Severe Clear (Stone Barrington 24)

“I’ll think about that.” She accepted the man’s card. “Say, did Jimmy Chang live here?”

“Yeah, that was the guy.”

“He’s a pal of mine. Do you know where he moved?”

“Nope. I just got an e-mail saying he was moving out at the end of his lease. That was three, four days ago.”

“Where did you send his security deposit?”

The man produced a notebook. “To his mother, in San Mateo, California.”

Harp already had that address. “Thanks again,” she said, and took the elevator down. A young man was waiting on the front stoop. “He’s up on the sixth floor,” she said, holding the door open for him. She looked around the front of the building for trash bags, but none were in sight.

Harp walked slowly down the block, checking out the shops along the way, until she came to a small but invitingly decorated restaurant. It was getting on toward lunchtime, so she went in and took a seat at the bar. She ordered a club sandwich and a beer, and watched faces as the place started to fill up.

The bartender sidled over. “You new in the neighborhood?”

“Yeah,” Harp replied. “I just looked at an apartment a few doors down.”

“I’ll bet that was Jimmy Chang’s place,” he said.

“That’s how I heard about it,” she said. “I got an e-mail from Jimmy.”

“You know Jimmy?”

“Yeah, we went out a few times a while back. You know where he moved to?”

“Out of the neighborhood,” the bartender said.

“How far outside the neighborhood?”

“About three thousand miles

.”

“Ah, West Coast. Silicon Valley?”

“How’d you guess?”

“That’s where those computer geeks go, isn’t it?”

“It sure is. Jimmy said he doubled his salary.”

“No kidding? He was pulling down half a million at the old place—what’s it called?”

“High Cotton Ideas. They’re so damned hot, I’m surprised he walked.”

“Who would pay Jimmy a million a year?”

“He told me,” the bartender said, staring at the ceiling. “It’ll come to me in a minute.” Then he looked at Harp. “Hey, why do you want to know?”

Harp laughed. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m not carrying his baby.”

The bartender laughed. “Yeah, Jasmine wouldn’t like that.”

“Yeah, she’s the new girlfriend, isn’t she?”

“Right.”