City of Endless Night (Pendergast #17)(92)

“Crazy, yes, but a man with extraordinary criminal skills—in breaching security, hiding in plain sight, disappearing almost without a trace. Take, for example, the very expensive silicone mask he must have used to impersonate Roland McMurphy. Combine those skills with extreme intelligence, a perfect absence of compassion and empathy, and a high degree of ambition, and you get a psychopath of the highest order.”

“But here’s one thing I don’t understand,” D’Agosta said. “How did he get into Cantucci’s place? I mean, the town house was a fortress, and that security specialist Marvin and everyone else said only an employee of Sharps and Gund could have gotten past all the alarms and countermeasures.”

“Not so formidable for a computer genius like Ozmian, with a stable of prize hackers—not just extremely well paid, but some being blackmailed by Ozmian for their previous hactivist crimes—at his beck and call, in one of the most sophisticated and powerful dot-com companies in the world, with access to all the latest digital tools. Look what he and his people did to frame that reporter, Harriman. A diabolical piece of work. Having a brain trust like that on hand would make getting inside Cantucci’s residence not so difficult.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

Pendergast turned to leave.

“Um, Pendergast?”

The agent turned. “Yes, Vincent?”

“I think I owe you an apology.”

Pendergast arched his eyebrows in query.

“I was stupid, I was desperate for answers, I had everyone from the mayor on down climbing up my ass…I bought that damned reporter’s theory hook, line, and sinker. And then I mouthed off at you when you tried to warn me the theory was bogus—”

Pendergast raised a hand to silence him. “My dear Vincent. Harriman’s story seemed to fit the facts, it was an attractive theory as far as it went, and you weren’t the only one taken in. A lesson for all of us: things are not always as they seem.”

“That’s for sure.” D’Agosta glanced at the grisly row of trophy heads. “Not in a million years would I have guessed this.”

“And that’s why our Behavioral Science Unit wasn’t able to profile the man. Because he wasn’t, psychologically speaking, a serial killer. He was truly sui generis.”

“Sweet generous…Him? What the—?”

“Just an old Latin phrase. It means ‘of its own kind; in a class by itself.’”

“I gotta get out of here.”

Pendergast looked at the blank plaque with his name on it. “Sic transit gloria mundi,” he murmured again in Latin. And then he turned away and quickly stepped out of the little chamber of horrors.

*

They returned to the vast living room of Ozmian’s apartment with its sprawling views. D’Agosta went to the window, breathing deeply. “Some things I wish I could unsee.”

“To be a witness to evil is to be human.”

Pendergast joined him at the window, and they gazed out for a moment in silence. The wintry landscape of New York was suffused with the pale-yellow glow of the dying afternoon.

“In a strange way, that jackass Harriman was right about the one percenters ruining this city,” said D’Agosta. “It’s also kind of funny that the killer turned out to be a one percenter himself. Just another super-rich, entitled bastard, getting his jollies at the expense of everyone else. I mean, look at this place! It makes me want to puke: these arrogant assholes in their penthouses, lording it around town in their stretch limos, with their chauffeurs and butlers…” His voice suddenly trailed off and he felt his face go red. “Sorry. You know I didn’t mean you.”

For the first time he could recall, he heard Pendergast laugh. “Vincent, it isn’t the content of one’s bank account that’s important, it’s the content of one’s character, to paraphrase a wise man. The divide between the wealthy and everyone else is a false dichotomy—and one that obscures the real problem: there are many wicked people in the world, rich and poor. That is the real divide—between those who strive to do good, and those who strive only for themselves. Money magnifies the harm the wealthy can do, of course, allowing them to parade their vulgarity and malfeasance in full view of the rest of us.”

“So what’s the answer?”

“To paraphrase another wise man, ‘The rich will always be with us.’ There is no answer, except to make sure we wealthy are not allowed to use our money as a tool of oppression and subversion of democracy.”

D’Agosta was surprised at this uncharacteristic bit of philosophizing. “Yeah, but this town, New York, it’s changing. Now only the rich can afford Manhattan. Brooklyn and even Queens are going the same way. Where are working people like me going to live in ten, twenty years?”

“There’s always New Jersey.”

D’Agosta choked. “You were making a joke, right?”

“I’m afraid the trophy room of horrors has provoked in me an inappropriate levity.”

D’Agosta understood immediately. It was like those M.E.’s, with a murder victim opened up on the gurney, who cracked jokes about spaghetti and meatballs. Somehow, the horror of what they’d just witnessed needed to be exorcised by unrelated banter.

“Getting back to the case,” Pendergast said hastily, “I must admit to you I feel personally distressed and even chastened.”