The sound was hollow in the lavish space. “Well, what’s this?” She crouched and began to thump and press on the wall.
She considered, briefly, hunting up a really big knife and just hacking at the wallboard. But cooler heads prevailed. Instead she pulled out her communicator and contacted Feeney.
“I’m in Queens, in Bissel’s closet.”
“What the hell you doing in a closet in Queens?”
“Just listen, he was here. This morning. There’s a comp menu thing in the closet. He used it this morning, but the little bastard won’t tell me why. Privacy block. And there’s something behind the wall here, a hidey-hole or something. How do I get the computer to let me in?”
“You beat on it yet?”
“No.” She perked up a bit. “Can I?”
“Won’t do any good. Can you open her up?”
“I don’t have any tools.”
“You can give me a look at it, and I can try to walk you through, or one of us can come over there and work on it. Probably be faster to deploy one of the team.”
“That’s an insult, and don’t think I don’t know it. It’s a damn closet menu, Feeney, get me in.”
He puffed out his cheeks, made little noises while she scanned the unit so he could see it on his screen. “Okay, key in this code.”
He read it off as she input the numbers manually. “What’s this? A privacy override?”
“Just keep going. Snap your fingers and say, ‘Open Sesame.’ ”
She started to obey, then set her teeth. “Feeney.”
“Okay, okay, just a little joke. Code’s from the data we’ve been pulling out here. Let’s see if he used it on that unit, too.”
“Computer, what was removed by Blair Bissel at last usage?”
Working . . . Contents listed as emergency package.
“Emergency package. What was in the emergency package?”
That data is not available.
“Computer, open the compartment from which said emergency package was removed.”
Acknowledged.
The panel slid open, revealing a small safe. “Bingo. Computer, I said to open the compartment.”
Acknowledged. Compartment is open.
“You have to be specific, Dallas,” Feeney told her. “You want the safe open, you tell it you want the safe open. It can’t read your mind.”
“Open the damn safe.”
Acknowledged. Commencing interface.
There was a low hum and some blinking red lights on both the safe and the wall unit as they communicated. When it stopped, Eve wrenched open the safe door.
“Empty,” she said. “Whatever it was, he got it all.”
She asked herself what Blair Bissel would have secreted away for an emergency. Funds, forged ID, codes or passkeys into bolt-holes. But surely he’d have taken all that with him before he killed Kade and his brother.