Blood Trust - Eric van Lustbader [102]
“One of the victims in this case is William Warren.”
An expression of sorrow dampened Evrette’s face. “One of my best analysts.” He shook his head. “Shocking, truly shocking. And, of course, sad. Incomprehensible.”
“We’re trying to make sense of it.” Naomi cleared her throat. “Toward that end, we’d like to take a look at Mr. Warren’s computer. Have the Metro police been here?”
“Not yet,” Evrette said. “But a Detective Heroe will be over first thing tomorrow morning. She said not to let anyone in Mr. Warren’s office.”
“We’ve taken over the case; Detective Heroe simply hasn’t gotten the memo yet,” McKinsey said.
Naomi added: “We’d also like to examine the files on the loans Billy Warren was working on.”
“Of course.” He rose and, returning to his desk, punched a button on his intercom. “We have visitors from the federal government. After they’re through in Mr. Warren’s office, I’ll bring them directly to you.”
He rubbed his hands together as he returned to where Naomi and McKinsey sat. Naomi watched him and, when she could, McKinsey, to see if there was any hint of a prior meeting or relationship, but neither seemed particularly interested in the other. Evrette seemed entirely focused on her.
“As you may or may not know,” he said, “we’re in the midst of being engulfed and devoured by InterPublic.”
He laughed good-naturedly, and again Naomi was reminded of that dirty-minded department store Santa.
“As part of the transition, InterPublic hired a forensic accounting team to examine our books for the past five years.” He waved them toward the door with a little puff of breath. “You wouldn’t be wrong in counting that a damned daunting job. In fact, that’s precisely what went through my mind. But then this gentleman showed up and started directing his team, and, let me tell you, he’s something of a genius.”
He led them down another corridor to an office appropriate in size and furnishings to a midlevel executive. Blinds were down over the window. Peeking through them, Naomi saw the window grid of the building across K Street.
“Okay,” she said.
Looking at Billy’s workspace, she said, “I think we’d better get Forensics over here.”
“Consider it done.” McKinsey drew out his cell phone and made a call. As he began to speak, he walked out of the room. A moment later, he returned. “All set.”
Naomi nodded. Snapping on latex gloves, she first went through all the desk drawers. Then she fired up the computer.
“Has anyone been in here since Billy’s death?”
“Not since I got the call from Detective Heroe.” Evrette shrugged. “Before that, I suppose the cleaning people the night he was … killed. If anyone else was, I’m afraid I can’t say.”
“Please find out who among the cleaning staff was in here,” she said, fingers flying over the keyboard. “I’d like to interview them.”
Evrette nodded. “Just give me a moment,” he said, and went out.
Out of the corner of her eye, Naomi saw McKinsey standing with his arms crossed. He seemed to want to look everywhere at once.
She spoke to him while she checked the folder tree of Billy’s hard drive. “Peter, are you nervous?”
“I told you I’d have your back.”
“You also told me not to come here. How well do you know Evrette?”
“I’ve never met him before today.”
She glanced up and sensed that he was telling the truth. “Did you tell anyone we were coming here?”
“No.”
For a long moment, they held each other’s gaze. Then Naomi nodded and went back to her work. When she found the folders she wanted, she went through the desk drawers until she found a package of blank DVDs. Placing one in the plastic tray, she copied all the folders and files that looked relevant.
“If there was anything untoward going on,” McKinsey said, “I very much doubt Warren would be stupid enough to keep the files on his hard drive.”
“Sadly, I agree.” She pulled out the loaded DVD and pocketed it. “But it would be foolish to assume anything.”
She methodically went through the drawers, looking for locked