“It was the name of the group the woman belonged to,” Marduk said. “The one that came in on Friday, and we saw the picture of Leif.”
“Right,” I said with a nod and flipped the page on the contract.
Danzig and Marduk moved so they could look over my shoulder.
“Is that a common retainer amount?” Danzig asked.
“No, it’s not,” I said looking at the number on the second page. “That’s way more than I’ve ever seen on a contract. This would explain why he was so tense last week and called me in on Friday to open the office. He probably put everything else aside to dedicate his time to this case.”
Marduk pulled out his phone and tapped for a moment. “It says here that Justice for the Voiceless is a nonprofit that fights the exotic animal trade.”
“That explains so much!” I said, relieved to find out that Jim was on the side of good.
“It does,” Danzig said.
Marduk’s phone chimed. He tapped, then grunted. “That’s interesting.”
He turned the phone to show me and Danzig a picture of a picture. It wasn’t great quality, but it was clearly Gale talking to our casket druid.
“Angel sent that to me,” Marduk said. “It was the only picture that was recovered from the camera’s memory card.”
“That’s not surprising,” I said. “We already knew Gale was involved.”
“Look closer,” Marduk said, pointing to someone standing in the open door of Gale’s house.
“That’s Leif!” I exclaimed, then the timeline hit me. “Wait, he’s alive?”
“That means we don’t know who got hit by the spell at his house,” Danzig said. “It also means it was probably Leif who attacked Jim. He would’ve been focused on Gale and the druid, allowing Leif to sneak up on him.”
“That also explains why no one was at the house," Marduk said. “They would’ve wanted to leave the area until emergency services were all gone.”
“There was so much in that garage,” I said. “They’re going to want to come back for it.”
The brothers looked at each other, then at me.
I grinned and clapped my hands together. “You know what this means, right?”
“Please no,” Danzig said.
“Stakeout!” I sang.
“We can’t leave Hugo alone all night,” Marduk said.
“That’s fine,” I answered with a grin. “I can watch the place by myself.”
The guys looked at each other, then back at me.
“Fine,” Danzig said with a defeated sigh, then he perked up. “We can bring Hugo with us. He might make it more entertaining, and he’ll give us a good excuse to walk around the neighborhood.”
“We’re renting a bigger car,” Marduk said and turned to stomp out of the office.
Chapter 22
Marduk
It turned out that this stakeout wasn’t so bad. I’d rented the largest SUV I could get with tinted windows. Then I bought several bags of drinks and snacks for us. I’d also packed pillows and blankets so Bec could sleep when she got tired.
There was enough room for me to pack Hugo’s bed and little bowls to give him water and food.
