entrance with steps on one side and a ramp on the other. A power line ran from a pole to an electric meter mounted on the corner of the building. The junction box below the meter caught Kerney's attention.
A circuit had been added to the house, and a conduit ran from the box into the ground. Kerney wondered if the building had a basement.
At the front, he inspected the latticework grille that bordered the porch. A side section was hinged to provide access. He crawled under the porch and found a wooden insert covering a hole cut in the rock foundation, wide enough for a man to crawl through.
He pulled the insert loose, set it aside, and swept the darkness with the beam of the flashlight. About a quarter of the crawl space was sectioned off by walls that disappeared below grade. The electrical conduit at the back of the house ran straight into it.
Kerney crawled in for a better look. A three-sided stud-and-plywood enclosure butted up against the foundation.
It was sloppy, substandard construction, and Kerney had no doubt it had been built without a permit.
Outside, Kerney dusted himself off. He wanted to know what was in the basement. If his hunch about the permit was right, it might be possible to find out without risking an illegal break-in.
alex cast illo a customs narcotics agent called up from Albuquerque, held a Vietnamese potbellied pig in his arms and eyed the state cop.
'What's the pig's name?' Kerney asked.
'Mabel.'
'Does she have a good sense of smell?'
Castillo grimaced. It was four o'clock in the morning and he wasn't in a mood for pig jokes. Every cop who met Mabel for the first time turned into a stand-up comic.
'If the narcotics are there, Mabel will tell me,' Castillo replied. He scratched the pig behind the ears.
Mabel snorted.
'Can she detect drug residue?'
'Mabel has a great nose, Chief. Bury it, bag it, sweep it up-it doesn't matter to Mabel. She'll sniff it out.
Where do you want her?'
'Under the porch in the crawl space to the house.'
'Do you have a search warrant?' Castillo asked.
'I have reason to believe there are controlled substances stored inside.'
Castillo shook his head in disagreement.
'Anything we find will be considered an illegal search and seizure.'
'I plan to find the stash legally,' Kerney said.
'How arc you going to do that?'
'Whatever I do won't involve you or Mabel.'
'That's what I wanted to hear,' Castillo said as he dropped to his knees.
'Give me your flashlight, Chief.'
Kerney handed it over, and Castillo tugged gently at Mabel's leash before disappearing under the porch. The pig lowered her snout and waddled willingly along.
Kerney spent an anxious five minutes waiting for Castillo to reappear.
Mabel came out first. She snorted once and gave herself a good shake.
'Bingo,' Castillo said as he crawled out. He stood up, reached into a pocket, and fed Mabel a treat.
'Mabel tells me you've got a lot of product in there.'
'She told you that?'
'She gets real exdted when she snifis out a big stash.'
'That's not possible. You and Mabel were never here,' Kerney said with a smile.
'I like your style. Chief,' Alex said.
'Good luck catching the bad guys.' at the office, Kerney called the city building code supervisor, woke him up, and asked to meet him in person as soon as possible. Morris Wadley grudgingly agreed, and Kerney drove the predawn empty streets to a small residential subdivision that bordered Cerrillos Road. Built soon after World War II, it was a respectable middle-class neighborhood of pueblo-style, flat-roofed houses on good-size lots. Like most post-war developments, many of the homes had been expanded with second stories and additions as the baby boom swept the country.
Wadley opened the door dressed in a robe and slippers.
A pale, short fellow with baby-fine blond hair, he had sleep-filled eyes and a prominent vein in his forehead that caught Kerney's attention.
In a dining area off the living room, Kerney joined Wadley at the table.
'You said on the phone that you needed some information immediately,'
Wadley said through a yawn.
'And perhaps your help,' Kerney added.
'I want to take a look inside a building without violating anybody's constitutional rights.'
'Is the building under construction or being renovated?'
'No, but I believe a basement has been added without benefit of a permit. Does your office accept anonymous complaints from citizens?'
'All the time. Most neighbors don't like to get in squabbles with each other. Let's say some guy is building a carport without a permit.
We'll get a call and go check it out.'
'What about commercial remodeling and renovation?'
'We inspect every commercial project in the city.'
'Do you have unrestricted access to the site?'
'You bet we do. The city ordinance gives code enforcement inspectors the authority to enter any structure for the purposes of determining compliance with building standards. It's part of the health, safety, and welfare laws.'
'What if you're denied entry?'
'That happens a couple of times a year,' Wadley replied.
'I usually refer the problem to the city attorney and let the lawyers fight it out. In the end, we always get inside.'
'Have you ever asked for police assistance to enter a property?'
'Once, I had to. State statutes allow it. Any structure under construction or being remodeled must pass an inspection. Police officers can be called upon to render assistance.'
'What if the construction or remodeling was completed sometime in the past?'
Wadley smiled for the first time.
'That doesn't matter.
We can still inspect, if it's brought to our attention.'
'What kind of inspection do you do?' Kerney probed.
'We go through the skin, down to the studs, into the footings if we have to-you name it. We can check the composition of the concrete pour, the wiring, plumbing, heating, the rafters-whatever. We can even order a structure to be demolished if it's deemed unsafe for occupation. That's especially important in times of a natural disaster or catastrophe.'
'Would you be willing to use a state police officer to assist in gaining entry to a building?'
'You want to take a look around, do you?'
'That's the idea.'
'I don't see why we can't use your people. What building do you want to take a look at?'
Kerney filled Wadley in on the building's location.
Wadley nodded.
'That structure is in the Guadalupe Historic District. I know exactly where it is. I don't remember any review hearing for a building permit.'
