Page 133 of The Bone Code
“Arlo Murray?”
“He shut her down. Now, why in bloody hell would he do that?”
Good question, Florence.
“I’ll tell you why.” Again, a knobby finger shot up to emphasize her point. “I’ll bet my ass he’s the one killed her.”
I decided to switch tacks. “Did Melanie leave any belongings in her apartment?”
“Not much. Clothing, some toys, a bike, a camera. She rented furnished, ya know. I own the building, so I had to clean the place out.”
“What did you do with her things?”
“They’re here somewhere.”
“Do you think you could find them?”
“?’Course I could. I’m not daft.”
Sorg grunt-shoved to her feet and shuffled to one of two closed doors at the rear of the apartment. When she opened the left one, we could see a narrow path cutting through lofty mounds of junk.
“There.” Pointing at a collection of boxes piled two deep and six high between a heaped bed and the easternmost wall. “Bottom three, second stack in.”
“May we move—” Ryan began, with little enthusiasm.
“Knock yourself out.”
We did. For forty minutes, my claustrophobia sensors at DEFCON 1.
The boxes produced a single item of potential interest: a corrugated file labeledInovoVax.
We found Sorg in the living room watching a rerun ofCheers, the volume cranked to a thousand decibels.
“May we keep this?” I shouted, holding up the file.
“Whatever.” Focused on an exchange between Norm and Cliff.
“There was an old camcorder in one of the boxes, but we saw no videotapes.”
The thunderous laugh track obliterated her answer.
“I’m sorry?”
The network cut to commercial.
Sorg swiveled to face us. “Tapes?”
I nodded.
“They were in a kitchen drawer.”
“And?”
“Second time she come, I give ’em to Lena.”
“What’s a collywobble?” I asked when we were again in the Jeep.
“It’syourmother tongue.”
