“None. Two men wearing dark hoodies were seen on the security cameras, but their faces were never visible.”
“And no one noticed suspicious persons loitering outside your apartment?”
“The police said they don’t have any leads.”
He didn’t say anything else as they met up with the manager outside Danusia’s door.
The woman, wearing a red power suit, let them in. “I don’t know what’s going on. This is highly irregular,” she said, giving Danusia an accusing glare.
“What is irregular was your superintendent’s careless attitude about putting a new door in. This second break-in could well have been prevented.” Which he actually doubted, but hell if he was going to stand by while the snooty bitch tried to make Danusia feel responsible.
His little professor didn’t seem to be paying attention to either of them. Her focus was on the chaos on the other side of the now open door.
Danusia walked slowly inside, her head swiveling to take in what was clearly a very thorough job of turning her apartment upside down. Shit.
This was no robbery. Someone had been looking for something. And they hadn’t found it, or the entire place wouldn’t be so methodically trashed.
Which was what he said to the detective when he and Danusia stopped by the police station later.
“That was our take as well, Mr. Baker.”
Max frowned. “And you didn’t warn Danusia? Why the hell not? She could have walked right into something.”
The detective gave Danusia what was no doubt supposed to be an intimidating frown. “In our experience, when someone is looking for something with that much determination, the person in possession of that something is already aware of the fact.”
“We as in who, detective?” Danusia asked. “Your police department? How many cases of this sort have you investigated ? Enough to make an acceptable statistical average?”
“I’ll ask the questions here, Miss Chenko.”
“It’s Chernichenko and you may call me Danusia if that’s easier.”
“What were the perps looking for?” the detective asked.
“I don’t know for sure.”
“Look, Danusia, we can’t help you if you won’t be frank with us. If you’re in something over your head, we’ll do what we can to help, but you need to tell us what it is.”
“Local police are allowed to lie.” She turned to Max.
“Only federal investigators are required to tell the truth, though that doesn’t extend to the CIA, apparently.”
Max almost laughed, but he held it in. “Do you think Rebekah is involved in something dangerous?” he forced himself to ask.
“No, but I think I may be.”
The detective looked triumphant.
Max should have been surprised, but he wasn’t. “The pharmaceutical research?”
“Yes. I realized in the car on the way here what those results could indicate. I mean if you weren’t looking for people getting better?”
“What’s that?”
“Nanotechnology as a weapon rather than medical treatment.”
He cursed. The detective looked confused and he didn’t look as if he understood a whole lot better after Danusia’s explanation. To give the guy credit—which Max wasn’t overly inclined to do considering his negligent attitude toward Danusia’s safety—parts of her explanation went right over Max’s head as well.
But he had no trouble figuring out that his little professor was in a world of trouble. Or would be if he weren’t around to keep her safe. He didn’t just know how to kill people, he knew how to stop others from doing it.