Harry Strait? He may have something to do with this.'
I paused and waited for a response. 'I know it's the middle of the night, Paul, but they're not going to give this stuff to anyone else.'
Squeeks was waiting for me to get off the phone. 'Why don't you tell me what you did know about Vallis's case.'
Mike listened as I laid out the facts for both of them.
Paige's eighty-eight-year-old father had died, of natural causes, at his home in Virginia. Paige had gone down there to organize the funeral service and arrange for his personal belongings to be moved or sold.
'The prosecutor told me it was a part of a pattern, a scam that a burglary team was operating,' I said. 'The obituary listed the date and time of the funeral, as they always do. That's when the burglars check out the address of the deceased, figure that anyone who knew and loved him would be in church at the ceremony, and they break into the house because they figure it will be unattended.'
I went on, 'Paige said she came home from the cemetery and went in via the back door, surprising the burglar. He lunged at her with a knife, they struggled, and when they fell to the floor, he landed on it.'
'Hoist on his own petard,' Mike said.
'Exactly. The case went to the grand jury, Paige told her story, and if I remember correctly, the jurors actually stood up and applauded her.'
Squeeks opened his case folder and looked at his notes. 'You got the guy's name?'
'In my office. I want to say it's something like Nassan. Abraham Nassan.'
'Close. It's Ibrahim.'
'What's your point?' Mike asked.
'That it's clearly an Arabic name. That Cooper should have known-'
'I'm telling you that the court papers I have say Abraham. I even have a photograph of the guy. What should I have known?'
'They didn't tell you he was part of a cell? An arm of al Qaeda?' Squeeks asked.
'They told me he was Abie the burglar. Abie the second-story man,' I said, slamming my hand on the desktop. 'A rash of funeral-related thefts. Close this case out, close them all.'
'Coop thought he was one of her boys, not Abie the Arab,' Mike said.
I fished in my evening bag for my set of keys. 'Send one of the guys over to Hogan Place. Here's the key to my office. The folder's in the third cabinet from the bookcase. Bring the whole goddamn case and look at it for yourself. Why the hell is any prosecutor going to purge a file to give to me?'
Squeeks answered me. 'The police chief thinks the district attorney in Fairfax had orders from the feds. There was a major investigation in progress, a follow-up to the Pentagon plane crash, and the feds were running a pretty tight ship. They didn't want the public to panic. Figured if one of the terrorists was dead and the death was justifiable, no need to alarm the good citizens of the Commonwealth. Still can't believe they didn't tell
'Well, start believing it. And let's send out for some coffee. Black for both of us. We've got lots of other people to talk about,' I said.
'You know what Victor Vallis did for a living?' Squeeks asked.
'Paige's father? I know he was in the diplomatic corps.'
'Posted in Egypt, actually. Paige testified about that.'
Squeeks gave Chapman a look, again suggesting I should have divined a connection to some kind of international intrigue, rather than a simple break-and-enter.
'And he was also posted in France, Senegal, Hong Kong, Lebanon, and Ghana,' I said, ticking off the countries I could remember on my fingers. 'Maybe I should have polled the United Nations on what kind of danger that put Paige in.'
'You know that he came out of retirement after the Persian Gulf War?'
'Hey, Squeeks,' Chapman said, jabbing the shorter man's chest with his finger. 'If you're such a frigging fountain of knowledge, why didn't you give blondie a call?'
''Cause I just found this stuff out while they got Paige Vallis on ice up at the morgue.'
'Yeah, well, it's amazing how people start to regurgitate the truth after somebody winds up dead.'
'They knew Victor Vallis was an expert on Middle Eastern affairs,' Squeeks said. 'They paid him to be a CIA consultant, right up to the end. He knew all the players, what caves they were cribbing in, how the money moved around the region.'
'Was Paige aware of it?' I asked. 'I swear she never mentioned anything about this to me.'
'I have no idea whether the old man told her he was still involved.'
'This Ibrahim guy get anything from the Vallis house? I mean, was there an accomplice waiting outside?' Mike asked.
'He seemed to be there on his own. Chief says there was nothing much in the place to take, and he must have only got started minutes before the girl came home. Like Alex says, Mr. Vallis died of natural causes, so that didn't seem to be related to the break-in, either.'
'Can we talk about the murder, Squeeks?' I asked. 'Mike says you wouldn't even answer his questions when you called. Isn't it time we get some of the details?'
Squeekist leaned against the desk and scratched his ear.
'Did you guys find anything at the scene that's got you going in a direction related to what happened at her father's house?'
He shook his head.
'Because I gotta tell you, it seems insane to me to overlook the obvious. She's the only witness against my defendant, Andrew Tripping. Anybody figure out yet where he was when she got killed? He was keenly interested in her Egyptian connections, too. He's also got some kind of Middle Eastern expertise and experience. Supposedly worked there briefly in his CIA days.'
'Calm down, Coop. C'mon, Squeeks. Give us what you got. I don't even know when and how she died,' Mike said.
Squeekist was reluctant to let us into his investigation, but knew we had information that might ultimately be useful. 'This probably happened sometime during last night, going into Saturday morning. In her building.'
'You know about her call to Mercer Wallace? You know about the boy?'
Squeeks said he did not, and asked me to explain. 'Mercer said she left that message in his office at around ten. And her records might tell us where the kid was calling from.'
Mike was making a list of things that needed to get done.
'Forced entry?'
'No. It wasn't actually inside her apartment. Happened on the stairwell from the first floor, going down to the laundry room in the basement.'
'Doorman?' Mike asked.
'No. The building doesn't have one,' I said. 'Just a buzzer and intercom system.'
'No security camera?'
'Nope.'
'How'd she die?' I asked.
'Strangled. Marks and discoloration on her neck,' Squeeks said.
'Manual?'
'No. Some kind of ligature. I'm expecting the ME will tell us it's a piece of rope. Thin, like a laundry cord. There were a few of 'em hanging in the basement.'
'Was she down there doing laundry in the middle of the night?' Mike asked.
'No sign of that.'
'You think-'
'We've got guys over there now, canvassing the neighbors. Maybe she buzzed in someone she knew, maybe she got followed in from the street, maybe-'
'Maybe it was a random push-in,' Mike suggested.
'She couldn't be that coincidentally unlucky,' I said.
'So tell me about your case.' Squeeks had his notepad out and was ready to get more information from
