with a despairing shake of his head. “I’m not sure talking sense to her is even remotely possible.”
Chapter 19
PIONEER SQUARE MAY BE ONE OF SEATTLE’S TRENDIER neighborhoods, but it’s not necessarily a safe one, especially if you’re going there alone on a Friday night well after dark. I walked my dinner guests, Alan and Athena, back from El Gaucho to Belltown Terrace, where I traded in the two humans in favor of my guard dog, Lucy. Her original trainer had taught me a set of distinct commands that instantly transform her from an easygoing family dog into a fierce canine security detail. I took her with me, knowing full well that if I needed backup for any reason, Lucy would be there for me. As for the Pike Street Mission? I had no way of knowing whether or not the establishment was, as they say, dog-friendly, but it’s always better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
For the second time that day, I pulled in to the Triangle Parking Lot, and once again Seattle’s parking gods smiled on me. That’s one of the side benefits about being a cop that I really miss. Back in the day, I could slap an OFFICIAL BUSINESS placard on the dashboard of my unmarked patrol car and park any damn place I wanted. In the private sector, things don’t work quite that way.
Earlier in the day, the door to the Pike Street Mission had been open and welcoming. Now that it was dark, the place was locked up tight. A dimly lit intercom with a speaker and button was attached to the wall next to the entrance. A drunk, staggering from one side of the sidewalk to the other, was half a block away and lurching toward us. Lucy kept a wary eye on him while I busied myself with the intercom in hopes of gaining admittance.
“J. P. Beaumont to see Rachel Seymour,” I said.
The lock gave an electronically activated thump, and the door swung open. Rachel Seymour stood just inside. She took a wary step backward when she caught sight of Lucy, and no wonder. Rachel and the dog were at almost the same eye level.
“Sit, Lucy,” I ordered, and because she was on her best behavior, Lucy sat. “Sorry about bringing a dog along,” I apologized, “but Lucy’s my backup. When I’m working a case, my wife doesn’t want me leaving home without her.”
“Is she trustworthy?”
“Very.”
“I suppose you can bring her in, then,” a resigned Rachel Seymour said. “Come along, both of you. We’ll be meeting with Naomi in my office.”
“How is she?” I asked, settling on one of the visitor’s chairs and putting Lucy into a down stay next to me.
“From what I see, I doubt she’s using right now,” Rachel told me. “In other words, so far so good. The shelter is a drug-free zone. No drugs are allowed inside, but it would be naïve to assume that all of our residents are clean and sober. I think the main reason Naomi agreed to come with me when she did was my offer of a warm shower, a hot meal, and a real bed.”
I shook my head. “I don’t see how people can live out in the cold and wet like that, day after day, month after month, year in and year out.”
“I don’t either,” Rachel said with a nod. “That’s why I agreed to take over running this place after Reverend Beardsley passed away. I didn’t want to see it shut down. Still, the homeless problem is so extensive at this point that it’s like trying to stop an arterial hemorrhage with a Band-Aid.”
The comment made me wonder if perhaps Reverend Seymour had some kind of medical training in her background in addition to her degree in theology. I wondered, yes, but I didn’t ask.
“What about Naomi’s grocery cart? Did she bring that along, too?”
Rachel shook her head. “I persuaded her to leave it behind. We have a clothes bank here at the shelter for our residents to use as needed. The only thing Naomi brought with her was a paper grocery bag.”
The idea that all Naomi’s worldly possessions could be stuffed into a single paper bag made my heart hurt. You’d think that after nearly three decades on this planet she’d have more to show for it than the equivalent of a bag of groceries.
Just then there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” Reverend Seymour said, and Naomi Dale stepped inside.
I believe I mentioned before that I’ve