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“71a is in there?” she asked.
Simon nodded. “The main question ishow we play this.”
Amber considered that for a momentor two. “Kevin is a suspect, but we don’t have much beyond Elsje’s feeling thathe was kind of a creep. I want to talk to him, and I want to ask him about hisinterest in astrology, but it’s far too early to go in there hard and startthreatening to arrest him.”
That might change, depending on howthings went in there, but for now, they would have to go carefully. Amber gotout of the car, looking around at the street nearby. She spotted a yellowHyundai. That was good, because at least it suggested that Kevin might be home.
Amber pulled up what she could findon Kevin. She wasn’t entirely surprised to find a collection of arrests forminor offenses, ranging from drug possession to petty theft. None of it hadstuck. The picture showed a thin-faced man in his twenties, with a dark goatee.He would have been attractive enough in better light, but there was somethingabout the cocksure confidence of his expression even in a mug shot that putAmber off.
She showed the picture to Simon,and the two of them moved among the condos until they found 71a. It was tuckedaway in a corner, with easy access to a set of metal stairs leading downtowards the rear of the property. A man in a hooded sweatshirt was juststarting to make his way down them, glancing furtively over his shoulder in thedirection of Amber and Simon. Amber thought about how easily the homeless guyshad spotted her and Simon driving up, and instinct made her call out.
“Kevin?”
The man looked around, obviouslyunable to stop himself. He was in his late twenties, skinny, with very familiarfeatures. Amber had been looking at a picture of them only moments before.
“Kevin, stop there. We just want totalk to you.”
She could see the fear there onKevin’s face, and she knew that he was going to run. She started forward, buteven that movement was enough to set Kevin running. Amber glanced back towardsSimon. “You go around. I’ll follow.”
She set off in pursuit of thefleeing man, and just the fact that he was running made him go up as a suspectin Amber’s estimation. She sprinted down the staircase after him, down into aback alley where trash cans stood to either side. Kevin was running away toAmber’s right, so she hurried after him, determined not to lose sight of him.
Kevin knocked over a couple of thetrash cans as he ran, so that Amber was forced to hurdle them to keep runningafter him. It didn’t slow her down. She’d trained for this. A couple of yearsago, she wouldn’t have been able to do any of this, but now, chasing after asuspect like Kevin came as naturally as breathing. She kept up her pursuit,determined to close the gap.
Kevin wove this way and that, as ifhe might find some new route to escape, but the alley was straight, andultimately, he settled for sprinting as fast as he could towards its exit. He’dalmost made it when Simon stepped around the corner in front of him. Kevinslammed into him, but compared to Simon’s muscular frame, Kevin barely weighedanything. He pretty much bounced off Simon, stumbling and falling to the groundjust as Amber caught up. She was breathing hard now, but it was nothingcompared to the way Kevin was panting for breath.
Amber pulled out her badge. “Like Isaid, Kevin, we just want to talk to you.”
“Well, I’ve got nothing to say toany feds. What’s this even about?”
Amber helped him to his feet. “Andif you’d said that you didn’t want to talk to us a couple of minutes ago, we’dhave left. But now… now I’m wondering why you ran, Kevin. What will we findwhen we take you back to your place?”
“Nothing. I haven’t done anything.”
“Well, you won’t mind taking usback there and showing us, then, will you?” Simon said, taking a grip onKevin’s arm. Amber saw how tense Kevin looked, how worried.
“Look,” she said. “I don’t knowwhat you have back there, whether it’s your drug stash or something you’vestolen. Right now, I don’t care. My partner and I aren’t the local PD, and wearen’t here about petty crimes. We want to talk to you about Katrina.”
Amber caught the change in Kevin’sexpression, the look of pain and loss that crossed his features.
“Her crazy bitch of a sisterpointed you at me, didn’t she?” he demanded. “She keeps telling people I hadsomething to do with what happened to her.”
“Did you?” Amber asked.
“Of course not. I loved her!”
Love didn’t stop people from doingdangerous, even violent, things. Amber was going to need more than that.
“Where were you the day Katrinadied?” Amber asked.
“I was working. I’d picked up acouple of days’ work down at a warehouse. Then all the police involvement madethem take another look at my record, and I lost the job.” Kevin sounded bitterabout it all. “You know that her family wouldn’t even let me go to thefuneral?”
“Where were you two nights ago,between ten and midnight?” Simon asked.
“I was at a bar.”
“What bar?”
“Look, I was doing a deal there. Ifpeople there know I was talking to you-”
