Page 47 of True Valor
“Spill it, D.”
“Well, I was just thinking about Julie’sdad’s computer.”
Cruz shook his head even before Nic hadfinished his thought.But even so he was smiling.
Nic continued.“Well, that computer was wipedclean when we got to the house.I was just thinking...”
“You were just thinking I could maybe use mymad skills and find something on it, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so.There is one smallproblem, though.”
“Does it involves breaking and entering?”
“Kind of.”
“Cool!”Cruz checked his watch.“You want togo now or would you feel better waiting until dark?”
“Scalpel.”Cruz snapped the latex gloves ashe pulled them on, a wicked grin settling on his face.The room wasstill dark except for the glow from the patient.Nic paced theroom, not nearly as comfortable with breaking and entering as Cruzwas.You’d have thought he’d grown up on the streets of SouthCentral L.A.rather than on the boulevards surrounding RodeoDrive.
“C’mon, baby,” Eric crooned in a sing-songvoice to the computer.It was almost embarrassing, listening to himseduce the computer.But that was Cruz.
“Could you put a move on?”Nic continued tolook out the window, standing back so he wouldn’t be seen from thestreet.“The good sheriff and his minions could arrive any minute,guns a-blazing, to take us away in chains.”
“Dude, if the cops have guns, why would theyneed chains?”
Chapter Seventeen
“Ahí está” Cruz laughed under hisbreath and stroked the monitor lovingly.
Nic turned and looked at the screen wherefile directory after file directory rolled by.He moved over to thedesk and pulled up a chair.
They spent the next half hour searchingthrough file names for anything even closely resembling sheriff,Raines, or deputy.Nic was getting frustrated, but Cruz continuedto patiently scroll through the files.The dude had endurance andwas wicked good at this stuff.This stuff drove Nic up a wall.
“Maybe this guy didn’t write anything down.”Nic jumped up, pacing again.
“I think you may be right,” Cruz said.“Hecertainly didn’t have many documents stored on this computer, andthose I’ve looked at have nothing to do with Raines or anythingelse that might get him killed.”
“Where else would he put it, if not in thedocuments?”
Cruz didn’t answer until after lookingthrough the rest of the document files.“We can check the financialfiles and see what’s there.We can check the history on hisbrowser.Beyond that, I don’t know.”
It took another fifteen minutes to go throughthe financial files.No surprises there.Patrick Galloway stillearned retirement pay from the Army and had income frominvestments.All in all, he and the wife had done quite well andlived comfortably.But there was nothing that looked suspicious orwould explain murder.
Nic froze as a police cruiser slowlyapproached the house.Cruz stopped tapping on the keyboard.Whenthe cruiser went on by, Nic let out his breath, and the tappingcontinued.
“Well this guy certainly kept his cookiescleaned up, damn it.That really only leaves his favorites.”
Nic again sat down beside Eric as he clickedthrough the sites Galloway had considered important enough tokeep.
“Well, this is interesting.”
Stars and stripes and all things patrioticfilled the screen.Cruz scrolled through the list of DistinguishedService Cross winners obviously looking for one name.
“There he is.”
The cursor came to rest on the name FrankRaines.
“Son of a bitch!”Nic whispered.
