Origin in Death (In Death #21)(52)

"I'll say." But Eve took time out to stand beside him, study the portrait. "Loving work?"

"The pose, the light, the body language, her lines and curves. It strikes me as a happy moment."

"Why do you kill what you love?"

"We couldn't count the reasons."

"You're right on that," Eve agreed, and turned toward the bathroom.

"You believe she did it."

"I know she was part of it. Can't prove dick at this point, but I know." She hooked her thumbs in her front pockets, nodded. "It's behind there, other side of that closet."

Like she had, he took scope of the room. "It would be." From his Docket, he took a handheld. It shot out a thin red beam when he engaged it. Roarke ran the beam over the wall and shelves.

"What does that do?"

"Sssh."

She heard it, barely. A low hum emitting from the gadget he held.

"You've got steel behind the wall," he said, glancing at the readout.

"I figured that out without the toy."

He merely lifted an eyebrow at her. Moving closer, he keyed something into the handheld. The hum became a slow, rhythmic beep. He played the beam of light, centimeter by centimeter, until she could hear her own teeth grinding.

"What if you-"

"Sssh," he ordered again.

Eve gave up and walked out to meet Peabody when she heard the front door open.

"Snagged a couple neighbors. Nobody noticed any activity. Lots of shock and dismay over Icove. Nice, happy family, according to next door. Caught the woman-Maude Jacobs-before she headed out to work. Belongs to the same health club as Avril Icove, and they'd work out together sometimes. Have a veggie juice after. Describes her as a nice woman, good mother, happy. Families did the dinner party thing every couple months. She never noticed any friction."

Peabody glanced upstairs. "I figured I'd come back since I saw Roarke was here. Check out the room before we hit more neighbors?

"He's working on it. We'll call EDD," she continued as they headed back to the office. "Have them bring down- Never mind."

The back wall was open. The door, more accurately, Eve corrected. It was a good six inches thick, and she could see a complex series of locks on the inside now.

"Frosty," Peabody said as she moved toward the opening.

From inside, Roarke turned, shot her a grin. "It's an old panic room converted to a high-security office. Once you're inside, door shut, engaged, there's no getting in from the outside. All the electronics are independent." He gestured to a short wall of screens. "You've got full surveillance of the house, inside and out. Stock provisions, you could hold out against home invasion, possibly a nuclear attack."

"Records." Eve looked at the blank computer screen.

"Unit's passcoded and fail-safed. I could bypass, but-"

"We'll take it in," she interrupted. "Keep the chain of evidence clear."

"Well, you can, but I can tell you it's likely been wiped. And there's not a single disc in the room."

"He destroyed them first, or she took them. If it's the latter, she knew about the room. The wife would've known. Even if Icove didn't tell her about it, she'd have known. She's an artist for one thing. She'd understand symmetry, dimensions, balance, and the proportions are off in the bathroom."

She took a hard look at the room, walked back out, took another study of the office.

"He's not going to destroy the discs," she decided. "He's too organized, too like his father. And you know what, this project is their life's work. It's their mission. He didn't think he was going to die, and he's got that vault in there. He feels secure about that. He feels secure except I'm asking questions, and he realizes his father kept records- coded, sure, but a little too accessible. So maybe he checks the room, just reassures himself. And it's under his skin."

"If he knew the woman who killed his father, wouldn't he worry she'd come for him?" Peabody stepped out with Eve. "Could be why he sent his wife and kids away. For their safety."

"A guy thinks there's a knife at his heart, he's going to shed some sweat. He didn't. He was pissy because I poked at his father. Concerned, even afraid that his father's death was a result of their work and we might screw that up. But you're afraid for your life, you run and hide. You don't hunker down in your house and take a sedative. Standard, mild. Morris," Eve said before Peabody could ask.

"If there were records," she added, "the killer has them. Question is, what was on them? And why does she want them?"

She turned to Roarke. "Let's look at it this way. You want to eliminate an organization, a company. Destroy it or take it over, whatever. What do you do?"

"A variety of things. But the quickest, most ruthless would be to cut off its head. Detach the brain, the body falls."

"Yeah, like that." Her lips curved, grimly. "The Icoves were pretty brainy guys. Even then, you'd want all the data, all the intel you can gather. Especially inside stuff. They didn't run it alone. You'd want to know the other players. Even if you know them, or some of them, you'd want the data. And to cover your tracks."