Lost Light

anything?”
    “Coffee would be nice. I’ve been up all night and at the house they wouldn’t give me any from my own machine.”
    “Coffee coming up.”
    She and Lindell got up and left the room. A few minutes later a North Hollywood detective I didn’t know came in with a cup of black coffee. He told me to hang in there and left.
    When Rider and Lindell came back in I noticed that there were more notes on her pad. She kept the lead and started out doing the talking again.
    “We need to clear up a couple things first,” she said.
    “Okay.”
    “You said that Agent Milton was already in your house when you came in.”
    “That’s right.”
    I looked at Lindell and then back at Rider.
    “You said you were in the process of informing him that you believed you had been followed home when the front door was kicked in by the intruders.”
    “Correct.”
    “He stepped into the hall to investigate and was immediately hit with a blast from a shotgun, presumably fired by Linus Simonson.”
    “Right again.”
    “What was Agent Milton doing in your house if you weren’t there?”
    Before I could speak Lindell blurted out a question.
    “He did have permission to be there, didn’t he?”
    “Hey, how about we take one question at a time?” I said.
    I looked at Lindell again and his eyes turned down to the table. He couldn’t look at me. Judging by his question, which was really a statement disguised as a question, Lindell was revealing to me what he wanted me to say. I believed at that point that he was making an offer of trade. He was almost certainly in trouble with the bureau for his aid to me during my investigation. And as such, he now had his orders: keep the bureau’s nose clean on this, or there would be consequences for him and possibly for me. So what Lindell was saying to me was that if I told the story in a way that helped him accomplish that objective-without legally compromising myself-then we would both be better off.
    The truth was I didn’t mind sparing Milton posthumous controversy and shame. As far as I was concerned he’d already gotten what he deserved and then some. Going after him now would be vindictive and I didn’t need to be vindictive to a dead man. I had other things to do and wanted to preserve my ability to do them.
    There was Special Agent Peoples and his BAM squad but there was too much gray between them and Milton’s actions. I had Milton on tape, not Peoples. Using one to try to get to the other was a tough road to drive. I decided in that moment to let the dead man sleep and to live to drive another day.
    “What was Agent Milton doing in your house if you weren’t there?” Rider repeated.
    I looked back at her.
    “He was waiting for me.”
    “To do what?”
    “I had told him to meet me there but I got delayed because I went and bought the coffee on my way home.”
    “Why was he meeting you so late at night?”
    “Because I had information that would clear some things up for him.”
    “What was that information?”
    “It was about how a terrorist involved in a case he was working ended up with a hundred-dollar bill that supposedly came from the movie set heist I was investigating and had been warned off of. I told him I had put things together and found that the two cases were actually unrelated. I invited him to come to my lawyer’s office in the morning when you two were going to come and I’d explain it all to everybody. But he didn’t want to wait so I told him to meet me at the house.”
    “And what, you left him a key?”
    “No, I didn’t. But I must’ve left the door unlocked because he was inside when I got home. I guess you could say he had permission because I invited him to the house but I didn’t exactly tell him to go inside. He just sort of did that on his own when he beat me to the house.”
    “Agent Milton had a number of miniaturized listening devices in the pocket of his coat. Do you know anything about that or why he had them?”
    My guess was that he had removed them from my house but I didn’t say this.
    “No idea,” I said. “You would’ve had to ask him, I guess.”
    “What about his car? It was found parked about a block north of your house on Woodrow Wilson. In fact, it was further away from your house than the car the four assailants used. Any idea why Milton would park so far from your house if he was invited to be there?”
    “No, not really. Like I said, I guess he’s the only one who knew