The room within looked like any vestibule. Even the guard’s desk was decorative teak, with the LCD security screens inset in frames.

The guard sat in his chair, head on his arms, which were folded on the desk, as if he’d fallen asleep. Only the spilled take-out coffee cup told me otherwise. Paige brushed past me, her fingers going to the man’s neck.

“Dead,” she said. “But what…?”

She let the sentence trail off, knowing I’d be asking the question already. There was no blood or other sign of trauma. He seemed simply to have laid his head down and gone to sleep.

Paige bent to sniff the spilled coffee, and I knew her conclusion before she voiced it.

“Poison.”

That made no sense. None of it did. But questions flew from my head as I turned and saw the interior door propped open with a pen. As I stared at that crude instrument, brain insisting I make sense of it, Paige pointed to a pencil by the main door. Half a pencil, the other half presumably outside, after it failed its purpose in keeping the heavy door—

The interior door was open. The guard dead. My father inside.

It took all I had not to throw open that door and run in. I cast another sensing spell, then slid through the interior door. I heard her cast a cover spell, and quickly did the same, annoyed that I’d lacked the forethought to do it without prompting.

The cover spell let us stay hidden, as long as we remained still. I looked around the living room. There was nothing that I couldn’t scan in an instant and say “yes, that belongs there.”

Paige tapped my arm and motioned toward the kitchen, meaning she’d check in there. While part of me wanted to keep her close, another part knew that if my father was in danger, every moment was critical.

It didn’t take long to search the house. It was only a couple of thousand square feet, my father being the sole inhabitant and not inclined to entertain. Paige met me next door to my father’s bedroom suite, in a small room where Troy slept. To get to my father’s, an intruder had to pass through here, adding an extra layer of security.

Paige cast a privacy spell, though I now doubted the precaution was necessary. We’d cast sensing spells and if someone was here, even hidden or unconscious, we’d know it.

“If Troy realized someone broke in, and he got your dad out, they’d call so we wouldn’t walk in on a killer. If they took your dad, they’d leave Troy behind.” Dismay touched with guilt crossed her face. “Troy…”

“No,” I said. “Yes, it may be a logical explanation—Troy kills the guards with poisoned coffee and kidnaps my father—but no. Not Troy.”