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“Huh. You going in?”
“Yeah, I just don’t want to get shot by one of you guys. My partner here is with the BCA.”
“Mind if I watch?”
“Feel free. We’re gonna kick the back door... Did the neighbor lady call you about the chair?”
“She thought the blond guy was suspicious. Hair’s too long,” the cop said, looking at Virgil.
“That’s true,” Lucas said. “Be sure to tell him that.”
The neighbor woman had come out on her lawn to watch. The cop pulled his patrol car to the side of the street, and Lucas walked over to Virgil, who said, “Hinton... I don’t think he owns this place. Maybe the neighbor would know who does.”
“Good,” Lucas said.
He led the way to the woman, who crossed her arms as they came up, and Lucas explained what they were doing. She did know that Hinton was renting, and she knew the landlady, a real estate dealer with an office downtown.
“If you can get her, she could be here in five minutes,” the woman said.
“Better than kicking an innocent door,” Virgil said.
They called the real estate office, spoke to the dealer, who said she’d be there as soon as she could. Ten minutes later she showed up, and found Lucas, Virgil, the cop, and the neighbor sitting on the neighbor’s patio drinking Dr Pepper.
The landlady let them into Hinton’s house, and it was clear that he was running: there was still furniture in the house, but nothing personal.
“There goes the security deposit,” the real estate woman said, looking around. “Wonder what I should do about his furniture? It’s crappy, but it’s his.”
“Leave it,” Virgil said. “This is a crime scene now, we’ll probably want to process it, to get DNA. Won’t take too long. And you got the deposit. Besides, it looks kinda rented.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” she said. “I don’t think regular retail stores sell dill-pickle-colored couches.”
They locked up the house and on the way to the car, Lucas said, “We need to call the DMV for his license tag, get it out there. See if we can chase him down.”
“What else?”
“We need to think of a way to push on Heath,” Lucas said. “Without Hinton, it’s gonna be tricky. Get Sandy to find out who’s on the Heart/Twin Cities board of directors, nail down the scam.”
“You don’t think he killed Hinton?”
Lucas had to think about it, then said, “I don’t know. I have a hard time visualizing that. It’s like Hinton said, he struck me as a pussy. If he killed him, what’d he do? Gun him down? Why? When? But then... we know we’re talking about a psycho. If he’s a psycho, all bets are off.”
“Psychos don’t have hissy fits like he was having,” Virgil said. “Unless maybe they’re faking it. Or have an alternative personality.”
“Which he could have. He’s got the motive,” Lucas said. “If he thought Sand was about to dump him, but that Cooper might still come through with a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand...”
“Goddamn Hinton. Maybe we should have busted him.”
“We’ll find him. He won’t be running to California. I’m thinking Miami.”
“If he’s alive,” Virgil said. “The more I think about it... Heath was panicking. We need to find Doreen. Now.”
14
Virgil called Margaret Cooper and got the name of Heart/Twin Cities board vice-chairman, George Whitman, and his work phone number. Virgil called, pulled Whitman out of a meeting at the agriculture commodities company where he was the chief financial officer, and got Doreen’s full name, which was Doreen Pollard.
“Is there a problem with Home Streets?” Whitman asked.
“I’d hold off a while before making any further financial commitments,” Virgil said.
