Inside the closet was an unopened cardboard box that contained a portable toilet for camping. There was also a plastic water pitcher and some cups that looked as though they’d come from a hospital-supply store. Draped over the clothes rod at the top of the closet were lengths of thick, silvery chains, and clicked onto them to keep them neat and easily stored were padlocks with the keys still in them. Hanging on the pole beside them were two pairs of handcuffs. Other odds and ends were on the shelf and on the floor—rolls of duct tape and a few boxes of electronic gear, including a set of six closed-circuit television cameras with mountings and a couple of reels of coaxial cable.

After about five years in prison and two years of living with first his mother and then apparently with the remains of his mother, Albert Weiss was once again preparing to go into the kidnapping business. As she glanced around her, she realized that he was just about ready. The bed, the chains, the soundproofing were all set. The reels of cable had been used and snipped at the ends with a wire cutter, so he had undoubtedly run the cable for the surveillance cameras under the wall surfaces or ceilings. All he had to do was mount the cameras and then monitor them remotely with a mobile phone or a computer.

And then she had a feeling that was either instinct or a new sense of Weiss’s pace. He was out right now searching for the person who would be chained in this small, windowless scream-proof room while he waited to collect the ransom.

Leah went down the stairs, out of the house, and walked down the street to her apartment. She got into her rental car and began to drive. She had not seen anything that would tell her exactly where Weiss was doing his hunting, but she knew that she had to try to find him right now. He could not go out in the daytime to overpower and kidnap some rich businessman. He was a fugitive. She had been looking for him full-time for weeks and had never caught sight of him until the footage at the bank. It was probably because he seldom needed to go out during the day. He would want to take his victim at night.

10

As she drove, she let her cop instincts begin to take over. Part of being a good homicide detective was putting herself into the mind of a suspect. This time she had to look at the world as a collection of places that were mostly dangerous for a killer and others that were crowded with possible victims. Right now, Weiss wouldn’t be wasting his time in the dangerous places where there were too many witnesses. He would be in the ones where the hunting was easy.