Lucy slung a nylon satchel over her shoulder, paid the fare, and watched them load the box into the back of a police van. She hadn’t seen Marino since she’d threatened to blow his head off last spring in his fishing shack, and decided the best approach was to walk right up to him.

“This the officer who’s going to be on my jet?” she said.

“Yeah,” Marino said.

“You got the tail number and the pilots’ names, right?” she said to the officer. “It’s Signature at La Guardia, and when you go inside, Brent should be waiting for you. He’s the PIC, will be in a black suit, white shirt, blue striped tie, and has on pants.”

“What’s a PIC?” The officer slammed the back of the van shut. “What do you mean he has on pants?”

“Pilot in command, sits in the left seat, your trivia for the night. Make sure he knows you’ve got a gun, just in case he forgot his glasses. He’s blind as a bat without his glasses. Which is why he wears pants.”

“That’s supposed to be a joke, right?”

“There are two pilots. FAA regs—only one needs to see, but both must have on pants.”

The officer looked at her.

He looked at Marino and said, “Tell me she’s kidding.”

“Don’t ask me,” Marino said. “I don’t like to fly. Not anymore.”

Berger emerged from the building and came down the steps, in the cold, blustery wind, with no coat on. She pushed her hair out of her face and pulled her suit jacket together, folding her arms against the cold.

“We’d better get our coats,” Berger said to Marino.

She didn’t say anything to Lucy but touched her hand as the two of them walked with Marino to his dark blue Impala.

Lucy said to Marino, “I’m going to check out the wireless network Terri was using. If you’d make sure whoever’s securing her apartment doesn’t have a problem with my being in there so I don’t end up cuffed and on the floor—or maybe he doesn’t. I may not need to go inside her apartment if the entire building’s on the same network, but I’ve got a couple of interesting things to pass along.”

“Why don’t we get out of the cold and sit in the car,” Berger said.

She and Lucy got into the back, and Marino climbed into the front. He started the engine and turned on the heat as the van with Terri Bridges’s vanity chair pulled away from the curb. Lucy unzipped her satchel and pulled out her MacBook. She opened it.