'I don't know if he believes that,' McCaskey said. 'My own feeling is that someone like Link had to be involved.
Not only because of the sophistication and coordination of the kills, but because it would be difficult to execute without someone covering for them inside Orr's office.'
'Which brings me back to why,' Maria said. 'Could this really be all about money, about Wilson's plans for boosting European investments?'
'It could,' her husband replied. 'We'll know that when we talk to the people who did it.'
'Assuming we get them,' Maria said.
'We will,' McCaskey said confidently.
'At Interpol Madrid, our success rate solving homicides was a little over sixty percent.'
'We did a little better than that at the Bureau, but not enough,'
McCaskey said. 'That was one reason I joined Op-Center. Results change when people like you, Mike, and Bob Herbert are added to the process.'
'Your tactics also have changed,' Maria pointed out. 'We just did a break and enter.'
'That is true, though I look at it as exploratory surgery. It sounds more benevolent than criminal.'
'Sweetheart, there is nothing criminal about what we are planning,'
Maria said with absolute confidence. 'We have a clear objective and will limit ourselves to that. Ms. Lockley will never know, unless we find something, in which case we will be in a position to step back and build a stronger case.'
'We are still invading her privacy,' he said. 'We are still ignoring the Bill of Rights.'
'What we are planning is less of a crime than those committed against Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lawless,' Maria replied. 'If we can stop a third homicide, then it is a risk worth taking.'
'Obviously, I agree, or I would not be doing it,' McCaskey said as he turned onto N Street. 'But I am not going to pretend it is legal.'
'To me, legal is less important than moral,' Maria said.
'My conscience is not going to bother me tonight, whatever we find.'
There was no explaining to Maria the American idea of personal rights.
That was as pointless as arguing against Maria's logic. One was an absolute, the foundation of a national philosophy, the other was airtight. The only way to sidestep either was by embracing the other.
McCaskey had made his choice.
The apartment building was a three-story, white brick structure. There was an outside door with a lock, a foyer for mail, and an inside door that led to the apartments. They would have to go through two locks before they reached the apartment. That would not be a problem.
McCaskey carried a magnetic snap gun in his car. The original snap gun was developed in the 1960s so that law officers who were not trained lock picks could open doors using something other than traditional raking techniques that is, inserting a pair of picks and searching for the proper combination to turn the lock. The snap gun generated torque that simply muscled the lock back. It also tended to bend or destroy the lock, evidence that someone had forced their way in. The magnetic gun generated a powerful magnetic force in whatever direction the user indicated. It popped the lock and any interior dead bolts in an instant.
McCaskey and his wife approached the door. They had decided, if asked, that she was looking for an apartment and he was a broker. He put the point of the palm-size unit into the keyhole. He used his thumb to adjust the directional vector to the right. The lock opened immediately. The couple moved into the foyer, where they got a free pass. A resident was just coming out and opened the door. McCaskey dropped a pen and stooped to pick it up as the man passed. He did not want his face to be seen. Then McCaskey and Maria went inside. Since the elevator had a security camera, they took the stairs to Kat's third-floor apartment. There were five other apartments on the floor.
While Maria watched the doors, her husband took a palm-size disk from his jacket pocket. He put it against the door-jamb. It was an ampere detector. If the door were wired with a burglar alarm, this would show current. He watched the digital readout. There was nothing. Although there could still be a motion detector inside, most urban apartments, especially newer buildings such as this one, had been pre wired for perimeter entry. McCaskey used the snap gun to open the knob lock and dead bolt. McCaskey put the snap gun in his jacket pocket and removed a
