Chapter 66 first quarter

Accustomed to seeing the Spanish-Pueblo style houses in Santa Fe, Albuquerque's traditional buildings with pointed roofs and brick or wooden facades seem unusual.Santa Fe has only a few Victorian buildings; Albuquerque has many.They also seemed out of the ordinary to Decker, along with the multitude of ranch-style bungalows.Randolph Green's house is one of them. It took a full hour to find this address.Decker, Hal, and Ben stopped at three gas stations along Route 25 before finally finding one with a map of Albuquerque.The map was not as detailed as they had hoped, and they had to drive slowly, checking for signposts, but they finally found their destination on the plain west of town.Chama Avenue is lined with modest-looking ranch-style bungalows. Those lawns, shade trees, and fences make Decker feel as if he has come to the outskirts of the Midwest.He felt unreal again, feeling dizzy.

"Here's the address," Hal said.He was driving past a house that seemed like any other. It was already past 10 o'clock in the evening, and the sunset had already disappeared without a trace.The area was dark except for street lamps on Broad Street and a few lights in the windows of the homes, and the residents were probably out for a Saturday night.Lights were on in the back and porch of the Greens' house. "Maybe he's home—maybe he's not," Ben said, "and maybe those lights are there to deter burglars." "Drove around the block," Decker said. "Let's find out if there's anything out of the ordinary."

Nothing out of the ordinary.Everything nearby looks as normal as Green's. "Maybe we're mistaken," Hal said. "This doesn't look like a dangerous hotbed at all." "This is the only lead we have." Decker persisted, unwilling to give up hope. "I want to ask Green why he went all the way to the airport to rent a car." Hal pulled over at the end of the street. Decker waited until the Taurus' headlights went out before getting out of the car.He tried to use the darkness as a cover.But just as he was turning back toward Green's house, Hal opened the suitcase.

"Wait a minute." Hal called him softly, and handed him something.It was a set of lockpicking tools, Decker recognized. Then Hal handed him something else, and Decker knew exactly what it was without asking.It was all too familiar to him—a semi-automatic pistol. "9 mm caliber," Hal lowered his voice, "it's the Beretta, here's its silencer." Hal took something out of the suitcase, and Ben did the same. "But how did you get through airport security?" "We don't have to go through security." Decker nodded. "Now that I think about it. You said when you were at my house that you were flying on a company jet."

"Is everything ready?" Ben asked. After looking around to make sure no one was peeking, Decker removed the magazine to check it out and found it was full, then he reloaded the magazine, unbolted the breech, and cocked a round barrel.Carefully he cocked the pistol's hammer, not caring whether the safety was on or not, and tucked the gun under his belt.He put on dark loafers, clean jeans, a denim shirt, and a tan trench coat over it before he set off.Now, the trench coat completely concealed the pistol under the belt.Although he did his best in the shower to wash the soot from his hair and skin, the cool water didn't do as well.There was still a faint smell of smoke on him. "Ready."

"What are you going to do?" asked Ben. "If Green was home, he might not be alone. He might have a family, he might be innocent, or he might be living with a bunch of guys who like to get together and play automatic weapons. Either way, We can't rush in." "You're watching the house here, and I'll go take a look," Decker said. "But you may need help." "You said it yourself, this is not your job. This is my business, so it should be me who takes the risk." "We're not here to do this for work." "Trust me, if I need help, I'll let you know."

Hal closed the trunk.Decker walked along the dark sidewalk with feigned composure.He carefully watched the houses on both sides of the street, and gradually approached Green's house.There was no one in sight.He walked past Green's house, turned left, and entered the yard of another house—the house was dark there—and moved cat-slumped along the wooden fence until he came to the back of the house.He had been worried that the family or the Greens would have dogs, but neither had a kennel in their backyard, nor had they heard a dog bark.The night was very quiet.Trying to control his nervousness, he smelled the scent of freshly cut grass.

Lights from the back of Green's house shone through a window, casting a rectangle of light in the dark backyard.No one was moving inside the window.From his position, Decker could see the back of the Greens' one-car garage.Moving as quietly as possible, he cleared the waist-high fence and landed on the lawn on the other side.Immediately afterwards, he flung himself on the back wall of the garage, completely merging with the shadows.Seeing that no one was responding to him jumping into the yard, he peered in through the back window of the garage.By the light from the back of Green's house, he could see that the garage was empty.

Then he crawled to the bushes behind the house, hunched under a darkened window, and listened for voices, music, TV programs, and anything else that would indicate someone was in the house.The room was silent.Fortunately for him, the fence and the trees hid him from the view of those in the house behind.He came out of the shadows and listened carefully to the movement at the back door of Green's house.There was no sound from inside.He moved under the window from which the light was shining and listened again, but there was still no movement. He weighed the situation.If Green lived here alone, an empty garage meant he was out.However, if Green lived with others, would there be anyone left in the house?Or, what if Green didn't own a car at all, so he just rented a Cavalier on Sept. 1?

Damn it, Decker thought, I don't have time to rethink all of this.I must find Beth!Had this happened in his past life, he would have stepped back and watched the house until he had a chance to come face-to-face with Green under controlled circumstances.But this was Decker's life now, and, with his heart pounding, he was sure that Beth was in distress and needed his help.Why did she lie to him? There must be something strange in it.Perhaps, at this moment, she was about to be murdered in Green's house. He found nothing to warn of potential intruders, suggesting the house did not have a security alarm system.Usually, this kind of trace will appear in any conspicuous place.There are no protective thorns on all rear windows.Decker held out hope that Green had forgotten to lock the back door.He tried pushing, to no avail.He pulled the pack of lockpicking tools from his coat pocket and opened the lock in less than 30 seconds.He could have done it faster, but he had to be careful not to make as much noise as possible and startle anyone in the room.He was suddenly aware of the irony of fate, the discreet attempt to pry open his door the night before.

He took out the Beretta pistol, stooped open the door, and aimed the muzzle into the house.It was a small kitchen, he saw, and the light he saw was from an electric lamp over the sink.He quickly sneaked into other dark rooms and checked all the corners while making no noise as much as possible.Fortunately, the house has only one floor and no basement.He found no one. He went out the back door and crept back to the dimly lit sidewalk in front of the house. Five minutes later, he was back inside, this time with Hal and Ben.Decker locked the door behind him casually and said, "Let's see who Randolph Green really is. When I searched just now, I found no children's clothing or toys, and I didn't see any women's clothing. Green is either alone. live, or live with another man." "I'll search the master bedroom," Hal said. "If there's another bedroom, I'll search it," said Ben. "Okay," said Decker, "then I'll search the library." "Maybe not." Hal frowned. "What's the matter?" "There are headlights in the driveway."