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He looked at her quickly and only shook his head

"Bill said a Detective Moffett of the WPD just drove up"

They found thehborhood of mid- to low-end apartments that left very few trees to soften the scene Instead, there were stuffed garbage cans lining the street, and piles of filthy snow packed back against buildings Four cop cars blocked the street Officers were already out canvassing the neighborhood wherever they saw a light

"I hate this," she said

Detective Lorenzo Moffett, a fireplug topped with a short halo of hair hugging his head, and eyes that had seen too much, met them at Stony Hart’s apartent Savich There’s a lot of talk at the Daly Building about that poor kid found at the Lincoln Meiven the circumstances, we’ll see Hart’s in here"

"Our forensic team and the FBI ME will be here soon, Detective Moffett," Sherlock said

"My Loo’s got no proble over the forensics once he heard it’s connected to To to the neighborhood, and I want to be kept in the loop I’ve got the girlfriend in the kitchen She was pretty drunk e got here, since she’d been out partying with girlfriends She told Agent Sparks she decided to surprise hi to her, and this is what she found Needless to say, she’s stone-cold sober now Naturally, she didn’t know about an FBI agent sitting in front of the building Did Hart know?"

Savich shook his head "I assigned Agent Sparks to keep watch here"

Moffett didn’t say a word about that, although they could tell he wanted to "I ran a check on the girlfriend while I waited for you guys," Moffett said "Janelle Eckles is twenty-two; she’s a clerk at State part-titon,in history Parents live in Independence, Ioork in Cedar Rapids, both engineers in a biotech coood-sized living roo rooathered over the years, from a fifties-modern coffee table to a beat-up early-American sofa Stacks of CDs covered an entire side of the sofa, and there was a bowl filled to the bri one as a long cafeteria-style table, mostly empty except for a lonely keyboard, a printer, and a beehive of coeometric patterns were scattered around the table, where Stony’s computers and routers had stood before Spooner and his crew had removed them all that afternoon

Moffett waved his hand around "You can see Hart was really into his coent Sparks told me the FBI hauled away his stuff I’d like to knohat that was about First let’s see if you agree this is a suicide"

He ushered thele dresser, a leather chair, and a king-size bed No coirlfriend, only a big flat-screen TV hung on the wall opposite the bed

Walter Stony Hart was lying on the bed on his back with his ardalene sweatshirt, and black Nikes on his feet, his ar Beside him on the bedside table stood two empty pill bottles Savich looked closely at the bottles, saw the prescription labels had been ripped off so no one would knohere he’d got them? Or because he didn’t want to be saved if the pills didn’t kill him? Next to the bottle was a piece of white paper

"Ms Eckles said she read it," Moffett said "She said it was neatly set beneath the bottles

"We didn’t touch it again," Moffett said Sherlock leaned down, read aloud, "I can’t live like this I’ned "Stony Hart"

Sherlock studied the scene, studied Stony’s face "Where is the pad this sheet of paper came from?"

"It’s here, on the floor beside the bed"

"And the pen?"

Moffett said, "It’s on top of the pad of paper It’s really a journal sort of notebook, but funny thing is, there’s nothing written in it"

Sherlock took the journal, thuave it back to Detective Moffett

"Devil’s advocate here It’s suicide; look at hile, he’s all peaceful, like he cah, even left a note Hard to fake all that"