Page 73 of Midnight Coven

“No.”

Morley answered that a little too quickly.

Nick didn’t really think he was lying, though.

He more suspected that wasn’t what was bothering him.

“When did they find them?” Nick asked. “The Tanaka family in Manhattan? What time of day was it?”

“It was right before midnight, I believe. One of the neighbors heard the dog barking. They went up to the house and the front door was open… which is pretty unheard of anywhere in Manhattan, even up there. They were friends, and they got worried. So they went inside.”

Nick grimaced, but nodded.

“That was midnight yesterday?”

“Well. The midnight part was today, technically. For twenty more minutes, anyway. But yes, they found them last night. Around 11:40 p.m.”

Nick thought about that.

Morley’s timeline made sense.

It would have taken a few hours for local police to ID the bodies, call up Long Island PD, pull surveillance, come up with a profile. Apparently sometime after that, the Long Island jokers decided Nick was somehow involved. That lined up pretty well with the roughly nine-hour gap between when the bodies were first found and when they knocked on Wynter’s door in the Northeastern Protected Area.

“How has no one in NYPD gotten ahold of anyone at the mansion out here?” Nick asked. “I would have thought Acharya… or their rich friends, for that matter… would have been able to get someone to check on them before now.”

“You mean why didn’t they just go over there?” Morley asked. “Knock on the door? You might be a little surprised to see the acres and acres of land that separate one of these fortresses from the next.”

“I don’t only mean that.” Nick pursed his mouth. “Like you said, all of these houses are mansions. They also have full staffs. Some of them are probably small cities… especially if the owners are paranoid and reclusive.”

“And?”

“And,” Nick said, annoyed. “Don’t they have housekeepers? Cooks? Chambermaids? People who clean and do all the stuff rich people never want to do?”

Morley nodded, giving him another sideways glance. “Yeah. I asked about that. The first time Jordan called. According to Rick and Rob, the house staff had Saturday off. Some kind of holiday. I was told a family takes care of the place. Parents. Children. Maybe even a grandparent. Anyway, all of them work for the Tanaka family.”

“Gardener?” Nick’s jaw clenched. “Did they have the day off, too?”

“No. They were there.”

Nick fought back another wave of nausea. He covered it over by making his voice harsher. “They didn’t notice anything? The gardeners?”

“They don’t go into the house. Only the groundskeeper interacts with the family, and only every now and then. I guess he didn’t today.”

Nick frowned, still thinking.

“Have they been contacted?” he asked next. “The people who work in the house? The family? Has anyone talked to them? Maybe they have other numbers, security codes… that kind of thing.”

“We’re working on that.” Morley gave him a grim look. “Apparently no one knows where they went except the Tanakas. Gertrude’s looking through the surveillance video, but it’s possible they never left the island, so didn’t pass through any of the checkpoints. Or the family might have lent them the helicopter or one of their short-range jets. Since the landing strips are all private out here and there’s minimal surveillance––”

Nick waved him off, still frowning.

“Yeah, yeah… I get it.”

“There are some uniforms contacting friends and neighbors,” Morley added. “They’re supposed to ask anyone with any kind of relationship at all the same questions. It kind of goes to show just how cut off the people out here are. But that’s the way they like it.”

Nick continued to think. “And why was the family gone again? The servants? You said it was some kind of family holiday?”

Morley exhaled. “I don’t know exactly. I got the impression it was more of an ethnic thing. That asshole, Youngston? Guy with the…”

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