Devoted in Death (In Death #41)(90)

“What’s the status on the electronics Banner brought up?” Eve asked.

“Feeney and I hit that, pulled Callendar in on it, too. We’ve got an auto running through the night.”

McNab plucked one of the crusty little rolls from the shallow bowl on the table, tossed it in the air, caught it. Bit right in.

“Problem with the ’link from the Chinese place is it’s way old-school,” he said around the bread, “and when they override it a million times, the transmissions blur together, even after you dig them out. If we knew the ’link code we were after, sure, we’d piece that with some time. Going blind, trying to find the one without knowing the code or the registered name, that’s a crapshoot.”

“We’ll take a look at it here as well.” Roarke brought over glasses, poured out. “But I have to agree. It’s a challenge when you know what you’re after, specifically, but without knowing specifics, it’s a shot in the dark.”

Banner brought out a tray with bowls of steaming stew. “The guy at the restaurant thought he knew at least some of the order, about the approximate time. But McNab says there’s a lot of layers, and a lot of people tagging up in that time frame, a lot of orders for kung pao chicken and eggrolls and that kind of thing.”

“We already cleaned up some of the security feeds.” McNab dug right in. “That’s not going to be a big. We get enough there, we figure we’ll try storefront cams, see if we can catch them walking. Get a direction.”

“This here’s as good as my ma’s, if not better.” Banner glanced around the table as he spooned up more stew. “And I’d appreciate it if nobody repeated that if you ever meet her. I got the impression they’re likely closer to the restaurants than the hardware, because they’ve been there more. True enough James bought that big roll of plastic, and it’s hard going finding parking there, so you wouldn’t figure it’s far.”

He sampled the wine cautiously, then lifted his eyebrows. “This is nice. I was thinking, when Baxter and me were walking it, if I was after the plastic and whatnot, I’d walk, make two trips if I needed to. Y’all are more used to the traffic and all that. James would be more like me there, I think. You want to park it, much as you can.”

Eve sat back. “Tuck the van away, only bring it out for hunting. Walk or try public transpo otherwise.”

“Driving in this city’s crazy, and everybody doing it always seems more than a little pissed off. I paid what I had to pay to have the rental company come get the ride I used to get here. I’ll take the bus back to the transpo station when I leave. Maybe give the subway a try.”

Eve rose, went to the board. “Wherever they’re nesting, it’s highly probable it was a matter of opportunity. An empty apartment, a vacant building still can’t be dismissed, or they invaded someone’s home. Downtown. Trendy areas, maybe, something she’d read about or seen on screen. Can’t say why at this point, but they’re Lower West Side, below the West Village. North of Tribeca, west of SoHo and Greenwich Village. Nothing else fits as well.”

“You’re thinking they may be holding a third person – or more,” Roarke said. “If they saw an opportunity to force or break into a home, an apartment.”

“I’ve been playing with the idea, checked missing persons through the day. But they took Mulligan. That’s two they’ve got, unless they’ve killed Campbell and took the time and effort to hide the body.”

“And why hide hers when they didn’t hide Kuper’s,” Peabody put in.

“Holding a third, or say a couple, a family?” Looking into the eyes of the killers, Eve shook her head. “It’s hard, it’s messy, it’s work. And if you kill them, you’ve got a bigger mess to deal with. Can’t keep the bodies for long. Their pattern, until Mulligan, was one at a time. I figure low probability on them holding anyone else.

“But they’ve got a place.” She brought up the map, picked up a laser pointer, circled. “Right in here.”

“Door-to-doors?” Peabody asked.

“I’d like to try to narrow it more, but that might be the next step. It’s going to take the feds some time to read DeWinter’s report, process it, figure out which ass cheek to scratch. Zweck has what we’ve got, and we’ll see what he does with it. Maybe we pull the checking for gas leaks, something like that. I want a narrower area before we try that.”

She circled the board. “Nothing on the van. Nothing from the extra patrols in this sector.”

“They’ve got to go out sometime.” McNab shrugged. “What’s the point of coming all the way to New York and staying inside?”

“They’re having a real good time inside,” Eve replied.

“Eat,” she ordered. “Then let’s start squeezing the box.”

19

Her office smelled like chicken and dumplings soaked in strong black coffee – with a dash of cherry from McNab’s endless fizzies.

Roarke brought in another auxiliary as she doled out assignments. Peabody to cover deep background on Darryl Roy James, Banner deep background on Ella-Loo Parsens. Roarke and McNab would continue the e-work, combing through security discs in evidence, and checking any storefront cams that may have picked up their suspects on foot.