Logan sighed. “There was a brief failure of cameras last night.”
“That’s big.”
“It’s not big,” Logan said. “It was twenty-three seconds.”
“Somebody maybe pulled a heist.”
“Nobody pulled a heist.”
“Somebody pulled something,” Klick said.
“Nobody pulled anything.”
“Somebody did,” Klick insisted. He’d never been a policeman, only a security guard; but he believed that he possessed a cop’s intuition. “Maybe somebody killed somebody.”
“Nobody was killed.”
“Just because you haven’t found the body yet doesn’t mean it isn’t somewhere in the building for someone to find sometime.”
Logan refused to keep the idiotic conversation alive. He closely and repeatedly reviewed the video of Senator Earl Blandon’s return to the Pendleton the previous night, his time in the elevator, and the third-floor corridors immediately following the dissipation of the blue static.
He was aware of Vernon Klick’s barely repressed frustration at having to share the room with his boss for more than a minute or two. No doubt the freak had a pornographic magazine in his briefcase or a pint of Irish whiskey, or both, and was eager to pleasure himself one way or another.
What kept Logan at his task was a problem with the timing of Earl Blandon’s return to his apartment. The elevator required twenty-one seconds to go from a full stop on the ground floor to a full stop on the third. According to the time-stamped video, camera coverage had been lost four seconds into the elevator’s ascent. Subtract the next seventeen seconds of ascent from the twenty-three seconds of outage. That left only six seconds of blue static during which the man could have stepped out of the elevator, walked the length of the short west- wing corridor on the third floor, turned right into the north corridor, unlocked his door, and entered his apartment.
Like Devon Murphy, Logan knew the telltales of the senator’s drunkenness: the careful posture, the exaggerated poise. The footage of Blandon crossing the lobby left no doubt that he came home in a state of extreme inebriation.
Perhaps a sober man could have walked briskly from the elevator to the door of 3-D and let himself into the apartment in a mere six seconds. In an advanced state of drunkenness, Earl Blandon moved not briskly but at a stately pace, almost with the measured progress of a bride matching her steps to the processional music on her way to the altar. Surely he had needed at least six seconds just to fumble the key from his pocket and insert it successfully into the lock.
“Before I leave for the day,” Logan said, “I’m going to check on one of the third-floor residents.”
Indicating the screen that his boss had been studying, Klick said, “You mean the senator?” When Logan didn’t reply, Klick said, “You think he’s dead?”
“No, I don’t think he’s dead.”
“Then you think he killed somebody?”
“Nobody killed anybody.”
“Somebody killed somebody, I bet, or robbed somebody, or robbed
Getting up from his chair, Logan Spangler said, “Vernon, what’s your problem?”
“Me? I don’t have any problem.”
“You have some kind of problem.”
“My only problem is that missing twenty-three seconds.”
“That’s not your problem,” Logan said, “it’s my problem.”
“Well, then you shouldn’t have got me worried about it.”
“There’s nothing to worry about.”
“There is if someone killed or was killed.”
“Work your shift. Follow procedures. Don’t let your imagination run wild,” Logan advised, and left Klick alone to do whatever he did when he was supposed to be on duty.
As Logan pulled the security-room door shut behind him, a rumbling rose seemingly from underfoot, and the Pendleton shuddered. The same thing had happened earlier. Foundation work was under way for a high-rise on the eastern slope of Shadow Hill, which was no doubt the source of the disturbance. He decided to inquire with the city building department after checking on the senator.
Mickey Dime left Jerry dead in an armchair in the study. In the kitchen, he washed his hands. He liked the water so hot it stung. The liquid soap made a soothing lather. It smelled like peaches. Peaches were his favorite fruit.
Beyond the window, the sky flashed, flashed. He wished he were outside to feel the air shiver, to enjoy the crisp scent of ozone that lightning left in its wake. Thunder crashed. He felt it in his bones.
