“Bad people.”
Grimble shuddered and looked at the ceiling. The tics and echolalia were obviously aggravated by distress, and probably alleviated by concentration on close tasks. The entire room was likely the expression of a desperate urge to scratch a never-ending itch.
“The news,” Grimble bleated. “News, pews, views. Said he escaped from prison. Escaped, escaped, escaped.”
“He didn’t escape,” Rain said. “Someone spirited him out. And then tortured him.” He paused, then added, “To access his videos.”
Grimble blinked and rolled his head. “Oh no,” he said. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no.”
“And if we know you helped Schrader architect his system,” Rain went on, “then the people who tortured and killed him know it, too. Do you understand what that means?”
Grimble went pale and shuddered violently.
“It means,” Livia said from behind Rain, “you can either help us defuse those videos, or you can wind up like your friend.” Her tone was ice.
Grimble blinked and furiously scratched his arms. After a moment, he said, “Office. In my office, office, office. It’s okay in my office. And then you have to go. Go, go, go. Masanori has his sword in the wrong hand. I have to fix, fix, fix it.”
Rain turned. Larison was looking at Livia.
“You know what?” Larison said quietly. “You’re a pretty good bad cop.”
Livia was staring at Grimble. “You have no idea.”
chapter
seventy-three
DIAZ
Diaz didn’t know what Livia, Rain, and Larison had said to Grimble, but when the four of them came out, Grimble was pale and his face was twitching. He kept muttering, “Office, office, office,” and he barely even glanced at any of them, as though it meant nothing to him that his property had suddenly been invaded by nearly a dozen people.
Rain said to Maya, “No problems on the perimeter?”
Maya glanced at the laptop she was holding. “I’m looking at multiple feeds from all the cameras. All quiet.”
Rain held up a hand to Manus to get his attention. “Manus,” he said. “Delilah. Can you two see if there’s a route off the property other than a driveway or the way we came in? This is taking longer than I’d hoped.”
Delilah smiled. “I had the same thought.”
“I know,” Rain said. “I’m micromanaging. Ideally something that leads to Sand Hill and avoids Manzanita and Mountain Home. Satellite imagery looked promising, but we’ll want to be sure. Especially with the Porsche, which is going to be limited off-road.”
Manus nodded, and he and Delilah peeled off. A moment later, the rest of them came to another building in the cluster that comprised the primary residence. Grimble opened a door and they followed him in.
Diaz was surprised—the outside looked like photos she’d seen of old Japanese temples and castles. But the inside was nothing remarkable. The materials were obviously high-end, the walls all of light wood paneling, the ceiling high and with recessed lights, the carpeting plush wall-to-wall that seemed to soak up the sound of their entry. But it was sparsely furnished—just a desk and chair, a row of cabinets, and a couch. Other than a set of what she recognized as Noh masks hung from one of the walls—a smiling woman, a scowling man, and a horned demon—there was nothing Japanese about it.
Grimble went to the cabinets and pressed a button. There was a low mechanical hum and the cabinets swung slowly away from the wall. Behind them, built into the wall, was an enormous gray safe, probably four feet wide and six feet tall. Diaz noticed that the moment Grimble’s back was to them Livia and Rain moved to the sides, presumably to make sure Grimble wasn’t accessing a weapon, and also to be standing in a different place in case Grimble turned around holding something dangerous.