“Ochoa, you dog.”
“Woof.”
Buckley sat upright when Detective Heat came in, a sign he knew this wasn’t the foreplay interview he’d had in that very room earlier. He tried to wear a look of defiance, but his concentration on her, trying to get a reading of how deep this shit was, told Nikki he could be had at some point. Maybe not in this meeting, but he’d fall. Once she saw that look, they all toppled, eventually.
“The bitch is back,” she said and then eased into her chair. Nikki was in a hurry. The lawyer would be there too soon, she knew that. But she had to play the poker game. Buckley’s tell gave him away; she wasn’t about to level the playing field by letting her impatience show. So she sat back with her arms crossed like she had all the time in the world. He did his nervous mouth lick. Soon as she saw the dry tongue squeegee across the gums, she began.
“Would you be offended if I said you don’t strike me as the art thief type? I could see you doing a lot of things, dealing drugs, stealing a car, dine-?and-?dash. But masterminding a multimillion-?dollar art heist? Sorry, I’m just not seeing it.” The detective sat up and leaned toward him. “You put out the call for Doc the Biker to get a crew up for the burglary, but somebody had to call you first, and I want to know who that was.”
“Where’s my lawyer?”
“Gerald. You ever watch those infomercials where they say special limited time offer, so act now? With the shit storm you’re facing, we’re in that zone now, you and I.” His eyes were flicking but he wasn’t budging yet. She pressed him from another angle. “Of course, you don’t see a lot of those infomercials. Mostly, they’re on late at night and that’s your usual door shift.”
He shrugged. “You know that, everybody knows that.”
“But it leads me to wonder. As we went over the surveillance video from the Guilford the day of Matthew Starr’s murder, we saw you were there in the early afternoon.”
“So, I work there.”
“That’s what I thought when I saw you on video the other day. But recent events have me looking at your presence in a whole new light.”
“Hey, I did not kill Mr. Starr.”
“I’ll make a note of that.” She flashed a smile and dropped it. “I’m wondering about something else, and you’re just the guy to ask. You didn’t by any chance help anybody into the building during your off-?the-?clock visit, did you? I know there’s a locked access door on the roof. Is it possible you opened it up for somebody when you were hanging around at about 12:39 P.M.?”
There were two light knocks on the door. Damn, Ochoa signaling the attorney.
“Gerald? Limited time offer.”
A woman’s muffled rant seeped through from the Ob Room. “Sounds like my lawyer,” said Buckley.
Sounds like a dental drill, thought Nikki. “Well? Did you let someone in from the roof?”
There was an air suck as the door opened. Ochoa came in with a brittle woman in a mud-?colored suit. She reminded Nikki of someone who would hold up the grocery line insisting on a price check for parsley. The woman said, “This is not appropriate.”
Nikki ignored her and pressed on. “Where did you get the camera?”
“Don’t answer that.”
“I’m not.”
With the attorney as room monitor, Heat shifted to a new tack. She stopped looking for answers and started planting seeds. “Did Pochenko give it to you as a gift in exchange for the favor?”
“My client has nothing to say.”
“Or did you rip the camera off from him? Pochenko’s not the kind of guy you rip off, Gerald.”
“Detective, this interview is over.”
Nikki smiled and stood up. “There’ll be others.” And she stepped out.