He could tell that, inside, Cat had taken charge of the scene. He heard her telling two cops to tape off the ell. From what little he could see from the front, it looked as if a tornado had come through, but it was obvious even to his eyes that a computer had been stolen. And what else?
They’d probably have to wait on Matt’s return to find out.
He stayed out of the way by the front door after his one attempt to get inside, hardly surprised when a cop informed him of the dangers in contaminating a crime scene.
Another twenty minutes passed until Cat was satisfied and had explained to at least two cops what she had found upon her entry. So the guy had been tackled, tied and gagged.
For Duke it was like a cherry on the cake. It confirmed his worst suspicions. What he’d seen—or failed to see—when he chased those men had been the first confirmation. He needed to tell Cat.
When she joined him, she said, “Let them work. We’ll go to the sidewalk.”
He nodded and followed. He figured she’d hardly notice the cold now. With doors open, the house was probably reaching the outside temperature, the change negligible.
“Did you get any identifying information?” she said the minute they reached the sidewalk.
“Not exactly. Tell me how Matt was bound.”
She gave him an impatient look, probably resenting the way he tossed the question back to her instead of just telling her. She sketched what she had found. “Now you.”
He nodded. “This was professional.”
He watched her face stiffen, an instant of resistance followed by huge dismay. “Seriously? How can you know that?”
“By the way they melted into the night. No kids did this. It was someone who knew how to handle an op like this, how to get away.”
“But why?” Then she paused. “Of course. We’ve been talking about it.” She cussed, a word he’d never before heard her use. He felt the same way.
“Tomorrow,” he told her, “we need to go see Ben, warn him.”
“But Larry was keeping that relationship a secret!”
“He probably was, but that doesn’t mean no one knows about it. Secrets have a way of getting out somehow.”
She lowered her head. “Damn it, Duke.”
“Yeah.”
Cat visibly shook herself. “You might as well go home. Nothing you can do here. I’ll follow as soon as I can.”
He nodded, then walked off into the night.
Chapter Ten
When the sun rose in the morning, the three men sat in a different gully, one chosen because it was even more concealed, this one surrounded by whispering pines, buried in shadows. Yesterday had involved too much exposure around town for them not to be concerned.
The night’s chill had lingered, possibly grown deeper, and the clouds overhead didn’t help any.
“Yesterday was a screwup,” said the second man. He’d drunk four cups of coffee already, and the two laptops sat beside him on rocks.
The first man’s response was an indirect rebuke. “You get anywhere with Duke’s computer?”
“Actually, I might have. I need to look a little more. But these batteries only last ten to twelve hours. I’m gonna need more juice before long.”
“The other computer?”
“I haven’t had it long enough,” the second man replied sourly. “Hell, you just brought it in.”
The third man agreed. “There’s still no point getting in a fight. We’re all nervous. Uneasy.”
Man Two persisted. “I think we got a problem. He,” he said, pointing at the first man, “went into public yesterday. Doesn’t matter it was a truck stop. Someone still could have noticed him.”
Man One shook his head. “The only time I opened my mouth was to order. Amazing what you can learn simply by listening.”
“Then there’s last night. You nearly got caught during that stupid, stupid burglary. You even got chased from the scene.”
“We weren’t caught,” Man Three argued defensively.
“I bet someone had an idea that you two were something more than juveniles.”
“Who was that guy who chased us?” Man Three asked. “Do you have any idea?”
The first man remained silent, but the other two could tell he had a suspicion. Why didn’t he tell them?
For a brief spell, it appeared that the second man was about to erupt. Unusual sounds emerged from the back of his throat. Finally he said, “I bet you didn’t find anything, either.”
Man One spoke sarcastically. “We won’t know that until you look at those flash drives.”
“I need some time. Larry Duke’s laptop is getting low on power. That’ll leave me with just the new one. Hell, I was on Larry’s most of the night.”
“You said you might have found something.”
“Maybe. I need to look a little more, but there’s this guy who turns up in some old emails. Repeatedly. And he seems to live out here. Ben Williams.”
Man One leaned forward, his eyes still bruised by the long night. “How do you know he’s around here?”
“I ran a search.”
CAT DIDN’T GO home until after nine in the morning. She’d not only had to make sure the investigation teams were doing everything they needed to, but she had to fill out a report, detailing her entire involvement, from when she saw the two figures running away to finding Matt tied in his bed.
After that, she caught up with Gage and informed him about her and Duke’s theory.
Gage sat forward so suddenly that she heard his chair thud. He must have been tipped backward far enough to lift some of the wheels off the floor. Dangerous, but she didn’t think Gage was a man who worried about danger. If he had been, he’d never have gone undercover for the DEA.
“Someone from Duke’s past?” he asked. “Not Larry’s but his?”
“Both, actually. We’d begun to arrive there partly because of Larry’s horrific murder—and by the way, I didn’t give him details, but I probably said enough—and the fallout from Larry’s investigation that involved the Army. Duke thinks someone who is still in danger from that investigation might be worried about whether Larry was writing a book about it.”
“Was he?”
“I don’t know, Gage. The man
