Page 26 of The Negotiator

“How did he get into my house?” That was the piece she couldn’t make fit in her head. The lack of a break-in suggested someone close enough to be able to come and go. The only person who fit that description was Kayla.

“He’s connected. He probably could have had keys made. I think—”

Garrett stepped onto the pier and walked over to him. He didn’t bother closing the door to the office behind him. “Everything okay out here?”

“We were talking about keys.” She smiled as she said the words, but something tickled in the back of her mind. A memory she couldn’t grab on to.

Garrett made that familiar humming sound that he usually made before he made a smartass comment. “I’d say ‘That’s interesting’ but it really isn’t.”

Jake’s eyes narrowed as he watched Garrett. “Can you give us a few more minutes?”

“No.” No reason. Garrett just denied the request and stood there.

The response had Jake blinking. “Excuse me?”

“Lauren and I have a meeting with the detective.”

“Oh, right.” Never mind that it was news to her. She used it as the excuse to start heading for the office. She hesitated just long enough to call to Jake over her shoulder. “I’ll call you.”

“You do that.”

She waited until Jake was out of earshot. “Do we really have a meeting with the detective or were you being a jerk to Jake for fun?”

Garrett finally broke eye contact with Jake’s retreating back. “I don’t like anyone in that family but you.”

Something about that statement sent a shiver racing through her. “I’m not in it anymore.”

“Anyone else lurking around? His parents or a stray cousin?”

“No. His parents were older. They died in the first few years we were married. One right after the other.” She remembered mourning them. They’d raised two very different sons. Carl, outgoing and flirtatious with a mean streak. Jake, handsome but quiet, pretty unassuming.

“That doesn’t really help the case.”

Then the memory clicked. The keys. That was it.

She held up a finger as she headed for the office. “I think I have something that might.”

“Clue me in...” His voice trailed off. “Where are you going?”

She stepped back inside. Didn’t even stop when Matthias looked up from studying one of her business pamphlets. She slipped behind her desk and pushed her chair to the side. There, under the drawer was an open space. She reached in and pulled out a set of keys. Held them up by the far edge and let them jangle in her hand.

“Huh.” Garrett stared at her. “I feel like I should be more excited about this reveal.”

The man really knew how to kill a big moment. “My extra set of keys.”

“To your house.” Garrett said it more as a statement than a question.

Excitement ran through her. This could explain so much. “The house. This office, which is unlocked all day while I’m in and out. And to the boathouse up the pier.”

“You think someone came in and took them,” Matthias said in a flat tone that mirrored the one Garrett now used.

She had no idea what was wrong, so she kept talking. One of them would clue her in eventually. “It wouldn’t be that hard. I don’t use them every day. I wouldn’t notice if they were gone.”

Matthias made a baggie appear out of nowhere. “Drop them inside. It’s unlikely since there were no prints in your house, but there could be on these.”

“That doesn’t explain the alarm,” Garrett said as he watched Matthias handle potential evidence.

This is where the explanation got a little tricky. “Human error.”

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