The teacher nodded, and drank more of her coffee. 'I won't ask how you're going to do that,' she said. 'I'l just report his unexplained absence to the directorate, and insist that he be replaced. I've been here for a while; that will happen automatically. He isn't a union member either, so that won't be a problem.'
McGuire glanced into his mug; his Italian blood rebelled against finishing what was in it. He raised himself from his low chair. 'Thanks for your confidence,' he murmured.
'Thanks for yours. Don't worry, none of this leaves this room.'
'If I was worried about that, none of it would have come into it.'
'What wil you do?' she asked. 'Go to see him at home?'
'Yes, first chance I get, although that won't be today. Listen, if he does turn up for work in the morning, would you give me a cal? That's my direct line number. If I'm not there, you can leave a message with Inspector Mcllhenney or PC Cowan.' He handed her a business card.
'I'll do that.'
20
She opened the door for him, and accompanied him along the corridor.
As they reached the display panel he stopped and looked at the photographs. There, on the bottom row, he saw him; looking a good deal younger than his years, clean-shaven, his face and bald head heavily tanned, gazing out at him with eyes that were chilling in their familiarity.
He would have known him even without the name printed below.
'Can I have that?' he asked.
'You might as well,' she said. 'It's no use to me now. It's a good likeness.' Careful y, she prised it from the board and handed it to him.
'There. Wil you show that to your wife?'
'Good question, Mrs Dewberry; good question.'
Bob Skinner stood at the foot of the driveway and looked up at the big house on Stanford Avenue. It was white-painted, two-storey, with a pillared front and a terrace, which seemed to run all round the house at the level of the upper floor. 'Neo-colonial,' his father-in-law had called it. 'Flashy,' had been Skinner's description.
He shuddered at the thought of Leo and Susannah in that small-town morgue, he with those terrible bulging eyes, she with a towel draped over her savaged neck by a considerate attendant, although his police man's training had forced him to remove it, to see for himself what had been done to her.
He had been very fond of Leopold Grace and his wife. They had never treated him with anything other than affection, even when he and Sarah had gone through their estrangement and when he had gone to the States to visit his son, and to see whether there was any ground on which they might build a renewal. His father-in-law's legal career had made him tolerant and non-judgemental, and while their conversations at that time had been frank, he had never come away from one without feeling at least understood.
The representative of the security company, which monitored the alarm system, was waiting for him at the front door as he approached, with the dutiful Brand and Kosinski at his heels. She was tal and long legged, around the thirty mark, and dressed in a pale blue business suit.
With her shoulder-length auburn hair, she looked vaguely like Sarah.
'Mr Skinner?' she asked, her hand outstretched. He nodded and shook it.
'I'm Kel y Lance. Do you have the court order?'
'Yes.' He took an envelope from his jacket pocket; it held confirmation from a probate judge of the district court that he and Sarah were joint executors of Leo's will. 'You'd better have a look at it,' he said.
She glanced at the official stamp on the outside. 'That's okay.' She undipped a slim leather case and looked inside, eventual y producing a thick, folded document.
Setting the case at her feet, she unfolded the sheet and held it out for 70 him to see. 'This is a plan of the alarm system. It's wired into the nearest police precinct; they guarantee two-minute response if it lights up.'
'Have they had any incidents in the last couple of days?' Skinner asked.
'No; at least none they've told us about, and they would have, since we hold the keys to the property.'
'So where's the control box?'
'In the usual place, just inside the front door. The first sensor has a programmed delay, so that once the owner unlocks he has thirty seconds to key in the code number and disable the system. Shal we go in?'
He nodded. 'Yes; let's get on with it. What's the code?'
Kelly Lance glanced at the plan. 'Eight, nine, two, and seven,' she read. Fine security, he thought. Leo s birthday.
She handed him the keys, as they stepped up to the big, solid, white painted door, indicating which two from the bunch he would need. One was a simple Yale, but the other was for a five-lever, double-locking mortise. He unlocked them both and opened the door, seeing the sensor light flick on as he did so. He saw the smal control panel at once, and flipped back the lid covering the number pad. He looked at the indicators, then at Kelly Lance.
'This isn't active, is it?'
She shook her head. 'No. If it was there would have been an audible signal as soon as the sensor picked you up.'
Skinner frowned as he stepped into the big, familiar house, in which his wife had grown up, in which he had spent happier times himself.
'How long had they been away?' he asked the woman.
'They advised us last Saturday week that they were driving up to the Adirondacks for a month. We have their telephone number at the lake on our files, for use in the event of an incident.'
'But you haven't had one.'
'No. Everything's been silent since then. But it would have been, wouldn't it, since Mr Grace didn't set the alarm.'
'I know they have a cleaning woman. Is it possible that she could have been in and forgot to reset the pad when she left?'
'That's possible, but unlikely. We require our clients to give us the names of all key-holders, even those who might only have access for a few days. There's no one on their list other than Mr and Mrs Grace themselves, and Dr Sarah Grace Skinner, their daughter.'
'… Who has definitely not been here in the last ten days.' He looked over his shoulder and cal ed to the FBI agents, who were waiting outside.
'Come on in, lads.'
Kosinski stepped into the entrance call, with Brand close behind.
'Everything okay, sir?' he asked.
Skinner shook his head. 'No. My brain's not working very well. Have you got a number for Lieutenant Schultz?'
'Yes, sir.' He dipped two fingers into the breast pocket of his jacket and drew out a business card.
The Scot's cellphone was in his hand as he took it from him. He glanced at it to make sure that he was tuned into a network, and dial ed the number shown. 'New York State Police, Loudonville,' drawled a nasal operator.
Schultz was in his office. 'Deputy Chief Skinner,' he said. 'What can I do for you?'
'You can find the guy who kil ed Leo and Susannah. Failing that, tell me something. Before I got there yesterday, were there any personal effects removed from the house? Specifical y, I mean keys.'
'No, sir, none at all. That was in accordance with your request.
However, since your visit we have removed certain valuable or sensitive items; the books, for example. And keys will be among those; let me check, please. This may take a moment. Would you like me to cal you back?'
'No, I'l hold.'
As it happened, Schultz was gone for less than a minute. 'I have them here, sir. I'm looking at al the keys
