Page 41 of Disarming Caine

“How did you know that?”

Quinn nudged my shoulder. “You dance around what you did before becoming an insurance adjuster, but we do all the background checks. We know you were a federal agent, even if it was short-lived, and we know you have a concealed carry permit.”

“To be honest—” I closed the console. “—I thought about it. I figured it would put me more on edge, so I just have my stun gun in my bag.”

“Good.” Harry put a hand on the door again. “Just be aware of your surroundings. In our line of work, we end up in a lot of strangers’ homes, and you have to put faith into those strangers being good people. Sometimes they’re not.”

Onlyfourdaysafterthe shooting, the broken window at the front of the gallery had already been replaced. Two days before Christmas, at that. Rhonda must have had contacts.

Harry pushed open the door. The chime rang and he leaned his head in. “Rhonda! You here? It’s Harry Bell!”

She came around the corner, dressed all in black as usual, her red glasses hanging from a chain at her neck. “What are you doing here, Bell?”

He barked a laugh as she folded her arms. “You asked me to come by.”

Rhonda turned her frown on Quinn and me but cracked a smile and waved. “I told you to get my window fixed, not visit.”

“And miss out on your sterling personality?”

She shooed him away. “Get out.”

Quinn leaned closer to whisper, “Rhonda and Harry go way back.”

“Harry goes way back with everyone in town, it seems.” A frigid breeze circled us and crept up my neck, so I pulled my collar up.

Harry stopped next to me and chuckled. “She’ll be out in a minute.”

If this were about the painting, we’d be inside. “What’s going on?”

“Rhonda called me this morning.” He shoved his hands into the warming pockets of his huge navy parka. “She was complaining about the repair to the front windows, like I have some say in it.”

“It was your nephew!” snapped Rhonda as she stepped outside, bundled up in a long black wrap jacket.

“Niece’s ex-husband,” he muttered.

She glowered at him over the red rims of her glasses, then turned the look on me. “Good to see you again, Samantha. Did you consider what we talked about?”

I nodded. “It’s a work in-progress, but I think you were right.”

Her lips twisted into a sly grin. She seemed to be handling the shooting far better than I was. “Of course I was.”

The two large gallery windows were separated from each other by a foot-wide section of wall, faced in brick. Rhonda marched up to it and jabbed a finger at the spot where the frame met the wall. “Look at this!”

The frame was dented, and a chunk of the brick was missing.

“I agree. Not well done.” Harry’s focus returned to me. “What’s our job, Sam?”

“It’s not to repair this. Foster covered the painting, not the gallery.”

He nodded. “Put that aside. Our actual job.”

I pulled up my hood to keep the cold air off my neck. “There was damage to something Foster covers and our goal is to find if it’s a fraudulent claim.”

“And do you think Rhonda would do that?”

“Harry Bell!” Rhonda smacked his shoulder.

He looked at her from the corner of his eye. “I’ll talk to him, don’t worry.”

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