chapter twenty-one
THE FIRST THING we noticed when we went into Sterling's office was the smell. Hawk and I looked at each other. We both knew what it was. I closed the office door behind us and fumbled for the light switch, and found it to the right of the door, and turned on the lights. There was nothing unusual in the outer office. The door to Sterling's private office was closed. As I opened it I was already dreading what I'd find, and dreading telling Susan about it. I turned on the lights. The body was there, facedown on the rug in front of Sterling's desk, a wide black soak of blood showing on the rug under him, the head turned at an angle only death permitted. I turned on the light. The smell was bad. The body had begun to bloat. I didn't want to look. I held my breath and went and squatted on my heels and looked at the face. It wasn't much of a face anymore. It wasn't much of anything anymore. But it wasn't Sterling. I stood and breathed again, trying not to breathe through my nose.
"Not Sterling," I said.
"Anybody we know."
"I don't know him."
Hawk bent over and stared at the corpse for a moment.
"Nope," he said and walked to the desk and turned on the lamp.
"We're going to have to toss the place," I said.
"I know."
"I'll take this office," I said. "You do the outer."
"You know what you're looking for?" Hawk said.
"Clues."
I took two pairs of disposable latex gloves from the Nike bag and gave one pair to Hawk. We put them on. There was a computer on Sterling's desk. I turned it on. It was a Mac, like Susan's. I clicked open the hard drive. There were twenty-six items on the hard drive including a folder marked "Addresses." I opened the drawers in Sterling's desk and found some blank disks. I put one in the computer and copied the hard disk onto it. I put the copy on the desk and shut off the computer. I went through Sterling's desk. I concentrated on breathing through my mouth, and on avoiding eye contact with the corpse. I found no checkbook. The bottom right drawer had a lock. I found a key for it among the ones I'd taken from Sterling's apartment. In the drawer was a narrow case made of gray translucent plastic. In the case were a dozen disks. I took the case out of the drawer and left the drawer unlocked. I added the copy of the hard disk I had made and put the whole thing in the Nike bag on the desktop. I got on my hands and knees and looked under the desk. I turned the desk chair upside down and looked at the underside of it. I rummaged through the wastebasket. I ran my hand over the door frame and felt under the edges of the rug. Feeling under the rug got me closer to the corpse than I wanted to be. I stood up and went and checked the windows. They didn't open. I paused in a corner of the office away from the corpse and surveyed the room. It was a suspended ceiling and a thorough search would include looking behind it, and in the ventilation ducts. But that was too much time invested for what it was likely to earn me. I wanted to see what I had on the disks and I didn't want any cops showing up and taking them away from me. I went to the desk and got the Nike bag and detoured around the corpse into the outer office.
"Anything?" I said.
Hawk was sitting on Patti's desk, still wearing the sanitary gloves.
"Usual stuff," Hawk said. "Invoices, receipts, letters, promotional material. Only thing interesting is what I didn't find."
"Which is?"
"Civil Streets," Hawk said. "There is nothing with their name on it. No file, no letters, no bills, nothing. You find his checkbook?"
"No."
"So wherever he went, he took it with him."
"Yep, and we know he's got one because one of those phone messages was about a bounced check."
"How you feeling?" Hawk said.
"I haven't thrown up yet," I said.
"Good to work with a pro."
"Even better to work out here where the smell isn't as strong," I said.
"Okay. There's that," Hawk said. "You want to wipe down the door knobs and the light switches."
"No. It's reasonable that my fingerprints would be there."
"You calling the cops?"
"Yes."
"Law abiding," Hawk said.
I took off the gloves and dropped them into the Nike bag. I put the spare keys in there too, except the one for the office.
"Hang onto these," I said.
"Law abiding, but not crazy," Hawk said.
"I'll be in touch," I said. "When the cops get through yelling at me."
Hawk smiled, took the Nike bag, and went out the office door, leaving it open behind him. I waited five minutes for him to clear the building, then I dialed up Martin Quirk.