“No, you don’t need to tell me,” she repeated quietly. “It’s at the top of my priority list.”
“Damn good thing,” he noted. “But it’s not your only case, is it?”
She shook her head. “That would be way too simple to say that and to work each case in that way.” She sighed. “We did just close a couple though. So, with any luck, we can get started on this one, while it’s hot.”
“You need to,” he agreed. “I know we’ve had budget cuts. There are always budget cuts, but we need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
At that, Rodney turned and looked at Smidge. “What do you mean?”
He faced Rodney, his mouth firmed into a straight line. “Whoever did this had fun. How long will it be before he decides that he needs to get that same fix again?”
“It won’t be long,” Kate guessed, quietly shoving her hands into her pockets. “It won’t be long at all.”
And, with that, she spun and headed over to talk to the drunk. Unfortunately, as she got to him, his head bobbed against his knees, and he had passed out in a stupor. She groaned, reached down, shook him awake, but all she got was mumbles.
“Whoa, whoa. Whaa… t do you… you want?”
But he wasn’t conscious enough to talk with her about this. She motioned to one of the police officers, standing off to the side. “Can you take him down to the drunk tank?” she asked. “He’s the one who found the body, so we’ll need to talk to him when he’s sobered up.”
Then she joined Rodney, still standing here, staring at the crime scene. “Forensics will be here for a while. Do you want to help go through the dumpster?”
“Hell no, I don’t want to,” he replied. “Chances are they won’t find anything anyway.”
“No, but we can’t take that chance,” she added quietly.
Just then the Forensics team arrived, and she was ushered to one side.
“There goes our chance anyway,” she muttered. “You know how territorial they can be.”
“Which is nice,” Rodney noted, “because, honest to God, we don’t want to be in their faces, and we don’t want them in ours.”
“Never quite works so nice and clean as that though, does it?” She gave him a half smile.
He shook his head. “If this is the only case, we do need to canvass everybody around here.”
“I know. I was thinking of that,” she noted. “This is mostly a business district, and it’ll be dark in the evenings, but a group of homeless people should be up and down this area all the time.” Kate frowned as she reoriented herself. “Maybe if we check out this alley, we might find somebody who saw something.”
“Anybody who was here is long gone,” Rodney stated. “You know that. It’s the law of the land out here. Self-preservation means,Get the hell out before the cops come.”
“Unfortunately you’re right about that,” she agreed, “but it doesn’t help when it comes to getting witness information. What about cameras?” she asked, turning to look.
“There’ll be cameras on the main street,” Rodney noted, “but not a whole lot when it comes to these alleyways though.”
“Still, the main street will give us something.” She walked to the corner and took a look. “An all-night coffee shop is up at the corner.” She pointed. “Looks a little bit on the seedy side.”
“Did you hear what you just said? An all-night coffee shop in this part of town?” He shook his head. “This is Hastings Street. I’m surprised anything is all-night here.”
“Unless it’s rented by the hour,” she suggested.
“Only if they have somebody around to rent to,” he muttered. “I’m not exactly sure anybody around here will be doing the tango in a coffee shop.”
“Well, they probably are. They just won’t admit to it.”
He laughed. “True enough.”
Crossing the street, they headed into the coffee shop. As it was, one woman, looking very tired and old, sat on a stool behind the counter. The coffee shop had only a couple tables, and it wasn’t any bigger than a postage stamp. Kate pulled out her badge, identified herself, and asked if the woman had any cameras outside the shop.
The woman glanced at Kate and shook her head. “Nope. No cameras around here,” she replied. “They did that for a while, monitoring the whole works. But, after so many break-ins, they couldn’t get coverage anymore from insurance, and the equipment was so cheap that you couldn’t tell who it was anyway. The owner figures it’s cheaper to replace a couple tables and chairs, and they even bought these solid cabinets, instead of the glass ones, for when the break-ins happen. We post signs that we don’t have cash after midnight, so nothing’s in the till anyway.” She shrugged. “It’s a lot better that way.”