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“We went through all the furniture with a fine tooth comb.” Mills said. “Then we moved it to another spare room so we could take a look in all the crevices.”
He showed me the spot where he’d found the card, right against the wall, where the foot of the bed had been.
“Whoever did this got in and out quickly,” Jade said. “I couldn’t have been in the shower for more than about fifteen minutes.”
“It wouldn’t take long for someone to slide this card into the carpeting and put a rose on the pillow,” Mills said.
“Yeah, but how the hell did he get in this house?” I asked.
“We’re still working on that,” he said. “We’ll figure out what happened. Don’t you worry. There’s not a case in the world Johnny and I can’t solve.”
“I hope you’re right. Where did Talon find you guys?”
“We found him.”
I widened my eyes. “What the hell do you mean?”
“We’re friendly with the police departments around the state of Colorado. When there’s a case they can’t figure out, they pull us in sometimes. The city of Snow Creek has never used us before. Small towns can’t usually afford our services. But they figured your brother might be able to.”
“Okay. That still doesn’t tell me who you are. You have any references?”
“Sure. Call any police department in any big city in Colorado. They’ll vouch for us.”
I swallowed. I had no reason to think the guys weren’t on the level, but the Steel money was well-known. They could have crawled out of the woodwork.
“We’re on the up-and-up, Mr. Steel,” Mills continued. “We wouldn’t stay in business if we weren’t.”
I had no idea whether I believed him. What kind of detectives worked at midnight? They could’ve easily sniffed out our money and come calling, assuming we wouldn’t call the police and check them out.
I was going to call. Absolutely. I’d call the Grand Junction Police Department and the Denver Police Department. If both of them had heard of these guys, I’d let it go.
“Anything else in this room that looked suspicious?” I asked.
“Not that we’ve seen so far, but we’ll figure this out. I guarantee it.”
“If it’s all the same to you,” I said, “I’d like to call a police officer I know and trust to handle the evidence. I want him to keep it in his custody.”
“But we’re the ones who’ll be running the tests.”
“How in the hell can you find fingerprints?”
“We can’t reveal our sources,” Johnson said. “Could lead to—”
“Shut up, Johnny,” Mills said.
Right. On the up-and-up all right. But they left their scruples at the front door.
“Would you excuse me for a moment?” I said.
I was going to call Steve Dugan, a Snow Creek police officer. If he had heard of these guys, I’d let it go for now, but I was still going to call Grand Junction and Denver tomorrow.
I walked down the hall into Talon’s study and closed the door. I dialed Steve Dugan’s cell number.
“Dugan.”
“Hey, Steve. Jonah Steel.”
“Joe? Why are you calling at this hour?”
