Dex thought about that.
I opened the door.
“Stay with Reyes.”
“You going in.”
“Yeah.”
I crossed the street at an angle that made me look like I belonged to another building.
Halfway there, a delivery van rolled slowly past the block and kept going.
Too slow.
I noted it and kept moving.
The rear alley was narrow, damp, cluttered with bins and stacked pallets. Pierce’s back stairwell sat behind a rusted security gate with a chain thin enough to insult the word security.
I cut it and went through.
Concrete stairs.
Old smell.
Three floors.
I listened at each landing.
Nothing until the top.
Then footsteps inside Pierce’s apartment.
I knocked once.
Locks opened faster than expected.
Pierce stood there with a pistol in one hand and a folder in the other.
“You again.”
“You exp
