Rarities Unlimited 03 - Die in Plain Sight

playing peekaboo beneath his unbuttoned jacket. Two men and two women followed him. They were in uniform and carrying the lights, cameras, measuring instruments, and other equipment that was required to investigate and record the crime scene. Two more uniformed deputies hurried through the imposing lobby doors and across the lobby. Judging from the rolls of bright yellow tape they carried, their job was to secure the crime scene.
    “Can the TV cameras be far behind?” Ian muttered. “This has all the earmarks of a class-A cluster job.”
    Lacey gave him a wary glance and finished describing her grandfather’s paintings to S. K. Niall.
    Giving rapid, concise orders to the deputies, Rory grabbed the night manager and hustled everyone into an elevator. Only after he’d dispatchedeveryone to the top floor did he acknowledge the three people waiting by the desk.
    “Follow me,” he said tersely. “I kept this off the police radios but somehow the damned press always finds out. After the investigators are through, the manager will transfer your belongings to new suites. Unless you want a different hotel?”
    Ian looked at Susa.
    “Why bother?” she said. “I’m leaving Sunday after the auction is over. I’m sure the security will be tighter here than anywhere else for the next few days.”
    “You can take that to the bank,” Rory said grimly.
    He led them through a door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY and down a short hall with office doors on either side. In front of the one marked SECURITY , he stopped, pulled a plastic rectangle out of his pocket, and swiped the card through a reader. The lock released.
    “Nice,” Ian said.
    “I own nineteen percent of the firm that put in the low bid for the hotel’s security contract,” Rory said, “a fact that has been thoroughly aired in the press and ignored by everyone else.”
    The room was empty except for TV screens, computers, machines, and a startled man in a hotel security “uniform” of dark suit and tie. The ID badge hanging around his neck was also an electronic key. It said GATEMAN
    “Sheriff? What can I do for you?”
    “Anyone come into this room on your shift?” Rory asked.
    “Not until you. ’Evening, ladies,” he added, nodding to Susa and Lacey.
    “When did you start your shift?”
    “Uh, two o’clock. Bob wanted an early jump on the weekend traffic, so I said I’d cover for him.”
    “So you think it’s an inside job,” Ian said too softly for anyone but Rory to hear.
    “I think a million dollars worth of bad publicity is coming down on Moreno County and my ass is going to get reamed for it,” Rory said distinctly. “Anyone call you away for any reason?” he asked Gateman.
    The security guard, who had the build of a former linebacker and thegut of a computer jockey who liked beer, shook his head. “No, sir. What happened?”
    Rory ignored the question and asked one of his own. “All the systems working?”
    Gateman did a fast survey of the status lights. “All green.”
    “Show me the top floor from noon until now.”
    Gateman’s broad face creased in a frown. “Is something—”
    “Just do it,” Rory cut in. “If I want conversation, I’ll tell you.”
    The head of second-shift security for the Savoy Hotel shut up and went to work on his computer. Although everyone called the result “tapes,” the images were digital rather than taped. Since most of the cameras were triggered only in the presence of movement, there wasn’t a lot of hard drive storage wasted on photos of blank hallways.
    Everyone watched while a bellman went from elevator to hall and stopped in front of Susa’s suite. Moments later Susa, Ian, and Ms. Quinn began loading stuff on a luggage cart.
    “Slow it down to quarter time,” Rory said.
    Gateman’s hands moved over the keyboard.
    Rory watched canvases loaded onto the cart. All of them looked blank on both sides. Still, it never hurt to be absolutely certain. “Again.”
    The picture switched to the beginning. Nothing but blank canvases and paint-smeared boxes that were too small to hold the missing paintings.
    “Okay. Normal speed.”
    Ian smiled slightly. The sheriff probably didn’t expect La Susa and the man from Rarities to be running an insurance scam, but “inside job” had more than one meaning.
    On the monitor, the cart and four people vanished into the elevator.
    An instant later in the viewers eyes’, and almost three hours by the electronic clock that showed at the bottom of every