Page 78 of S.O.S. Mizzay

A knock on Missy’s window had her jumping. She turned her head abruptly.

Well, shit.

She placed a hand to her rapidly beating heart as she caught sight of Smalley, then pushed open her door.

“Cripes, Chuck. You scared the crap out of me,” she scolded.

“Hell-of-an agent you are,” he scoffed grumpily. “If I’d had a gun, you’d be dead right now.”

“I don’t think so,” she countered. “I knew I was safe. I had you made a few minutes ago.”

His brows went up as if he didn’t believe her.

“You parked your car down a side-street three houses back,” she continued, “and last I saw, you were sneaking your way into the woods toward what I assume was a back egress to Oliphant’s property. There were no other people around; no cars with anyone in them. Nothing and no one in the area but you. So… I was safe. Where the hell did you come from, anyway?” she grumbled.

“I snuck up using that hedgerow as cover.” He pointed to some lush greenery between Oliphant’s home and the next.

Missy didn’twantto admit that if Chuck had been a bad-guy, he definitely would have gotten the drop on her, but kudos to him. “Okay. Fine. I suck,” she huffed. “Now, are we going in, or what?”

“Yeah. There’s a window around the rear that isn’t locked. I’ll give you a boost in, and you can open the door off the deck for me.”

“Any alarms?” Missy questioned, following behind him as they made their way toward the back of the property. They needed to be extremely careful. The last thing they wanted wasfor the local police to come down on them for their friendly little B&E.

“None that I could see from any exterior vantage point,” Chuck confirmed. “I’m thinking he doesn’t have any, because he wouldn’t have wanted any cops snooping around his place if there were ever a false alarm.”

“That makes sense,” Missy said. “How about nosy neighbors?”

“Again, none that I am aware of,” he responded.

“Me, either,” Missy agreed. “Let’s do this.”

It took less than a minute to get to the window in question, and another few seconds for Missy to hoist herself inside the…lushly decorated home?

Hello.

And when she thoughtlushly…

It looked like Oliphant had been using his ill-gotten gains towayover-pad his semi-rural nest.

The damned place looked like the Taj Mahal inside.

There were gold fixtures everywhere, from sinks to lights to door handles, and none of them looked like cheap knockoffs. If her eye was any good, she was looking at, in the least, fourteen carat gold; some plated, some not.

Then there were the brightly colored jewels Oliphant had encrusting the damndest things; the backs of dining room chairs, a very loud looking coffee table, flatware that had been laid out. And again, the gems on all of them looked to be genuine.

Missy’s head was on a swivel as she made her way through all the over-the-top opulence and went to open the back door for Chuck, snapping quick pictures with her phone on the way toward him.

“Wait ‘til you getaloaduv Oliphant’s brothel,” she snorted. “I guess since the man couldn’t be outrightly flamboyant with hismoney, he spent his money covertly, picking up black-market, high-end items with which to decorate his outwardly middle-American, inwardly gilded slice of heaven.”

“Gross.” Chuck stated, looking around in disgust.

He’d used precisely the word Missy would have, to sum things up.

“Exactly,” Missy concurred. “Now. Where should we start?”

Chuck didn’t mess around.

“You take this floor, I’ll take the second,” he directed. “Then we’ll switch off to make sure we don’t miss anything. Remember, Baskins told us not to mess the place up in case our suspects come by—which they will—to do their own recon.”

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