A Perfect Obsession. Heather Graham

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СКАЧАТЬ so, they waded through a sea of media and onlookers to reach the interior of the church. Once inside, there still seemed to be a crowd.

      “Seems like a lot of people at a crime scene,” Kieran murmured to Craig.

      “Up here, in what is the nightclub area now,” Craig said, “you have a lot of cops. Some of the nightclub workers. Some historic board people. But not down below. Even before Gilbert was found, only a few people were allowed down there.”

      “Ah.”

      “Yep, lucky girl,” he said drily, looking ahead.

      Kieran studied her surroundings quickly.

      She’d been in the church a few times when it had still been a place of worship. While she’d grown up in the Catholic Church, her parents had loved the beauty of the Episcopal house of worship so close behind their pub. It had been fantastic then, so beautifully built, and it had seemed they always had a great reverend, super music and lots of good things. It had been sad to hear of the place being sold.

      But not much had really been changed, not as far as the facade went, nor even the inner structure.

      The new owner had maintained the feel of great space. Where the altar had once been, there was now a long bar. To the left and the right, the smaller altar areas had now become little nooks with plush chairs and coffee tables. To the far right was a bandstand and DJ’s box. Heavy red velvet drapes kept the antique feeling while allowing for the little nooks to close off for privacy. The center of the room—with the exception of a secondary bar—was empty, spacious and airy.

      “There. Egan has gotten here himself, and he’s with the owner,” Craig said, taking her arm and walking over to a trio of men.

      She knew Richard Egan, Craig’s boss, head of the criminal investigation division at the FBI’s New York headquarters. He looked the part; he was somewhere in his fifties, Kieran thought, with a headful of neatly cropped silver-white hair and a tall, lean, fit and extremely dignified physique. He nodded grimly as he saw them approach.

      “Ms. Finnegan, thank you for coming so quickly. We have some of our people coming up, but due to the high-profile situation we have going on here, I wanted the good doctors Fuller and Miro in on it all as quickly as possible.” He paused for a moment to glance at Craig. “Mike says you went to look for Shaw?”

      “I did, sir. I found him, and Ms. Finnegan, of course.”

      “I’m grateful you were able to get here so quickly. Let me introduce you, Kieran,” Egan said, and turned to the other two men with whom he’d been standing. “Henry Willoughby, Ms. Kieran Finnegan.”

      She quickly shook hands with the man. He was middle-aged, lean, with a trim ring of gray hair around his bald head. He was very solemn—clearly concerned with the goings-on. She’d seen him on a local news show occasionally; he had a fine way of speaking, and his enthusiasm over a museum opening or city history was contagious.

      “Henry’s president of a wonderful group called Preserve Our Past,” Egan explained.

      “Yes, of course, I’ve seen you on TV,” she said, and offered a small smile.

      He returned it grimly.

      “And I’m Roger Gleason, Ms. Finnegan, owner of Le Club Vampyre—the business and the building. Obviously, we’re very distressed by what’s happened here.”

      “Certainly,” she said. Gleason was nothing like the other men. She judged him to be in his early forties. He was tall, stylish and handsome, with a sweep of blond hair that fell across his forehead. His suit, she estimated, had to have cost a month of the average workingman’s wages.

      “I hope you can help us,” he said.

      “I’m here for Drs. Fuller and Miro,” Kieran said. “Dr. Fuller will be here as soon as he can possibly get through traffic.”

      “Yes, well, thank you, Ms. Finnegan,” Gleason said. “Traffic—he could be hours.”

      He turned to Craig. “Do you think they can help?”

      “Definitely. There’s never a guarantee that profiling a perp will result in apprehending him—no two human beings are really alike. But, yes, profiling has been key in solving many cases. I’ll bring Ms. Finnegan down to the crypt.

      “Mike is still there?” he asked Egan.

      Egan nodded. “Mike, the detective, the ME and the forensic team,” he said.

      Craig nodded and led her behind the main bar—the old altar area. Kieran pictured the place as it had been as a church. Naturally, yes, the crypt would be beneath the altar.

      They descended marble steps into the cool dankness of what had been a crypt and now housed spirits of a different kind. Rows and rows of wine and liquor bottles now lined the walls and were neatly arranged on the concrete floor.

      The basement area here looked much like it did at Finnegan’s, she observed. Except, of course, at Finnegan’s, the cellar had always been solely for liquor storage.

      Not “storage” for the dead.

      “I wonder if the staff ever feels uncomfortable down here,” Kieran said.

      “The dead who rested in this area are gone,” Craig said. “Besides, you need to—”

      “Fear the living, not the dead,” Kieran said.

      “Yep. They’re the ones who will hurt you.”

      A patrolman stood to the far rear where large chunks of the wall had been knocked down and a broad opening had been created. Two women wearing jumpsuits that identified them as part of the forensic team were hunkered down over a black chest, working with samples. A photographer was snapping pictures.

      She spotted Mike standing with another man who appeared grim and weary but calm.

      He looked at her and nodded an acknowledgment. Kieran knew Craig’s partner well and liked him very much.

      “This is Detective Larry McBride, NYPD,” Mike said. “Detective, this is Ms. Finnegan. She’s with the psychiatrists the Bureau often uses in the city, Drs. Fuller and Miro.”

      The detective studied her as he offered a hand. He apparently hadn’t realized that it was still gloved. He pulled off the glove and shook her hand. “Ms. Finnegan. I know Dr. Fuller. Fine man.”

      “You know him?”

      He nodded, grimacing. “I’m a tennis player.”

      “Ah,” Kieran said.

      “Let’s do this,” Craig said. “Kieran, this way to the forgotten crypt.”

      He turned her around and led her through the broken wall.

      He was stoic. To anyone else it might appear that nothing bothered him. But she knew him well enough to know the crypt did bother him. Not because of those who had died long ago, and hopefully through natural means. He was a good agent, Egan had told her once, because he had empathy. He was sorry for the victim, the woman whose body he had СКАЧАТЬ