Postcard killers

Chapter 74

It was the first time in nearly six months that he'd been in somebody's home.

It felt odd, almost a bit ceremonial. He took off his shoes by the door because that's what Dessie did.

She lived in a minimal y furnished four-room apartment with very high ceilings, a lot of mirrored doors, ornate plasterwork, and a wood-burning stove in every room.

Jacob couldn't help whistling out loud when he entered the living room.

Three large windows opened onto an enormous balcony with a fantastic view over the entrance to Stockholm harbor.

"How did you get hold of a place like this? It's great."

"Long story," she said. "The computer's in the maid's room. There's no maid, of course."

She gestured toward a little room beyond the kitchen.

"Have you got any wine around here?" he asked.

"Nope," she said. "I don't drink that much. Maybe I wil after this."

She turned the computer on for him. He noticed she smel ed of fruit.

Citrus. Very nice.

He sent two e-mails on the same subject: one to Jil Stevens, his closest col eague on the NYPD, and one to Lyndon Crebbs, the retired FBI agent who had been his mentor once upon a time, and maybe stil was.

He asked them rather bluntly for information about Sylvia and Malcolm Rudolph, residents of Santa Barbara, California, and about Bil y Hamilton, Sylvia Rudolph's former boyfriend, reportedly living somewhere in western Los Angeles. Everything, no matter what it was, was of interest to him, absolutely everything they could find.

Then he went back out to the kitchen, where Dessie was rummaging around.

"I found a bottle of red," she said. "Gabriel a must have left it. I don't know if it's stil good."

"Yeah, of course it is," Jacob said.

She seemed unfamiliar with how to extract a cork, so he helped her.

They sat down on the sofas in the living room, leaving the lights off, admiring the stunning view.

Jacob leaned back, sinking into her cushions.

A white boat plowed toward the center of Stockholm out on the water.

"A view like this makes coming home worthwhile," he said. "What's the long story you mentioned?"