“He took a dive all right, but I think he was helped along.”
He looked at me sharply. “Not a suicide?”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “Come on, I’ll show you.” Together we headed upstairs to the office. I unlocked the door with Roger’s key, then walked to the window, carefully avoiding the thin smear of dirt on the floor.
“The windows prop open and have to be pulled shut,” I said. “But it was shut—even though it wasn’t latched. I doubt he climbed out, hovered for long enough to push it closed, and then plummeted down.”
Crawford frowned. “No way the wind could have pushed it closed?”
“I don’t think it’s likely.”
“Well then, we’ll treat it like a homicide unless some other evidence to the contrary comes along.”
I gave a slow nod as I stepped back out into the hallway. “It’s a funny coincidence too ...”
“What’s that?”
I looked up as Jill exited the elevator with her case in her hand and camera slung around her neck.>“He has a little home gym set up through there,” Roger said, gesturing to the another door. “Once he started to lose the weight he shelled out some serious bucks for really nice equipment.” He opened the door and flipped on the lights. Still the same ugly tile floor, but this room was packed with weight benches and machines, and the far wall was taken up with a small kitchenette area with refrigerator. I didn’t know a whole lot about exercise equipment, but even I could tell that this was gym-quality stuff—not the kind sold at Walmart. Okay, so maybe he preferred to spend his money on stuff that actually mattered to him.
“Actually, I work out here pretty often,” Roger told me. “I gave Vic a discount on my training fee in exchange for being able to use the equipment here.” He glanced at me with a wry smile. “Sometimes it’s nice to get a totally uninterrupted workout. If I’m at Magnolia I’m kinda always on duty, and I get interrupted all the time by people wanting help or a spot or whatever.”
“Trust me,” I replied, “I totally sympathize with the ‘always on duty’ thing getting old.”
He grinned. “Yeah, I guess cops get it all the time.”
“You know it. So, was Vic dating anyone?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” Roger said. “I’m pretty sure he would have mentioned it if he was.”
“What about business dealings? Did he ever talk about that?”
“Um, sure, Vic mentioned some stuff sometimes,” he said. “But he never gave details about the accounts he worked on. He knew his shit, though. He gave me some great advice.”
“What sort of advice?” I asked.
“Investments. That sort of thing.” He gave me a casual shrug that struck me as being a bit too casual. Maybe some of Vic’s advice had been off the mark and Roger had retaliated? Just because Roger was reporting Vic missing didn’t mean that he wasn’t the cause.
I turned back to the front office and went to the desk. Neat and tidy, obsessively so. I riffled through a stack of papers on the desk, but didn’t see anything that leaped out at me as a reason to go missing. No threatening letters from an ex-girlfriend. No blackmail notes.
I sighed and looked out at the view. A few sailboats were making their way across the lake in meandering patterns. I stepped closer to the window then stopped, frowning as a strange sensation rippled over me.
What the hell? I shifted into othersight, shocked as a familiar resonance washed over me. Like the creature that grabbed Lida.
Pulse quickening, I switched back to normal sight, then crouched and peered at the tiled floor. There was dirt there. Not much, but on the pristine floor it was noticeable. I straightened and looked at the window itself.
“Did you find something?” Roger asked.
I glanced back at him. “Do these windows open?”
“Yeah, they prop out,” he said, stepping up to point to the latch mechanism at the bottom.
“This one isn’t latched,” I murmured. Shit. I knew I needed to look, but I didn’t want to. I had a sick and certain feeling that I knew where Vic was.
“Oh, god. Do you think ...” He trailed off.
I took a piece of blank paper from the printer and put it against the window so that I could push it open without marring any possible prints too badly. I peered down, then looked at Roger.
“I think we found your client.”