The In Death Collection Books 16-20 - J. D. Robb [653]
“Have you run those systems purchased that were not installed by the company?”
Peabody opened her mouth, then closed it long enough to clear her throat. “No, sir. I’ll do so.”
“Split the list between all members of this team. Probability or not, do not—at this time—eliminate families or single females. Maybe one of them has a girlfriend, or a female accomplice. Maybe he’s a licensed installer. Maybe he’s just the handy neighbor who says, ‘Hey, I’ll take care of that for you and save you some dough.’ These are home security systems, but there’s no law saying a business couldn’t purchase one. Let’s get on this.”
She leaned back against her desk, remembered the coffee she’d poured before she’d begun. She picked it up, drank it lukewarm. “Baxter. Client lists.”
“Both the Swishers had a good thing going. Successful in their professions. Family law firm was busy, and Swisher had a good win rate. His caseload weighs heavy on protection of children’s rights, custody suits, divorce, while his partner takes more of the straight abuse, palimony, cohab dissolutions, and competency stuff. But they both have a mix, and both have a good percentage of pro bono work.”
He cocked his ankle onto his knee, brushed the line of the pants of his well-cut suit smooth. “She was no slouch either. Lots of referrals. Liked to do families or couples, but didn’t turn away the individual. She would also work on a sliding scale, ratio of fee to income. Not just fatties,” he added. “Dug into various eating disorders, health conditions. Consulted with her client’s health care provider, and made house calls.”
“House calls?”
“She’d visit the client’s home and workplace. Do a study on their lifestyle, recommend changes, not just in eating habits, but in exercise, entertainment, stress levels, the works. That kind of treatment didn’t come cheap, but like I said, she had a lot of referrals. Satisfied customers. You got your dissatisfied, too, both sides.”
“Do a cross-check. See how many times their clients crossed. Do another, see which cases Swisher’s firm worked on where Meredith Newman was listed as CPS rep. It could be interesting data. Trueheart.”
“Sir.” Long and lanky, and almost tenderly young in his uniform, he came to attention.
“You’ve been spending time with the witness.”
“She’s a nice kid, Lieutenant.”
“Any further data from her?”
“Sir, she doesn’t talk much about it. She’s broken down a couple of times. Not hysterical, just sits down and cries. I’m trying to keep her busy. She seems comfortable with me, and with Summerset, though she asks about you.”
“Asks what?”
“When you’re coming back, what you’re doing. When you’re going to take her to see her parents and her brother. If you’ve caught the bad guys yet. I don’t know much about, well, I guess you’d say child psychology, but I’d say she’s holding on to herself until you do. Catch them. To date, she hasn’t said anything that would add to her previous statements.”
“All right. Moving on to Meredith Newman. CPS reps in cases like this are kept confidential. However, it’s not that complicated to access the data. Anyone with serious interest and reasonable hacking capabilities could slither into the CPS files like a snake through grass. Feeney, I’ll want your department to check the d and c’s for any evidence of hacking. Maybe we’ll get a bounce. The subject was abducted off the sidewalk on Avenue B, daylight grab, with witnesses. The speed and success of the grab indicates the suspects have some experience in daylight abductions. It also indicates there were three. It’s unlikely these two would trust their vehicle to auto under the circumstances. We must assume Newman’s connection to Nixie Swisher was the motive for the grab. We must assume that the perpetrators had experience in making grabs of this nature, in electronics and security, in stealth assassinations.”
“Military or para,” Feeney said. “Espionage or special forces. Average citizens, they’re not.”
“If they were military, it’s likely we’ll find they washed out—or were promoted to fucking general because of their