Chapter 5 - THE BALCONY THEORY
The balcony was forty-two floors above the street.
No fire escape.
No adjacent balcony.
Glass divider on each side extended seven feet outward.
Robert still checked.
Rope descent?
Impossible to do unseen from the building exterior.
Drone extraction?
Ridiculous.
Window-washing rig?
Inactive.
Then Jack noticed a scuff on the balcony stone.
Black rubber.
Near the outer corner.
Forensics found matching material on the sole of the unidentified man’s shoe in enlarged hallway footage.
Maybe.
Then a second scuff.
Higher.
On the glass divider.
Robert stared.
“You think he climbed around?”
Jack looked over the edge.
“Not unless he wanted to die.”
Then building plans showed the neighboring penthouse had a balcony offset by twelve feet.
Still too far.
Unless rope.
No anchor marks.
No rope fibers.
The balcony sensors recorded no opening after 8:41.
Could the killer exit while the door remained technically closed?
Sensor used magnetic contact.
If removed and reattached?
No tamper alert.
Then Jack inspected the frame.
No tool marks.
Another dead end.
But one thing bothered him.
The balcony door had been locked with a manual thumb turn.
Like the front door.
Locked from inside.
Two interior locks.
Why would a killer stage both?
Robert said:
“To make the room impossible.”
Jack nodded.
“Exactly.”
Someone wanted police to check:
front door.
windows.
balcony.
Obvious exits.
May you like
Then he looked toward the walls.
“What if the room is only impossible if we trust the walls?”
