White Death

‘From Lerner to Hartley, probably seven minutes, walking at normal pace,’ Dufresne said. ‘Well-lit, people around, usually a couple of campus police patrols too.’

‘You think he was followed?’

‘Maybe. Wouldn’t have dared jump him out here, though. No chance of getting away unseen. But maybe he wasn’t followed. Every Thursday, Dennis had the same routine: his radio show, walk across the quad, open up the Malcolm X Lounge, make sure everything was ready for the G-body meeting at nine. Didn’t need to follow him. You could set your watch by him. Hell, you could set the atomic clock by him.’

‘So Dennis unlocks the lounge, the killer slips in there with him—’

‘Or has gotten access to the room beforehand, and is lying in wait.’

‘—or that, and then he kills Dennis and hauls ass. Must have had a holdall or something, to carry the head and arm in. Anyone see anyone like that?’

‘Not that we know.’

Patrese shrugged. If the killer was smart – and they knew he was that, if nothing else – he’d have made sure that he attracted as little attention as possible. On a student campus, that meant dressing like a student, whether you were one or not. Sneakers, jeans, college sweatshirt; someone dressed in those would pass unnoticed, even with a holdall. Going to the gym, helping set up a party … plenty of reasons to carry a soft bag.

‘Security measures in Lerner and Hartley?’ Patrese said.

‘The time of night we’re talking, not much. Lerner’s a public building, so people come in and out the whole time. Hartley’s primarily residential, but it has a few communal rooms like the Malcolm X Lounge, which means the main door’s kept open till those meetings are over.’

‘CCTV?’

‘No. Students. Human rights.’

‘So we’re looking at, oh, several thousand possible suspects.’

Dufresne rubbed his chin. ‘In that neighborhood.’

Patrese thought for a moment. ‘Unless …’

‘Yes?’

‘Ivy League colleges: they stick together much?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘They have a lot of meet-ups just for Ivy League places? Parties, conferences, tournaments, I don’t know. That kind of thing.’

‘No idea. Why?’

‘Two people killed within sight of Yale’s front entrance. Now one on Columbia’s campus itself. Columbia and Yale are both Ivy League colleges. It must be worth seeing whether anyone from Columbia was at Yale last weekend, or …’

Dufresne finished Patrese’s sentence for him. ‘Or whether anyone from Yale’s here at Columbia right now.’

18 (#ulink_a74e6502-9231-5edc-90ae-862e95d70bef)

Friday, November 5th

Dufresne’s men and the campus police had been on the case most of the night. The campus block where Dennis had been killed had been locked down: no one allowed to leave till they’d spoken to police, no one allowed in without proof they lived there. Hartley apart, there were four other accommodation blocks: Wallach, Furnald, Carman and John Jay. Every resident had been interviewed, some at two or three in the morning. A lot of them had grumbled about this. Patrese couldn’t have given a damn.