Long Shadows

Chapter 22

A​lan Draymont had lived in an apartment about twenty minutes from Lancer’s house. It wasn’t in a sleek high-rise. It was in a three-story structure nowhere near the water. It looked old and worn out. And set up like a motel where the doors opened directly to the outside.

“They’ll probably knock this thing down in a couple of years,” noted Andrews. “Rezone and go up fifteen stories and maybe have water views; you can make a fortune.”

“Yeah, and in twenty years this might be beachfront,” noted Decker.

“That’s not funny,” shot back Andrews.

“It wasn’t meant to be.”

Andrews looked at White. “We’re sensitive to climate change issues down here.”

White looked in the direction of the water. “I guess I would be, too, seeing how close it is to you all. But I live in Baltimore. We got issues, too. Guess we all do. Only I’m nowhere near the Harbor. Way out of my price range.”

“Roe said they had seven offices in Florida?” said Decker.

“Yeah, they actually have one in Naples.”

“So if Draymont lives two hours away, why have him guard Judge Cummins? Why not use someone from Naples?”

Andrews said, “That’s a good question.”

White interjected, “If he was guarding the judge at night, did he sleep on the premises?”

“If he slept at all,” said Decker. “He’d probably be up all night patrolling and then go crash somewhere while the judge was at work. But Gamma would have to foot that bill, I would think.”

“I’ll check on that to be sure,” said Andrews.

They approached Draymont’s apartment, which was on the third floor.

“Any problems with a search warrant here?” said Decker.

“There is if he lives with someone,” pointed out White. “Who might have killed him. Then there is a Fourth Amendment issue, because even murderers have an expectation of privacy under the law. Go figure.”

Decker nodded. “Right. So let’s knock on the door and find out if he did live with someone. Because consent to search by someone legally authorized to do so is the best exception to a warrant requirement.”

When they got to the third floor and approached Draymont’s apartment, Decker pulled his gun and said, “Okay, that’s maybe an opportunity.”

The door was partially open.

Andrews and White had drawn their weapons, too.

Decker eyed Andrews. “Your turf, how do you want to handle this?”

“Me first, you left, White right.” Andrews moved past Decker, shouted out, “FBI, identify yourselves. Now!” There was no response. “FBI, coming in.” He kicked the door open, and edged into the front room. Decker was on his left wing and White on the right, their guns doing sweeping arcs in front of them.

“Shit,” said Decker. “Somebody beat us to it.”

The place had been turned upside down.

They made a quick search to make sure no one was there, dead, injured, or hiding.

Decker said, “Check with the management and see if anyone saw anybody here either last night or today, and also when was the last time anyone saw Draymont. And you’ll have to dial up a forensics team. Since we’re not sure if he lives with someone, get a warrant.”

“Right.”

The place was only about a thousand square feet, Decker estimated. Little furniture, and what was there was cheap and old. It might have come with the apartment for all he knew. There were no personal photos that he could see, nothing to really show who had lived there.

Andrews returned about a half hour later after his questioning of management and other personnel.

“No one saw or heard anything. The place only has the manager and a handyman on-site. The manager had liquor on his breath and the handyman was working on his pickup truck in the back and didn’t really seem with it.”

“No maid service or anything?” asked Decker.

“Nope. People clean their own units. I tried the apartments on either side of Draymont’s. Nobody answered. I taped my card to both doors with a message to call me if they know anything about Draymont. The manager said he pays on time and caused no problems. No visitors that he knows of, but I doubt he keeps close watch. And there’s no one else on the lease other than Draymont.”

“When we did the quick search I didn’t see anything business related here,” said White. “No home office, laptop. No files or documents.”

“And his phone was not found on his body at Cummins’s house,” said Andrews. “People weren’t taking chances. If they took his phone, they turned it off, because we couldn’t track it. Same for Lancer.”

“Let’s get Patty Kelly’s cell phone number and see if we can track it,” suggested White.

“On it,” said Andrews. “And I’ll have the apartment secured until the warrant drops. Even if no one else is on the lease, I don’t want to take chances that someone else might reside here.”

“Good idea,” said White.

Decker looked over the railing at the parking lot below. The day had produced a truckload of questions and really not a single answer. In fact, it was getting more complex by the minute.

This is going to take my A game. But I’m not sure I’m up for it.