Let the Devil Out (Maureen Coughlin #4)(90)

Maureen took several deep breaths before calling Detillier. She poured another shot but didn’t drink it. Detillier was fully awake when he answered this time.

“I have new information on Clayton Gage,” Maureen said. “The location of an apartment he used in the city until his death.”

“Should I ask where you got this information?”

“Through a CI of Preacher’s,” Maureen said. “It’s reliable. It makes sense. It’s an apartment that Caleb Heath provided the Watchmen through his father’s stock of properties. That it’s connected to Heath makes me think it’s legit. He also puts Caleb Heath in that apartment with the Watchmen. He gives us back what we lost with Quinn and Scales and Leary.”

“Where’s the apartment?” Detillier asked. “You have an address?”

“Not an exact one,” Maureen said. “It’s in Harmony Oaks, the CI said, in one of the two brick buildings. One of them is part of the rec center, so there’s only one building it can be.”

“There are some logistics I have to work out,” Detillier said, “but I bet we can get in the apartment by morning.”

“By morning? How can you wait that long?”

“Listen to me, Maureen, very carefully,” Detillier said. “The Sovereign Citizens and people like them, they booby-trap their homes before they go out on their missions. I’ve seen it several times before. We have no idea what could be waiting for us there. Please trust me on this. Don’t go looking around there yourself.”

“I believe you,” Maureen said. “It’s just, it’s our best lead.”

“It is,” Detillier said. “And I’m taking it very seriously. I’m on it. I’ll roust a couple agents out of bed and send them to sit on the building overnight.”

“I can do that for you,” Maureen said.

“Y’all are shorthanded enough as it is,” Detillier said. “Believe me, I have the manpower I need after today.”

“Don’t cut me out of this,” Maureen said. “This is my lead. I tracked this down. I want to be there and see what comes of my hard work.”

“I wouldn’t dream of freezing you out,” Detillier said. “But I’ll take it from here. Keep your phone close. Trust me.”

Maureen laughed out loud. “And what do I do until I hear from you?”

“You keep doing your job,” Detillier said. “And you wait.” He hung up.

Maureen slipped her phone into her pocket. She picked up her plastic cup of whiskey, looked down into her drink. She raised it halfway to her mouth and stopped. It came to her what the look on Wilburn’s face had meant, the tough-to-read frown he’d worn as she’d roughed up Shadow. She knew that look. What Wilburn saw when he looked at her was what she had seen when she’d looked at Quinn, when she’d seen him for what he really was.

She knew it wouldn’t make a real difference to anyone, but she poured the shot of Jack down the sink anyway.





33

Maureen waited outside the Big Man for LaValle to lock up, then walked him to his car. He said nothing to her when she thanked him for his patience. When she offered him a business card, he wouldn’t take it from her. She stood a few long moments in the street after he’d driven away. One of his taillights was out. She’d stop by the bar one night and let him know. Before he got pulled over and ticketed.

On her way back to the car, she pulled out her phone and called Atkinson.

“Very strange,” Atkinson said. “I was about to call you.”

“Where are you?”

“In the East,” Atkinson said. “A domestic double. Father and son, it looks like. Just when you think you’ve seen it all.” Maureen heard the snick of her lighter as she lit a smoke. “We pulled a second print off the handle of Madison Leary’s razor.”

“Any idea who?”

“An idea, yes,” Atkinson said, “but we haven’t heard back on it yet. I may have to hit up Detillier for help, those FBI resources. Anyway, what’s on your mind?”

“I may have something for you on the Watchmen murders.”

“Do tell.”

“Me and the others have been working CIs in the neighborhood,” Maureen said. “We’ve uncovered an apartment that Clayton Gage used in the weeks before he was killed. We know he did Watchmen business there. And we know Caleb Heath was there, too.”

“An apartment where?”

“Right here in Central City,” Maureen said. “In the Harmony Oaks development.”

“Wow. Okay. That makes sense. You found Cooley’s body right across that empty lot from there. And it explains what Gage was doing uptown when he was killed. Could be where he was headed with Madison the night you pulled them over.”

“I was thinking the same things,” Maureen said. She leaned against the hood of the cruiser.

“So you’re there now?” Atkinson asked. “At the apartment?”

“No,” Maureen said. “I’m on the street. I’m going back on patrol. I told Detillier about it.”

“Does he think Leon Gage is in there?” Atkinson asked. “There’s a weird logic to it. A hide-in-plain-sight thing.”