After dropping Cassie off with
Jessie and Jen, I went straight to the precinct where Collins was actually more
cheerful than I usually saw him. We stared at a big-screen display showing a
map of Belport. Overlayed on the map was a dashed yellow path that looked like
something that Billy from Family Circus might leave as he wandered about.
Instead of Billy, the legend at the bottom indicated that it was the path of
Kevin Washburn. There was a picture of his face next to the name, and I
recognized the dealer that Jen and I had met at DeGradi.
“First time I know his actual name,”
I said.
Collins grunted. “So this is what we
got. We can narrow it down by time, but this is the last three months.” He
circled part of the map. “DeGradi is where he’s most focused. Not surprising
for a student. Less surprising for one who sells to students, too.”
“Does he live on campus?” I asked.
Collins shook his head, and pointed
to an area just off of the campus, but still within what people called
University Square. “Apartment. Probably didn’t want campus inspections getting
in the way. Lot of the dorms have tightened up on security, too, with cameras.”
“Roommates?”
Collins shook his head. “Lease is
only in his name, landlord reported no other occupants. Unless his suppliers
come to his place for the exchange, which is not likely, he’s getting stuff
from one of the other areas he’s frequenting. He spends a lot of time at the
beaches.”
“So it’s got to be one of those.”
“Yeah, that’s what we figure, but
there’s a dozen locations he goes to. Which one is it? If he’s getting the
stuff by boat, like we suspect, any of these can be the location.”
“Could it be all of them? Is there a
pattern to when he visits them?”
Collins frowned, then looked at the
tech. “Can you filter for that?”
The tech, a twenty-something guy
with dark hair and handlebar moustache, leaned one way, then the other, and
started clicking and typing. The tech’s screen was different from the map. He
had a list of GPS coordinates, and was typing in a dizzying array of numbers
and other variables to get the results. “Doesn’t appear that there’s a pattern
based on date.”
“Doesn’t mean that the exchanges
don’t happen at different places,” I said. “Maybe the suppliers just tell them
the next drop point at each meeting.”
Collins nodded. “So we’ve got two
choices, we haul the guy in for questioning or we stake out all these
locations, hoping that the next drop isn’t somewhere new.”
“Three choices,” I said, handing
over a flash drive. “My partner and I staked out a frat house. Got some more
faces of people selling at DeGradi.”
“You did this on your own?”
“Her idea.”
“Maybe I should hire her.”
“I’ll tell
her you’re interested.”