Then it dawned on him.
She knows I searched her room. I put everything back just so, but I must have been a millimeter off somewhere. So, the lady is good. Real good. And if she is my ally, that’s also really good for me.
But if she’s lying and she’s my enemy?
CHAPTER
61
THE 6:20. RIGHT ON TIME. Devine was really starting to hate this commute.
Actually, there’s no starting about it.
He looked, but there was no Michelle Montgomery at the pool. He didn’t imagine she would be told to wear the green bikini for a while, if ever.
Later, he walked into the lobby at Cowl and Comely, waved at Sam the guard, and took the elevator up to his floor.
Turning a corner, he nearly tripped over the custodian, Jerry Myers, who was kneeling in front of a door fixing the lock.
“Sorry,” said Devine.
The man looked up, and recognition sprang into his features.
“You were the one asking questions that day.”
“I was.”
Myers stood and put his tools back in the box on the floor. “And now there’s another one, they say. Only she wasn’t killed here, thank God. Couldn’t take finding another body.”
“I’m sure.”
“The police got any leads?” Myers asked.
“Not that I know of, but they’re not keeping me in their confidences.”
Myers hefted his toolbox. “You guys slaving away in this place. I mean, you ask me, it’s not worth it. No sir.”
“Maybe it’s not.”
“So why do it?”
“When I figure it out I’ll let you know. Got a question. I understand that contractors and other service people come in through the rear entrance.”
“That’s right. There’s a phone they have to use. Goes to the security desk. Then they go let the person in, if they’re authorized.”
“Or if they have a security card, they can get in that way.”
“Sure, but contractors don’t have security cards. That’d be a problem. Can’t just let folks waltz in the back door like that.”
“Right. Thanks.”
Later, around two in the afternoon, Devine was working away in his cubicle when the door opened.
“Mr. Devine?”
He looked up and saw the same woman who had previously come to retrieve him motioning to him. He rose, looked around at the Burners watching him suspiciously, and made his way out.
Detectives Ekman and Shoemaker were waiting for him.
“Now what?” he said.
“This way,” barked Shoemaker.
They led him to the same room as before.
Sitting across from him, Shoemaker said, “We talked to the guard on duty at night. He said that you and Stamos came into the building late on the day Ewes’s body was found, and then left at the same time.”
“That’s not true.”
“You saying the guard’s lying?” Ekman said sharply.
“No, he just misinterpreted what he saw. I didn’t know Stamos was in the building that night. I came back for my phone and did some work. Then I left. Alone. Did the guard say Stamos and I were together?”
The detectives exchanged glances. “Did you meet up with her in the building?” asked Shoemaker.
“No, and I’ll take a polygraph on that if you want.”
“Did you meet up with her later?”
Now they were getting into dangerous territory. But since he had asked the question, Devine suspected the man already knew the answer.
“It wasn’t a meeting. I went to a bar in Greenwich Village. She was there. We talked.”
“And you never mentioned this before because . . . ?”
“I saw her in a bar, so did a lot of other people.”
“You seem to use that excuse a lot,” said Ekman.
“Because it’s true.”
“We understand that you two argued in that bar. And then you kicked the shit out of three guys in the alley next to the bar. And that she saw the whole thing.”
“I did have a fight with three guys, yes.”
“Over Stamos?”
“It could be construed that way.”
“And again you never mentioned that to us because . . .”
“What relevance would it have?”
“You’ve gotta be kidding, right?” said Ekman.
“That all happened before she was killed, in case you forgot. And by the way, I found out that Sara’s pregnancy was from artificial insemination. Thanks for telling me that. You knew I wasn’t the father all along.”