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“And if we find something else?” Cole asked.
I shrugged again. “I can’t speculate on what we may or may not find. I’m telling you that we’re just looking for the test results.”
“And how are we going to get in? Break the door down? Nobody is going to believe those test results arethatimportant, Prescott.”
He had a point.
I hadn’t considered that the door would most likely be locked.
But we were already there, and we didn’t have anything to lose by at least trying to get into the office. If we had to, we could always go around to the front and through the real estate office to try that entrance.
“If the door is locked, we’ll figure something else out,” I said. “Or we’ll leave.”
We weren’t leaving.
Not without getting some more information. I’d already made that decision. But since we were already on very thin ice legally—and that was with the most generous interpretation of what we were doing—I would have preferred not to break too many more laws in the process of gathering that information.
I opened the car door and stepped out into the empty back parking lot, then waited for Cole to do the same. I could tell he was reluctant to bend—or break, if it came to that—the law like this, but I was taking the lead. I was his boss. I was calling the shots.
And if it came down to it, I would be the one to accept full responsibility for what we’d done. I’d make sure that the only thing Cole was guilty of was following my orders.
I slowly walked over to the metal stairs and began climbing to the second floor. I didn’t look back, but I could tell from the way the rusted metal was swaying and groaning that he was right behind me.
We got to the door and I only hesitated a moment, then took a deep breath before I reached for the handle. This was the moment of no return. We could still walk away now and truthfully testify that we never broke into Isaac’s office.
I turned the doorknob.
It was unlocked.
Cole sucked in a sharp breath behind me as the door creaked open. My heart was racing. I took a step inside, then stopped.
“What the fuck?” I asked, my words echoing through the dark, empty space.
Empty.
As in… completely empty.
“What the hell happened here?” Cole asked, stepping in beside me and looking just as confused as I felt. “It’s like…”
“Like nobody was ever here,” I finished.
And that was exactly what it seemed like. The walls were bare. The floors were clean. The desk was gone. The filing cabinets, gone. Even the tables where the maps had been laid out were gone. If Cole and I hadn’t been standing in this office just a little over a week ago, I would have never believed anything had been here at all.
“I don’t get it,” Cole said. “Isaac was obviously still in town this morning. Where did all of his shit go?”
“I have no idea,” I said, pulling my phone from my pocket. “But I’m going to find someone who does know.”
I pulled up the number for the USGS and made a quick call. I could tell Cole was straining to hear the other end of the conversation, since all I was offering were a series of “ah, okay,” and “I appreciate your help.”
“Well?” he asked once I’d hung up the phone.
I scrubbed a hand down my face and sighed. “I’m honestly more confused than ever. Isaac’s supervisor said Isaac hadn’t been in the office for over a month but that his assignment here ended weeks ago.”
“What?” Cole’s brow furrowed. “Weeksago?”
“Before any of this even began,” I answered. “And get this—he had apparently taken a leave of absence while he was here. His time off ran out just a few days ago.”
“So he was supposed to go back to his office at the USGS a few days ago?”
