“Oh, yeah,” the pixy muttered. “He’s talking to Jonathan. Quen is telling him he’s standing in the gatehouse with you and Edden with a warrant to search the property and he bloody well just better wake him up.”

“Him being Trent?” I guessed, and felt my earring swing as Jenks nodded. I looked at the clock over the door, seeing it was a little after two. Must be nice.

Edden cleared his throat as Quen hung up. Trent’s security officer made no bones about letting us know he was unhappy. His light wrinkles deepened as his jaw clenched, and his green eyes were hard. “Captain Edden, Mr. Kalamack is understandably upset, and would like to speak with you while your people carry out your search.”

“Of course,” Edden said, and a small sound of disbelief escaped me.

“Why are you being so nice?” I muttered as Quen ushered us through the heavy glass and metal doors and back into the strong sun.

“Rachel,” Edden breathed, tension carrying through his whisper, “you will be polite and gracious or you will wait in the car.”

Gracious, I thought. Since when were ex–Navy SEALs gracious? Hard-nosed, aggressive, politically correct to the point of being anal. Ah…he was being politically correct.

Edden leaned close as he held the door to one of the vans for me. “And then we’re going to nail his ass to a tree,” he added, confirming my suspicions. “If Kalamack murdered her, we’ll get him,” he said, his eyes on Quen as the man swung into an estate vehicle. “But if we bull in here like storm troopers, a jury will let him go even if he confesses. It’s all in the procedure. I’ve stopped traffic in and out. No one leaves without a search.”

I squinted at him, putting a hand to my hat to keep it from blowing off. I’d much rather have screamed in with twenty cars and sirens blazing, but I’d have to be satisfied with this.

The drive up the three-mile entry road through the wood Trent maintained about his estate was quiet since Jenks had gone with Glenn in the estate car to try and figure out what kind of Inderlander Quen was. We followed Quen’s security vehicle around the last turn and pulled into the empty visitor’s parking lot.