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a friggin’ trunk,” Pug said.
    “In the Waldorf Astoria? Everybody’s wandering through the hallways with a wheeler bag,” the lieutenant said. “What’s this Goyard stuff, Alex?”
    “Very pricey. Used by half the royals of Europe and tons of celebrities. The Duchess of Windsor never went anywhere without a flock of their steamer trunks. Luggage like that would be perfectly in place in the Tower suites, the bigger the better.”
    “Too much trouble for a rape,” Mike said, waving me off.
    “What is?”
    “Let’s say the girl was drugged. She was clearly someplace remote enough when that happened that this perv could have—”
    “Or pervs,” Hal said.
    “Whichever. They were able to stuff her into a huge trunk. Why not just rape her there, wherever they were? Wherever ‘there’ was. Finish her off. Why all the drama of staging a scene in the Waldorf?”
    “Because there’s a much bigger picture, you think,” I said, following Mike’s lead.
    “Exactly. How fast can you solve that puzzle for the commissioner?”
    “So if this is a one-off, we’re looking for a serial killer—or a pair of them,” Mercer said, jotting notes in his steno pad. “Bold setting, the Waldorf. It would be too intimidating for an amateur, so they’ve likely done this before. You’ve got to check all the big metro hotels around the country.”
    “Maybe it has nothing to do with the fact that this is a fancy hotel,” Mike said. “Maybe it’s a political statement. The president on his way here. Some high-level meeting at the UN a month before the annual General Assembly deal in September. A chance for the killer to make big waves. To make a tsunami, actually.”
    “Unlikely this has political blowback,” Rocco said, shaking his head. The presidential invitation and setup was last minute. “The White House pooh-bahs are pulling the man back from his vacation in Yellowstone. Swept the reunion of brain surgeons or whatever hot-shit group had these rooms blocked off over to a downtown Marriott. If this murder was so well planned, it had to have been set in motion before this special session was confirmed. So there could be another target in the Waldorf. Could be a setup to embarrass some other head of state or business leader. I got two guys going over that list with the assistant manager right now. What we need is a make on the dead girl.”
    “I’ll have her stitched up for a photo you can use by tomorrow afternoon,” Johnny said.
    Fareed Azeem came back into the room, removing his vinyl gloves and tossing his booties in the trash can.
    “What can you give us, Dr. Azeem?” the lieutenant asked.
    “All indications are that the young lady died between two and three P.M. yesterday. Well within the time frame Johnny targeted, but I can pinpoint it to that hour, if that is of any help.”
    “Tremendous help. That will streamline what we’re looking at.”
    “I might add, Mr. McBride, that your team may have missed some blood in the room where the body was found.”
    “Not likely, Doc,” Pug said defensively. “Fine-tooth comb and all that. You found a stain you think they missed? Show me where.”
    “Not a stain, sir, but rather a spot.”
    “A spot? Get real, Doc.”
    “A spot on one of the panels of the curtains.”
    Rose-colored curtains draped the windows of the room. How could one see a microscopic amount of blood against that backdrop?
    “I think the lab will have more than enough blood from the vic to work with.”
    “It isn’t her blood, Mr. McBride. It might well be the killer’s. It was left on the curtain at least an hour after the girl was slaughtered.”

FOUR
    Rocco Correlli was on the phone with one of his sergeants who was downstairs in the IT center of the Waldorf with senior staff and a slew of detectives. “We might have this narrowed down. You got two scenarios we’re looking at. Get this right, Huey.”
    Hugh Tatum must have asked for a minute to write things down.
    “We got no clue