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“Nicholas Drummond. I’m so glad you’re here.”
Uncle Bo looked so much like Nicholas’s mother it was unnerving at times. They hugged, slapping each other on the back. Nicholas said, “It’s good to see you, Uncle Bo.”
“I’m sorry it had to be this way, Nick, but I’m very glad you came. Mike, thanks for picking Nick up at JFK. You don’t look bad for a woman who was up all night.”
She shook Bo’s hand. “I only need an hour or two of sleep to stay upright with all this adrenaline pumping through my veins. I knew retirement wouldn’t suit you. You’ve been gone only six weeks, yet here you are, back on the treadmill.”
“And what a treadmill—listen, Mike, I don’t know anyone from Federal Plaza other than you that I’d rather have hunting for the blasted diamond, and finding out why Inspector York was killed. Thanks for being so discreet.” He paused, blasted a big smile at Nicholas. “And now you’ve got my boy here to help you. First off, let me assure you the director of the Met is on board with our plan—no choice, really, since he wants to save his job, his reputation, not to mention all the money the Met would have to pony up. Nick, did you get Mike up to date on what we think happened?”
Nicholas nodded.
“Good. I have something for you.”
Bo dropped a small white box into Mike’s hand. She looked at it closely, turned it over a few times.
“Is that what I think it is?” Nicholas asked.
Mike smiled. “If you’re thinking it’s a relay capacitor for an EMP, yes.” She turned to Bo. “Where did you
get this?”
“Turned up in a sweep of the basement. This is how the thief turned off the power yesterday.”
Mike cocked her head to one side, looked back at the fake Koh-i-Noor, tossed the relay into the air and caught it, then murmured, “Five floors away.” She looked up. “I realize the most likely scenario is that the thief stole the Koh-i-Noor during the five-minute power outage, which means he or she had an inside helper, someone who could have attached this very effective device to the museum’s electrical grid to shut everything down while the thief was switching out the diamonds. I’m thinking we have to look at everyone again, not only the people with direct contact with the diamond.”
Bo grinned like a bandit at her. “Smart as a whip,” he said to Nicholas. “You’re exactly right, Mike. We’re not talking about a dozen or so staff, we’re talking the whole ocean of Met employees. We’ve pulled the files for every employee within spitting distance of the exhibit, but it isn’t a small group, believe me, and then there are the delivery people and students and the public who are in day and night. Cross-referencing our security video from the museum with the FBI’s new NGI program—next-generation identification facial-recognition technology—will at least get us in the ballpark if there’s anyone with a record who’s been in and out of the museum around the time of the power outage.
“And another little spanner in the works: we realized the five-minute power outage also wiped the tapes of at least a minute before everything went black, so checking the basement stairs probably won’t show us our inside guy. But we’ll see. Can you handle integrating the NGI system with our video feeds, Nick?”
“Not a problem.”
“Good. Victoria, your job is to make sure no one suspects there’s a problem. This is business as usual, a last-minute test of all our security systems before the gala tonight. Would you please get the video feed from the day of the power outage for Nicholas and Mike so they can get started matching it to the NGI database? See if we’ve hosted any criminals over the past few days.”
Victoria said, “I’ll let you know when it’s ready.”
Nicholas wasn’t blind. He quirked a brow at Mike. “Any trouble with me finding criminals with you?”
She narrowed her eyes but said, “Of course not. But remember, the system is pretty new, and we’re talking a lot of people, which means we’ll probably have a lot of false leads.”
“I know a few tricks that might save us some time.”
Nicholas ignored her raised eyebrows and reminded himself where he was. Best not to share with her his less-than-legal skills.
Bo said, “Good, good. Mike, did you enjoy meeting Sherlock last night?”
“I’ve gotta say, sir, Sherlock is pretty impressive, what with her ability to reconstruct a crime scene. We’ve got what happened at Inspector York’s apartment pretty nailed down.”
“Don’t call me sir. I’m Bo to you now. Maybe something neither of you know. Savich designed the base programs we used for VICAP and CODIS, in addition to adapting the facial-recognition program developed at New Scotland Yard for the FBI.” Bo rubbed his hands together. “He and Sherlock are solidly in the loop. They’ll be a great resource for us.”
Nicholas said slowly, “I didn’t realize he was responsible for developing the base programs. Not bad, not bad at all.” He grinned. “Don’t worry, I’ll continue to go easy on him, Uncle Bo.”
Mike said, “Bo, are you ready to open the scene and allow my people to come in and process the room? In addition to examining all of the technical security measures, they’re going to want to examine the replica for fingerprints. I can have them here in fifteen minutes and they’ll be done before the guests are allowed up here.”
Bo nodded. “Make the call. We’ll have to sneak them in; I still don’t want my security staff knowing the diamond is missing. Dress them as caterers; there are hundreds of them roaming around tonight.”
“Done.”
They heard the air lock hiss, and the door opened. Victoria Browning said, “Sir, we’re ready in the communication center whenever you are.” She cleared her throat. “I’d like it on the record I think this is a terrible idea. It’s my opinion as curator of the exhibit, we should follow protocol and shut down the museum.”
