The Broken Window

Cassel, with a long face, classically handsome, seemed athletic; solid arms, broad shoulders. He was wearing the SSD “uniform,” in his case a navy suit. The white shirt was immaculate and the cuffs clasped with heavy gold links. The yellow tie was thick silk. He had curly hair, rosy skin and peered steadily at Sachs through glasses. She hadn’t known Dolce & Gabbana made frames.

“Hi.”

“Hello. I’m Detective Sachs, this is Officer Pulaski. Have a seat.” She shook his hand, noting the firm grip that lingered longer than the clasp with Pulaski.

“So you’re a detective?” The sales director had not a shred of interest in the patrolman.

“That’s right. Would you like to see my ID?”

“No, that’s okay.”

“Now, we’re just getting information about some of the employees here. Do you know a Myra Weinburg?”

“No. Should I?”

“She was the victim of a murder.”

“Oh.” A flash of contrition, as the hip façade vanished momentarily. “I heard something about a crime. I didn’t know it was a murder, though. I’m sorry. Was she an employee here?”

“No. But the person who killed her might have had access to information in your company’s computers. I know you have full access to innerCircle; is there any way somebody who works for you could assemble an individual’s dossier?”

He shook his head. “To get a closet you need three passcodes. Or a biomet and one.”

“Closet?”

He hesitated. “Oh, that’s what we call a dossier. We use a lot of shorthand in the knowledge service business.”

Like secrets in a closet, she assumed.

“But nobody could get my passcode. Everyone’s very careful about keeping them secret. Andrew insists on it.” Cassel removed his glasses and polished them with a black cloth that appeared magically in his hand. “He’s fired employees who’ve used other people’s passcodes even with their permission. Fired on the spot.” He concentrated on his glass-polishing task. Then looked up. “But let’s be honest. What you’re really asking about isn’t passcodes but alibis. Am I right?”

“We’d like to know that too. Where were you from noon to four P.M. yesterday?”

“Running. I’m training for a mini-triathlon… You look like you run too. You’re pretty athletic.”

If standing still while punching holes in targets at twenty-five and fifty feet is athletic, then yes. “Could anybody verify that?”

“That you’re athletic? It’s pretty obvious to me.”

Smile. Sometimes it was best to play along. Pulaski stirred-which Cassel noted with amusement-but she said nothing. Sachs didn’t need anybody to defend her honor.

With a sideways glance at the uniformed officer, Cassel continued, “No, I’m afraid not. A friend stayed over. But she left about nine-thirty. Am I a suspect or anything?”

“We’re just getting information at this point,” Pulaski said.

“Are you now?” He sounded condescending, as if he were talking to a child. “Just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.”

A line from an old TV show. Sachs couldn’t remember which one.

Sachs asked where he’d been at the times of the other killings-the coin dealer, the earlier rape and the woman who’d owned the Prescott painting. He replaced the glasses and told her he didn’t recall. He seemed completely at ease.

“How often do you go into the data pens?”

“Maybe once a week.”

“Do you take any information out?”

He frowned slightly. “Well…you can’t. The security system won’t let you.”

“And how often do you download dossiers?”

“I don’t know if I ever have. It’s just raw data. Too noisy to be helpful for anything I do.”

“All right. Well, I appreciate your time. I think that’ll do it for now.”

The smile and flirt faded. “So is this a problem? Something I should be worried about?”

“We’re just doing some preliminary investigation.”

“Ah, not giving anything away.” A glance at Pulaski. “Play it close to the chest, right, Sergeant Friday?”

Ah, that was it, Sachs realized. Dragnet. The old police show she and her father would watch in rerun years ago.

After he’d left, another employee joined them. Wayne Gillespie, who oversaw the technical side of the company-the software and hardware. He didn’t exactly fit Sachs’s impression of a geek. Not at first. He was tanned and in good shape, wore an expensive silver-or platinum-bracelet. His grip was strong. But on closer examination she decided he was a classic techie after all, somebody dressed by his mother for class photographs. The short, thin man wore a rumpled suit and a tie that wasn’t knotted properly. His shoes were scuffed, his nails ragged and not properly scrubbed. His hair could use a trim. It was as if he was playing the role of corporate exec but infinitely preferred to be in a dark room with his computer.

Unlike Cassel, Gillespie was nervous, hands constantly in motion, fiddling with three electronic devices on his belt-a BlackBerry, a PDA and an elaborate cell phone. He avoided eye contact-flirt was the last thing on his mind, though, like the sales director, his wedding ring finger was bare. Maybe Sterling preferred single men in positions of power at his company. Loyal princes rather than ambitious dukes.