Page 39 of To Die For

“I’m sorry, ma’am.” He glanced up at the number 302 on her door. “We’re looking for Doug Simms. We have information that he lives in Apartment 306, but he’s not answering. Do you know Doug?”

“Who’s asking, fella?”

Walker held out her badge. “Seattle PD. And you are?”

Scowling, she said, “Lynn Martin.”

“So, 306?” asked Devine.

“This ‘Doug Simms,’ whoever the hell he is, doesn’t live there, because nobody lives there. Been empty for weeks.”

“How about Apartment 304?” asked Devine.

“You a cop, too?” asked Martin.

“He’s working with us,” explained Walker.

“Uh-huh. Seems fishy to me. Perry Rollins lived in 304. And he’s not home because he’s dead, or so says the TV news.”

“You knew Mr. Rollins?” asked Walker.

“As well as anybody. Sure, he was shady, but I liked him okay. Brought some, what you call, excitement to this place. Otherwise it’s just a humdrum mausoleum, so to speak, and I’m not dead, at least not yet. He helped out around my place. Repaired stuff. Leaky toilet, hole in the wall, and he repainted my kitchen. Very handy. And he didn’t charge much. I mostly paid him in food. And he was always nice to Miss Persimmon.”

“Who?” asked Devine.

“My cat.”

“Can we come in and talk for a few minutes?” said Devine.

“No!”

“Why not?”

“I’m not wasting what little time I have left on you. And I’m streaming!”

She shut the door in their faces.

“Wouldn’t want to get on her bad side,” noted Walker.

“I think we just did.”

They huddled in front of 306 and Devine took out his lockpick gun.

“I didn’t see that,” noted Walker, giving him a look.

“See what?” said Devine.

A moment later they were in the apartment. It didn’t take long. Attached to the wall that adjoined Rollins’s was a black device about three inches in length. Walker took a photo of it and then they left.

“Listening device,” he said as Walker nodded in agreement. “Surprised they didn’t come here and remove it. Any way to track where that signal is going without letting them know we found it?”

“I can try,” she said. “I’ll get an IT team here and see what they can do. I can stay here and meet them. They can try to capture the signal out here.” She eyed him appraisingly. “We didn’t have a warrant to go in there. You must do things differently at DHS.”

“Yeah, we must. Be sure to fill in Braddock on all this. I told him I’d keep him in the loop.”

He left her there and headed on to his next investigative stop: Betsy Odom.

CHAPTER

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