“The granddaughter from the daughter who married that wealthy politician.” She shook her head and pursed her lips. “They’ll take her on a trip to Europe to babysit their brood, but they won’t spend their precious money to move her into a safer neighborhood.” Sarah scowled. “Lousy—” She broke off and drew in a breath. “She’s collecting my mail.”

“And I’m watering her plants and feeding her cat.” He held up a key. “That’s what I was coming down to do when I heard your racket. We can see if your mail is in there.”

“I’ll let you check. I guess I need to take care of the apartment.”

He shrugged. “I’ll bring it over if I see it.”

“Thanks.”

Gavin led her back into her trashed apartment, and the officers arrived two minutes later. The first officer introduced himself as Carlos Gonzales and his partner as Kristin Gerard.

“When did this happen?” Officer Gonzales asked.

“I’m not sure,” Sarah said. She raked a hand over her hair. “Probably sometime last week. I haven’t been here, and we don’t exactly have a neighborhood watch.”

“Right.” He wrote in his little black notebook and looked up. “Is anything missing?”

“I was getting ready to figure that out.”

He nodded.

“I’ll just go knock on some doors and see if anyone’s willing to tell us anything,” Officer Gerard said.

“Don’t count on it,” Gonzales muttered.

“Hey now,” Sarah said, “don’t discount my neighbors. They may not have a lot of money, but they’re mostly good people.”

“One of them probably did this,” the man said.

Sarah planted her hands on her hips. “No, one of them probably didn’t. I have a feeling this had nothing to do with anyone who lives in this building.” She headed toward her bedroom before she was tempted to say more. She understood his instant leap to judgment. He was a cop. He saw his fair share of human depravity on a daily basis, but she wasn’t kidding. She’d gotten to know her neighbors and thought highly of several.

And not so highly of others.

However, she wasn’t lying when she said she couldn’t think of one who would do this. She walked into her bedroom and sighed. Every drawer had been pulled out and dumped and the built-in bookshelf in the far corner swept clean. Books littered the floor. The en suite bath had suffered the same type of damage. The question was, had they found what they’d been looking for?

Probably not, if it was the package Dustin had sent to her.

Gavin stepped next to her. “I just heard from Caden. He said the detectives tracked down Max’s home. Only he’s not there and apparently hasn’t been for a while. There aren’t any airline, train, or bus tickets in his name, so no one is sure where he is.”