"How many guys you know wear double-breasted Armani suits?" Flack waved the folder at Lindsay.
"Armani makes double-breasted suits?"
"Exactly! And according to their records they've sold five in New York in the last three years, four in Manhattan and one in Riverdale."
"Armani has a shop in Riverdale?"
"It was mail-order. I tracked the address. Turns out the guy also bought two suitcases lately, Bestland brand."
"Same brand as the Peyton suitcase." Stella joined the conversation.
"Same brand, same size, same colour and same contents. Homeless guy found the second one while dumpster diving in a Bronx alley. M.E puts the time of death at three hours prior to discovery, which tracks time wise. Immigration puts him on a N.Z – N.Y flight two days after Peyton's death."
"Five days before Mac and Danny flew out. So where's he been since then?"
"According to the contents of his wallet and apartment he's been to Staten Island and NYU."
"Lisa Mathers already I.D'd Doku as one of the embassy guys she saw looking for Sarndra. Let's run another line-up past her to see if she picks this guy as the 2nd."
"Stel …" The quiet tone in his voice sent a chill down her spine. "He had Danny's home address in his wallet."
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"We gotta go home now?" Danny couldn't keep the disappointment out of his voice.
"Day after tomorrow." Mac packed the latest reports in his briefcase.
"Oh."
Mac sighed.
"Talk to Lewis. He might be able to pull some strings for you."
Danny brightened up.
"You think?"
"Go! Before I change my mind."
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It was obvious the apartment was empty. Stella holstered her gun, looked at the mess and then turned to Flack.
"What's Danny's normal clutter and what isn't?"
"Danny's got a thing for cockroaches. He only likes them battered and deep-fried so any food outta the fridge or cupboard ain't his thing. Clean clothes get hung up anywhere there's room unless they're underpants or socks. They go in a drawer, any drawer." Stella shook her head. "Hey, don't complain to me! He only cleans up when he's bringin' a date back here and with the hours he works that ain't as often as he'd like."
"Aiden was right. He does 'put the mess in Messer'.
He waggled a finger at her.
"I know that look."
"What look?"
"The one that says, when you're done processing this place you're gonna clean it up."
"He can't live like this, it's unhealthy!"
He grinned.
"I can't wait to see the look on his face when you tell him to go clean his room."
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Danny knocked on the door.
"It's open." Lewis didn't look up.
"It's me, Danny."
"What can I do for you Detective Messer."
"The thing is … umm … we're flying out the day after tomorrow … and …" He took a deep breath, "I wanna walk the harbour bridge."
Lewis frowned.
"You're supposed to book at least 48 hours in advance for that."
"I know … I just … Mac thought … maybe you could make a few calls?"
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"The prints in Danny's apartment lead back to our dead guy and the prints in his apartment are a match to Jorgenia's." Lindsay handed the report to Stella.
"So let's bring her in."
"Small problem," Flack leaned in the open doorway. "She's not in N.Y.C. The embassy won't say where she is."
"She's in the wind."
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"Where's Danny?" Mac and Lewis all but flew into the control room. Sarndra turned to answer him.
"He's on the bri…"
"Where on the bridge?"
"They've just reached the road level heading up to the platform at the base of the flags." The technician answered.
"Why?" Sarndra got up from her chair.
"Jorgenia's here in Auckland. The hotel clerk said she was enquiring about the bridge walk." Lewis leaned over the tech's shoulder and punched in her name. "Here it is." He frowned. "She's been flagged! What does that mean?"
The tech tapped some more keys.
"She booked four times and backed out of three walks."
"Why would she ..?"
Sarndra turned back to the screen.
"Everyone on each tour is required to attend a pre-walk briefing. She was looking for Danny. She's on the bridge with him."
The technician turned pale and nodded, not liking the idea of someone the police were looking for being on his bridge.
"We need to shut this down." Mac took the seat next to Sarndra. Lewis shook his head.
"The guide is connected to the group via transmitter/receiver. If you alert him she'll know something is wrong. And if we shut the bridge …"
Mac nodded.
"As soon as the traffic stops she'll know. So how do we reach them without tipping her off?"
"You can't. The closest you can get is about six feet from the top walkway. Then you're in the open. The walkway runs almost half the length of the arch, that's about 120 metres. She'll kill him before you can get close."
"Not necessarily."
"No!" Mac saw where the conversation was headed. "I'm not risking your safety."
"Look at me, Mac! I'm left-handed and that arm is broken. I'm no threat to her!"
"She's not planning to walk away from this, Sarndra! She knows we'll shut the bridge down and she'll be trapped. She'll take as many people with her as she can. Danny is a police officer, you're not. He knows the risk."
"But I'm the reason he's out there. I can't sit back and do nothing!"
"You can and you will if I have to handcuff you to that chair!" He gave her his sternest glare. She met it with her most stubborn stare.
"You try it and you'd better be wearing a cricket box mister!"
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"Woah!" Danny stepped back from the railing. "Is that?"
"An Orca." The guide nodded. "We see quite a few of them. Keep looking and you'll see more. They travel in pods."
"It looks about the size of a car."
"It is, and it's only a teenager. Adults can grow up to 8 ½ to 10 metres long. The dorsal fin of a male grows to 5'9" tall. If you want a better idea of an orca's size consider this; each eye is the size of your fist and its teeth are up to five inches long, that's roughly twice the length of your thumb, and they have between 40 to 52 teeth in total each."
"Remind me never to argue with one."
"There's never been an attack on a human by a wild orca. They're actually a dolphin not a whale."
"I still don't think I wanna get that close."
"It's not that far, Detective," Jorgenia edged closer, "only about 200 feet straight down."
