Page 45 of Special Agent Murphy

Chapter Thirty

Kayti arrived at the office sometime later than the drive called for because of a detour around the main streets, and a traffic pileup as a result.

Murphy came at her snarling, “Where have you been?”

She played it cool. “There was a traffic jam. You must have gotten caught up in it too.”

“No. I went another way. I’ve been here for almost an hour.”

Kayti checked her watch and knew he’d exaggerated. They’d separated merely forty minutes earlier. Rather than argue with a man whose pissy attitude appeared filled with frustration, she changed the subject. “Did you talk with the boss?”

“Yeah. Hell of a lot of good that did me.”

“What do you mean? She shouldn’t have taken it out on you for what happened at the poolhall last night. God knows, we did everything by the book.”

“Nah, she’s good there. Look, we need to get over to Alex’s apartment and see what we can shake loose there. I have his phone contacts, a pitifully small list, but we’ll pay them visits too.”

Minutes later, driving with Murphy, Kayti tried to cheer him up. “I liked Talin. He seems like a good kid, and he adores you.”

“Whatever.”

“No, seriously, he told me you taught him how to cook.”

“Had to. The kid was starving, living with a drunk who didn’t care enough to look after him. His choices were to survive on junk food or learn to fend for himself.”

“Yet he eats at your place.”

“That’s because I buy groceries.” They stopped in front of a run-down duplex with yellowed sheers hanging lopsided in the window. “Here’s their place.”

“It’s a rental. According to Alex, they’d gotten their eviction notice. I checked after he mentioned it while we were interviewing him. They were broke up to a week ago. Then ten thousand dollars miraculously got deposited in their bank account.”

“The money from Draper.”

“Yes. Cash. No way to follow any trail.”

Kayti met him at the cracked sidewalk leading to the front. When they went to open the door, the lock held. “Damnit. I had one of the secretaries, Helen I think was her name, get in touch with the landlord to either meet us here or leave the door unlocked.” Disgust rippled through his words.

“Maybe he’s just late.”

“No, we are by five minutes.”

“I’ll check next door and see if he left the key with them.”

“Fine,” Murphy had the phone to his ear, and as Kayti walked away, she heard him ask for Helen.

Disappointed that she had to report that they weren’t answering their door either, she admitted. “No one seems to be home on that side. Look, the owner gave us permission to enter. I’ll just open it myself.”

He swiveled as she headed for the door and followed close behind. “Say again?”

“I’ll open it. It’s easy. Watch.” She removed a small pick-like instrument from her bag, grabbed the door handle, poked the device inside the lock and jiggled a few seconds. The knob turned, and they were in.

Not wanting to preen, she ignored his hum of appreciation and stepped inside a messy place filled with gloom and poverty. Clothes were strewn over the room, empty beer bottles, dirty dishes and a stained rug that hadn’t seen a vacuum in ages.

They began a systematic search and soon gave up. Nothing appeared incongruous. No drugs, no weapons, only a tablet that took Kayti seconds to open and read files that held utter garbage, even spam. She checked Gina’s Facebook stream and found excerpts where she mentioned they had a recent bit of luck and things were looking up.

“Anything worth following up there?”

“No. I’ll pass it on to the IT department, but nothing jumps out at me.” She noticed a vehicle pulling into the driveway next door. “They’re home.” She pointed to the window.

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