by J. D. Robb
“No, it doesn’t. Unless you add in the rest. Missing body, public arena, two people vanishing like smoke. That strikes me as very professional.”
It kept her mind occupied on the drive to the lab. And at least she was navigating on solid ground instead of water. New York appeared to have burst open for summer, and out of its nooks and crannies poured tourists and the street thieves who depended on them. Glida carts did brisk business with cold drinks and ice pops, while portable knock-off vendors raked it in with cheap souvenirs, wrist units that might function until the buyer got back to his hotel, colorful “silk” scarves, fashion shades and handbags that could be mistaken for their designer counterparts if you were a half block away and had one eye closed.
But it also brought out the sidewalk florists with their bounty of color and scent and the alfresco diners taking in the sun over glasses of wine or thimbles of espresso.
It added to the street and air traffic, jammed the glides and sidewalks, and yet, Eve thought, it all rushed and roared exactly as it was meant to.
She spotted Roarke before she parked, standing outside the drab edifice that housed the busy hive of the lab and forensics. The dark charcoal suit fit the lean length of him perfectly, and showed a subtle flare with a tie nearly as bold a blue as his eyes.
Black hair fell in a mane around that striking face, shades shielded those stunning eyes as he slipped the PPC he’d been working on into a pocket and started toward her.
She thought he looked like some elegantly urban vid star with just a hit of edge. And she supposed it suited him as one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world—and on its satellites—who’d pulled himself by hook or—haha—crook out of the grime of the Dublin alleyways.
“Check on Carolee,” she told Peabody. “See if they’ve finished the medical, have any results.”
She watched Roarke’s lips curve as they walked toward each other. She didn’t need to see his eyes to know they mirrored that smile. And her heart gave a quick, giddy jump. She had to admit Peabody was right. It was nice to have a guy.
“Lieutenant.” He took her hand and, though she lowered her eyebrows to discourage him, bent to brush those curved lips lightly over hers. “Hello, Peabody. You look fetchingly windblown.”
“Yeah.” She brushed ineffectually at her hair. “Boat ride.”
“So I hear.”
“Check on the wit, Peabody,” Eve repeated as she led the way inside.
“What was witnessed?” Roarke wondered.
“Tell me what the media’s saying. I haven’t bothered to tune in.”
“I caught bits and pieces on my way downtown to my meeting, then a bit more after. A woman apparently lost on the ferry, then found. Or not, depending on the report. A possibility someone was injured or fell overboard.”
He continued as Eve led them through the maze, signed and badged them through security.
“The main thrust seems to be that DOT and NYPSD officials held up the ferry for over two hours, then additional time with a security search of passengers as they disembarked. A few of the passengers sent various media outlets some vids or statements. So, you can imagine, it’s all over the board.”
“Fine.” Eve opted for a down glide rather than an elevator. “Better that way.”
“Is someone missing? Or dead?”
“Someone was missing, but now she’s not. Someone might be dead, but there’s no body. Passenger count is off by two on disembarking.”
“Which might equal victim and killer. How’d they get off the ferry?”
“That’s another question.” She stepped off the glide. “First, I’ve got a couple quarts of blood in a public restroom on the ferry. I need to find out who it belonged to.”
Five
She wound through the labyrinth bisected by glass walls. Behind them techs worked with scopes and holos, forensic droids, tiny vials and mysterious solutions.
The air hummed in a blend of machine and human into a single voice Eve found just slightly creepy. She would never understand how people worked, day after day, in a vast space without a single window.
She found the chief lab tech, Dick Berenski, sliding his stool soundlessly along his long white counter as he commanded various comps. Dickhead was an irritant, a pebble in the shoe on a personal level, but she couldn’t deny his almost preternatural skill with evidence.
He looked up, cocking his egg-shaped head as she approached, and she didn’t miss the light in his eyes when he recognized Roarke.
“Got yourself an entourage today, Dallas.”
