Casey looked a lot happier when he was doing handstands in Union Square Park. Now he was hunched over in a plastic chair in the lobby of Promises, his head burrowed in his crossed forearms, flanked on each side by large men dressed in matching black suits. Ellie could tell from his trembling shoulders that he was crying.
He jerked up at the sound of the door opening.
“What is going on here?” Ellie asked.
One of the men in black rose to his feet. He had to be at least six-four.
“Miss Heinz came with us of her own accord. She consented to a search of her property.”
Ms. Ri was storming down the hallway toward them. “Thank goodness. Real police. I was just about to call you. These people arrested Casey. I told them to get out, but Casey told me to let them in his room. I still tried to stop them, but back they went.”
“Is that true, Casey? Did you tell Ms. Ri that you wanted these people to go into your room?”
He nodded but still hadn’t spoken a word.
“Look at these people,” Ms. Ri said, waving an angry hand in no particular direction. “They obviously forced him.”
From the grass stains on Casey’s clothing and marks on his face, Ellie already had her suspicions.
“If these men have done something—”
The standing security officer cut her off. “Which side are you on, lady? Nobody forced anybody to do anything.”
Rogan was already making his way past the lobby toward the hallway adjoining the tenant rooms. When they got to the third room on the right they found two more men in suits, one young and enormous—an identical triplet to the two towers in the lobby—the other equally handsome, but with light-gray hair and a regular human-sized body.
The older man beat them to the punch with introductions. “Earl Gundley, Detectives.” The firm, confident handshake matched the man.
“We would have appreciated a call,” Rogan said.
He gave them a smooth smile. She could imagine why he would be successful as hired corporate security. “I would have said the same thing when I was on the job.”
“Casey Heinz looks terrified,” Ellie said. “What did your guys do to him to get him to let you in here?”
“Him?” He shared an amused look with his younger colleague. “Times, they sure do change, but I can be progressive, too. We didn’t do anything to him I didn’t do on the job. And even if the kinder, gentler NYPD has a new pretty please with a cherry on top consent policy I don’t know about, here’s the beauty of being strictly private. No government action means no constitutional violation, which means no motion to suppress. Whole lot faster than a search warrant.”
“Except now we’re here,” Ellie said. “So there’s your government action. We need you and your monochromatic giants to leave. We’ll be retaining custody of Casey Heinz, and we’ll determine whether to search further and with the proper legal authority.”
“Nothing more to search.” Gundley pointed to a cardboard box filled with evidence bags identical to the NYPD’s. “You’ll see they’re all properly marked. Chain of custody begins now. You’ll be particularly interested in this one here, I suspect.”
She noticed he plucked two bags from the box. He handed her one, holding the other against his suit jacket.
Inside the bag was a single key attached to a dangling silver unicorn. Gundley looked very pleased with himself as he extended the second bag. “Not entirely certain about these, but I’m pretty darn sure they don’t belong to him.”
The second bag contained a pair of black lace bikini panties, the tiny La Perla tag visible at the waistband. Ellie had seen a neatly folded stack of identical pairs inside Julia Whitmire’s dresser.
Ellie followed Gundley to the lobby. She wanted to make sure he and his hired help were out of here before she and Rogan decided what to do next.
Casey’s eyes moved directly to the evidence bags in her right hand. A glimpse of recognition crossed his face.
“Am I under arrest? Because I want to talk to a lawyer.”