And with every stroke he imagined plunging a knife into Lampert’s chest.

CHAPTER

65

PULLER WAS DRIVING FAST.

Carson eyed him from the passenger seat.

“So where are we going now?”

“I need to see my lawyer,” Puller answered cryptically.

When they reached the street on which Griffin Mason had his law office, Puller parked the Tahoe at the curb about a hundred yards down from it. He reached into his duffel and pulled out his pair of night-vision optics and put them to his eyes. He trained them on Mason’s office.

Carson followed his gaze.

“Your lawyer?”

“Actually, my aunt’s lawyer. He’s handling her estate.”

“And how is Mason doing handling her estate?”

“Not so good.”

Puller eyed the other buildings on the street. They were all dark.

There was no car in Mason’s driveway. No lights on in the office.

“How do you feel about a little breaking and entering?” he asked.

“It’s a felony. That’s how I feel about it.”

“Then you can wait here. I’ll be back shortly.”

She grabbed his arm. “Puller, think about this. You don’t want to piss away your military career, do you?”

“What I want is to do right by my aunt. And that includes taking a hard whack at a creep who’s screwing her. And others.”

Carson sighed. “I’ll come. I can keep lookout.”

“It wasn’t fair to ask you. You have a lot bigger career to lose than I do.”

“So don’t get caught. And if you do I’ll disavow all knowledge.”

“And I’ll back that statement up one hundred percent.”

“You’re damn right you will, soldier.”

A few moments later they were walking down the street. When they got to Mason’s place, Puller hooked a left and entered the man’s backyard. At the fence he told Carson to wait and keep watch.

“This shouldn’t take too long,” he said.

“Make sure it doesn’t.”

Mason had a security system, but one glance through the back-door window told Puller that it was not armed. The green light on the panel was lit.

Puller was surprised by this. Why have a security system if you didn’t use it?

The door lock was a deadbolt that took Puller only a few seconds to defeat using a pick gun from his duffel.

He opened the door and penlighted his way to the lawyer’s interior office.

It took him about thirty minutes to find what he was looking for.

Mason was meticulous in his recordkeeping.

A little too meticulous.

Puller looked at the pages he had brought with him, the inventory list Mason had given him about his aunt’s personal items. He checked it against the inventory list Mason had in the files.

It matched down to the last item.

He next searched for and found the inventory list for Cookie’s estate. He ran his gaze down it.

Puller saw what he knew he would see.

He put Cookie’s inventory list in his pocket along with his aunt’s. He shut the file drawer and looked around.

He thought about what the other estates attorney, Sheila Dowdy, had said.

Mason’s other car was an Aston Martin. He took expensive vacations. He had a big house.

It was all adding up, the pieces falling into place faster and easier than was normally the case.

The next moment his phone vibrated.

He looked at the text.

Bogie on our six, the text from Carson said.

Someone had just pulled into the driveway of Mason’s office.

Now Puller could understand why the security system had not been engaged.

This also told him that it probably wasn’t Mason coming back to work. He would have armed and then disarmed the system. This was someone whom Mason did not want to give his passcode to.

And maybe the person wasn’t supposed to be here at all.

He thumbed a text back to Carson.

Description?

Blue subcompact. Young slender woman with blonde hair.

As Puller read the text he knew they didn’t have to look for Jane Ryon any longer.

She had come to them.

CHAPTER

66

“TAKING SOMETHING or bringing something?”

Jane Ryon screamed and jumped backward as the light came on.

Puller stood there staring directly at her.

When Ryon turned to run, she pitched headlong into Carson, who stepped into the other doorway.

Ryon bounced off Carson, but before she could move again, Puller had her wrist clamped with his hand. She didn’t even try to tug herself free, understanding that that was impossible.

“What are you doing here?” asked Puller.

“I could ask you the same thing,” she said defiantly. “I have permission to be here.” She held up a key. “Mr. Mason gave me this.”

“And why would Mason give you a key to his office?” asked Carson.

Ryon looked at her. “Why is that any of your business?”

“I saw you leaving Cookie’s house last night, Jane,” said Puller. “And then I found Cookie lying in the bottom of his bathtub.”

Puller watched her intently for any reaction to this.

“Cookie’s dead?”

He shook his head sadly. “You’re not a very good poker player, Jane. You knew he was dead,” said Puller. “And the police are looking for you. Where have you been hiding out?”

“I haven’t been hiding. Why would I hide? Why would I hurt Cookie? I liked him.”

With his free hand Puller slipped the stapled pieces of paper from his pocket.

“Inventory list of my aunt’s personal possessions. Mason gave it to me. The only problem is it doesn’t list all of my aunt’s jewelry. There are two rings, three sets of earrings, and a necklace missing. All looked pretty valuable. And a dozen old gold coins are also missing from a coin book she had.”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” said Ryon.

“Actually, you know everything about it. Those pieces were in your bag when I ran into you at my aunt’s house. I had told Mason that I was going to my aunt’s house in the morning, but then I changed my mind and went that night. He had sent you to the house to get the jewelry and coins before I would have a chance to go through her things. You had already inventoried the items and then Mason had decided which ones he wanted you to rip off and changed the real inventory list to reflect those subtractions. But you had to get them out before I saw them. Or so he thought. The fact is I had already seen my aunt’s jewelry and coins before you got to the house, only he didn’t know that. When I went back to check later those items were gone. You took them. You did the same thing to Cookie. You took some of his watches. I found the inventory list for Cookie’s property in the file here. It didn’t list the watches that were missing. And I know they were missing because Cookie showed me his collection.

“You and Mason have a nice scam going. You get inside the houses of elderly people that Mason represents and find out what their valuables are. Then when they die, you take them and Mason alters the inventory list accordingly, fences the items, and the poor heirs aren’t any the wiser. Then Mason can afford his Aston Martin and trips around the world, and I’m betting you’re damn well paid for your part.”

Ryon’s face had been growing paler with each word spoken by Puller.

Carson added, “And maybe you help your targets into the hereafter. You kill Cookie and that way you get his property faster.”

“I didn’t kill Cookie.”

“But you were in his house.”

Puller stared at her bag. “Open it.”

“What?”

“Open your bag.”

“You have no right to—”

Puller grabbed the bag and opened it. Wrapped in a silk scarf were four of Cookie’s watches.

Puller stared down at her. “Say goodbye to your life, Jane.”