“Don’t think about trying to hit up the civilian for liquor, tickets to sporting events or cash.”
“Hey.” Dickhead couldn’t quite pull off offended.
“Let’s talk blood.”
“Got enough of it. I got the initial sample a couple hours ago, and they’re bringing in the rest. We’ll run tests on samples of that, too. Could be more than one source. Got my blood guy reconstructing the scene, pool and spatter, from the record. That’s a fucking beaucoup of blood.”
“Fresh or frozen?”
He honked out a little laugh. “Fresh.” He tapped some keys and had squiggles and swirls in bold reds, yellows, blues, filling a comp screen. “No indication the sample had been stored, cold-boxed, flash-f rozen, thawed or rehydrated.”
He tapped again, brought up another screen of shapes and colors. “Coagulation rate and temp says it hit the air about two hours—maybe a little more—before I tested it. That’s consistent with the time it took to get here.”
“Concluding the sample came out of a live human, and came out of said human between one and two this afternoon.”
“What I said. A Neg, human blood, healthy platelets, cholesterol, no STD. We filtered out trace portions of other body fluid and flesh. Double X chromosomes.”
“Female.”
“You bet. We’ll keep separating other body fluids when we have the larger samples, and the sweepers tell me they’ve got some hair in there. We’ll be able to tell you pretty much everything. Fluids, flesh and hair.” He grinned widely. “I could freaking rebuild her with samples like that.”
“Nice thought. DNA.”
“I’m running it through. Takes some time, and there’s no guarantee she’s on the grid. Might get a relative. I programmed for full match and blood relations.”
Thorough, Eve thought. When Dickhead got his weird little teeth into something, he was thorough. “There were fibers.”
“Like I said, we’ll separate and filter. I’ll give hair and fiber to Harpo. She’s the queen. But I can’t pull the vic’s ID out of my ass. She’s either on the grid or—Hey!” He swiveled, scooted as the far comp beeped. “Son of a bitch, we got a match. I am so freaking good.”
Eve came around the counter to study the ID photo and data herself. “Copy to my unit,” she ordered. “And I want a printout. Dana Buckley, age forty-one, born in Sioux City, why are you dead?”
“Nice-looking skirt,” Berenski commented, and Eve ignored him.
Blue-eyed blonde, she thought, pale skin, pretty in a corn-fed sort of way. Five-six, a hundred thirty-eight, parents deceased, no sibs, no offspring, no marriage or cohab on record. “Current employment, freelance consultant. What does this personal data tell us smart investigators, Detective?”
“That the deceased has no family ties, no employer to verify identification or give further data on said deceased. Which makes a smart investigator go hmmm.”
“It does indeed. She lists a home and office address here in New York. Park Avenue. Peabody, run this down.”
“It’s the Waldorf,” Roarke said from behind her.
“As in Astoria?” Eve glanced back, caught his nod, and the look in his eyes when they met hers.
She thought, Crap, but said nothing. Not yet.
“Check and see if they have her registered,” she told Peabody. “And get a copy of the ID print, show it to the desk staff to see if they make her. Quick work, Berenski.”
“After quick work, I like to relax with a good bottle or two of wine.”
She took the printout and walked away without a second glance.
“Worth the shot,” Berenski said at her back.
“There’s nobody by the name of Dana Buckley registered at the Waldorf,” Peabody told her as she caught up to Eve. “No make from the desk staff. This new data rates a second hmmm.”
“Go back to Central, do a full run on her. You can start on the security discs. Send copies to my home unit. I’m going to swing by, reinterview Carolee, show her the printout. Maybe she’ll remember seeing the vic.”
“We were lucky to get a DNA match that fast. I’ll tag you if I dig up anything on her.” She sent a quick smile to Roarke. “See you later.”
Eve waited until she and Roarke were in her vehicle, with her taking the wheel. “You knew her.”
“Not really. Of her, certainly. It’s complicated.”
“Is there any way you could be connected to this?”
“No. That is, I have no connection to her.”
