Leverage in Death (In Death 47)

“You don’t pay attention to such things, and Mavis wouldn’t expect you to. You pay attention enough to hang this artwork, and that’s considerably more important, I’d think.”

“It’s not exactly the heart of the house though, is it?”

He turned to her, slid a finger down the dent in her chin. “This house has many hearts.”

Her face cleared. “It does, doesn’t it?”

While the cat attacked the kibble—with a chaser of salmon, they had stew, a comfort at the end of a dreary day.

“How would you have gotten in there?” she asked him. “Into Banks’s place, if you didn’t live in the building?”

“Likely I’d have had time to plan—so there are a number of ways. But in this case, we’re talking of the moment.” He considered as he ate a good, chunky chicken stew generous with dumplings.

“I wouldn’t have complicated it with elevator security and jammers. How long, after all, did it take you to track his coming and going?”

“I still don’t know who he is.”

“But you already know his methods, his skills, and you know he entered the building by normal means.” He gestured to her board. “He’s on one of them.”

“Okay, so what’s the alternate method?”

“Up the outside.”

“Get out! It’s over fifty floors,” she pointed out, and got a shrug.

“The height’s hardly a deterrent with the proper tools. With electronic gloves, booties, it’s simply a matter of choosing your time, then moving steadily up. Again, between the glass to avoid being spotted. I’d have done it after midnight, and when I’d reached the terrace, dealing with those locks is, well, cake as we say. Nothing nearly as complex as the main doors.

“Go in,” he added, topping off the wine, “do my search. Not sloppily. Why alert the cops the moment they step in the door? Be subtle about it—after all, no one’s going to disturb me, and I’m not meeting the man I intend to kill for some time yet. Take what I need, as well as any cash I find as it’s not traceable. I don’t bother with a painting. Then I take my leave the same way.”

He toasted her with his wine. “However, if I’d targeted such a place, it would be for the valuables, so I’d take what I came for. The method would be the same.”

“You’ve actually done that? Climbed up a building?”

“It’s exhilarating. The dark, the air, the life going on below, and on the other side of the wall. All unaware of you. And unlike you, I enjoy heights.”

She thought about it as she ate. “They’re not professional thieves. Already knew that, but what you’re saying caps it. They worked out what to do on the fly. It worked, but you’re right. They’re on the board. Along with a couple thousand others, but they’re on the board.”

“Before they went into that apartment to remove whatever Banks might have that connects them to him, your suspect range was a great deal wider.”

“That’s a point.” She polished off her stew. “Now I’m going to narrow it.”

With focused work she eliminated more than two hundred on her board. Deleted names from the other boards through reports from the rest of the team.

She started a priority list on anyone who’d had military or paramilitary training or had relatives who did.

Roarke worked along with her, then broke to take a scheduled tag from Hawaii. When he came back, she had her head on the desk.

Out, he thought, and ordered her machine to continue her work on auto.

She stirred and mumbled when he lifted her out of her chair. “I’m good.”

“Good and tired.”

“I’ve got eighteen on the priority list. There are going to be more.”

“You’ll get back to that after some sleep.” He carried her to the elevator, ordered their bedroom.

“I’m closer than I was.”