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“Let’s see what else we can find. If something else pops up Coleson, we’ll go pay Anthony Lake, MD, a visit. He works with pretty nurse Bonnie. He might put in a good word for us. We can ask her some questions, maybe get a DNA swab. She is a nice lady, I think. If I wasn’t in love with you, I’d probably be courting pretty nurse Bonnie right now.”
“Why?”
“The eyes. And the smile. Just like yours. Able to capture unsuspecting Murdoch Michaels in an instant. Dangerous, women like that. Can turn the world sideways in an instant. I heard the governor say that once. I totally understood.”
61
He’d drivenher back to Garrity, to her little house three blocks down from where he’d used to live. It was only seven o’clock.
And her warrant had come in. Neil met them at the clinic, gave them the warrant, told them to have at it—and left to drop the cat of doom off on his owners, and give them a real lecture.
And atwentydollar ticket this time. Neil meant business.
The clinic wasn’t exactly as they’d left it. “Someone’s tried to pick the lock. And pry open the latch.”
“Interesting. If it was the owner, you’d have gotten a call from them about it being locked.”
Of course, he would have. He’d called Judge Collins that very night and explained what he and Zoey had found just lying around. He’d thought the judge was going to have a real case of the vapors over the phone. Judge Collins had given birth to all three of her children at the clinic almost thirty years ago. She hadn’t been too keen on that information just being there for whoever broke a window and climbed right in.
He’d taped the notice to the door himself that very night.
“I’ve heard from the owner’s attorney,” he told Zoey now. “They don’t seem to be in too big of a hurry to address the problem. Collins said either it’s dealt with or she’ll issue another warrant. This is a clear violation of several federal laws. They’ll comply, eventually.”
“I’m more interested in what was in that locked office.”
“No kidding.”
Murdoch did his sheriff-ly duty and got her right into that locked door. “Aren’t I impressive?”
“You are impressive through the sheer amount of ego that you carry on those narrow shoulders.”
“Narrow? I have the broadest shoulders of all three of us Lake boys, I’ll have you know.”
“And the broadest…ego?”
“Nope. That’s Cam. Anthony is thesweetheart,though. All the girls just love him. You stay away from him. You are mine. I am not sharing.” Murdoch slipped on a pair of latex gloves before flipping the light switch. The office they’d been locked out of was immaculate. It still had the faint scent of citrus cleaner on the air. “Someone has been here, recently.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Zoey stepped up to the desk, her own pretty Zoey hands in gloves. “The question is, what are they doing here? The attorney for the clinic’s owners implied no one had been in here in years.”
“That’s what I was told, too.” She pulled open the center drawer. “Pen, pencils. They look a lot newer than fifteen years.”
“Someone’s been using the clinic office for something, haven’t they? Something the attorneys hadn’t bothered to share.”
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
“Well, we’ll just have to see if we can figure out who.”
* * *
Zoey studiedthe filing cabinet in front of her, as she tried to put her finger on what felt different about this office. It felt too recent. That’s what it was. Even more so than the scent of cleaner implied. “You don’t think someone got in, do you?”
“There’s a back exit—standard for medical facilities, but Neil chained that one the next morning. If someone got in between us being here that evening and Neil here the next day, it’s possible.”
“Someone would have had to see us here. Or…been told by the owner’s attorney.” Zoey had looked around for cameras herself. And hadn’t found anything. Unless one was hidden.
Which was possible.
“Question is, what were they trying to hide? Or if they didn’t get in—what were they trying to get to?” He leaned down, slid open the bottom of the filing cabinet. “I have…records.”