Eve felt the knot in her stomach begin to loosen. “How do you know her, or of her?”
“I first heard of her some years ago. We were working on a prototype for some—at the time—new holo technology. It was very nearly stolen, or would have been if we hadn’t implemented multiple layers of security. As it was, she got through several before the red flag.”
“Corporate and/or technological espionage.”
“Yes. I didn’t know her as Dana Buckley, but as Cath erine Delauter. I expect you’ll find any number of IDs before you’re done.”
“Who does she work for?”
He lifted a shoulder in a dismissive if elegant shrug. “The highest bidder. She thought I might be interested in her services, and arranged to meet me. That’s seven or eight years ago.”
“Did you hire her?”
He glanced at Eve with mild exasperation. “Why would I? I don’t need to steal—and if I did, I could do it myself, after all. I wasn’t interested in her services, and made it plain. Not only because I don’t—never did—steal ideas. It’s low and common.”
Eve shook her head. “Your moral compass continues to baffle me.”
“As yours does me. Aren’t we a pair? But I warned her off not only for that, but because she was known—and my own research confirmed—not only as a spy but an assassin.”
Eve glanced over quickly before she pushed through traffic. “A corporate assassin?”
“That would depend on the highest bidder, from what I learned. She’s for hire, or apparently was, and didn’t quibble at getting her hands bloody. Peabody won’t find any of this in her run. A large percentage of her work, if rumor holds, has been for various governments. The pay’s quite good, particularly if you don’t mind a bit of throat slitting.”
“A techno spy, heavy into wet work, takes a ride on the ferry. And ends up not just dead, but missing. A competitor? Another kill for hire? It struck me as a pro job, even—maybe because—it was so damn messy and complicated. It’s going to get buckets of media when the rest of the data leaks. Who would want that?”
“A point proven?” He shrugged again. “I couldn’t say. Was the body dumped off the ferry?”
“I don’t think so.” She filled him in as she wound and bullied her way to the East Side. “So, as far as I can tell, he moved the body and the wit, in full view of dozens, maybe hundreds of people. And nobody saw anything. The wit doesn’t remember anything.”
“I’ll have to ask the obvious. You’re sure there were no escape routes in the room?”
“Unless we’ve got a killer who can shrink to rat size and slither down a pipe, we didn’t find any. Maybe he popped into a vortex.”
Roarke turned, grinned. “Really?”
Eve waved it away. “Peabody’s Free-A gey suggestion. Hell, maybe he waved his magic wand and said, ‘Hocus pocus.’ What?” she said when Roarke frowned.
“Something . . . in the back of my mind. Let me think about it.”
“Before you think too hard?” She veered into the health center’s lot. “Just let me point out there is no magic wand, or rabbit in the hat, or alternate reality.”
“Well, in this reality, most people notice when a dead body’s paraded around under their noses.”
“Maybe it didn’t look like one. They have a couple of maintenance hampers on board. The killer dumps the body in, wheels it out like it’s just business as usual. And no, we haven’t found any missing hampers, or any trace in the couple on board. But it’s a logical angle.”
“True enough.” Once she’d parked, he got out of the car with her. “Then again, logic would say don’t kill in a room with only one out, and a public one, don’t take the body, and don’t leave a witness. So, it may be hard to hold to one logical line when the others are badly frayed.”
“They’re only frayed logic until you find the reason and motive.” Eve pulled out her badge as they walked into the health center.
The Grogans crowded into a tiny little room with Carolee sitting up in bed, a bouquet of cheerful flowers in her lap. She looked tired, Eve thought, and showed both strain and resignation when she saw Eve come in.
“Lieutenant. I’ve been poked and prodded, screened and scanned and scoped. All over a bump on the head. I know something bad happened, something awful, but it really doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
“You still don’t remember anything?”
“No. Obviously I hit my head, and I must’ve been dazed for a while.” Her hand snuck from under the flowers to reach for her husband’s. “I’m fine now, really. I feel fine now. I don’t want the boys to spend their vacation in a hospital room.”
