AS EVENING DARKENED the sky, we found the Sal’s Storage place easily. Just as Toni, the young woman at the
warehouse club, had described, there were five units to the right of the entry gate.
We stood at the metal gate blocking the entrance to the facility. It wasn’t a huge place. I estimated there were
probably about seventy-five storage units total. Most of them were in the main building, which had two floors.
Then there were the five units in another structure off to the right with what looked like the closed office behind
them.
Standing next to me, Maggie said, “I guess it’d be a little obvious if we just followed someone through the gate?”
“I have no problem doing that if you think someone’s going to come in at this time of night.”
Maggie squatted on her haunches and surveyed the property carefully.
Then she stood up, walked over to the fence surrounding the storage facility, and rummaged around on the ground
for a moment. She stood up holding a long plastic handle that looked like a broken boat oar with a little bit of paddle
left. It had probably been used with some sort of packing material.
Being a smart-ass, I said, “I don’t think that’s sturdy enough to bend this metal gate.”
Maggie didn’t even acknowledge my quip. She leaned down next to the gate, squeezing her arm through the bars
with the plastic handle in her hand.
I saw exactly what she was trying to do. She slowly lifted the handle until it broke the beam of the laser on the other
side of the gate, which sensed when a car was approaching and opened the gate.
It worked perfectly. As soon as the gate started to move, Maggie jumped
back.
I said, “Pretty good thinking there, Special Agent Chin. Did you learn that in the ATF academy?”
“I learned that living in New York City most of my life. I would’ve thought you’d have picked it up as well.” She
gave me a sly smile after the dig.
As soon as we got close, I saw that there was light coming out from under the door of the second-to-last storage unit
in the building on the right.
Maggie said, “Not hard to figure out which one this jackass is staying in.”
That’s when I stopped. Maggie stopped too, and turned to see what the issue was.
I said, “We need to treat this guy seriously. We want to question him about the murder of a police officer. Let’s
proceed carefully. I don’t want either of us getting hurt, and I don’t want this guy slipping past us somehow.”
“I agree. Should we wait and call in reinforcements?” Maggie asked.
I considered it. “I could see using a tactical squad to flush him out of the unit,” I said. “On the other hand, as long as
we’re careful, I don’t think it hurts to knock on the door and see if he wants to talk to us.”
I still felt uneasy.