“Does it bother you?” I asked, and James gave me a questioning look. “What the man said,” I added.

“Why would it?”

I shrugged.

“Nobody’s living my life except me. I don’t care what they think. If they were me, they might have done the same.” He got to his feet. “There’s nothing on him. No ID, no wallet.”

“Someone will identify him eventually.” I’d have to call my men to get the body anyway, so I was sure we’d find out who he was soon enough. “Any ideas as to why he was here?”

“How would I know?”

“Well, it’s a bit weird that this guy just happened to show up here. He couldn’t have known I’d let you come back here, and he sounded surprised when he saw you.” Maybe someone had tracked down my car and hadn’t known I’d come with James, but what were the odds?

“What are you saying?” James approached, his gaze glued to mine.

“I’m saying that this guy might have stuck around here and monitored the house, waiting for someone to disable the alarm so he could get inside unseen. The only question is why. He’d know the house was empty if he was watching it, and he wasn’t a common thief either since he probably worked for your father. So what was he looking for in here?”

“How should I know?”

“You lived here and you know a lot of things.” Was he hiding something from me? Was there something else we had missed? Another secret compartment or a safe, perhaps?

“I’m sure there’s nothing in here worthy of anyone’s attention, except maybe in my father’s office,” he said. “I haven’t had much opportunity to explore it, since my father always locked it.”

“How would some random guy know what’s in your father’s office, especially in a secret safe?”

“Maybe he didn’t,” he said, and I frowned. “He was looking around, wasn’t he? Maybe someone sent him and they knew my father had whatever it is that they’re looking for in his possession, and that it had to be here somewhere. Maybe my father told them, and they sent this guy because they knew no one would suspect him.”

“Then how do they know we didn’t find it already? And why not just break in?” I was sure they could’ve found a way around the alarm or delayed it, especially since we weren’t really watching over this place. If my men had been here, then I’d understand, but this... It was just weird.

“I don’t know. If you hadn’t shot the guy, we could’ve questioned him.”

“We? There’d be no we if I hadn’t shot him.”

“I could’ve taken that gun from him. He was talking too much anyway.”