“Phone and electricity got shut off for nonpayment. We pay the gas but the utilities notify us when the other stuff goes.”

“Kind of an early warning system.”

Jabber smiled uneasily. “Not early enough.”

“When did the phone and electricity get shut off?”

“You’d have to call the main office.”

“Or you could.”

Jabber frowned, pulled out a cell phone, punched an auto-dial three-digit code. “Samir, there? Hey, Sammy, Ralph. I am, yeah, the usual...tell me, when did the juice get squeezed off at Overland D-14? Why? ’Cause the cops wanna know. Yeah...who knows, Sammy, they’re here now, want to talk to them yourself...okay, then, just tell me so I can get them outta— so they can find out what they wanna know. Listen, I got six more to deal with, Sammy, including two in the Valley and it’s already eleven...yeah, yeah...”

Ninety seconds passed. Phone tucked between his ear and his shoulder, Jabber walked into the kitchenette, opened cabinets, ran his finger inside drawers. “Fine. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I will, yeah.”

He clicked off. “Utilities went four weeks ago. One of our inspectors said there’d been no mail for six weeks.”

“Four weeks ago and you just came by today.”

Jabber colored. “Like I said, it’s a big company.”

“You the owner?”

“I wish. My father-in-law.”

“That him you were talking to?”

Jabber shook his head. “Brother-in-law.”

“Family affair,” said Milo.

“By marriage,” said Jabber. His lips twisted into a tight, pale blossom. “Okay? I gotta lock up.”

“Who’s the inspector?”

“My sister-in-law. Samir’s wife. Samir has her come around, check things out. She’s not too bright, never told anyone about the no-mail.”

“You have any idea where Mr. Meserve went?”

“I wouldn’t know him if he walked in right now. Why all the questions? What’d he do?”

Milo said, “Would anyone at the company have information about him?”

“No way,” said Jabber.

“Who rented to him?”

“He probably used one of the services. Rent-Search, or one of them. It’s on-line or you can call, mostly people do it on-line.”

“How’s it work?”

“Applicant submits an application to the service, service passes it along to us. Applicant qualifies, he puts down the deposit and the first month and moves in. Once we get occupancy, we pay a commission to the service.”

“Meserve have a lease?”

“Month to month, we don’t do leases.”

“Leases don’t keep the vacancy rate down?”

“You get a bum,” said Jabber, “doesn’t matter what’s on paper.”

“What does it take to qualify as a tenant?”

“Hey,” said Jabber. “Lots of homeless would kill for a place like this.”

“You ask for references?”

“Sure.”

“Who did Meserve give?”

“Like I said, I’m just the— ”

“Call your brother-in-law. Please.”

* * *