In Death 21 - Origin in Death

distrusted them.
    As for her cat, Galahad made an appearance, regally ignored everyone under four feet until he clued in that this variety of human was more likely to drop food on the floor, or sneak him handouts. He ended in a gluttonous coma, tubby belly up under a table.
    She escaped the party Roarke escorted out for what Scan called the city tour, and with her head ringing from endless conversation, slipped up to her office.
    The case wasn't closed, she thought, until it was closed.
    She sat at her desk, ordered the data from Roarke's unit, and studied the blueprints on record for the Icove Center.
    There could be others, and Roarke agreed. His computer would continue to search for unrecordeds. For now, she'd work with these.
    God knew it was enough.
    "Computer, delete all public areas."
    She crossed back and forth in front of the screens, studying the accesses, the floor space.
    Because it was there. She was sure of it now. It was ego as well as convenience. He'd have based his most personal project in the enormous center that bore his name.
    That's where he spent his free time. Those days and evenings never booked. Just a quick walk or drive from home.
    "Delete patient areas. Hell of a lot of space yet, for labs, for staff sectors, for administration. Wasting my time, probably wasting my time," she muttered. "Feds'll run through the place like ants in another day, two at the most."
    The NYPSD couldn't lock it down. There were civilian patients to consider, privacy laws to wrestle, and the sheer size of the place would make a reasonable search all but impossible.
    But the feds would have the juice for it, and the enhanced equipment. Probably should leave this end to them. Let them wrap it up.
    "Screw that. Computer, give me lab areas, one at a time, beginning with highest security. Unilab's got some research on this site, some of the mobiles must have pieces of the project," she said quietly when the new image came up. "But how do you find which ones without slapping a lock on all of them?"
    Which meant legal wrangles from every country where they had facilities. Civil suits, undoubtedly, from staff and patients.
    "They're mobile. Good networking tool, so maybe one of the ways they move graduates from school to placement. Maybe. Nobel Prize, my ass-they're going to be shut down before this is over."
    She swung around at the sound in her doorway. Sinead stopped, backing out.
    "I'm sorry. I've got myself turned around, and when I heard you talking I came this way. Then when I saw you were working, I tried to slip out again."
    "I was just thinking out loud."
    "Well now, I do the same all the time myself."
    "You didn't go with the others."
    "I didn't, no. I stayed back to help my daughter and daughter-in-law with their babies. The lot of them are sound asleep now. And I thought to myself I'd find that beautiful library Roarke showed us earlier, have a book and a little lie down. But I got lost as Gretel in the woods."
    "Gretel who?"
    "Hansel's sister. It's a fairy tale."
    "Right. I knew that. I can show you the library."
    "Don't trouble yourself, no. I'll come upon it. You're working."
    "Not getting anywhere anyway."
    "Could I see, do you think, just for a moment?"
    "See what?"
    "The police part of things. .. well, I'm not as bloodthirsty as our Sean, but I can't help wondering. And it looks more like a little flat than a cop's office."
    It took Eve a moment to translate flat into apartment. "Actually, Roarke kind of replicated my old apartment. It was one of his ways of luring me in, getting me to move in here."
    Sinead's smile was very warm. "Clever, and sweet. I find him to be both, though you can see the fierceness in him, the power all over him. Do you wish us all back to Clare, Eve? I won't be offended."
    "I don't. Really. He's-" She wasn't sure how to put it. "He's so happy that you've come. He isn't unsure about much, but he's unsure about you-all of you. Especially you. He's still, I guess, grieving, for Siobhan, still guilty on some level about what happened to her."
    "The griefs natural enough, and probably good for him. But the guilt is useless, and it's aimed wrong. He was just a baby."
    "She died for him. That's how he sees it, and always will. So having you here ... Especially having you here, it means a lot. I wish I knew more how to handle it all. That's all."
    "I wanted to come, so much. I'll never forget the day he came, the day he sat in my kitchen. Siobhan's boy. I wanted ... Oh, look at me,