Page 31 of Crash and Burn

She stood, politely blocking their entry, dinner napkin still in her hand. She could tell Sebastian had come from the table, too, and now held guard behind her.

Maggie didn't have any way to fight the search this time and she didn't want to. She didn't want her home torn up, but she understood that there was pertinent information regarding very dangerous criminals here. That evidence needed to go to the people most likely to catch the killer. That was almost definitely the FBI.

Though Watson made a small move as if to come in, Maggie held them at bay. “I’d like to read the warrant first.”

She wasn’t rude enough to do more than scan it. A few minutes wouldn’t change anything for their search. Her legal brain decided it was fine. So she nodded but held her hand up, still keeping them on the porch.

There were four agents this time, two unknowns, so she motioned to each of them. “Hello. I'm Maggie Willis and the homeowner and I'm a lawyer.” She didn't normally introduce herself that way, but she didn't want anyone in the FBI thinking that they could get away with anything here. She shook each hand in turn. Then she laid out the rules. Not that she was making them, but she tried.

“If you need to get into any of the furniture, I'll show you how. But I prefer if you don't rip any cushions. I will be suing you for any damages.” Given that they had the warrant, she wasn't sure her threat would hold, but she was certainly going to make it. “You’re welcome to enter any room, or check inside any space, but before you tear anything up, please just ask nicely. Many pieces are antiques.”

With that, she motioned them across the threshold and continued in her weird cross between hostess and legal monitor. “This is Sebastian Kane. He's a local firefighter and a friend of mine. He's been here off and on for a while. He knows the house pretty well. He can answer your questions too.”

She moved them all down the hall, saying, “Come with me.”

Maggie pointed out the room where they'd found the jewelry box and the floorboard under which they'd found it. The FBI was definitely going to pull up the floorboard Sebastian had finally so nicely repaired. It figured.

She had to come clean. “I appreciate you letting me have six hours. I needed the sleep, and I wanted to document everything before you moved it. With Sebastian’s help, both got done. Thank you.”

She next explained that they’d repaired the floor earlier, not knowing it would be evidence. “I know you’ll search everything, but my aunt’s office is upstairs.”

She explained that they’d photographed it all and, no, they hadn’t messed it up, it looked that way before and she would gladly show them a picture. Maggie added that they were welcome to take it if they thought it was helpful. She was confident they would.

Turning, she made sure she caught the attention of each of the four agents. “I will want an itemized list of everything you take. You’re welcome to all of it—I want this guy caught—but I need to know what’s missing and what’s not when you leave.”

They nodded. From anyone else, it would sound weird and too strict, like she was hiding something. But she was a lawyer. They all had to know that they didn’t serve warrants on lawyers without getting the rundown.

Then she took a breath. “While we were documenting we re-checked everything. We weren’t looking for secret stashes before. I only found the jewelry box because the board was loose. But this time, we found this …”

She motioned their attention to the back of the closet and watched as Watson and Decker shone their lights and shoved their heads into the space.

Maggie talked them through. “We were checking all the closets and this panel was loose. Once we recognized it was cut, we popped it out. We haven't touched anything other than the panel itself.”

She watched as they shone the light up and down and she heard Watson's voice say, “Holy shit, Decker. Do you recognize that?”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

It was hours later that the FBI agents left. Sebastian was exhausted from dealing with them and Maggie had to be, too.

The agents checked the rest of the house and didn't find much that Maggie and Sebastian hadn't already pointed out. There were a few items in drawers that they thought might be interesting. They confiscated everything in the dresser from the room that had the jewelry box, but that wasn’t surprising.

Maggie hadn't protested at all, only asked again for her itemized list. Watson and Decker readily complied.

Though she was spouting legalese the whole time, Maggie was perfectly compliant. They took her aunt's box of records, but that was expected. Sebastian was grateful that Maggie had thought to photograph all of it so that she didn't lose the information. It probably would have been better to have her hands on the papers, but it would have looked suspicious if she hadn't let the FBI take it.

When the agents were gone, he turned back to the dining room, where he and Maggie had abandoned their meal. Though his own plate was mostly clean. Maggie's, on the other hand, had a quarter of the fish on it, and half a piece of bruschetta. He’d made the mistake of thinking they would welcome the agents inside, then sit back down and eat while the house got searched. It hadn't worked that way.

Maggie had wanted to trail them around, keep track of what they did and found. And Sebastian agreed—it was fascinating watching them. They searched in ways that the two of them hadn't.

Though Maggie had looked under the sofa for things that might be shoved under there—drugs, cash, who knew what? The feds also looked under every dresser and piece of furniture. They checked every floorboard and tapped at the ceiling of every closet looking for access upward.

“Do people hide things there?” Sebastian had asked.

Watson and Decker had both nodded in response. Decker added, “You’d be surprised. Also, in a lot of cases, they create links between the two rooms. This might go directly up to another closet. Old places like this—with a servant staircase?—there are a lot of hollow walls.”

The feds had found a hidey-hole next to the base of the servant staircase. It was Watson who pointed out that the cabinet there was too shallow and had to have something behind it. She pushed on the back of it until the whole thing popped out. Unfortunately, there was nothing back there.

When at last they were gone. Everything was still in one piece. They hadn’t slashed any of the upholstery, but every bit of furniture had been moved.

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