Deadly Rich by Edward Stewart Read Free Book Online

off the alarm.”
    “How did she manage to do that?”
    “She was helping Miss Sandberg choose a bolero, and she stood too close to the electric eye at the door. It happens all the time.”
    “Where was Mrs. Aldrich when the alarm went off?”
    “In the changing room.”
    “And could you describe this black woman?”
    “She had an angular nose, very sharp features—huge eyes—longish hair—the hair seemed natural. She was wearing a pale coffee lace dress with a skin-colored slip beneath.”
    “Skin-colored,” Cardozo said.
    “The color of her skin.” Xenia’s eyes considered Ms. Hansen. “She was a little taller than Ms. Hansen. She had a lean body. Excellent physical shape. I’d say she could have been a dancer, and I’d say she was striking.”
    “Yes,” Ms. Hansen agreed. “I’d say so too.”
    “Did the Hispanic and the black woman talk to each other?”
    Xenia answered without hesitation. “They did not.”
    “Which of them left first?”
    “The woman.”
    “And when did she leave?”
    “While Mrs. Aldrich was changing,” Ms. Hansen said.
    “How soon after her did the man leave?”
    “I don’t remember seeing him go. Do you remember seeing him go, Xenia?”
    “I didn’t see him go.”
    “I’m curious about something,” Cardozo said. “Don’t the security guards discourage radio playing in the store?”
    “They certainly wouldn’t discourage Mrs. Trump from playing one,” Ms. Hansen said. “Or Mrs. Astor.”
    “But apparently this man wasn’t Mrs. Trump or Mrs. Astor.”
    Ms. Hansen sighed. “Even when we see customers steal, we still have to treat them very carefully.”
    An erect, slender woman approached, and Cardozo exchanged hello nods with Detective Sergeant Ellie Siegel from his precinct. She had intelligent, pale eyes that sometimes seemed hazel, but today, with the loose violet blouse she was wearing, they seemed green. They also seemed to be signaling Cardozo to step aside with her.
    “I spoke to security,” Ellie Siegel told him quietly. “They haven’t had that many boom-box incidents. It’s a gray area.” Her dark brown hair was long enough to fall straight to her shoulders, but today she’d scooped it up behind in a sort of seashell whorl, exposing the clear, pale skin of her temples. “What they do have a lot of is shoplifting.”
    “Anything today?”
    “A mother-daughter team—they boosted three thousand dollars’ worth of leather goods and perfume.”
    Siegel and Cardozo crossed the boutique to where a haughty female mannequin in a beige dress had been sexily posed on the arm of a chair.
    “Did they hit the boutique?” Cardozo asked.
    “Security nabbed them before they got this far. They’re in the manager’s office now, if you want to talk to them. The only other incident was a man loitering in the stairwell with intent to urinate.”
    “When?”
    “A little before two o’clock.”
    “That’s the right time frame. Where is he?”
    “The store doesn’t prosecute trespass. So they threw him out.” Ellie let a beat pass. “He was wearing a sweatsuit and he had a boom box.”
    “I want to talk to the guard who threw him out.”
    Cardozo went back to the changing rooms. He spent a moment examining the emergency exit.
    The door had a bar handle running its full width and a red sign: FIRE EXIT. EMERGENCY ONLY. ALARM WILL SOUND WHEN OPENED .
    Cardozo gave a sharp push down on the bar. The steel door swung inward. First interesting discovery: No alarm sounded.
    He stepped through the doorway onto a poorly lit service stairway painted battleship gray. Looking around the landing, he made a second interesting discovery: Empty cardboard cartons and shipping material were stacked on the floor, constituting a fire hazard and a clear violation of the city safety code.
    He sniffed. The air in the stairwell smelled like a cat’s way of saying This land is mine.
    The door opened behind him. Ellie Siegel was standing there with one of the security