Linda Fairstein - Death Dance

"I'm the last one to criticize your techniques at the moment." I lifted my mug to toast him.

"Turns out Kehoe had his own set of monitors in their apartment, so he could keep tabs on what old Joe Berk was up to. See whether Joe was still peeping at the dancers. Kehoe was hoist on his own leotard."

"Petard."

"Don't correct me just about now, okay? One of the monitors was rigged up to a camera inside the dome. The two detectives described to us what they saw-the unusual size and rounded shape of the room-and that Mona Berk was inside it at that very moment, lying down on a bed. Motion-activated sensor in the camera, apparently. But they didn't have a clue where it was."

Of course the bed-and the red velvet swing-would have been in camera range, even if Dobbis and I were not.

"And we wouldn't have known either," Mercer said, "if Mike and I hadn't just been introduced to Mecca Temple. I mean there aren't a hell of a lot of large domed ceilings in town, but I'd never even have thought to start looking there without knowing about the video."

"Was Kehoe conscious when they put him in the ambulance?"

Mike shook his head. "He'll pull through, though. Scumbags always do."

"So he has no idea that Serology matched the DNA on the glove near Talya's body to his profile in the linkage database?"

"We're gonna save that tidbit for his hospital arraignment, maybe tomorrow."

I told them what Mona Berk had told me. It sounded as though Talya, in her attempt to blackmail Joe Berk, had figured out-or been told by Joe-that it was Ross Kehoe who had actually installed the surveillance equipment. The day Rinaldo Vicci saw them together, in Talya's dressing room and let Mona think that he had told me about it, was the moment of her confrontation with Kehoe-a tantrum that probably sealed her fate.

"Lucy DeVore," I said, remembering the shattered body of the young woman who'd also crossed paths with the Berks. "This means we don't get a chance to interrogate him about Lucy DeVore."

"Mercer and I were talking about her a little while ago."

"While I was at death's door?"

"Couldn't move those jaws any faster than they were going, kid. Remember what Hubert Alden said, that it was Talya who was supposed to be up there on the swing at that audition?"

"Yeah."

"Kehoe must have rigged the swing to kill Talya. A backup plan for Tuesday, in case he didn't have the opportunity to get the job done at the Met on Friday night."

"But Lucy. How could he just let her go up there knowing the seat was going to break?"

Mercer spoke. "'Cause Briggs Berk was infatuated with her. Or thought he was for the last couple of weeks. So Mona and Ross Kehoe figured it was one less distraction to deal with, one less piece of the pie to share with anyone else. And at an open audition-a perfect place for an accident, in front of a dozen or more witnesses. With Lucy dead, it would have given them greater control-for the moment-over Briggs. He'd be less likely to squeal on them than when he was coked up with her. Although they'd have that fear to gnaw at them for a long time to come."

"That's the problem with blood money. It's gotta haunt you forever. You're asking too many questions, Coop. Finish that drink so we can take you home," Mike said. "I can just heal Joe Berk now."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, that obsession he had with people who change their names. Moses, a girl named Phoebe Moses. Why would she have changed her name to Annie Oakley? It's good to be Moses. That's what Joe would have said. I gotta find out why she switched to Oakley."

"Forget about the Berks," Mercer said. "You put down that mug, Alexandra, and before we take you home, we're going to find the first greasy spoon in town that opens and get us all some food that doesn't come off a sidewalk coffee cart."

"I got the place," Mike said. "As long as she's treating."

"We're making progress."

"What do you mean, Coop?"

"Ten days ago, when we started working on this case, you turned me down flat when Mercer and I offered to take you for breakfast."

"Don't push your luck, kid. They'll be no ballet, no-"

"I only offered bacon and eggs."

"No opera, no-"

Mercer held out his hand and pulled me up. "We're hungry," he said to Mike. "Let's go."

"No theater tickets. No Shakespeare, no musicals, no revivals, no-"

"You love Broadway. You've always liked going to shows with me."

"That was before I knew about the ghosts, Coop. Too many ghosts in those theaters-way too many. And I still haven't even learned how to deal with my own."