“Okay, then. James.” I extended my hand toward the scanner, and James stepped forward, pressing his finger to it. The first green light flashed on the screen, and after a retina scan, another green light came on. The door let out a low hiss, but it didn’t open. Brent grabbed the knob and tried it, but it was still impossible for him to even budge it.

“It looks like it’s stuck,” he said.

“I don’t think so.” I pointed at the key slot. “We just don’t have the key.”

“A key? For real?” Brent took a step back and looked at the lock. “You’re right. Now what? I suppose your husband won’t magically pull the key out of somewhere too?”

“Actually...” I eyed the door. “It looks like a regular, boring lock.”

“Yeah, and? Do you think we can break in?” Brent asked.

“Yep.”

“I’ll get someone to do it,” Brent said, and headed down the hallway. A couple of minutes later, he returned with one of the men, who immediately started working on the lock. Something clicked, and the door slid open.

Brent was the first one to take a look inside, and then he turned toward me with a winning smile on his face. “We got it,” he said. “It’s all here.”

The door led to a room that was filled with packages upon packages of some sort of white powder. A slow smile built up on my face. “Let’s get this to our cars.”

“Right away.” Brent hurried to get the men so they could transfer the drugs.

“Let’s get out of here. It’s too stuffy,” I said to James. This was a small hallway and there was no reason for me to be in here and in everyone’s way.

Once we got upstairs, I looked around the room that was now bathed in strong light coming from a light bulb on the ceiling and wondered who this house belonged to. “Do you think this is one of your father’s houses?” I asked James, who was looking at one of the walls.

“Probably,” he said. “I doubt it’s in his name, though.”

“Yeah, I guess not.” There wasn’t anything interesting in this house, since it was mostly empty, so I headed for the door to get some fresh air.

My phone rang just as I walked out the door. “Hey, Meg, what’s up?” I figured she wouldn’t be calling if it wasn’t important, so I was already dreading her next words.

“It’s the Desaltis,” she said, her voice filled with panic. “They’re gone. I mean, our spies had them in sight and I could see they were going somewhere too, but then someone kicked me out of the traffic camera feed, and I have no idea where they went!”