Least Wanted (Sam McRae Mystery #2)

Chapter 18

The news of Cooper's death took the wind out of me. I felt lightheaded. "When was this?" I murmured.

"They found Cooper yesterday," Kramer said. "The body was a mess. He'd been in the water a week or so, and that's just the ME's best guess, according to my sources. He was hit on the head, but the body was so discolored, it was hard to tell whether it happened before or after he died."

"Any call on whether this was an accident, suicide, or homicide?"

"At this point, it could be any of the above, though suicide by drowning is rare, as you know. No apparent signs of struggle. But with so much time in the water, it's hard to tell. He could have fallen in the canal and hit his head or he could have been beaned and dumped in the water. They'll know more after they check his lungs. And no one can say where the body entered the water. They may get a general idea, based on the estimated water flow rate. Pinpointing the exact location is a long shot."

"You mean he could have been floating downstream a while?"

"From the looks of him, he was submerged most of the time. Given our warm fall weather, it could have taken from a few days to a week for the body to surface. Or so they tell me."

"And the cops are still investigating?"

"That's the word. Now, here's the good news."

"I could use some good news. What is it?"

"When we spoke, you mentioned finding a key at that rat trap Cooper used as a mail drop. When I found out where Cooper lived, I snooped and found a fireproof box. Guess what? You need a key to open it. Maybe the one you found."

I sucked in a deep breath. "I take it you found it before the cops got involved."

"The day before. Talk about good timing. Anyway, I took the box to the office and forced it open. It had loads of goodies in it. I know you'll want to see and hear it all. I'll copy everything and send it to you before I turn it over to the cops."

"Hear? Are there recordings?"

"Yep. You'll see. A lot of the conversations mean little to me. They may mean something to you. I suspect Cooper was keeping them as insurance. It appears to be damaging information. I'm on a surveillance today, but I'll copy it tonight and send it to you first thing tomorrow."

I exhaled the breath I'd been holding. "Thanks, Alex. I appreciate your work on this. I can't wait to see what you found." I gave her my address and asked her to overnight the package the minute she could. "Let me know if you learn any more about how Cooper died," I added, before hanging up.

I checked my files and found the copy of Cooper's calendar. He'd made the cryptic entry "10 p.m. No. 17" for last Thursday, two days before I'd tried to find him. Was it an address? An apartment number? It suggested a meeting, perhaps Cooper's last.

I flipped farther back through the calendar and saw entries for "staff meeting" at regular intervals, a couple of doctor's appointments and what appeared to be personal information. Things were looking unremarkable until I noticed "6 p.m. No. 44" written on an April day. What was up with the numbers? I hoped the answer was somewhere in that fireproof box. Cooper couldn't tell me a thing now.

*****

The next day, Brad Higgins and I sat in Walt's conference room, while Walt fiddled with his VCR. The machine whirred as he ran our copy of the security tape forward and backward. The lobby camera in the building Kozmik Games called home was positioned at an angle high above and several feet back from the entrance, allowing an unobstructed frontal view of everyone who passed through the door. People zoomed in and out, in a blur. When we got to the segment about an hour and a half before Brad entered the building, Walt hit Forward, and we watched it play at normal speed.