and began to dress. “Tell me what you want me to focus on.”
“Coffee,” she muttered and strode to her command center. “I need coffee.”
“We.”
“Right, we need coffee.” She programmed a pot. “As soon as Summerset sends me his stops today, I’ll have uniforms tracking that, talking to merchants, clerks.”
She huffed out a breath. “Unlikely we get anything, because he used an amplifier, but we check. I have files, more inclusive and extensive now. Probably not that much in them you don’t already know from your own monitor and more recent dips into the alphabet soup, but you could take a hard look at his known associates. Anything you can add there is good. New York associates in particular.”
“All right.” He poured two large mugs.
“I figure if he intended to come to New York, do the hit, leave, he’d book a hotel or an apartment. Downtown, in the area of Modesto’s residence. Upscale because that’s what he goes for. But probably not one of yours because he wouldn’t want to put money in your pocket.”
“Good point, and we’ll agree on that. So you’re looking for a single male booking. And for a quick job like this, it would be a hotel.”
“Right. I’ve got a team on it, but you can give that a skim if you want. But he’s changed his mind, right? Not booking out right after the hit. More extended stay, and, as in his dreams he wants to take at least one of us to play with, more privacy.”
“He’d want a house, single residence, or a duplex that’s well soundproofed. But he’d try for that single residence first. And furnished. He doesn’t have time to get a decent bed and so on.”
As he thought it through, Roarke sat on the edge of her command center. “He might look for one near here, to help him keep track of our comings and goings. Or closer to Central, to mind you. And still possibly near my headquarters.”
“I hadn’t thought of that one.”
“He’d need a vehicle. He could rent, even buy. He might boost one, but that’s risky unless he’s so confident he thinks he can meet his goal before a stolen vehicle’s reported.”
“We’re looking at all of that. And missing persons—Whitney took that. It’s a long shot, but he could just take over a house, kill whoever’s inside.”
Roarke stared into his coffee. “Not a long shot at all. There’s a good possibility. But you won’t have a missing person’s report to check, not right off in any case. With the right contacts he could target someone. You force them to contact work, if work they have, or friends, family, whatever it is. Need to go out of town, family emergency, work, whatever suits. A curious neighbor? How do you do, I’m Joe’s cousin, friend, associate, what have you. Doing some house-sitting for him while he’s on a business trip.”
“That could hold, for a while.”
“Awhile’s all he thinks he needs. But he’d need the contact. He couldn’t just pluck a house that suits his needs and has a convenient sort of tenant or owner inside also suiting them.”
Eyes narrowed, Eve followed that path. “The tenant or owner would have to be someone who’s a bad guy himself, or involved on the fringes, or a victim. Goddamn it, why pay when you can just take? And if that’s how he’s working it, it closes off an angle of investigation.”
“I have contacts of my own,” Roarke reminded her. “I’ll do what I can. One more possibility. He has a previous employer who has a property. He agrees to do the next job at a discount for use of the house for a week or two. There’d have to be trust there, of a sort, but it simplifies. It’s cleaner. I’ll, ah, reach out, as you say.”
“Careful with your reach.”
“Always, darling.”
“We’re checking on private shuttles—that’s his usual. And he can pilot, so he might have come over on his own. Either way, if he booked a shuttle, he’d have canceled or postponed the return.”
“Well then, we have quite a bit to keep us busy.” He rose. “I’ll start with that reaching out. You’ll copy those files to my unit.”
“Did it on the way home. Roarke, if you use the unregistered, I need to know.”
“Not for this in any case.” He topped off his coffee from the pot. “I’ll use my office for now, but at some point, I’ll likely just use your auxiliary.”
“You don’t especially want me to hear the conversations with these contacts.”
“I