Page 64 of Logan

“I’m glad too.” Logan winked at her.

Dixie busied herself with cleaning up the mess around the room before sweeping it into a dustpan and emptying it. Then she moved on to another room.

“Dixie,” Logan called out, and she hurried over to him.

“What is it?”

“I think this drawer has a false bottom, but it’s really difficult to remove.” He turned the drawer over to examine the bottom.

“How can you tell?”

“It just feels different from the others. It has some give that the rest don’t. The bottoms of those are solid and don’t budge, but this one moves slightly. It could just be from wear and tear; this is the top right drawer and probably gets used more often if you think about it. Was your mother right-handed?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure. But I use that drawer a lot since I am right-handed. I see what you mean. If it’s used more often, it could wear down faster.”

“Exactly. But I hope that’s not the case and that the journal is hidden here.” He knocked on the bottom of the drawer. “Yeah, it doesn’t sound like it’s empty.”

“Okay, whatever that means.” Dixie furrowed her brow.

“It’s kind of like knocking on a wall to find a stud; the sound is different when you hit a stud versus just drywall.”

“Oh! That makes sense now. You’re so smart,” she complimented.

“Just listen.” Logan knocked on an empty drawer and then on the potentially false one,and there was definitely a difference in sound. “But if there is a false bottom, it’s secured really well. No wonder Cortez’s men couldn’t find it.”

“And the FBI didn’t search through the desk because they were looking in my father’s house.”

“Right.” Logan grunted as he tried to pry open the bottom of the drawer. “Do you happen to have a flathead screwdriver? I don’t want to damage the drawer, but since I don’t have my pocketknife with me, I need something flat.”

“A flathead, not a four-way, right?”

Logan chuckled. “It’s actually called a Phillips screwdriver, not a four-way.”

“Whatever. You knew what I meant.”

“Touché.”

“I’ll go get one.” Dixie walked to the kitchen and shook her head at the mess on the floor.

She kneeled down and rummaged through the items until she found the screwdriver that he needed. She watched as he struggled to open a drawer with his hands.

“Here,” she said, offering him the screwdriver. He used it to pry open the stuck drawer.

“It’s opening,” he exclaimed as he continued to work at it. When the drawer finally popped open, they exchanged stunned glances before Logan turned the drawer over, causing the false bottom to fall onto his lap with the journal on top of it. Dixie reached out for the journal, but Logan stopped her.

“Can you go get a pair of plastic gloves from my truck? I don’t want our fingerprints on this. Just your father’s.”

“Sure,” Dixie replied, rushing outside to Logan’s truck. She quickly retrieved a pair of gloves from the console and headed back inside. “Here,” she said, handing them to him.

He carefully lifted the journal using the glove and set it on the desk, opening it up.

“Damn,” he muttered.

“What is it?”

“Your father kept detailed records here. Cortez is mentioned several times. This could put him away for good. I need to call my old boss and turn this over to him.”

“So then everything will be over, right? I know Cortez was arrested for kidnapping, but this will get him a longer sentence, won’t it?”

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