He left Esther’s office then moved next door and tapped on Clayton’s doorframe. “Norm? Do you have a few minutes? Shannon and Donald are here, and they may have info on that new lead.”
“Sure!” Clayton said, rising from his chair.
“Would you rather meet here?”
Clayton wrinkled his nose and moved toward Colin. “Nah, we can meet in yours. My desk is covered.”
As they walked to Colin’s office, he briefed Clayton on what he knew so far about the part-time janitor. “I briefed Donnie on Saturday.” He shot Clayton a glance. “I tried to call you, and I did send an email.”
“Yeah. I got it. Thanks Colin.”
Colin halted right outside his office door and laid a hand on Clayton’s arm. “Norm, I want to apologize for the other day. I was dealing with some outside threats to my husband. I was upset and I took it out on you.”
Clayton, smiled, a flush rising on his cheeks. “You weren’t wrong to confront me, Colin. I think I was feeling a little threatened by Esther’s new attorney and the attention you were getting and I over-reacted.” He extended his hand to Colin. “Fresh start?”
Colin shook his hand and nodded. “Done!”
They entered Colin’s office and he closed the door before sitting down behind his desk. “Please tell me you turned up something on this guy,” Colin begged his friends. “Jesus, we are fromnowhereon this case.”
“It’s a solid lead, Colin,” Shannon Nash replied. “Don and I talked to the theater owner yesterday. He gave us a name and address on the guy.” He gave Colin a police report that Colin handed over to Clayton. “Go on, Shannon.”
“His name is Lukas Page,” Shannon continued. “The theater owner had an address, but the guy doesn’t live there anymore.”
“We talked to his former landlord,” Donald chimed in, “and he told us that Page left no forwarding address. In fact, he was highly pissed because Page ducked out still owing him a couple months’ back rent.” Donald leaned toward Colin. “But the landlord did tell us that Page had a sister who visited him at least once. Evidently the landlord spoke to her or spoke to the suspect about her because he said she lives in the Westgate area.”
“We’re working on that angle now,” Shannon added. “So far nothing, but we’ll keep at it.”
“The landlord also told us that he planned to evict Page because he suspected he was selling drugs from the apartment andknewhe was using. I gather he spotted paraphernalia in the trash.”
“Did he file a police report?” Clayton asked.
“No.”
The corner of Colin’s mouth tightened. “Peachy!”
“The guy manages over two hundred units.” Donald said with a shrug. “And he has to deal with a lot of this stuff.”
“We’re going to keep looking for the sister,” Shannon said, getting to his feet. “We’ll update you the minute we get anything new.”
“Thanks, guys,” Colin said. He followed his friends to the door and watched as they moved down the corridor.
“Good work, Colin,” Clayton said. “Shoot me an update me if they find anything new.”
Colin nodded and stepped to one side as Clayton moved out the door and headed toward his own office.
* * *
Later as theyate dinner Colin told Joshua about the meeting. “I’m glad I apologized,” he said, laying down his fork. “I have to work with the guy.” He grinned at his husband. “And since I blew my stack at him he’s been a lot easier to get along with.”
“Maybe you should have gotten up in his grill a long time ago.”
Colin scrunched his eyebrows, looking somewhat bewildered. “Could be. But why the hell does it have to be that way? That’s not how I want to do business. I don’t want an adversarial relationship with the guy. But he has to treat me with respect.”
“You shouldn’t have to demand that,” Joshua said. “And when youdohave to demand it, there are usually larger problems.”
“Could be. But Esther asked me to make peace and I did.”
“I’m glad that Nate’s lead is panning out. God, I’ll be glad when you catch this guy!”
