list for one of the local shooting ranges, some takeout menus, and a letter from the landlord reminding Zach that he was past due on rent. The letter was two months old so I figured he either sorted out the problem or was expecting an eviction notice.
I pushed the chair into its original position and rose. "Anything in the kitchen?"
"Just some pots, pans and glassware. Nothing suspicious. I checked on top of the cabinets and felt under the drawers too. He's not hiding anything."
"Good thinking." I looked at the door in the far wall. "We only have the bedroom left," I said, leaning forward to tweak open the blinds. The window overlooked a small resident parking lot and there was no sign of the truck that belonged to Zach. "Let's blitz it and get out of here," I added.
The bedroom was as easy to search as the rest of the apartment. One king-sized bed, covers rumpled but otherwise covering all four corners and a couple of flattened pillows. I ran my hands along the rim of the mattress but didn't find anything and there was nothing under the bed except a fluffle of dust bunnies. The one nightstand was glass and brass, nowhere to hide anything. The closet was small and reasonably neat with shirts hung on cheap, bendable hangers and a crumpled stack of t-shirts and jeans. An expensive looking winter jacket also hung on a hook and some professional-looking climbing equipment was stacked beneath. A leather and fabric catchall next to them was empty. The chest of drawers had some gym clothing, along with underwear and socks. The clothes were good quality and reasonably new but I couldn't imagine they added up to the thousands of dollars spent on his cards.
"Let's go," I said as we made for the door, careful not to disturb anything on the way out. Lily pulled the door closed behind us and wiped the handle with her sleeve. When she let go, the door popped open again. She pulled it shut only for it to happen again.
"Huh," she said. "It won't lock."
"We can't leave it open. Zach will notice."
"I don't know how to lock it."
"Is there a catch on the back of the lock?"
Lily fumbled around. "Not that I can feel. What’ll we do?"
"If I turn around and pretend not to notice, can you fiddle with it and make it lock? You locked the mailbox!"
Lily shook her head. "Jord didn't teach me how to do that. There didn't seem any point. The mailbox was a lucky attempt."
"Try again," I said as I turned around.
"I don't know why you're turning around when you know what I'm doing."
I ignored the small scraping sounds, and said, "Plausible deniability. If anyone asks, I didn't witness anything."
"Huh. Would you look at that! It locked."
"Great," I said. "Let's go!" We took off along the hallway, my nerves a mess that Zach might turn up at any moment, trapping us on the stairwell. Fortunately, we were out onto the street, heading for Lily's car without passing anyone.
"What did you find?" she asked when we were a block away and my heart finally stopped thumping so hard. I told her about all the credit card bills and lottery scratch-offs. Then I stopped, something so glaringly obvious hit me that I wondered why it didn't occur to me inside the apartment. "What I didn't find was just as important," I said.
"What do you mean?"
"Sophie used to live in that apartment with her brother."
"Yeah. So? She probably took all the pillows with her."
"Maybe. But where did they both sleep? There's only one bed."
"Maybe they took turns? I've heard of that. It's one way of reducing the rent."
I gave her a skeptical look. "Really?"
Lily shrugged. "Probably not. I can't see either of them taking a night shift with their jobs. The couch must be a pull out. Zach wouldn't need to use that once Sophie moved out."
"I guess," I agreed. "Yeah, that's probably it. They made the living area into another bedroom. I saw on Sophie's financials that she didn't make much money prior to her marriage so it probably made sense. Do you still have some free time?"
"Sure. Where do you want to go?"
"Sky Outdoors. I'd like to talk to Zach again."
On the way there, my mind was filled with thoughts about the things I saw in Zach's apartment. It was regular stuff, even though Zach was clearly crappy with money. Remembering that Laeticia said she overheard him and Sophie arguing about money