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“How’s this, Bunny. We need more information, that I agree with, so we’re going to go find it. We’ll start with his office. I’ll plant some bugs, we’ll go through his stuff, set up a tracer program on his computer. You can come with us, and whatever we find we’ll bring it to you.” I said, standing slowly while holding my side.

“Fine, when do we leave?” She asked, her tone making it obvious she felt like it was a waste of time.

Leighton licked his lips and tilted his head down toward her lap. “Do we have time for a snack first?”

“Leighton… maybe after, but not right now.” I said, shaking my head with a smirk.

Victoria playfully swatted him away before pushing him back so she could stand from the couch. “Bad, Leighton.”

Shortly after eleven p.m., we pulled into the parking garage across from Hugo and Theo’s office. Victoria still wasn’t any happier about our hunch, but she hadn’t complained. We climbed from the car; Leighton grabbed the plastic sack with the bugs and motioned for Victoria to lead the way. I was glad she’d decided to tag along, it meant less work to get into and out of the building. All she had to do was put in the code for the front door, and we were in the lobby.

“There a night guard?” Leighton asked, glancing around the open space.

“He’s probably in the bathroom. My father thought he was helping the community by hiring the oldest man he could find. The man is sweet as pie, but he’s not guarding much other than a urinal these days.” Victoria snarked.

“I don’t know if that’s a yes or a no…” