No Second Chance
Page 42“The guy in the picture.”
“What about him?”
“Our agent is sure. The guy she’s with—her date, I mean—is our own Dr. Seidman.”
Tickner felt the thrum rush through him. “Keep digging,” he said. “Call me when you get more.”
“On it.”
He hung up the phone. Rachel and Seidman went to a prom together? What the hell was going on? She was from Vermont, if he remembered correctly. Seidman lived in New Jersey. They didn’t go to high school together. How about college? They’d have to look into it.
“Something wrong?”
Tickner turned. It was Dorfman. “Let me see if I have this straight, Mr. Dorfman. This CD-ROM belonged to Monica Seidman?”
“That’s what we were told, yes.”
“Yes or no, Mr. Dorfman.”
He cleared his throat. “We believe the answer is yes.”
“So she was a client here?”
“Yes, that we’ve been able to confirm.”
“So to sum up, a murder victim was a client of yours.”
Silence.
“Her name was in every paper in the state,” Tickner went on, giving him the hard stare. “How come you never came forward?”
“We didn’t know.”
“The guy who handled that case is no longer employed by us,” he added quickly. “See, he was gone by the time Mrs. Seidman was killed. So no one here put the pieces together.”
Defensive. Tickner liked that. He believed him, but he didn’t show it. Make the guy anxious to please.
“What was on the CD?”
“Photographs, we think.”
“Think?”
“That’s usually the case. Not always. We use the CD to store photographs, but there could be some scanned documents too. I really couldn’t tell you.”
“Why the hell not?”
He put up both hands. “Don’t worry. We have a backup. But any file more than a year old is stored in the basement. The office was closed, but when I heard you were interested, I got someone to come in. He’s running off the material on the backup CD right now.”
“Where?”
“He’s on the lower level.” Dorfman checked his watch. “He should be done or just about by now. Do you want to go down and see?”
Tickner stood. “Let’s rumble.”
Chapter 25
“There are stillthings we can do,” Rachel said. “This stuff is state of the art. Even if they pat you down, we can get away with it. I have a bulletproof vest that has a pinhole camera right in the center.”
“And you don’t think they’ll find that with a pat-down?”
“Yeah, okay, look, I know you’re worried about them finding out, but let’s be realistic here. There’s an excellent chance this is all a setup. Don’t give up the money until you see Tara. Don’t get yourself stuck somewhere alone. Don’t worry about the Q-Logger—if they’re being up front, we’ll have Tara before they can search the stacks of money. I know this isn’t an easy decision, Marc.”
“No, you’re right. I played it safe last time. I think we need to take some chances. But the vest is out.”
“I understand.” She was dressed totally in black. I said, “You look like you’re going to do a reading in the Village.”
“Kumbaya, my Lord. You ready?”
We both heard the car pull up. I looked out the window and felt my panic needle jump. “Damn,” I said.
“What?”
“That’s Regan, the cop on the case. I haven’t seen him in more than a month.” I looked at her. Her face was stark white against the black outfit. “Coincidence?”
“No coincidence,” she said.
“How the hell did he find out about the ransom?”
She moved back from the window. “He’s probably not here for that.”
“Then what?”
“My guess would be that they got word of my involvement from MVD.”
I frowned. “So?”
“No time to explain. Look, I’m going to go out to the garage and hide. He’s going to ask about me. Tell him I went back to D.C. If he presses, tell him I’m an old friend and leave it at that. He’s going to want to interrogate you.”
“Why?”
But she was already moving away from me. “Just be firm and get him out of there. I’ll wait for you by the car.”
I didn’t like it, but now was not the time. “Okay.”
Rachel headed to the garage via the door in the den. I waited until she was out of sight. When Regan hit my front walkway, I opened the door, trying to cut him off at the pass.
“I heard your car.”
He nodded as if I’d said something that required serious analysis. “Do you have a few moments, Dr. Seidman?”
“Actually, it’s a bad time.”
“Oh.” Regan did not break stride. He slid past me and into my front foyer, his eyes taking in everything. “Heading out, are we?”
“What do you want, Detective?”
“Some new information has come to our attention.”
I waited for him to say more.
“Don’t you want to know what it is?”
“Of course.”
Regan had a strange, almost serene look on his face. He looked up at the ceiling, as if he were considering what color to paint it. “Where have you been today?”
“Get out, please.”
His eyes were still on the ceiling. “Your hostility surprises me.” But he did not look surprised.
“You said you had some new information. If you do, say it. If not, get out. I’m not in the mood to be questioned.”
He made a well-well face. “We hear that you visited a private detective agency in Newark today.”
“So?”
“So what were you doing there?”