TOTAL CONTROL By: David Baldacci

visible. Perplexed, Sawyer looked at her. “So? I can show you about a

dozen of these in my office. Metal rusts, leaches into the carpet.

Presto. Rust spots.”

Sidney’s eyes twinkled. “Really?” She pointed triumphantly.

There were faint but discernible indentations on the carpet, which

showed that the cabinet had originally butted up against the one next to

it. There should have been no gap.

She motioned to the cabinet Sawyer had moved. “Lean it over and check

the bottom.

Sawyer did so. “No rust spots,” he said, then looked back at her.

“So somebody moved this cabinet to cover the rust spot. Why?”

“Because that rust spot came from another filing cabinet. A filing

cabinet that isn’t here anymore. Whoever took it vacuumed out as best

they could the indentations the missing cabinet ‘made on the rug but

couldn’t get the rust spot out. So they did the next best thing. They

covered it up with another filing cabinet and hoped no one paid any

attention to the gap.”

“But you did,” Sawyer said, more than a trace of admiration in his tone.

“I couldn’t figure why a guy obviously as neat as our Mr. Page would

have a gap in a wall of filing cabinets. Answer: Someone else did it

for him.”

“And that means someone is interested in Edward Page and what he had in

that file cabinet. Which means we’re heading in the right direction.”

Sawyer picked up the phone on Page’s desk. In a succinct request he

instructed Ray Jackson to find out everything he could about Edward

Page. He hung up and looked over at Sidney. “Since his office didn’t

yield all that much, what do you say we pay a visit to the late Edward

Page’s humble abode.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Page’s residence was on the ground floor of a large turn-of-the-century

home in Georgetown that had been transformed into a series of quaint

apartments. The sleepy owner of the property had not questioned

Sawyer’s desire to view the premises. The man had read of Page’s death

and expressed dismay over it. Two detectives had been to the apartment

and interviewed the landlord and several tenants.

The landlord had also received a phone call from Page’s daughter in New

York. The private investigator had been a model tenant. His hours were

somewhat irregular, and he would sometimes be gone for days at a time,

but the rent was always paid on the first of the month and he had been

quiet and orderly. He had no close friends of whom the owner was aware.

Using a key provided by the owner, who lived on the premises, Sawyer

unlocked the front door of the apartment and he and Sidney stepped

inside; he hit the light switch and then shut the door behind them. He

was hoping to at least get a base hit here, although a homer would be

nice.

They had checked the security log before leaving Page’s office.

The filing cabinet had been removed the day before by two guys in

movers’ uniforms bearing a legit-looking work order and the keys to the

office door. Sawyer figured the moving company was certainly a phony

and the contents of Page’s filing cabinet, which probably held a

treasure trove of interesting info, was probably no more than a pile of

ash at the bottom of some incinerator by now.

The interior of Page’s residence resembled the man’s office in its

simplicity and neatness. Sawyer and Sidney walked through the various

rooms, surveying the basic layout of the apartment. A nice fireplace

with a large Victorian-style mantel dominated the living room.

Bookshelves filled one wall. Edward Page had been a voracious and

eclectic reader, if his collection of books was any indication.

There were not, however, any journals or records or receipts that might

have shown where Page had been lately or whom he might have been

following other than Sidney and Jason Archer.

After methodically searching the living and dining rooms, Sawyer and

Sidney moved on.

The kitchen and bathroom yielded nothing of interest. Sawyer tried the

usual places like the tank behind the toilet and in the refrigerator,

where he checked Coke cans and heads of lettuce to make certain they