The Sentry - By Robert Crais Page 0,48
the conversation even less. Cole had believed Smith arranged for the house, and invited Dru to stay with him when she came to L.A. to help with his business. Now that was upended.
“Dru works for him. Mr. Smith has a restaurant up by the boardwalk.”
“Maybe so, but she wasn’t working for anybody when I gave her the keys. She was living off alimony. She never said anything about an uncle, and she sure as hell didn’t tell me he was going to move in.”
Cole wet his lips, and hated the question he had to ask.
“Why did you let her move in?”
“I was fucking her, why do you think? She wanted out of the dump she was living in, and I was coming back here, so it was a good deal for both of us. Saved me the hassle of vetting a house sitter.”
Cole felt hollow.
“All right. Listen, thanks for getting back to me.”
“Hold on. How long is she going to be away?”
“I don’t know.”
“I called her when I got your message, but she hasn’t called back.”
“We haven’t been able to reach either one of them.”
“What are we talking about? A few days? A couple of weeks? Has she abandoned the place?”
“I don’t know.”
“Goddamnit, as of right now, you are telling me my house is empty? Is that correct? She’s gone, and no one is taking care of my house?”
“No, sir. Not now.”
“Son of a BITCH. That fucking whore.”
Brown hung up cursing, and the line went dead.
Cole drove on with a confusion that left him feeling blindsided, and realized he had missed an obvious question. He opened the incoming call list and called Brown back.
“Me again. Sorry. Have you spoken with Dru since you’ve been away?”
“Hell, yes. I call her every couple of weeks, make sure everything’s okay, check on the house.”
“She never mentioned Mr. Smith?”
“This is the first I’ve heard of him, and I don’t like it. If this guy’s been living there all this time and she hasn’t told me, she’s been lying to me, and I don’t like liars. If you find her, you tell her she better call me, and I mean yesterday. I want that sonofabitch out of my house.”
Cole finished the call feeling even worse than before. The picture he now had of Dru Rayne was very different from the woman Joe described. This left him with even more questions, but Cole forced himself to focus on the fact she was missing. He had to mine Wilson Smith’s neighbors before the police sealed the mine.
Cole reached the canals a few minutes later and once more walked in. Mendoza and his partner had passed these same houses going to and coming from the Smith house, which was when Jared saw them, and now Cole wanted to see if anyone else had seen them, but he targeted the houses with security cameras first.
Almost out of habit, he checked Jared’s window as he moved down the alley, but Jared was missing. Amazing.
The day before, Cole noted three homes with cameras. No one answered at the first house, so he slipped a business card under the door with a note asking them to call. A middle-aged woman answered at the second home, and asked if he was with the police she spoke to the day before. This told Cole that Button and his partner had made the rounds after speaking with Jared. Cole told her he was, and dropped Button’s name to fortify the lie. Cole asked if Button checked her surveillance recordings, but Button had not asked, and it would not have mattered if he had—her cameras displayed real-time images but were not hooked to a recorder. The first house had potential, but the second house was a bust.
Cole had better luck at the third house. A housekeeper told him she didn’t know much about the security system, but believed the cameras made a recording. She explained her employer was at work, but thought he would be happy to speak with Cole as he was very interested when she told him the police questioned her yesterday. Cole left another card, then reconsidered his plan.
Knowing that Button made the rounds after speaking with Jared, Cole decided there was no point in covering the same ground again. The available witness list was currently limited to Jared.
Cole returned to Smith’s house, and found Jared back in his window, straggly black hair, shirtless, wires dripping from his ears. Jared was watching him.
Cole made a little wave. Jared waved back. Cole motioned for