“Ransacked?”
“Well, not the whole house, just the living room and my bedroom.”
“Ransacked?”
“Stop saying that-you know what it means.”
“What, exactly, does it mean in the context of your house?”
“Things had been upset in the living room, thrown around.”
“And in your bedroom?”
“The same. And some of the drawers had been pulled out.”
“Which drawers?”
“The ones with my drawers in them.”
“Did your visitor leave any, ah, message?”
“You mean like the semen on my drawers?”
“Exactly.”
“You could say he made his presence known.”
“How do you know it was semen?”
She rolled her eyes. “Really, Stone.”
“All right, all right. What did you do?”
“I grabbed a few things, and we got the hell out of there.”
“What did you do with the semen stains?”
“Do with them? Yuck!”
“I mean, are they still there?”
“Well, I wanted to put the garments in question in the garbage, but Joan stopped me.”
“Good,” Stone said, picking up the phone. “That’
s evidence. I’ll get Dino to send somebody over there.”
“They’d better come here first and get my key.”
“Right.” Stone started dialing.
39
Dink Brennan was playing some one-on-one in the fenced-in exercise court of his unit with Otto, the large man who was his watchdog and only companion. Dink let him score, and then they sat down at a picnic table nearby to cool off.
“You’re doing okay, Dink,” Otto said. “I’m proud of you.”
“It’s important to me to do well here,” Dink replied. “And I want to thank you for helping me.”