“I want you to do this,” she said, her voice calm. “It’ll help Ginger get over him.”
“What am I looking for?”
“How would I know? You’re the secret agent. Find out what happened to him.”
There was no sense arguing any further. When Pam made up her mind, that was it.
The graveside service was ending, the few who’d attended paying their respects to Ginger.
“I should check out their apartment,” he said.
The Browns lived on Atlanta’s south side.
“I doubt your sister has been totally honest about what her husband was involved in. She knows how we feel.”
Pam handed him a key from her purse. “I’ve lived with an agent long enough to know the drill. Go, while everyone is at our house after the funeral.”
He was beginning to wonder how much planning she’d invested in this.
“I love my sister,” she said. “But she’s blind when it comes to men. There’s no telling what’s going on.”
He found the apartment complex just off the interstate, one of hundreds that dotted the Atlanta metropolitan area. No gate barred access and the parking lot was devoid of cars, most of the residents at work on a Tuesday afternoon. The Browns lived on the second floor, and he used the key to gain access. Inside was spotless, everything in its place. Ginger, like her sister, appreciated order. Interesting how she waived that rule when it came to her love life. He’d visited here only a couple of times, as usually the Browns came to the Malone house on the other side of town.
He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but found a checkbook in a drawer, the account only in Ginger’s name, with $4,200 on deposit. A savings book showed another $14,000. Good to know that his sister-in-law kept some money under her control.
A stack of mail caught his attention.
Then someone knocked on the door.
Which startled him.
Another knock.
He hadn’t locked the knob after he’d entered. Why would he? Nobody was around. Family and friends were at the funeral.
The knob began to turn.
He retreated to the bedroom and slid under the bed. A frilly dust ruffle draped down on three sides and provided cover. He wasn’t sure why hiding was necessary, but something didn’t ring right.
“Is anyone home?” a male voice said.
A moment of silence.
“Check the rooms.”
A gap of about half an inch provided a line of sight past the dust ruffle out into the bedroom. He pressed his cheek into the carpet and watched as two feet stepped to the bedroom door, hesitated a moment, then walked to the bathroom and closet, checking both.
“No one is here,” another male voice said.
A burglary?
“They are still at the funeral, so we have some time. Make a search.”
If so, apparently not an ordinary one.
He heard drawers open, items shuffled about.
“No need to look any further,” the first voice said. “Here is what we want.”
He gently raised the dust ruffle enough so that he could see more than shoes.
Past the bedroom doorway he spotted two men. One was maybe fifty, pale, with salt-and-pepper hair and a matching beard. The other man was younger, black-haired, dark-complexioned. The older man was holding the stack of mail. He tossed the letters aside and kept one, removing what was inside a large brown envelope.
The older man shook his head. “Seems Herr Brown led us on a diversion. This is nothing.”
“But the wife read it.”
“It would mean nothing to her.”
He watched as the letter was replaced in the envelope and tossed back on the table.
“There is no need to linger,” the older man said. “Unfortunately, Herr Brown managed to get ahead of us. The answers we seek are not here, but we had to come for a look.”
They both left, gently closing the door behind them.
He slid from beneath the bed and rushed to the window, watching as the two men exited the building toward a dark blue Honda.
They climbed inside and started to leave.
