'I'm not going to do your work for you. But you will find her intriguing in light of this case. And, Detective? Be careful. She bought a handgun ten days ago. Unlicensed, of course.'
After the trust-fund politician alibied himself at home with his wife all night, Heat and Rook left him. As they crossed to the lobby, a wisp of an old woman perched on a love seat looked up from her daiquiri. 'Congratulations on your lovely magazine profile, young lady.' Even with her smile, Grace Ludlow looked more fearsome than she did in her painting.
While Rook undid his borrowed tie at the coat check, he said, 'Ludlow's family has so many resources and is so well connected, he could have easily made all of this happen.' The tie tangled on him and Nikki stepped in to help with the knot.
'But here's what I don't get,' she said. 'Say it were him. Why steal the body?' With both wrists brushing his chest, Nikki was close enough to breathe in the scent of his cologne, subtle and clean. She looked up from the knot and met his eyes, held them briefly and then stepped away. 'Looks like you're going to need scissors.' Heat called in from the front steps of the Milmar to see if anything had turned up about her missing victim. Nothing. While she was on, Nikki ordered a check on a Holly Flanders. She also retrieved a voice mail from Roach and started walking to the car. 'Let's take a ride. The boys have turned something for us.'
On the drive across the park, Rook asked her, 'OK, this is bugging me. How is it you know about pony play?'
'Does that excite you, Rook?'
'In a happy-scared way, yes. And no. Leaning to yes.' He frowned. 'You know?'
'Oh, trust me, I know. I know all about happy and scared.' She smiled a wicked smile but kept her eyes on the taxi in front of her. 'Just like I know my lollycrops from my posture collars.' She didn't have to look to know he was staring at her to see if she meant it.
Traffic Control had to move sawhorses to let them onto West 78th. The number of news vans had doubled, with every station staking out turf for the live shots that would be coming starting on the 4 P.M. casts, still hours away. It gave Nikki's stomach a twist that the lead wouldn't be the murder but the theft of the body. They met up with Raley and Ochoa in the subbasement of Cassidy Towne's brownstone, in the office-workshop of her building superintendant.
They introduced him to Nikki, and as Rook appeared in the door, he smiled. 'Hey, Mr. Rook.'
'JJ, hi. Sorry about what happened.'
'Yeah, it's going to be a big cleanup,' said the super.
'And, also. You know.'
'Ms. Towne, right. Horrible.'
Nikki addressed her detectives. 'You have something for me?'
'First of all,' said Raley, 'no private trash pickup.'
'That's like the worst joke,' chimed in JJ. 'Owner of this building isn't going to spring for that. Can't even get budget for paint. Or to get a new rolling bucket, look at the wheel off that thing. Pitiful.'
'So you're still on the trash,' she said, trying to keep things on course. 'You said first. What's the second?'
Ochoa picked it up. 'JJ says that he recently had to change the locks on Cassidy Towne's apartment.'
That got her interest. She cast a glance at Rook.
'That's right. It was a couple of days ago,' said Rook.
The super corrected him. 'No, that was the second time. Had to do it twice.'
'You changed them twice?' said Heat. 'Why was that, JJ?'
'I have locksmith training, so I was able to do it myself on the side for her. You know, off the books. Works out good for the both, you understand? Saves her a little coin, puts a little jingle in my pocket. It's all good.'
'I'm sure it is,' said Nikki. JJ seemed like a nice guy but a talker. To interview talkers, she had learned, you needed to keep things concrete, move in steps. 'Tell me about the first time you changed the locks. When was that?'
'Just two weeks ago. Day before my man here started.' JJ indicated Rook.
'Why? Did she lose her key or something?'
'People are always losing things, aren't they? Heard on talk radio yesterday about cell phones. You know where most people lose their cell phones?'
'Bathrooms?' asked Rook.
'No more calls, please.' He extended a hand and gave Rook a shake.
'JJ?' said Heat, opening her notebook to signal a sense of importance. 'Why did Cassidy want you to change her locks two weeks ago?'
'Because she said she felt like someone had been coming into her apartment. Lady wasn't sure, but she said things were just off in there. Little things moved around where she didn't put them, stuff like that. Said it creeped her out. I thought, maybe she's just paranoid, but, hey, it's money in my pocket, so I rekeyed them for her.'
Nikki made a note to have Roach check for the exact date, just for the time line. 'And what about the second time? Did she feel like somebody was still getting in?'
The super laughed. 'Didn't need a feeling. Some dude kicked the door in on her. Right in her face.'
Heat immediately turned to Rook, who said, 'I knew she had the door fixed, because JJ was working on it when I came over to meet her for dinner. I asked her why, and she told me that she locked herself out and she had to break in. It seemed weird, but if Cassidy Towne was nothing else, she was full of surprises.'
'Hoo, tell me,' from JJ, who shook hands again with Rook.
Heat turned to Roach. 'Is there an incident report on this?'
'None,' said Ochoa.
'Running a double-check now,' added Raley.
'When was this, JJ?'
He turned to his workbench, looked at some busty babe tool calendar, and pointed to a day with an orange grease pencil mark on it. Heat wrote down the date and asked, 'Do you know what time of day this was?'
'Sure do. It was one in the afternoon. I was about to have my cigarette when I heard it. I've been trying to cut back, those things are bad for you, so I put myself on a schedule.'
'You say you heard it? You mean you actually saw it happen?'
'Saw it after it happened. I was up the sidewalk, no smoking in here, and heard the shouting and then, boom. Dude kicked that door right in.'
'And did you see who did it? Could you describe him?'
'Sure can. You know Toby Mills, right? The baseball player?'
'Sure do. You say he looked like Toby Mills?'
'No,' said JJ. 'I'm saying it was Toby Mills.' The Yankees were up a game in the Division Series, but without the services of starting pitcher Toby Mills, who was on the disabled list with a pulled hamstring he'd suffered in a heroic sprint to cover first base in Game One. Mills got the out for the win and a complete game, but also got the DL for an indefinite period and had to enjoy the rest of the ALDS as a spectator. On the drive back across the Central Park transverse to the pitcher's town house on the Upper East Side, Heat said, 'OK, Jameson Rook, A-list magazine journalist, now I have a question for you.'
'I have a feeling this isn't going to be about the pony play, is it?'
'I'm trying to fathom why, if you were flying in close formation with Cassidy Towne for an up close magazine profile, you didn't know about Toby Mills kicking her door down.'
'Simple. Because I wasn't around when it happened and because she didn't tell me.' He shifted toward her in his seat. 'No-more than that. She lied to me about it by saying she did it herself. And I'll tell you something, Nik, if you knew Cassidy, you could see her doing it. I mean she wasn't just strong, she was… she was a force of nature. Things like locked doors didn't stop her. I even wrote that little metaphor in my notes for the article.'
She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. 'I do take your point. And she not only lied to you, there was no police report.'
'An odd sock.'
'You don't get to say that, all right?'
'Odd sock?'
'That's ours. I don't want to hear that from you again unless you're sorting your fluff-and-fold.' The light
