“It’s hard to believe Keller’s the man behind the explosion,” Russo said. “The reports we received on his previous jobs showed him to be extremely competent. As far as I know, there was never a problem with any of the work he did for us.”

Kade flashed Ellie a look. Another dead end. Both of them rose. “Well, thanks for your input.”

Russo smiled. “Sorry I couldn’t be more help.”

Once more out in the hall, Kade walked next to Ellie. “Murphy knew him, and so did Russo. But they don’t know me, and I don’t know them. No reason to think they would have hired Keller to cause me trouble.”

“So it’s someone else.”

“I’m not sure, Ellie.” Kade scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “So far this is getting us nowhere.”

Ellie just smiled. “That’s the way it is with detective work. You ask questions, you get answers, then you try to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. We need to keep climbing the chain of command.”

Kade sighed. “Fine. Who’s next?”

Ellie looked down at the list. “We move up to the Senior VPs. There are four of them, one for each quarter of the state. The VP who covers the southwest area, where the Red Hawk is located, is a guy named Richard Egan. He’s a member of the family that owns the company.”

“Never met him or anyone else in the family,” Kade said.

“We still need to check him out. I spoke to his assistant and requested an appointment. He said his boss would be in the office all day and his schedule was flexible.”

They headed back to the lobby. An older woman with freckles and carrot-red hair sat behind the receptionist’s desk, conversing with a tall woman standing a few feet away. Next to her, a handsome man with thick dark hair was deep in conversation with a squat, bald man in an expensive suit.

The woman was extremely attractive, with brilliant blue eyes, and glossy black hair swept into a tight knot at the back of her head. Ellie didn’t miss the expensive, saffron-yellow designer suit, Hermès scarf, and Louboutin heels that marked her as one of the executives.

The woman spotted Kade and didn’t look away. Few women could resist a man in a cowboy hat, especially one as handsome as Kade Logan. She removed the reading glasses perched on the end of her fine, straight nose, neatly folded them, and tucked them into the black Chanel bag dangling from her shoulder.

“You look a little lost,” the woman said with the hint of a smile. “I’m Jane Egan Smithson. Perhaps I can help.”