.
Sachs was at least moving. And moving fast. She was driving her maroon 1970 Ford Torino Cobra, heir to the Fairlane. The car delivered 405 sleek horsepower and boasted 447 foot-pounds of torque. Sachs had the optional four-speed transmission, of course. The Hurst shifter was hard and temperamental but for Sachs this was the only way to run through the gears--for her a more sensuous part of the car than the engine. The only incongruous aspect of the vehicle--aside from its anachronistic appearance on the streets of modern-day New York--was the Chevrolet Camaro SS horn button, a memorial from her first and favorite muscle car, which had been the victim of a run-in with a perp a few years ago.
She now piloted the Cobra over the 59th Street Bridge--the Queensboro. Her father had told her that Paul Simon had written a song about the bridge. She'd meant to look it up on iTunes after he'd told her that. Meant to look it up after he died. Meant to look it up every year or so since.
She never had.
A pop song about a bridge. Interesting. Sachs reminded herself to look it up.
Eastbound traffic was good. The speed nudged a bit higher and she slammed down the clutch and popped the Cobra's gearbox into third.
Pain. And she winced.
Goddamn it. Her knee again. If it wasn't the knee it was the hip.
Goddamn.
The arthritis had plagued her all her adult life. Not rheumatoid--that insidious immune system disorder that works its evil in all your joints. Hers was the more common osteo, whose genesis might have been genes or the consequences of a motorcycle race at age twenty-two--or, more precisely, a spectacular landing afte
r the Benelli decided to launch itself off the dirt track only a quarter mile from the finish line. But whatever the cause, oh, how the condition tortured her. She'd learned that aspirin and ibuprofen worked some. She'd learned that chondroitin and glucosamine didn't--at least not for her. Sorry, shark bone lovers. She'd had hyaluronan injections, but they'd sidelined her for several days from inflammation and pain. And, of course, rooster combs could only be a temporary fix. She learned to swallow pills dry and never touch anything that had a Refill Only 3 Times label on it.
But the most important thing she'd learned was to smile and pretend the pain wasn't there and that her joints were those of a healthy twenty-year-old.
When you move they can't getcha...
And yet this pain, the joints breaking down, meant she couldn't move nearly as fast as she had. Her metaphor: an emergency brake cable, slack from rusting, that wouldn't quite disengage the shoe.
Dragging, dragging...
And the worst of all: the specter that she'd be sidelined because of the condition. She wondered again: Had Captain Bill Myers's eyes been aimed her way that morning in the lab when a jolt nearly made her stumble? Every time she was around brass she struggled to hide the condition. Had she this morning? She believed so.
She cleared the bridge and downshifted hard into second, matched revs to protect the boisterous engine. She'd done this to prove to herself that the pain wasn't so bad. She was blowing it out of proportion. She could shift whenever she wanted.
Except that lifting her left knee to stomp on the clutch had sent a fierce burst through her.
A reactive tear eased into one eye. She wiped it away furiously.
She drove more moderately toward her destination.
In ten minutes she was easing through a pleasant neighborhood in Queens. Tidy, tiny lawns, shrubs well trimmed, trees rising from perfect circles of mulch.
She checked house numbers. Halfway up the block she found Robert Moreno's driver's house. A single-story bungalow, very well maintained. In the driveway, half in the garage, half out, was a Lincoln Town Car, black and polished like a recruit's gun for parade.
Sachs double-parked and tossed the NYPD card onto the dash. Glancing at the house, she saw the flimsy curtain in the living room open slightly then fall back.
The Kill Room Page 8