Page 7 of Out of the Shadows
“They didn’t take anything?”
“No,” Logan said. “At least we didn’t discover anything missing. Computers, television, jewelry, nothing’s gone.”
“They were looking for something specific,” Jack said.
“Laura is ananimal doctor. She has thousands of dollars in horses and equipment in the barn—all still there. She was more concerned about her horses than her things. She has a gun safe they didn’t even attempt to access. She has a shotgun under her bed—still there. So what did they think they’d find?”
“Whatever it was, they didn’t find it,” Jack said.
“How do you know?”
“The cabinet.” He gestured to the solid antique that had been knocked over. “That was done as they left, a sign of frustration. They focused on the den, which suggests they were looking for information. I worked a case a couple years before I left the force where two thieves broke into expensive homes in Central Phoenix and didn’t take anythingfromthe house, except photos of financial information and passwords. Too many people leave their passwords near their computer. People lost a lot of money before we caught them.”
Logan hit his head with his palm. “I didn’t even think! I’ll have Laura change all her passwords and contact her bank right when they open. She has fraud protection, but it’s better to prevent the fraud in the first place.”
Finances were Logan’s strength, so Jack didn’t give him a list of accounts to check.
“Has she received any threats?” Jack asked. “Written, verbal? Someone who seemed suspicious at the clinic?”
“Nothing she’s mentioned.”
“We need to ask. It might not be something she’s thought about.”
“I don’t want to wake her up,” Logan said.
“That’s fine. We’ll talk to her later this morning.”
“Jack, I need you to stick to my sister until we find out what’s going on. I don’t know that the police are going to take this seriously, or if they do that they’ll even be able to find answers. If there are no prints and the truck that hit them doesn’t turn up, what can they do?”
“A lot. Look into like crimes, dig into Laura’s past, her associates, talk to the kids—”
“That will takeweeks. I want you and Margo on this. Your entire agency if that’s what we need. I don’t want Laura and the kids looking over their shoulder, afraid all the time. Their car wastotaled. The kids were in there. It could have been so much worse.”
Jack motioned to the fallen cabinet. “Is there a reason you’re keeping it like that? The police already took pictures, right?”
“Yeah, they said we could clean up, but the cabinet is solid.”
“You’re not that much of a wimp, are you?” he teased.
Logan sighed. “You have no idea how heavy this is.”
Jack tested the cabinet. It was eight feet wide and about six feet tall, the bottom wider than the shelves. He noted the doors on the cabinet hadn’t opened and whatever was inside might be salvageable.
He made sure there was nothing behind the cabinet, then instructed Logan to grab under the lip of the heavy bottom piece, squat, and they would push it up from the center to avoid further damage to the lighter top half.
Itwasheavy, a solid hardwood. But with a bit of straining, they got it upright. “I don’t dare open it,” Logan said. “Something down there is broken. I hope not everything. Some of the things are family heirlooms.” He glanced to where the broken glass had been swept. “There was no reason to break stuff.”
That was true, Jack thought, which told him the culprit or culprits were angry and impulsive.
He grunted and pushed the cabinet back into place against the wall. The tile floor had been damaged from the fall. He grabbed the broom in the corner and swept up the shards. “If there’s a throw rug, we can put it on the tile so it doesn’t get further damaged and keep chips from getting into the dogs’ paws.”
“Laura probably has something that will work.”
“I’m going to have to ask your sister hard questions,” Jack said. “Do you think she’ll be able to handle that?”
“Of course I will,” a female voice said from the hall.
Laura Monroe Barrett stood in the threshold wearing sweatpants and a tank top. A bruise covered a large part of her chest, her darkly lidded blue eyes bloodshot. Her long blond hair was piled into a messy bun. Even with the tired face and casual attire, she was a very pretty woman.
