“That’s Eleven Madison, known as the Metropolitan Life North Building,” Halladay continued. “Because the one next to it with the clock was the first one built for MetLife. They say the North was supposed to reach a hundred stories and be the tallest building in the world, when it was designed back in the 1920s. But then the stock market crashed and they only ever got to thirty floors.”
I guess that explains the truncated look, Jon thought.
“I think Render said it represents something,” Halladay added, “like how he’s been rebuilding the city but isn’t done yet… something like that. Maybe he’ll finish it when he’s in charge.”
“We can ask him when we go to see him,” Jon said, eliciting a puzzled look from the bigger man. “Will he be there later today?”
“Either there or where he lives. That’s the other building I wanted you to see.”
Halladay turned to his right and gestured in the direction of an insanely tall and thin skyscraper with glass for walls, which was a block away on the same street from the Flatiron and obviously much newer than any of the surrounding buildings.
“That’s One Madison, finished in 2010, sixty stories of some of the most expensive real estate in Manhattan. Render owns the top four floors.” He gestured with both hands at two of the three of buildings he had described. “What I want you to see is the difference between the headquarters of Gotham Security, and the one the cops and Mayor are working out of.”
Jon looked again at the fortress-like stone building across the park, and then at the Flatiron. From where they were standing in front of it, the latter only looked like a tall thin column. He knew that was just an optical illusion, because the city’s original skyscraper widened progressively toward the rear, and the buildings behind it had been co-opted for offices and parking. But he got the idea of how the private company of Gotham Security seemed to have a lot more resources than the city government itself.
“Now look at where Render lives,” Halladay said, gesturing again at One Madison, and then pointed to the other side of the Flatiron Building, across the street from it. “The Mayor lives in that old building with the cool gold dome on the top.” He turned to face Jon. “All of this’ll show ya how the Mayor is facing some tough odds, but also why a lot of people are still betting on her. You’ve got the big, impressive properties of GS, because they care about utility and security and power. Then you’ve got the Mayor picking buildings because they’ve got history and artistry.”
The contrast between Render and King seemed to be further confirmed for Jon when he accompanied Halladay inside the Flatiron Building to the crime lab and met Amira Naseem. On the way, Halladay told him that she was one of the few police they could know for sure wasn’t in bed with Gotham Security in any way—because she was a Muslim. Gar Render was reportedly opposed to Muslims even being allowed in the city, so he likely would never have one on his payroll.
She was on the tall side, with a medium build, and wore her white lab coat over the typical black attire Jon had seen on other Muslim women, with a long top and loose pants below it. An attractive olive-green head scarf framed a face that was not strikingly beautiful, but her eyes were, and the scarf itself was ironically much nicer than the white mesh nets that other lab workers had to wear on their heads. She looked to be in her thirties.
“Princess Jasmine,” Halladay said when he saw her, reminding Jon that the mercurial cop had a nickname for everyone, and worrying about what his own might be. Then he found out, when Halladay added, “Meet my new partner, Diaper Dandy.” Jon didn’t know whether this just meant that he was young and new, or whether Halladay somehow knew about his pissing incident in the cemetery. He hoped it was the first.
“I’m Jon,” he said to Amira, shaking her hand.
“The Princess here will get us everything we need,” Halladay said, “And we’ll only work with her.” He looked at the woman meaningfully, making sure she knew not to involve others. “What do you want from her, DD?”
“You mentioned telling the research staff to find out who might make a custom jacket for serial killers, to hold knives inside.” Jon said this to Halladay, but then turned to Amira. “What have you found out?”
“I was kidding,” Halladay said.
“It’s not a joke. We should be working every possible angle.”
Amira said, “Good idea,” while Halladay rolled his eyes.
“Any blood of another type that could be from the perp at any of the scenes?” Jon said this to Amira.
“No,” she said. “Just a lot of the victims.’”
“Anything from the trash that could have been used to clean the knives off?”
“That we have, but it’s a needle in a stack of needles.”
“Show me,” he said. “Please.”
Amira retrieved a big plate of glass from the back of the lab with various pieces of refuse attached to it, separated from one another according to which crime scene they were from. Immediately Jon noticed several napkin portions with dried red stains on them, and gestured in their direction.
“Ketchup,” Amira said right away.
“Did you examine them to see if there could be blood mixed in?” The killer could have been clever enough to cover his tracks in that way…. But Amira had thought of it and checked them.
“What’s that?” Jon asked.
“Part of a towelette wrapper from Wednesday’s killing in the Village. There were ripped pieces in a trash can a few floors down from the scene. It’s a long shot, but I thought maybe he could have put them in his pocket, not wanting to risk clogging a toilet, maybe… then unloaded them on his way out, worried about getting pinched at the door or something.”
“Can you find out who makes them, and where they’re sold in the city?”
“Yes,” the head-scarfed woman said, “but that will be a needle in a mountain of needles.”
“Narrow it down to anywhere near here,” Jon said, and when Halladay asked why, he answered, “Just a hunch.”
“What’s on the paper towels from today’s scene?” Halladay asked.
“It’s makeup,” she answered. “They’re from the women’s bathroom, not from where he did the vic. But it was deposited near the time, so I used my imagination again and thought, ‘What if he was in disguise somehow, went over to the other bathroom and took something off to make it easier to get out of the building?’ Then again, a woman may have just been at the mirror somewhere around then.”
“No, that’s good thinking,” Jon said. “Check to see if it’s just normal makeup, or if there’s anything unusual about it. If there is, run a search for where it’s sold in the city and give us the results.”
“Would she help us with the building access issue?” Jon continued, addressing Halladay now. “Or would that be someone else?”
“Normally it would be someone else, but in this case let’s run everything through her.”
“So I want to know every group in the city that could possibly finagle dropping someone on the roofs of these buildings, since that seems to be the only way they could have gotten in. Whether it’s by helicopter, by parachute, whatever.”
“Unlike the other leads,” Amira said, “that’s a very short list. Maybe someone from the police could manage it, but it would be hard, especially more than once. Even Gotham Security can’t navigate by air around the city without us knowing it.”
“I’m especially interested in how Gotham Security might have managed it,” Jon said. “Or how someone in the police might have let them.”
“There you go again,” a puzzled Halladay said. “You seem to be really worried about GS….”
“One Hundred Park Avenue is protected by Assure Security, which is one of the few remaining competitors of Gotham. Assured and Classic had to merge a few years ago just so that they could stay in the game, and barely. Maybe GS wants to ‘assure’ people that they can’t protect them.”