the door. No sound of footsteps or acknowledgement came from inside. That wasn’t unexpected. The place had been visited by the FBI before, but no one had been home.
“We should have stopped downtown,” Laney said. “Carlson should have forwarded the search warrant by now. Now we’ll either have to go back to the City, or find a police station or Kinkos somewhere.”
“Kinkos?” Jake asked.
“Someplace with a public fax where she can send us the paperwork,” Laney explained.
Jake shook his head in amusement. He turned away from the door and examined the neighborhood. He spotted an elderly gentleman sitting on his porch across the way, watching them with some interest. A trio of young toughs was huddled together on the corner three houses away. While they tried to look uninterested, they also were keeping a watch on Jake and Laney. It was likely the house hadn’t had so many visitors in months.
“We haven’t got time for that,” Jake said. He turned back toward the door and planted a solid kick opposite the door handle. He had noticed that there was no dead bolt, and the aging wood hadn’t looked very strong. His assessment was correct, and the door slammed back with a loud bang.
“Jake, we can’t simply break in. There are rules and a procedure to follow.”
“I’m sure there is” Jake replied. “Trust me, it’ll be fine. Let’s see what we can find.” Then he stepped into the house.
Uncomfortably, Laney followed along behind him. Carlson had said to keep Jake out of trouble, but he was certain she wouldn’t be happy when she heard about this. The room was dark with the shades all drawn, but when Jake tried the light switch, the power was still on. The low wattage light bulb didn’t fully illuminate the room, but it made it possible to see the ancient furniture and general dusty appearance of the room.
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in a while,” Laney noted.
Jake nodded and led the way. The kitchen confirmed Laney’s observation. The door to the refrigerator was propped open and the light inside was off. The shelves were barren, everything having been cleared away at the time the unit was powered down. Other than a few canned goods in the pantry, all other food items had been cleared away as well.
“He planned on going away,” Laney observed.
The rest of the house supported the observation. The beds were stripped and bare, and both the closest and the dresser showed signs of missing items. What remained was of poor quality and poorly organized.
It didn’t take long to search the small home. Clearly Ray had lived here for a long time. Besides the kitchen and living room there was only the bathroom and two bedrooms. The second bedroom had been made into a work study area. Three walls were covered with bookcases filled with books on a variety of subjects. Manila folders were stacked everywhere, although all looked old and irrelevant. Jake and Laney thumbed through several, but quickly decided they could be ignored. The only thing of interest was a relatively new map pinned to the wall next to the desk. A series of pins had been stuck into the map. They were connected by a piece of red string.
“He plotted out a route,” Laney observed.
Jake noted that the first pins were from England, and then France. Fred Hickam had said one of Ray’s freelance articles had come from England.
The sirens that Jake had been hearing for a while were suddenly much louder and came to a whooping top just outside.
“Company,” Laney said unhappily. “It appears one of the neighbors called in our B&E.”
Jake walked over to a window, pulled aside the shade and peered outside. A Black and White with two policemen was indeed parked out front. Both men were out of the vehicle and headed toward the house. One had his hand on his service weapon, while his partner carried a shotgun. He quickly looked around the house, and decided there was nothing else they would find here without a careful and systematic search. Even then he doubted there would be anything. Clearly Ray had not been operating out of here for some time.
Laney had taken his badge folder and had slipped it into the breast pocket of his jacket so that the badge was prominently displayed. Jake smiled and laid a hand on his shoulder, and then back-tracked.
“Interesting,” Jake said softly.
“What did we find?” Agent Laney asked after looking at Jake and realizing what