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“That’s why the alarm didn’t trigger. She used her biometrics. They’re set to let members in or out at any hour,” Cash supplied. He wasn’t looking forward to what was coming. It was hard enough seeing someone get killed. The mutilation was hard to stomach. He hadn’t told Riss nor would he. No one needed to know these details. It wouldn’t help keep people calm and it would just bring more trouble down on their heads from people like Fisher and Austin who would say it was all their fault for not protecting a Society member.
They watched a different feed from the camera in the alley. Vanessa met with someone and then seemed to have a discussion but from the body language it was more of a fight and then the other person whipped something out and stabbed her in the heart. She was dead before she hit the ground. The person bent over her, checked her pulse, and then straightened. Cash recognized him immediately.
“That’s Li’s secretary, Huang. The man Li wanted to get into the building yesterday.”
Archer grunted. “You’re sure?”
Cash nodded. “No doubt.”
They watched the secretary pick up Vanessa and toss her over his shoulder. He was not a big man, but he was strong. Then he propped her up by the door, using her palm and trying to use her eye to open the door again. The palm scanner turned green.
Louis whistled behind them and Cash whipped around. “Out.” he snarled.”
The kid had the grace to blush but left the room and Cash closed the door. When all this was over, he was going to have to sit down and explain a few things to that kid.
“Why did the palm work?” Archer demanded.
“Because she’s been dead less than a minute at this point and her body temp hasn’t dropped. She might not even be actually dead at that point,” Cash supplied. “The iris scanner didn’t work though.”
Archer’s lips flattened as they watched Li’s secretary cut out Vanessa’s eye and hold it up to the scanner. “Not originally but it worked when he held up the eye to the scanner. Pity she wasn’t attached to it.”
Cash’s gut churned. “The system is set up to notice any major changes to the eye and deny admittance, but she’s only been dead a few minutes at most. Enough changes haven’t occurred yet.”
“Fix it,” Archer ground out. “Make sure something like this can never happen again. Cutting off our member’s hands or eyes to gain entry is not acceptable. The system needs to recognize that they are dead even if it’s a few seconds.”
“Agreed,” Cash responded,” but it’s like you said about rewiring the whole house for the cameras. This building is old. In the vast majority of locations we’ve switched from iris scanners to retinal scanners. Here and a few other spots, as you pointed out earlier, the wiring isn’t up to par. We’d have to pull out everything and build it all in again from scratch. That would take months and cost a fortune. Venice has never had a problem with security before. If you want to go ahead with the project it would mean closing the place down.
Cash was bearing the brunt of this, but this was really an Archer problem. He’d designed the system. Cash would have to talk to Ryker and see if he had any suggestions. He’d been the one pushing for cameras earlier but he understood. Rewiring the whole place wasn’t feasible which is why it wasn’t done before now. The system was supposed to be able to know if someone was dead or not but honestly, she’d only been dead less than a minute. Without tweaking the system to identify nerve activity in the palm, Archer’s command was a pretty tall order.
They continued watching as Huang put Vanessa over his shoulder again and carried her inside. They switched to the garden video feed and watched as the man positioned Vanessa on the bench so she was leaning on the wall, her hair falling over her face. He went and picked a nearby flower of some kind and tucked it into her hand. Then he stood back and admired his handy work. Nodding once, he retraced his steps and went back out to the alley, closing the door behind him.
“Why didn’t the open door trigger an alarm?” Archer demanded. “It’s an outside door. When it was left open shouldn’t it set off a sensor?”
“That’s a very good question,” Cash said. He’d noticed it too and wondered. He took the keyboard and started typing. He went through a few directories and dug down into the system. “Shit,” he mumbled a few minutes later. “Someone changed the settings to let the side door to the alley stay open longer.” He poked around a bit further. Another line of code had been added around the same time as the change was made. What entry point was this? He clicked on it and then saw the label. Dog door. And everything clicked into place.
He pushed the keyboard away with a disgusted snarl.
“What?” Archer stared at him.
“The dog, Biscotti. Dominick lets him out sometimes on his own. There is a dog door on one side but on the other, he opens the door to the alley for the dog. He then sits in the garden until the dog comes back but he’s extended the alarm time on the door to a few minutes to give the dog some time to do his business and then come back in.”
Archer’s jaw worked. “Dominick doesn’t have access to the system so how did he do that?”
“I did it for him,” a voice behind them said. Dante stood in the doorway. “Dominick and the dog are both getting older. He’s very vigilant and always stays in the garden when the dog goes out into the alley. He even keeps the white emergency button in his hand so he can summon help if anything happens. I didn’t see the harm in helping him out a bit.”
A muscle ticked violently in Archer’s jaw. “You didn’t see the harm?” His words were said in a soft voice but the frigid tone made Cash’s stomach clench. He’d seen Archer reach out and snap someone’s neck after using that tone. Dante was just trying to be a good guy and help Dominick. He didn’t deserve what was coming.
Cash stepped in front of Dante and faced Archer. “He was doing something to help his friend and fellow employee. It was a small kindness. He couldn’t have known a crazed killer would dig out a member’s eyeball to gain entry.” He stared at Archer. “It’s what people who have regular jobs do for one another. In our world it helps make things feel a bit more…ordinary. Your employees need to feel that their jobs are normal or you won’t have anyone working here.”
Archer stared at him or stared through him. He was beyond pissed off. Rage came off him in waves. Cash stood his ground, but he knew he’d crossed some kind of line. When the Davenport-Li meeting was over, Archer might have Cash taken out. He’d probably do it now if he didn’t need him. Cash knew it and understood it. Looks like he’d be pulling the ripcord on his parachute a little earlier than planned.
First, he’d make sure Riss was okay and then, whatever happened, happened. He could live with it either way.
Archer must have sensed it because he just gave a small nod and then turned back to the screen. “Get it fixed,” he said. “Cash, you’re with me. We need to speak to Li.”
Dante moved out of the doorway, letting Archer out. Cash started to follow him but halted when Dante put his hand on Cash’s arm. “You were right, there was a sedative in the tea.”
“Okay, thanks.”
