He had refused to stay behind by himself back at Mrs.Denby's and flew after the car for several miles squawking loudly before Diane finally stopped and let him in. Harry's mom had apologized, saying that they hadn't been able to bring themselves to clip his wings. And now here he was, perched on the back seat like a stuffed toy, keeping strangely silent. It gave Diane the creeps. Taking a deep breath, she climbed out of the car and made her way to Harry's door with Miguel following as her only back-up.

Both the door and the exterior walls of the apartment were heavy and well constructed. The windows were doubled paned and had decorative wrought iron grates in front of them. She knew there would be little chance of hearing anything from the inside. The curtain by the front window was shut.

Just as she was reaching up to knock, Miguel hopped onto her outstretched arm and tapped what looked like a doorbell with his beak. The button lit up as it chimed and Miguel excitedly bobbed up and down. Diane stared open mouthed realizing that Miguel had just turned on an intercom system.

The bird launched into an uncanny police radio voice saying, " One Adam twelve, one Adam twelve...sshhhhhclick, See the man at 110 Pacific Street, apartment nine. 411 in progress. Ssshhclick... One adam twelve."

The element of surprise had obviously been lost, so Diane pounded on the door and shouted "Police! Open up!" hoping that Harry would come to the door and scold her.

Instead, she heard a back door slam somewhere and then the one in front of her flew open a few seconds later. The IAB agent looked flustered as he stood there. His brow had droplets of sweat and she could see his pulse pounding in his neck. He glanced nervously out the door and seemed very puzzled at the sight of Miguel sitting on the mail box.

"Detective Russell! Oh, I'm afraid we're both too late."

"Who are you and where's Detective Denby?" she demanded, gun still raised at her side.

"I'm Detective Wilde from IAB. Martens sent me over to check on Detective Denby after we intercepted some disturbing information about him concerning the Kirkendall case."

Diane's eyes narrowed, searching past him for any sign of Harry.

"Come in, I've already called the ambulance... for all the good it will do." He stepped slightly aside.

"What are you talking about? Where's Denby?"

"Like I said, we're both too late, Detective." Wilde looked her in the eye and shrugged a little.

"He's dead."