City of Lies

He tapped her with the back of his hand. ‘Heads up,’ he said, his tone more serious.

Inside the salon, Kristen Woods checked her eyebrows in a handheld mirror, nodded her approval, and then walked to the front desk to pay.

‘You ask me, the money should be going the other direction,’ Rogan muttered.

Woods nearly ran into them as she exited the salon, and then turned back as a glimmer of recognition crossed her face.

‘Ellie Hatcher, from the NYPD. My partner, J. J. Rogan.’

‘Yeah, sure, I remember. I hear you and my boss had quite the run-in yesterday in court.’

Ellie was glad to see that the rapport she’d previously developed with Kristen had not been affected. ‘Mr. Sparks shares those sorts of colorful details with you, does he?’

‘Are you kidding? He doesn’t tell me squat. I heard him yelling about it in his office yesterday. I think I got the gist.’

‘I’m sure your boss was heartbroken by my brief period of incarceration.’

‘Uh, yeah, if what you mean is that it only lasted a day. Sorry, you probably aren’t laughing about this yet.’

‘Would you be? I couldn’t even keep my own underwear with me.’

‘Eeewww.’

Rogan tapped one heel, his gaze affixed upward.

They both took the hint, and Kristen changed the subject. ‘You’re wrong about him, you know.’

‘Wrong about what?’ Ellie asked.

‘About Sparks. He can be a prick in his own way, but he’s actually a decent person. There’s no way he’d kill anyone.’

Ellie smiled. Everyone was capable of killing someone. It was just a question of whom, and under what circumstances. But the last thing she wanted was to advertise their agenda to Sparks’s personal assistant.

‘Really,’ Ellie assured her, ‘he’s not a suspect. I tried explaining it to the judge. The whole thing got blown out of proportion.’

‘“What if Sparks did it?” A cartoon showing him behind bars? It’s kind of funny, I guess, but you’re wrong. I swear.’

‘It was just doodling. Totally unprofessional, but not at all a reflection of where we are in this investigation. Your boss is not a suspect.’

‘Right. And that’s why you tracked me down here, where Sam wouldn’t know? But you know what? I don’t care. When cops ask questions, I answer. And if Sam asks me point-blank whether you came to me, I’m not going to lie to him either.’

‘No one’s asking you to lie, Kristen.’

‘Yeah, okay, but whatever. He’s not going to ask. I’m sure that was your intention in coming here instead of the office. I was just saying, there’s no way he’d hurt Robo, if that happens to be what you’re thinking. So go ahead and ask whatever you want. I’ve got no problems with you guys.’

She was about as straightforward a witness as two detectives could ask for. Loyal to her boss, but not so loyal that she’d want to lie.

‘We’re going back to the very beginning,’ Ellie said. ‘Making sure we didn’t miss anything. We wanted to talk to you again about Mancini reserving the apartment for that night.’

‘Okay.’

‘So the way you explained it to us, you keep a calendar for the 212?’

‘Right. Sam offers the penthouse to various business associates when they come to town. More impressive than a hotel. I keep track of it all so I can make sure the maid service comes and cleans up after guests, changes the linens – that kind of thing. And that requires knowing when people are there and for how long.’

‘And then Sparks lets employees use the place, too?’

‘Yeah. Not a lot, but, you know, it’s the occasional little perk. I told you, he’s not the evil shit you think he is. Everyone knows not to take it for granted.’

‘And who’s everyone?’ Rogan asked.

‘Not corporate employees, but more of just the personal staff. Me, the bodyguards – I mean, protection specialists,’ she said, smiling. ‘I think he even lent it to his contractor once.’

‘And none of these people has a key, right?’ Ellie was pretending that she needed to hear all of this information again.

‘No one keeps a key. There’s a coded key compartment that hangs from the apartment door. You flip the digits around to match the code. The box pops open, and the apartment key’s inside. One of my responsibilities after someone stays is to reset the code.’

The night of Mancini’s murder, they had found the door unlocked and the key inside on the kitchen counter. Mancini had not locked the door behind him.

‘So when someone wants to use the apartment, they contact you to reserve their spot on the calendar and get the code.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Okay, and when did Mancini reserve the apartment for the night of May 27?’

‘May 27 was the night of – the night he died, right?’

Ellie nodded.

‘He called me that day. I think I told you before it was around two, but I wasn’t sure.’

In fact, Ellie and Rogan had pulled Kristen’s call records from the cellular phone company used by Sparks Industries. Mancini had placed a call to her at 2:32 that afternoon.

‘And it was just for that night?’ Ellie asked.

‘Yeah. It’s always just one night when we’re using it. Like I said, we don’t want to take advantage.’

‘And did you tell anyone that Mancini would be using the apartment?’

‘No,’ she said, shaking her head.

‘Not even a housekeeper to get the place ready?’

‘Nope. The apartment had been cleaned two weeks earlier. For the CEO of General Electric, I would have had a fresh cleaning. Robo could live with a little dust.’

‘And where were you after two o’clock?’

‘Me?’