Ten minutes later the house next to Adel Newsom’s was lit up like a football stadium. Five minutes after that, Ted let loose with a grunt of satisfaction when the kitchen door to the Newsom house opened. A blast of cold air rushed outward as snow swirled inward. “Okay, let’s split up and work as fast as we can. We need to get out of here as soon as we can. Espinosa, take pictures of everything. The house isn’t all that big, so we should be able to zip through it in no time. Wonder where Snowden and his people are.”

“Who cares?” Jack snarled. “Before we go off half-cocked here and waste time, let’s think. If you were going to put a safe in a place like this, where would you put it? In the floor? Built in a wall behind a picture? Where? Now, we split up and look everywhere. If you see something, whistle. This place only has a crawl space. No basement and no attic. Let’s move, guys.”

The foursome split up, Jack and Harry taking the first floor, Ted and Espinosa covering the second.

It took only fifteen minutes for the guys to meet back in the kitchen. “There’s nothing on the second floor. We even tapped the walls and crawled across the floor, looking for loose boards and such,” Ted said.

“I have wall-to-wall pictures. We can upload them and blow them up. There’s nothing there, Jack. What did you guys find?” Espinosa asked.

“Zip. There’s nothing in the garage except the hot-water heater. I’m thinking Newsom never even used this house. Maybe it was strictly an investment.”

Ted opened the refrigerator. “Weird that they leave this plugged in. It’s empty.” He opened the freezer section of the refrigerator and said, “Whoa! Guess you were wrong, buddy.” Ted peered into the freezer. “Eight trays of lasagna, baked ziti, manicotti, and spaghetti and meat-balls. Eight trays, two each. She must like Italian food.”

“What did you say?” Jack said as Ted stepped out of the way for him to get a better look at the contents of the freezer. Jack reached in to pick up one of the oversize trays. “Lasagna, my ass. Grab these and head next door. This isn’t food! These are the records. I tried a case not too long ago where these drug dealers hid their money and records in dummy food containers in the freezer.”

“Oh, shit!” Harry shouted. “Car lights arcing through the front window. There goes the garage door. Move! Move!”

Jack tossed the freezer trays to the guys. “Don’t slam the kitchen door. Ted, did you turn the gas off over there?”