“Time for what?”
“To figure outwhythe Chrysler Building. Through this whole thing, it’s been the big, glaring tower at the center of all of this.”
Pawlowski gave her a strange look, punctuated with a frown. “Jesus, Gold…you’re talking about the building as ifit’sa suspect.”
A smile touched Ava’s lips, but only briefly.
The building as a suspect…
Ava’s eyes widened a bit as she pointed her index finger at Pawlowski. “You might just be on to something there.”
“What?” Pawlowski asked as Ava was already starting to move to the bullpen and the front doors beyond. “What are you talking about?”
“The Race to the Sky,” Ava said. “I think we’ll find our answer in that.”
And though Pawlowski clearly wasn’t quite tracking with her, she followed Ava all the same—back out through the doors and hurrying down the streets in search of answers once again.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
By the time they’d managed to catch a cab, Ava still had no clear idea of where they needed to go. She felt they needed to learn more about the so-called Race to the Sky, to get a better understanding of the sort of people that were involved in it. The title itself was almost misleading—it sounded like a fun and friendly competition of sorts among men with far too much ego and money. That’s why her first instinct was to head right back to 40 Wall Street, to see if they could have another conversation with Mr. White.
This was the address she gave the cab driver and they were headed that way when she started processing everything out loud. She was starting to understand that she and Pawlowski were a bit more similar than either of them wanted to admit and she hoped Pawlowski could add a degree of balance to her ideas.
“The Race to the Sky,” she said. “Sounds almost like a cute little game, right?”
“I suppose,” Pawlowski said.
“I think it might be a little misleading. Just sounds like men measuring their…well, their egos, among other things. But we already know that it was competitive enough to have people from the Chrysler Building trying to get people at 40 Wall Street to divert finds and investments their way. And if that’s the case, it means there was a lot of money tied up in it—during a time when there isn’t much money to go around.”
“So you think the killer is wrapped up in the Race to the Sky somehow?”
“I think it’s worth digging into,” Ava said. What she thought but did not say was:And I think it’s a thread we should have pulled a little harder at from the get-go.“White told me that the spire was put on top of the Chrysler Building without any sortof announcements or news beforehand. It was done almost in secret. And that spire made it officially the tallest building in the world. Secrecy like that…yeah, I think it’s pretty competitive.”
“And the Empire State Building is the other building involved,” Pawlowski said. “We haven’t heard anything about that location yet.”
“Maybe that’s where we need to look, then. Maybe there’s some link between Perkins and the Empire State Building we simply haven’t seen.”
“And you know,” Pawlowski said. “There’s something else that occurred to me back at the station when we were talking about O’Hare being suicidal. It made me think about Mrs. Perkins. I don’t remember her specific words, but she mentioned how one of Alfred’s worries was that in this crash, there would be very little left to make sure he could take care of her. Or something like that, right?”
“Yes, I recall that.”
“Well I don’t know the laws or the regulations, but I’d assume that a man that takes his own life isn’t going to reap the rewards of whatever life insurance he has lined up, right?”
“That’s a good point,” Ava said. “And I think it also points to his refusal to work with the folks at the Chrysler Building in terms of sending clients their way. He didn’t want any sort of drama or obstacles. He was wanting to take care of himself and his wife.”
“Not the sound of a suicidal man at all if you ask me,” Pawlowski pointed out.
There was a renewed sense of urgency to each of them when the cab stopped in front of the building at 40 Wall Street. When they stepped inside, Ava looked at her watch and saw that it was 4:19. She hoped having O’Hare back at the precinct would buy them some time but as far as she was concerned, she wasstill counting on five o’ clock being the end of their time limit to prove Alfred Perkins had not died by his own hand.
They walked into the front door and approached the counter, which was now a very familiar scene to Ava. This would be, after all, the third time she’d come here in the past two days. She stopped by the counter out of impulse and barely even looked at the woman sitting there when she flashed her badge and said, “NYPD. We need to speak with Mr. White.”
“Oh, hold on a second,” the sheepish woman behind the counter said. “I’m sorry, but Mr. White is gone for the day.”
Ava halted at the end of the counter and turned around quickly. “Do you know where he’s gone?”
“I don’t. Something to do with a family appointment. If you’d like to set up a time to speak with him tomorrow, I’d be happy to take a message.”
“This is time sensitive,” Ava said. “I think we’d be okay without him, actually. I simply need to have another look in Alfred Perkins’s office.”