“It’s just a few hours,” Steve assured her. The youngest, whose name was Pete, Eve remembered, crawled onto the bed to sit at his mother’s side.
“Still. I’m sorry someone was hurt. Someone must’ve been hurt, from what Steve said. I wish I could help, I really do. But I don’t know anything.”
“How’s the head?”
“It pounds a little.”
“I have a photo I’d like to show you.” Eve offered the printout of Dana Buckley. “Do you recognize her? Someone you might’ve seen on the ferry.”
“I don’t think . . .” She lifted her hand to worry at the bandage on the forehead. “I don’t think . . .”
“There were a lot of people.” Steve angled his head to look at the photo. “We were looking out at the water most of the time.” He glanced with concern toward the monitor as his wife’s pulse rate jumped. “Okay, honey, take it easy.”
“I don’t remember. It scares me. Why does it scare me?”
“Don’t look at it anymore.” Will snatched the photo away. “Don’t look at it, Mom. Don’t scare her anymore.” He thrust the photo back at Eve. “She was in the picture.”
“Sorry?”
“The lady. Here.” He pulled a camera out of his pocket. “We took pictures. Dad let me take some. She’s in the picture.” He turned the camera on, scrolled back through the frames. “We took a lot. I looked through them when they had Mom away for tests. She’s in the picture. See?”
Eve took the camera and looked at a crowd shot, poorly cropped, with Dana Buckley sitting on a bench sipping from a go-cup. With a briefcase in her lap.
“Yeah, I see. I need to keep this for a while, okay? I’ll get it back to you.”
“You can keep it, I don’t care. Just don’t scare my mom.”
“I don’t want to scare your mother. That’s not why I’m here,” Eve said, directly to Carolee.
“I know. I know. She—that’s the one who was hurt?”
“Yes. It upsets you to see her photo.”
“Terrifies me. I don’t know why. There’s a light,” she said after a hesitation.
“A light?”
“A bright flash. White flash. After I see her picture, and I’m scared, so scared. There’s a white flash, and I can’t see anything. Bl
ind, for a minute. I . . . It sounds crazy. I’m not crazy.”
“Shh.” Pete began to stroke her hair. “Shh.”
“I’m going to speak to the doctor. If Carolee’s clear, I want to get her and our boys back to the hotel. Away from this. We’ll get room service.” Steve winked over at Will. “In-room movies.”
“God, yes,” Carolee breathed. “I’ll feel better once we’re out of here.”
“Let’s go find the doctor,” Eve suggested and sent a glance at Roarke. He nodded, and moved to the foot of the bed as Steve went out with Eve.
“So, Mrs. Grogan, where would you be staying here in New York?”
It took another thirty minutes, but Roarke asked no questions until they were out of the health center. “And so, how is the lady?”
“I had the doctor dumb it down for me. He was giving it to the husband—he’s a doctor, too—in fancier terms.”
“You can keep it dumbed down for me.”
“She’s good,” Eve told him, “no serious or lasting damage. The contusion, mild concussion, and most interestingly what he dumbed down to a ‘smudge’ on her optic nerves—both eyes. He seemed to be pushing for another test, but he’d already done a recheck and as the smudge was already dissipating, I don’t think Steve’s going to go for it. Added to it, the brain scan showed something wonky in the memory section—a blip, but that’s resolved, too, on retest. Her tox is clear,” Eve added as she got back into the car. “No trace of anything, which is too damn bad, as that’s where logic was leading me.”
“A memory suppressor would’ve been logical. And may be yet.” He shook his head at her look. “We’ll have some things to check into when we get home. You’ll likely have to follow up with the Grogans?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you’ll find them at the Palace. They’ll be moving there tonight.”
“Your hotel?”
“It seems they’re a bit squeezed into a room at the moment, and it struck me they could use a bit of an upgrade for their troubles. Plus the security’s better there. Considerably.”