“Why’s it closed?” I repeated. “Because I closed it. Obviously.”
“You closed it? According to you, someone opened that door to gain illegal access to your home, but you went ahead and closed it? It never crossed your mind that we’d need to examine it?”
“Oh. No. It didn’t. Look, I’m sorry, I’m new to this.”
“New or not, you should be capable of using some common sense. Instead, you completely contaminated the scene. How are we going to recover any evidence? You destroyed all chance of that. And with no neighbors inside a hundred-yard radius, the canvass will be a fool’s errand, too.”
“I’m sorry. It just didn’t occur to me. And it wasn’t till later, after I closed the door, I realized anything was missing.”
“So what did you think? The door had been open all night, and that seemed normal?”
“No. I thought …” I stopped, not ready to admit what was going on with my marriage. “I didn’t really know. I didn’t think it was anything bad, though.”
“Is there a reason you might not have been thinking straight this morning?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Do you live here alone, Marc?” Wagner spoke for the first time. She had her hands in her pants pockets now, and her head was tipped to one side, making her look slightly menacing. “This feels like a big place for one person.”
“No. There are two of us. Me and my wife, Carolyn.”
“And where is Carolyn, Marc? Can we speak with her?”
“She’s away right now.” I felt my face begin to glow.
“Away?” Wagner echoed.
“Working. She’s an exec at AmeriTel. They’re bidding for a chunk of wireless bandwidth right now, from the government. It’s a huge deal for them—make or break, actually, billions are at stake—and they’re finding out the results today. That’s all they’ve been thinking about for months. Things have been crazy around here.”
“So, where exactly is she?” Wagner’s patience was clearly running low.
“D.C.” I hoped that sounded plausible. I didn’t want to get caught lying to the police. Not just to save face, anyway.
“When did she leave for D.C.?”
“Yesterday.”
“What time yesterday?”
“I don’t know exactly. Afternoon.”
“When will she be back?”
“I’m not sure. Soon, probably. AmeriTel’s going to get creamed.”
“Tell me again what’s missing.” Hayes suddenly leaned in toward me.
“Two memory sticks, a set of keys, and a computer program.”
“How do you steal a computer program?” Wagner was scowling.
“You copy it.” I was surprised she didn’t know. “It’s easy.”
“It’s not like stealing, say, a valuable painting? You don’t need the original. Just a copy?”
“That’s right.”
“Then the original program’s still on your computer?”
“No. It’s gone.”
“How’s it gone?”
“The thieves must have deleted it. Securely. I can’t recover it.”
“So you touched the mouse and the keyboard and whatever else, as well as your front door? You’re a forensic nightmare, Marc.”
“Of course I touched them. How else could I be sure the program’s missing?”
“Here’s what I don’t understand.” Hayes was frowning. “Why delete the program after copying it? Why attract attention to what they’ve done?”
“I don’t know.”
“You see, Marc, in our experience, criminals don’t usually try to draw attention to their crimes.”
“I don’t know why they did it.” My voice betrayed a little of the annoyance I was beginning to feel. “I don’t know how criminals behave. Or think. Unless, maybe, they wanted to set me back? To give themselves a head start? To get the product to market ahead of me?”
“This program, it’s valuable?”
“You could say that. My whole future depends on it.”
“Valuable, as in a big insurance claim is on its way?”
“Of course not. It’s intangible. And it’s not finished yet. It’s not even a fully-fledged prototype. It’s so new, if it were a fetus, not even the Pope would lose sleep over it.”
“But you kept a copy for yourself, right? You can load it up and keep on going?”
“No. But I can rebuild what I’ve lost. That’s not the point. It—”
“Who knew you were working on this thing?”
“No one.”
“What about your wife?” Wagner asked. “The mysteriously absent Carolyn?”
“I told her I was starting something new, but nothing specific. She didn’t know how big it’s going to be.”
“Really? Your whole future depends on this one, mega-important thing, but you don’t even tell your wife?”
“I started to, but there wasn’t time to go through all the details. I’m saving that till she gets back.”
“You didn’t keep it from her because you think it’s your future, not hers?”
“No. Listen. I swear. It’s for both of us.”
“There’s no bad blood between you two?”
“None.”
“Are you certain?”
“Absolutely.”
“Because your front door shows no signs of being forced …”
“No. Never. There’s no way in hell Carolyn’s involved with this.”
“Has anything else suspicious happened lately? Strange people hanging around the neighborhood? Anything like that?”
A bead of sweat broke out on my forehead as I recalled the woman asking for directions and the guys in the Mercedes, last night. They hadn’t just been hanging around the neighborhood. They’d been hanging around my house. Right before it was burglarized. And right when Carolyn had made very sure that I wouldn’t be there.
“No.” I swallowed my uneasiness. “Nothing I can think of.”
“Who else had a key?” Hayes asked.
“Well, we have a part-time housekeeper, Ramona. She has one, of course. And so do our neighbors, the Frankels. In case there’s a problem when we’re away.”
“Write down their details.” Hayes pushed her pad toward me.
“The keys, and the memory sticks,” Wagner said, as I scribbled the names and numbers. “When did you last see them?”
“Last night, before I went to bed.”
“You left the keys next to the computer?”
“Yes. With one of the memory sticks. The other was still connected to the computer.”
“In your study?”
“Yes.”
“Show us.”
PRETTY MUCH EVERY NEW VISITOR follows the same routine the first time they enter my study. First they stare at the Lichtenstein. Then at the Eames lounge chair—I have a limited-edition white ash and cowhide version with a matching ottoman, which is a bit of an eye-catcher. Then at the shelves full of computer books, which most people would sooner poke their own eyes out than read. Then finally at the desk, which is made of glass so thin and so pure it makes the computer stuff look like it’s floating on air. But the detectives didn’t do any of that. They just took three paces into the room, stopped, and turned to face me.
“No keys,” Hayes said. “And no memory sticks. We can see that.”
“But what about the program?” Wagner asked. “It’s invisible. Intangible. How can we tell if it’s here?”
“How could a thief tell it was here?” Hayes raised her hands, palms upward, exaggerating her incredulity. “If Marc didn’t tell anyone …”
“Spyware,” I suggested. “On the computer. One of my competitors must have infected it, somehow.”
“Oh, you think they saw the earth-shattering genius of your new project, even at its pre-embryonic stage, and ran straight over to steal it while you took a nap?”
“I guess.”
“This spyware, it’s like a virus, right?” Hayes’ expression screamed, You idiot. “It works over the Internet?”