Flawless(50)

“You must tell someone, write it down somewhere,” Craig said.

Belvedere shook his head, a humorless smile curving his thin lips. “No. I have ten grandchildren. I use their birthdates. Different kid each time, no order to it.”

“Who knows you do that?” Mike asked.

Belvedere shook his head. “No one. Not even my kids, and they’re not local anyway. My son is career army, deployed to the Middle East, and my daughter is with the Red Cross. She’s in Haiti right now. The grandkids are scattered across the country.”

“So if something had happened to you, no one would have been able to get into the safe?” Craig asked.

“They would have had to contact the manufacturer,” Belvedere told them.

That was impossible, Craig thought. Someone must have known something.

Belvedere sighed. “That poor girl. I found her, you know,” he said softly. “I want to do whatever’s necessary. I want to help her family. I want to see that she’s buried.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Mike told him. He and Craig glanced at one another. They didn’t tell him that they suspected Maria Antonescu had let her killers in—whether accidentally when leaving or on purpose.

“We need you to help us catch her killer,” Craig said. He handed Belvedere a piece of paper. “I think no matter how discreet you believed yourself to be, you said something somewhere that eventually led to the killers being able to figure out your code. If you could give us a list of friends you’ve talked with, of places you’ve been in the past couple of weeks, that could be very helpful.”

Belvedere nodded and picked up a pen.

Craig watched as the man wrote, then took a look at the list he handed over. Belvedere had attended a gala at the Kennedy Center, seen a Broadway show, dined at a dozen restaurants.

One in particular stood out.

Finnegan’s on Broadway.

*

Jake knocked on Kieran’s office door, calling out to her. He didn’t wait for her to respond, just popped his head in.

“FBI’s here for you,” he said cheerfully.

Given everything with her brother and the diamond, she couldn’t help feeling a twinge of unease, as if the FBI was there to take her in, not just talk to her.

She rose as Jake opened the door wider, expecting Craig.

But it wasn’t Craig.

It was assistant director Eagan himself.

“Assistant director,” she said. She managed a smile. “Whatever’s going on must be important to get you to leave your office.”

“This is...” He trailed off, took a breath and said, “I’m here to take you to Rikers. I’ll keep an eye on you while you speak with our thieves.”

“Of course,” she said, wondering why she suddenly felt as awkward as a newborn filly. “Let me just grab my jacket and my bag. Oh, and my notes.”

“Cheerful sort,” Eagan said, after Jake sent them off with a big smile and a bright “Good luck!”

“Sometimes too cheerful. But Jake is great. He sets people at ease.”

Eagan had come for her in person, but he wasn’t doing the driving. A car waited for them on the street.

*

Since this was Kieran’s second time at Rikers, she knew the procedure.

Soon they were through security and seated in the same stark visitors’ room as last time. In a few minutes, the first of the thieves, Sam Banner, was sitting across the table from her. Eagan—just as Craig had done before—stationed himself a few feet away, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, watching.

They’d been allowed to question the men without their attorneys present because the questions didn’t involve their own charges and nothing that was said could be brought up in court.

“Hi, Sam,” Kieran said.

“You’re back,” he said, sprawling into the chair, looking over at Eagan, then back to her. “I thought the computer proved we weren’t murderers. Plus I heard there’s been another murder.”

“That’s true,” Kieran said.

“So what do you want from me? We were telling the truth. You know that.” He gave a little shudder. “Although the other inmates were afraid of us when they thought we were killers. Now... I guess we gotta get used to prison life anyway, huh? We may not be killers, but I guess we’re in for a while.”

“I would imagine,” Kieran said. “Armed robbery.”

“With squirt guns.”

“The point is—”

“Yeah, yeah, we’ve all talked with our lawyers,” Sam said.

“Sam, here’s the thing,” she said flatly. “The killers are following what you guys did to a T. That means they know a lot about you and your MO.”

“Yeah,” he said glumly.

“Think about it. How could they have known? How did they know how many of you were involved? How did they know what you wore and how you operated once you were inside a store?”

He looked at her blankly. She was pretty damned sure that he hadn’t even thought about that before.

“Huh. I don’t know. The news reports? They showed actual footage of our robberies.”

“Okay, let’s start here. Girlfriends, boyfriends. Any of you have one and talk about what you were doing?”