Page 27 of Buried Too Deep

Phin’s expression was equally grim. “Where do you leave your purse when you’re home alone?”

“On my kitchen table.” She sighed. “So at least one of the break-ins was to put the devices in my purse.”

“Yeah,” Burke said, perturbed. “I should have immediately checked.”

Cora rubbed her forehead. “Dammit. I didn’t even think about that.”

“That’s why you came to us,” Antoine said kindly. “Do you have the copies of the letters with you?”

Cora shook her head. “They’re in my safe-deposit box. Joy told me to bring them or email them to you, but I didn’t do that. If I’ve been bugged all this time, whoever shot Joy knew about the letters. I had my purse with me when I took the box of letters to the Houma police, and again when I reported the break-ins to the NOPD. Maybe the letters are what whoever was looking for when they searched my house. And what he wanted from me this morning.”

“Maybe,” Burke allowed. “He stole two of our laptops, so he might have thought we knew about the letters, too.”

Cora stared, horrified. “He stole your laptops? Did he get confidential information on your other clients?”

“No,” Antoine said, his smile more than a little proud. “We don’t keep confidential files on our hard drives. It’s all stored on our network. The laptops are only the conduits to the data. Plus, I have a kill switch installed on all our hardware that I can detonate remotely. He’ll get a nasty surprise when he tries to read anything on either laptop. Both have been completely wiped, except for a virus that will infect his system.”

Cora knew a little about this. Information was her stock-in-trade, after all. “Leading you to him?”

Antoine nodded. “I hope so.”

Phin was frowning. “Why didn’t you have copies of the letters with you today if Joy told you to bring them?”

“I didn’t plan to hire you all. I don’t have that much money. Joy said I could just do a consult with Burke to see what other steps I could take to protect myself and my home from intruders. I could afford one consultation. Now I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do. But of course you can have the letters. Anything to help you find Joy’s shooter.”

Tandy squeezed Cora’s hand. “You can’t go home. It’s not safe. Come home with me. Or stay with Dad. He’ll be happy to have someone to take care of again.”

Cora shook her head. “I bought a security system.” That she hadn’t truly been able to afford. It would keep her safe. “Plus, Blue will bark if anyone—” She sucked in a breath. “My dog. He’s home alone. Could they—”

No, no, no. Nothing could happen to Blue. He was all she had left of John Robert. She brought out her cell phone, opening the camera app she’d installed the night before. Her pulse settled when she saw Blue curled up on his bed, sound asleep. “He’s okay.”

“Did the dog alert you when you had the break-ins?” Bishop asked.

“Friday night he was barking at my bedroom door. He doesn’t bark often anymore. He’s older and tends to sleep a lot. I went downstairs and a drawer was open in the desk in my kitchen. It’s where I pay my bills. I thought maybe someone had stolen my checkbook or my wallet from my purse, but nothing was missing. But it felt off, you know? So I ordered the security system that night. The second time was two days later, on Sunday. I was at work.”

Antoine frowned. “The library is closed on Sundays, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but we had a staff holiday party and I went in to decorate. When I got home, that’s when I saw that the tape I’d put over the doorway was broken. I don’t know if Blue barked or not.”

“Okay,” Broussard said. “Next steps. One, we need to get those letters from your safe-deposit box. We’ll do that this afternoon. Two, we’ll beef up security at your house and install better locks. Unless you’ve installed new locks? Please say the locks aren’t original.”

“The house was built in 1878, and the locks are a whole lot newer than that. But they’ve been on the doors since I’ve been living there. Which is my whole life.”

Burke turned to Phin. “Phin? Can you oversee the security upgrades to Cora’s house?”

Phin blinked, looking surprised, but he rallied quickly. “Yes, of course.”

Burke nodded his appreciation. “Thank you. Now, let’s talk bodyguards.”

Bodyguards? These people clearly thought she was much richer than she was. Which was, like, not at all.

Cora held up one hand. “Whoa. Stop. I don’t need that. I can’t afford your services. Joy said that I should talk to you once and you could recommend ways to keep myself safe.”

Burke crouched next to her. He looked utterly serious, and she might have been intimidated had she not just seen him chilling in his duct-taped BarcaLounger. “Cora, I’m going to protect you. That is non-negotiable. You will not have to pay me. I only ask that you cooperate with our investigation, because we need to find out who hurt our Joy.”

Cora exhaled. “Okay. I’ll accept your protection, but only for Joy’s sake. Just in case whoever shot her comes after me again, you can catch them. Who will be my bodyguard?”

“I’m not sure yet. Let me work on that while Phin is fixing your security. Do you feel all right with us going to your bank with you to get those letters?”

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