Voice thick with emotion, Marnie whispered, ‘Yes,’ before bending to open a drawer, and coming back up with a key that she handed over.

Alyssa cocked her head for Cord to follow but stopped when Mack’s arrogant demand followed her down the hall. ‘I’ll expect a complete inventory of what you’ve taken, Detective.’

‘I know how to do my job, Counselor. And for the record, you’re not in the courtroom right now, so the sooner you stop your theatrics, the sooner we can discover what happened to your brother and his wife and locate your niece and her friend. I assume that’s still your main goal?’

A storm of anger flashed in his eyes at her sarcasm. ‘Careful there, Detective. I’m smarter than most people you badger on a daily basis. You really don’t want to tangle with me.’

‘Nor you me,’ Alyssa promised before turning her back on him once more so she could get busy with the reason she was there.

Just as Alyssa stepped into Gabriel’s office, Cord’s phone rang, and he excused himself to take the call. Because she was wondering what the true purpose of Mack’s premature efforts of getting his brother’s affairs in order might be, what he was clearly afraid her team might uncover in their search, she missed the way her partner’s face drained of color as he brushed past her into the hallway.

Surrounded by scores of boxes removed from Gabriel Kensington’s office, the team, quiet as the afternoon wore on, methodically scoured the contents of each one in hopes of finding a red flag that might point them to a killer, but more urgently, help them locate Addis and Emerson. Situated around the table and on the floor, Joe, Tony, and Sandra divvied up the files alphabetically while Hal, mumbling under his breath, was singularly focused on the laptop in front of him as he searched through Gabriel’s online files, payment schedules, invoices, calendar, and anything else that would give them a name to go on.

Much to Alyssa’s surprise, Mack had left the premises before her team had completed the search, which gave her the chance to question Marnie, not that his presence would’ve stopped her. Unfortunately, Marnie’s husband had had a heart attack, and so she’d been out of the office for the past several weeks while he recuperated. During that period, the only times she spoke to Gabriel had been when he called to inquire how her husband was doing, and according to her, she never detected anything off, though she admitted to being distracted with worry over her husband’s health.