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“Nearly done. How did you get into the building, into her apartment?”
“I have a swipe and her codes,” Benny said. “I live the closest, and if she’s got to go somewhere for a few days, I water the plants. She’s got a couple of nice plants. Plus, I just make sure her place is secure. It’s important to Cill her place is secure.”
“Why, especially?” Eve demanded. “Why is she so focused on security and privacy?”
“I . . .” Benny glanced over at Var.
“Go ahead. Maybe it’ll help.”
“It’s just her mother and stepfather never gave her any privacy, any peace. They used to search her room all the time, pry into all her stuff. They even put a cam in there once, to spy on her. Like she was a freaking criminal. She just . . . she just wants her private space private. That’s all. It’s why she got so upset with the searches. I guess . . .” He let out a long breath. “I guess it’s why I did, too. I know how it made her feel so it pissed me off.”
“Okay. Was her security in place when you got here?”
“Yeah, it was.” Var gave Benny’s shoulder a bolstering rub, then nodded. “We thought she’d maybe taken a sleeper and was just conked. We checked the bedroom and the office, then we . . . we looked in the holo and found her. We—I—did the nine-one-one right off.”
“And checked her pulse.”
“I did.” Benny pressed his lips together tight. “I couldn’t find it at first, but it was there. Barely there. She was cut up and banged up. All torn and bloody. Can you at least check again? For God’s sake.”
“Peabody, check with the hospital. We’re nearly done. Was the holoroom secured?”
Benny frowned a moment. “No. It wasn’t locked. But we’ve holo’d here a lot of times. I don’t think she usually secures the room. I don’t in my place most of the time. That was Bart’s thing. Super Spy Minnock,” he murmured, then squeezed his eyes tight.
“Okay. There’s a disc in the holo-program as I told you. Can you remove it?”
Benny shook his head. “I don’t have the code or sequence.” He glanced at Var.
“No, me neither. We could make a best guess, but if we’re wrong, it’ll hit destruct.”
“All right. We’ll deal with it.”
“She’s in surgery,” Peabody announced. “Indications are she’ll be several hours.”
“Is there family who should be notified?” Eve asked.
“Just her mother.” Var passed a weary hand over his face. “They’re not close, as I guess you could figure, but I guess she should know.”
“We’re her family,” Benny said fiercely. “We are.”
“I’ll have the officers take you to the hospital. Detective Peabody and I will be there shortly.”
She gave the uniforms instructions, secured the door behind them. “We’re going to want eyes on those two, softclothes.”
“Their alibis are easy to check out. E
DD can confirm or dispute the online activity. If they’re in this together, they’re both good at the masks, but it would slide in with Mira’s two conspirators theory.”
“How do you see it going down, if they’re in it together?”
“They walk her home, just the way they said, but they come up, talk her into distracting herself with the holo-game. I don’t get that because the place is pretty well soundproofed, but the holo-area would be the more secure and soundproofed section in the space. And, she would be distracted. They attack her, or one attacks, one keeps watch. They leave her for dead, go home. Pull the ‘We were worried about her’ this morning so they can be the ones to find her.”
“Alive. Why not finish her off then?”
“We’d have TOD to coincide with their presence. They have to think fast, decide on calling it in, getting to the hospital. She’s a mess, Dallas, and her chances aren’t good. Either one of them could finish her there. Or could if we didn’t have a man on her.”
“It’s not a bad theory. Run some probabilities on it.”
“You don’t like it.”
