We’d already eliminated that possibility. I pulled out the client list from Kaylee and passed it to Helen. “Here’s Top-A’s list of clients. Any of these seem like a prospect?”
Helen flipped through the list. “Where’s the rest?”
My scalp tightened. “This isn’t everything?”
Her laugh was bitter. “You got this from Kaylee, I’m guessing? No offense, but that pretty little airhead needs GPS to find her way home every night. Kurt must have deleted some of the properties. Kaylee would never even notice.”
“Why would he do that?” I asked.
“Probably so we can clean the sites off the books, and he can pocket the money. But . . .” Her eyes were heavy. “Having the girls go missing changes everything, doesn’t it? One of these places might be where he’s got them.”
Bandoni hefted his bulk forward. “Which properties are missing?”
“Let me look.” Helen went back through the list more slowly. “An office complex near the Four Seasons, for one. We did a move-out cleaning there last month, so it might still be empty. Also a few places down south are missing. Near the tech center. But those are occupied.”
Bandoni and I looked at each other. The Four Seasons Hotel was less than half a mile from the pedestrian walkway where the Denver University students were going to march. If the Superior Gentlemen were planning an attack there, then holing up nearby made sense.
“That’s enough for me.” Bandoni hefted himself to his feet. “Father, you got a place where I can make some calls?”
“Of course.” Father Thomas stood. “My study will work.”
After the men left, Helen lit another cigarette and fell into silence, her gaze far away.
I thought about Ami.
I imagined her, having been taken prisoner along with Noah, escaping her captors long enough to signal the engineer and leave a shrine for the man she’d loved. A shrine with her necklace of the Virgin.
Or maybe she hadn’t escaped. Maybe, knowing she had nowhere to run, the men had let her free long enough to create the shrine. It would have amused them to watch her grief and devotion. But they’d been careful to wipe out the message she’d written in the dirt.
Ami, though, must have hoped the Madonna heard her.
I heard the floorboards creak under the priest’s footsteps, heard the muffled growl of Bandoni’s voice. He would be talking to the lieutenant—arranging backup and preparing the cavalry. Deciding whether we’d go in sirens wailing or if it would be better to slip in like shadows. If we were lucky, the women were in the offices near the Four Seasons Hotel and we would rescue them and arrest the Superior Gentlemen. If we were really lucky, it would go down without a single shot being fired.
I thought about Noah and Donovan.
We hadn’t been very lucky so far.
Helen sighed and leaned back in her chair. Closed her eyes. Smoke drifted lazily up from her cigarette.
Exhaustion rolled over me like a black tide. I recognized the fatigue for what it was—with the case apparently drawing to a close, my mind was loosening its hold on my body, sending a signal that it was okay to relax.
I shook myself out of my stupor. I imagined what Bandoni would say to me: We ain’t done until we’ve connected all the dots.
I made sure the recording app was still running, then touched Helen’s knee. Her eyes popped open.
“Helen, did Top-A clean Water Resources’ original office? I don’t see it on Kaylee’s list.”
She shook off her own fatigue and nodded. “We had the contract for that place for almost two years. It’s east of here, near the old Rocky Flats. The owner sold the building, and another business moved in. Erica and I did the final cleaning.”
“Water Resources moved out because the building sold?”
She shrugged. “That’s not something anyone tells the help. I do know Noah was a hero for finding that place for them downtown—I got that from Ami. But we lost the cleaning contract. The owners of the new place had an agreement with a different cleaning company.”
“How did Noah find the place?”
“Through Kurt. Which was odd. We had twice weekly cleanings at the old place—it pulled in a lot of cash. Steady work for Erica and me. But Kurt never said why he told Noah about the new office. He just had us do a final cleaning. We did what we could, but there was still a bunch of crap out there.”
“Like what?”
“Junk left by the employees. Old printers. Paper files. Half-dead potted plants. A few months back, Kurt brought in something like fifty of his own cardboard boxes. He made a deal with Water Resources to let him store his stuff in two of their offices.”
“Did he have to remove the boxes after the sale?”
She looked thoughtful. “I don’t know that he ever did.”
My scalp prickled. “What was inside?”
“Cleaning supplies. Kurt said he’d gotten a sweet deal on the inventory from another company that was going out of business.”
“So he might have left the boxes there?”
“All I know is they were still there when I turned out the lights and gave Kurt the keys.” She lit a third cigarette from her second. Her chapped hands trembled. “You gotta find those girls, Detective Parnell. They’re like daughters to me.”
We stood on the sidewalk in front of the priest’s house. Officers Ryson and Olmer had gone. The wind had eased off, and the nearby houses were dark. Somewhere in the distance a dog barked, answered a moment later by a volley of nearer, higher-pitched barks.
“It’s the feebs’ case now,” Bandoni said. “Domestic terrorism. They own it.”
When he broke the news that the takedown was no longer ours, adrenaline had gone shooting through my system like a pinball without an exit. Now, still furious, I smacked the hood of the Tahoe with the flat of my hand.
“Yeah.” Bandoni sighed. “I know.”
I rubbed my palm. “What is their plan?”
“They’re going to send SWAT into that office building. It’ll be the
