Shadow Prey

wall, caught in his own thoughts of Davenport.
     
    Lucas came back a moment later, Daniel trailing behind him with a cup of coffee. Sloan and another cop, the second one unshaven and dressed like a parking-lot attendant, were a step behind Daniel. Everybody called the second cop Del, but nobody introduced him to Lily. She assumed he was undercover Narcotics or Intelligence.
    “So what do we got?” Daniel asked as he settled behind his desk. He looked into his humidor, then snapped it shut.
    “We’ve got a map. Let me explain the situation,” Sloan said. He moved up to Daniel’s desk and unrolled a copy of a plat map from the City Planner’s Office.
    • • •
    Billy Hood had apparently left Bemidji a year before, drifted down to the Twin Cities and moved into an apartment with two friends. The apartment was on the first-floor corner of the building, just to the right of the entrance. A careful, secretive questioning of the elderly couple who worked as building superintendents suggested that Hood’s roommates were in residence. Hood had been gone for more than a week, perhaps ten days, but his clothes were still in the apartment.
    “What are the chances of getting a search warrant?” Lucas asked.
    “If Lily will swear that she has probable cause to think Hood’s the man who killed Andretti, there’d be no problem,” Daniel said.
    “The problem is, we’ve got those two guys who live with him,” said Sloan. “We’ve got nothing against them, so we can’t kick the door and bust them. But if we go talk nice to them, what happens if they’re part of the whole deal? Maybe Hood’s calling them every night to find out what’s happening. They could have a voice code to warn him off . . . .”
    “So what are you suggesting?” Daniel asked.
    The cop named Del pointed at the map. “See this building across the street? We can get a ground-floor apartment and set up there. There’s only two ways out of Hood’s building—the other way’s on the side—and we can see both of them from the apartment across the street. We think the ideal thing would be to set up a surveillance. Then, depending on how he arrives, grab him just before he goes in, or when he comes back out.”
    “What do you mean, ‘how he arrives’?” Daniel asked, looking up from the map.
    “There’re not many cars on the street. He could pull up right to the front door, hop out and go inside. If he’s nuts, we want to be in a position where we can tackle him. You know, a couple guys walk down the street, talking, and when they get to him, wham! Take him down, put on the cuffs.”
    “We could put somebody inside . . .” Daniel suggested, but Del was already shaking his head.
    “We’ve got those goddamned roommates to worry about. Or, as far as we know, somebody else in the building. If he’s warned off somehow, we’d never know it. We could be there watching the building and he’s laying on a beach in San Juan.”
    They talked for another five minutes before Daniel nodded.
    “All right,” he conceded, standing up. “It looks like you’ve got it figured. When do you think he’ll get back?”
    “No sooner than tonight, even if he drove like crazy,” Sloan said. “He’d have to do six, seven hundred miles a day to get here tonight. New York says he’s driving an old car.”
    “That’s what we got from his motel,” Lily said.
    Lucas looked at Daniel. “If there was some way to make sure the other two guys were out of there, it might not be a bad idea to go in and take a look,” he said. “We could check for weapons and anything that might tell us where he is right now.”
    “Are we talking about an illegal entry?” Kieffer blurted suddenly. They were the first words he had spoken since the meeting began, and everybody turned to look at him.
    “No. We’re not, Gary,” Daniel said promptly. “Everything will be on the up-and-up. But instead of kicking in the door, Lieutenant Davenport, I take it, is proposing to go in without disturbing the place.”
    “That is very close, very close to an illegal search. You know that searches are supposed to be announced . . . .”
    “Hey, take it easy, everything will be okayed by a judge, all right?” Daniel said, staring Kieffer down. “And if it wasn’t, it’s still better’n getting one of my people shot.”
    Kieffer grunted in disgust. “I’ve got nothing to do with this. In my judgment, it’s a bad move. And I think we ought to grab him the