She shook her head. “Ben sold every one of them,” she said tautly, “to help pay for Morris’s lawyer.” She frowned. “Well, all but the .45 double-action Colt,” she amended. “That went missing just after Granddaddy disappeared. We never found it. Ben was really mad about that, because it was in a hand-tooled, very old gun belt that belonged to my great-great grandfather. The pistol was an antique, as well. It was worth a lot of money.”

“You think Morris took it,” he speculated.

She drew in a breath. “I’m not sure, but he probably did. Morris was an addict. He’d have sold me if it would have made him enough for more drugs. And if he did have it, he certainly wasn’t going to tell his father.”

He studied her for longer than he meant to. She was pretty. He liked the way she dressed, the way she smiled. He liked a lot of things about her.

“Have you heard from Morris?” he asked abruptly.

She nodded.

His face hardened. “When?”

She drew in a steadying breath. The question was painful. “He called me last night on my cell phone,” she said miserably.

“Why didn’t you tell me that this morning?”

She gave him a long-suffering look. “You were in a hurry this morning,” she replied.

He grimaced. “I guess I was. What did he say?”

“That he was going to pay me back for sending him to jail, and that he had no plans to go back, no matter what. He made threats about Tad, as well.”

Banks moved closer to her desk. “He’ll never get Tad,” he said.

She nodded. “Cal has people watching him. A couple of them are ex-mercs.”

“We have people in law enforcement who can do that,” he returned, irritated.

Her eyebrows went up. “On our budget?” she exclaimed. “Well, we could probably afford a guy off the street who’d be willing to work for pizzas and beer...”

“And if he’s after you, I’ll guarantee he’s after Darrell Tarley, as well,” he continued. “Have you told Hollister?”

“Not yet...”

“You call him. Right now,” he added curtly. He turned on his heel.

She started to ask where he was going and then realized that it was his day off and bit her tongue.

He stopped at the steps and turned back to her with a scowl. “You’re alone down here,” he said abruptly.

“No kidding,” she said with mock surprise. “I’ll tell the guy hiding in the closet to go home, then.”

He gave her a dour look. “I’m serious. We can’t lock you in. I don’t like you being down here by yourself.”

“I could go work in the lieutenant’s office, but who’d man the phones here?” she wanted to know.