Remember When

twenties, then maybe older, maybe younger. She figures rich because he had an expensive wrist unit, paid in cash and added a substantial tip. And some of that played into her description." He jerked a shoulder. "Smooth complexion, smooth manner."
    "Is it close enough to give it to the media, get some play?"
    "Sorta stings the pride, but I wouldn't. You gotta call it, Lieutenant, but my sense is we're off. I think a cop, a trained observer, might be able to make him from this, but not a civilian. Sorry I couldn't dunk it for you."
    "That's okay. You probably got us closer than anybody else could. We'll run this through an ID
    program, see if we get any hits."
    "You're going to want to set for at least a thirty-percent adjustment." Yancy shook his head at his own work. "With that, you're going to get a few thousand hits, citywide alone."
    "It's a start. Thanks, Yancy. Commander, I'd like to get moving on this."
    "Keep me in the loop."
    ***
    Back in her office, she pinned a copy of the artist rendering to her board. At her desk she cobbled her notes together into a report, then read it over to see the steps and stages.
    She would leave the person search to Feeney, the electronic excavation to McNab. She sent a memo to Baxter detailing the new data and included a copy of Yancy's sketch.
    While Peabody worked to nail down the sealant, Eve looked at construction sites. Her 'link signaled an incoming through the data port, and switching over, she brought up a list of all properties with current construction or rehab licenses in a ten-block radius of the dump site.
    Roarke was not only quick, she thought, but he got the gist without anyone having to spell it out.
    She separated them into tenanted and untenanted.
    Empty, she thought. Privacy. Hadn't he waited until he believed the Gannon house was empty?
    There was little enough pattern, so she'd try this one on for size.
    Empty buildings first.
    Taking them, she broke them down a second time into construction and rehab.
    Had to lure her in. Smarter to lure her rather than force or debilitate. She's young and foolish, but she's a girly girl, too. Would that type want to tromp around a construction site, even to make a date happy?
    She rose, paced. Probably. What did she know about that kind of thing? Young girls in love, or who believed they were in love, probably did all sorts of things that went against type.
    She'd never been a young girl in love. A few lust bouts along the way, but that was a different thing. She knew that much seeing as love had sucker punched her and dumped her right into Roarke's lap. And didn't she slick herself up from time to time, fiddling with enhancements and hair, draping on fancy duds, because he liked it?
    Yeah, love could easily make you go against type.
    But what about the killer? No reason for him to go against type. He wasn't in love. He hadn't been in lust, either. And his type liked to impress, show off. He liked to be comfortable and in charge.
    He liked to plan things out with an eye toward his own goals, his own ego, his self-preservation.
    A rehab with some fancy touches. A place he knew he wouldn't be disturbed. Where he wouldn't be questioned if caught on the premises. Where he could, again, deal with any security features.
    She sent the data to her home unit, printed out her lists, then went into the bull pen to get Peabody. "With me."
    "I'm running down the sealant."
    "Run it down in transit."
    "Where are we going?" Peabody demanded as she scrambled to gather her work disk, files, jacket.
    "To look at buildings. To talk to guys with power tools."
    "Hot damn!"
    ***
    The first stop was a small theater originally constructed in the early twentieth century. Her badge got them through to the foreman. Though he bitched about workload and schedule, he took them through. The lobby floors were the original marble, and apparently a point of pride for the foreman. The theater section was bare particleboard on the floor and as yet unsealed. The walls were old plaster.
    Still, she went through the entire building, using her scope to look for blood traces.
    They suffered through late-afternoon traffic en route to the next stop.
    "The sealant, professional-grade, can be purchased wholesale or retail in five-, ten- and twenty-five-gallon tubs." Peabody read the data off her PPC. "Or you can, with a contractor's license, purchase it in powder form and mix it yourself. Residential-grade comes in one- or five-gallon tubs. No powder available. I've