"First one rang in, second didn't."
"What did the first one look like?"
"One head, two arms, two legs. Everyone looks the same to me. Nice coat. Thick and black."
"Was he still here when the second man came?"
"They passed like ghosts." He smiled again. "One goes out, the other goes in. Then you came."
"You got your coffin up there?'' She jerked a thumb at the building.
"I should be in it now. It's too day out here."
"You keep it there." She passed him another thirty credits. "If I need you and come back, there'll be another fifty for you."
"Easy money," he said and faded back.
"Get me a name on him, Peabody. Run the building for tenants."
"Yes, sir." She climbed back in the car. "Two men. That backs Summerset's story."
"Our killer doesn't know enough about ghosts to have covered himself there. All he had to do was pass over money and promise more."
"Those types give me the creeps." Peabody punched in the request, waited for her ppc to search and find. "You'd think they could walk through walls, the way they look."
"You fix on Tranquility for a few years, you'd look the same. File all the names in case our ghost decided to load up his coffin and find another graveyard. Then contact McNab, have him meet us at the house."
"McNab?"
"Don't be pissy," Eve ordered, engaging wipers as a thin, wet snow began to fall. "I need Summerset's 'link logs checked." She engaged the car 'link again and contacted the hospital for an update on Murray.
"He could come out of it," she said as she drove through the gates of her home. "There's more brain wave activity, and he responded to VR stimulus. His wife's with him."
She barely stopped the car when she noted another vehicle scooting down the drive behind her. Her initial annoyance at the interruption faded when she recognized the car.
"Feeney."
He got out of his car, his skin pink from the Mexican sun, his clothes rumpled, his wiry red hair topped by an incredibly silly straw hat.
"Hey, kid." He dragged a box out of the car and, nearly staggering under its weight, carried it toward her. "Just got back, and the wife wanted me to bring you over a little thank-you for lending us the place. Some place."
He rolled his eyes. "Peabody, you gotta tag Dallas for a couple weeks there. It's a frigging Mex palace right on a damn cliff. You can be lying in bed, reach out the window and pluck a mango right off the tree. Got a pool the size of a lake and a droid to do everything but zip your fly in the morning. You going to let me in? This thing weighs fifty pounds if it weighs an ounce."
"Sure. I didn't think you were coming back till…" She trailed off when she reached the door and realized today was the day he was due back. "I lost track."
He dumped the box on a table in the foyer, rolled his shoulders. "So, what's new?"
"Nothing much. I got three homicides and an attempted, connected. Mutilations. Guy contacted me personally, set it up as a game with religious overtones. Last victim's in a coma, but will probably pull through. Roarke knew all the victims back in Dublin and Summerset just bounced to the top of the suspect list."
Feeney shook his head. "Never changes. I tell you I never turned on the screen for two weeks for anything but sports and—'' He stopped and his droopy eyes went wide. "Summerset?"
"I'll fill you in while we do the search. McNab's on his way over."
"McNab." Feeney danced after her, ditching his straw hat and his vacation mood as he went. "EDD's working with you on this?"
"Our guy's an electronics and communications whiz. He's got a high-end jammer among his toys. McNab's been cutting through the layers, and he managed to nail the source. But we haven't found his hole."
"McNab. The boy's good. I've been bringing him along."