Valdez remains behind in Barb’s apartment, supervising the crime scene, while Kovac, Malaky, and I clatter up a flight of concrete stairs held precariously in place by two rusting steel girders. Kovac raps his fist on the door. Silence. He tries the doorknob. Locked. He plucks a pick from his jacket pocket and jimmies the lock in less than ten seconds.
“Those FBI guys,” Malaky says. “Crookeder than the crooks.”
“So I see.” I smile at the sour little cop, hoping to appease him with my award-winning charm. But the lieutenant isn’t buying charm today. At least not mine.
Kovac pushes the door open with the lock pick, and we stride into the hushed apartment. Odors linger—mold and wood rot, pot smoke and take-out fries. But no coppery stench of spoiled meat. Death hasn’t touched this place. Two thin mattresses lie in the living-dining on more of that bruise-blue carpet. A tangle of bath towels, blankets, panties, crushed cigarette packets, and limp pillows lie scattered on the sheets. The rest of the apartment is empty except for two rickety lawn chairs planted in front of a tiny TV and a cardboard box.
The interior decoration is so desolate, the occupants could have been squatting here, ready to skip out at a moment’s notice.
Kovac lifts the lid off the box and spills out the detritus of two squandered lives. A dozen photographs, check stubs from Stella’s Saloon, receipts from Acme check-cashing service, two Social Security cards, a Fresh Strawberry lipstick, and hand-scrawled letters from Mom.
One photo shows the two girls laughing, pink spikes and Vampira black, their reedy tattooed arms slung around each other’s shoulders.
“Poor little Trish and Zarah,” I say.
“Poor little Trish and Zarah,” Kovac agrees.
“Dumb-ass punks,” Malaky says.
********
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