“I did. I also heard a noise.”
“What kind of noise?”
“It was more like a series of sounds. Scraping and clunks.”
“Nothing else?”
“A plane flying over. Other than that, nothing. So how does someone carry two corpses into that house andno one sees a thing?”
“Well, I understand there aren’t many people left in this neighborhood.”
“But the killers couldn’t be sure a car wouldn’t drive down the street. Or someone wouldn’t look out their window. I mean, it only takes one pair of eyes.” He fell silent for a moment. “Now, do you want to tell me what your men were doing here? And why they were undercover? If theywere hanging out with a bad crowd, I think we can narrow our list of suspects, especially in a place like this.”
She pursed her lips and stared at him. “This goes no farther.”
“No farther,” repeated Decker.
“Will Beatty and Doug Smith, they were the two dead men in that house. Beatty was in the basement. Smith was the one hanging.”
“And they worked undercoverfor the DEA?”
“Yes and no,” was her surprising reply.
“How exactly is that possible?” asked Decker.
“Theydidwork undercover for us. And then they went rogue.”
“How do you know they went rogue? Maybe their cover just got blown.”
“We entertained that possibility until something happened to disabuse us of that notion.”
“What was that?”
“They were working with a guy named Randy Haas.”
“Was he DEA too?”
“No. He was a bad guy who we had on a short leash feeding us info. He was working with Beatty and Smith. If he screwed us, he was going to prison for life.”
“What happened with Haas?”
“He was given a fatal dose of morphine. But with his dying breath, he pointed the finger at Beattyand Smith as his killers.”
“Did he say why?”
“No. Just that it was them.”
“Why would they kill him?”
“Don’t know.”
“And you believe Haas’s statement?”
“Dying declaration. What reason would he have to lie? And on top of that we’d been unable to get hold of Beatty or Smith.”
“Whoever killed Beatty and Smithknewthey were cops.They dressed one as a cop and poured pig’s blood around the other one.”
“But the fact is, they’d gone over to the dark side.”
“Well, some folks just aren’t very forgiving,” said Decker. “Especially those already on the dark side.”