Going Under_ A Bill Roberts Thriller - Silas Payton Page 0,52

want you in my office right now."

"Chief, I'm in the middle of a homicide investigation. The timing couldn't be worse."

"You're telling me that my timing couldn't be worse? Need I remind you what's being played on every major network across the nation by now? We've got two cops dead, and you telling everyone that they better not step out of line."

"Chief? Can you just tell me I've been bad and leave it at that?" Bill asked, knowing he was pushing his luck.

"You've been bad?!! How does a week suspension sound instead?"

"In that case, I guess I can find time for a meeting," said Bill.

The two got on the elevator. Before the doors closed, a police officer rounded the corner to get on. He came to an abrupt stop when he saw the Chief and the Inspector standing side by side.

"I forgot something. I'll catch the next one," he said.

The elevator doors started to close, when Bill caught the look in the man's eyes. It was a sympathetic but helpless look -- like the officer was watching him being led off to execution.

Chapter 55

Cliff Jones

Cliff reached the Livingston's house in twenty minutes. It was easy to find considering it had been less than twelve hours since his last visit. Mrs. Livingston greeted him at the door, welcomed him in, and offered him some coffee. He gratefully accepted.

She poured two cups full and handed one to Cliff. She then escorted him upstairs to her husband's home office.

At the top of the stairs, Cliff noticed four bedroom doors. One on the right of the stairs, which at quick glance seemed to be the master bedroom, and a smaller one directly opposite to it. Past the smaller one, was a bathroom and at the end of the hall there were two more rooms. One was a bedroom for one of the kids and the other was an office.

In the office Cliff found a large bookshelf, a desk, a file cabinet and two reclining chairs. On quick appearance, Cliff could tell Andrew was neat and organized, with everything having a home. Nothing seemed out of place. He asked Mrs. Livingston if her husband was always this organized and she laughed.

"Not normally, but when it came to his work, he was always afraid he'd have to explain his work to someone. He always seemed afraid that his supervisor or the people in the companies he worked for, would want an explanation for what he had done. He really seemed stressed out about doing things right, when it came to work."

"Is it okay if I start by looking around his desk?" he asked.

"If you think you might find something helpful, please go ahead," she responded as she sat down in one of the recliners.

Cliff got behind the desk, into Andrew's chair, and started opening drawers. The top drawer was organized with pens, pencils, erasers, two calculators and a stack of paper. There were some odds and ends like a few receipts, but most things had their place. Cliff was becoming quite envious of the level of organization.

On the right side of the desk were two smaller drawers and one deeper drawer beneath them. He opened the top two and found some candy, a couple of chocolate bars, a couple of note pads, more pens and a remote control.

He asked Mrs. Livingston what the remote was for, and she pointed to a stereo on the bookshelf across from the desk. He loved to have music on when he worked.

"He's often in here with the door closed and the music on for hours," she said.

Cliff looked in the third drawer and found a phone book and a few accounting reference books. Under the books, he found a lock box. He pulled it out and tried to open it. The lid didn't budge. The weight and size made him suspicious. He asked Mrs. Livingston if she knew where the key was, and she didn't.

When he hadn't found any work-related files or documents. He asked Mrs. Livingston if she knew where he might have kept anything from work.

"I'm hoping to find anything pertaining to the files your husband had been working on a couple of months ago. Did he ever mention anything about the Toronto Port Authority, or the shipping coming in and out of the harbour?"

"He never talked about the cases he was working on. He was very secretive about work. He said it was to protect me if there was ever any claims of negligence or wrongdoing. It never