Mason looked the place over with careful scrutiny, then said,Do you happen to remember whether there was a stepladder around here, Sheriff, a good, fall stepladder? The police and a forensics team were by the pool. And they were pulling something out of the water. It looked like— Yeah, sure you would. Audrey was silent for a moment, as though thinking.Four weeks ago, she said. “It must have started about four weeks ago. Not much sense in fixin it, anyway, he said. City councils all set to tear this place down. We’re one of the few places standin’.’ He uses a rental agent named Angela Dunn; shes in the phone book. She hesitated for a moment, then said,Yes I knew it on the third. And the tale had relaxed him, as Id hoped it would. Carried him out of this smudgy little room and into the sunny autumn air where hardworking college kids like him should be. No, Murfin said, I dont mind. Devine craned his neck back to look up to the fifty-second floor, where it seemed now that someone hadkilled Sara Ewes. And since he had to find out what was happening at Cowl that might be illegal, he figured he also had to find out who had killed Ewes, because they had to be connected. And that connection might stem from a Broadway play. As Faith pronounced her inspection complete, a van pulled up, unloaded their luggage, and stowed it. Lance hung up. He looked over the desk and saw some Post-it notes affixed to the screen. They were all in Cyrillic. He smiled. Nice little piece of security there. In one desk drawer were some framed photos. They looked to be about twenty years old or so, judging by the clothes the people wore. A man and a woman were holding a baby with a girl around six next to them. Maybe that was Valentines family back in Mother Russia. He might be the baby boy. I hope hes smarter than his boss, Joan said. Oh, someone has just handed me your hit list. The police commissioner my ass, Harvey said. You think Im going to fall for that?.