She had to consciously unclench her jaw. "You're making this worse."
"Perhaps." He sat, folding his hands on the scarred table, an elegant presence in an unfriendly room.
Eve turned to Summerset. "You want a lawyer," she said, spacing her words carefully. "Not a friend."
"I dislike lawyers. Nearly as much as I dislike cops." He sat as well, his bony fingers hitching the knees of his trousers to preserve the knife-edge pleats.
Eve thrust her hands into her pockets before she could pull at her hair. "Secure the door, Peabody. Recorder, engage." Taking a deep breath, she began. "Interview with Summerset—Please state your full name for the record."
"Lawrence Charles Summerset."
"Interview with Summerset, Lawrence Charles re case number 44591-H, Thomas X. Brennen and case number 44599-H, Shawn Conroy. Homicides. The date is November seventeen, twenty fifty-eight, time is oh eight hundred point three hours. Present are subject; his chosen representative, Roarke; Peabody, Officer Delia; and Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, conducting interview. Subject has come into Interview voluntarily."
Still standing, she recited the revised Miranda. "Do you understand your rights and obligations, Summerset?"
"Perfectly."
"And you waive legal representation at this time?"
"That's correct."
"What was your connection with Thomas Brennen and Shawn Conroy?"
Summerset blinked once, surprised she'd shot straight to the heart. "I knew them, casually, when I lived in Dublin."
"When was that?"
"Over a dozen years ago."
"And when was the last time you saw or spoke with Brennen?''
"I couldn't say precisely, but at least a dozen years ago."
"Yet you were in the Luxury Towers only days ago, the day of Brennen's murder."
"Coincidence," Summerset stated with a quick and belligerent lift of his shoulder. "I had no knowledge that he resided there."
"What were you doing there?"
"I've already told you that."
"Tell me again. For the record."
He hissed out a breath, poured water from pitcher to glass with a steady hand. In flat tones he repeated everything he'd told Eve the night before.
"Will Ms. Morrell verify your appointment with her?"
"I have no reason to believe otherwise."
"Maybe you can explain to me why the security cameras caught you in the lobby, walking to the elevators, getting in, and yet there is no visual record of you exiting the building by that route at the time you claim to have left. Or, for that matter, any other time that day."
"I can't explain it." He folded his perfectly manicured hands again and stared her down. "Perhaps you didn't look carefully enough."
Eve had reviewed the tape six times through the night. Now, she pulled up a chair and sat. "How often have you visited the Luxury Towers?"
"It was my first visit there."
"Your first," she said with a nod. "You've had no occasion to visit Brennen there before?"