The Children's Corner

Chapter 23

Ryan's whistle bounces off cinder block walls as he surveys the empty warehouse. "Wow! Somebody really cleaned this place out."

Esposito points to a shred of dried leaf on the floor. "They didn't sweep up. That's weed. And this building could hold enough to supply the city for a month, maybe more."

"When I was with narcotics, back when cannabis was illegal, we would have held a hell of a party if we busted a place like this."

"But why kill to steal it now?" Esposito wonders. "It's easy enough to get. And it doesn't cost that much. In New York, a pack of cigarettes or a gram of weed go for about the same money."

Ryan quirks an eyebrow. "You keep track?"

Esposito shuffles his feet against the hard floor. "I hear things."

"Uh-huh. Sure. But what it costs in New York may not matter. Someone could load that much weed in a semi and truck it to South Carolina, where even the medical stuff's illegal. They'd probably make a fortune there. Since Lanie put the T.O.D around 2 a.m., I doubt anyone saw a truck. But someone might have heard one. It's worth a canvass to find out."

"Then, as the senior detective in this investigation, it's my opinion that you should start knocking."

"You may be senior, but I'm not junior. So I'll tell Sully to get the unis on it. And when he's got that going, I'll see what he can find out about our vic. I'm going to scrub the traffic cam footage," Ryan decides.

"You're practically jumping up and down," Alexis observes, meeting Dana for a quick coffee. "Did you hear from Lorne Faulkner?"

"He called about two minutes before you got here. And he said my timing couldn't be more perfect. His company's so overwhelmed with cases that the C.E.O. was just about to put a recruiter on finding another forensic scientist. I have a dinner meeting at 6 p.m. So I'm going as soon as I get off work here."

Alexis surveys the campus casual Dana wears to his lab. "You might want to change. If your meeting's a job interview, they'd expect at least a jacket and tie, or better yet, a suit. They'll be sending you to court as an expert witness. So they'll want to make sure you can look the part."

You have a point," Dana agrees, looking down at his T-shirt and jeans. But the timing will be too tight for me to come back to Colbert Hall before I go. I guess I could skip lunch and pick up the clothes then."

"The last thing you want to do is go in hungry enough to wolf down your food. I can bring the right clothes to you. I should make sure they're in good shape anyway. For someone who sees every little clue to a crime, you miss a lot when you dress yourself. Unless you got something on it, the suit you wore when you got your Lee should be perfect."

"It'll be all right. My mother nagged me into making sure I got it cleaned."

Alexis touches the tip of her finger to her tongue and draws invisible marks in the air. "Two points for Mama Wygard."

At the murder board, Sully flips open his file and begins to read aloud. Our victim, security guard Evan Seegar, had only been employed at the warehouse for two months. Prior to that, he worked at the Hillsmith Mall but lost his job when it closed down."

"Lot of that going around," Ryan comments. "Jenny's lucky to work for a store downtown. But even there, a lot of shopping's switched to online."

"It's the march of progress, Man," Esposito insists. "Who wants to walk their feet off when all they have to do is make a few swipes on their phone?"

"Yeah, well, progress put Shamrocks 'N Shillelaghs out of business. And I used to buy all my Saint Patrick's day stuff there."

"And they sold hand-knitted sweaters," Sully adds. Then, with a flush rising in his face, he clears his throat. "But to continue, Seegar was clean. He even had to be bonded to work at Hillsmith. Not married, no ex-wives. His parents told me he had a girlfriend, Elise Truman. She's on her way in." The elevator doors swoosh open. "That should be her now."

"Put her in the lounge," Esposito instructs. "We'll talk to her there."

Making sure a tissue box is close at hand, Ryan leans sympathetically toward Elise. "We're very sorry for your loss and that Detective Sully had to ask you to come in at a time like this. But we find that the more information we have within the first 24 hours of a crime, the more likely we are to solve it. We believe that whoever killed Evan Seegar knew what was in the warehouse he was guarding and knocked him out to steal it. Our medical examiner reported that a blow to the head like the one he suffered isn't always fatal. But the bleeding in his brain was worse because he had a blood thinner in his system. Did you know that he was taking one?"

A choking sound forces itself from Elise's throat. "I had no idea he was taking anything. He told me he couldn't eat spinach because it kept his medicine from working. But I thought that was just an excuse for hating spinach."

"Did you know if Evan knew what he was guarding in that warehouse?" Esposito probes.

"He told me it was marijuana. Evan didn't use it. But he thought he was lucky the state legalized it, or he wouldn't have had a job. With all the information about that stuff being harmless or even good for you, I never thought anyone would want to hurt him over it." Elise takes the tissues Ryan offers as tears wet her cheeks. "Do you have any idea who killed him?"

"We're following every lead," Ryan assures her. "We were wondering if you could tell us who would know what Evan was guarding. Did it come up in conversation with friends? Could you have been overheard in a restaurant?"

"As far as I know, Evan didn't mention marijuana to anyone else. And I know I didn't. Mostly, with other people, Evan just called what he was doing industrial security. But there's a restaurant we went to a lot, the Butler Buffet. He preferred it because he could pick exactly what he liked. And it's a good deal. You can have as many plates as you want. Someone could have overheard us talking there."

"The Butler Buffet," Ryan repeats. "We'll check that out. Thank you, Ms. Truman. You've been very helpful. And again, we're very sorry for your loss."

Elise lays a hand on Ryan's arm. "You'll let me know if you find out anything?"

"Of course," Ryan promises. "Detective Sully will see you out of the building."

As soon as the lounge door closes behind Sully and Elise, Esposito turns to Ryan. "Did you get a noseful of her? The woman likes her weed. The smell was all over her."

"She tried to cover it up with perfume. I think she was wearing Miss Dior, the stuff Natalie Portman pushes. Jenny thinks it's nice. But it's no match for weed. Elise probably lit up right before she left her apartment. But she wouldn't be the first one to use drugs to cope with grief," Ryan points out. "And most of the others are a lot stronger than weed."

"Still," Esposito considers. "If she's a user, the fact that her boyfriend was sitting on an almost unlimited supply would have been damn interesting to her. A lot more interesting than she was telling us."

"Bro, you may have something there."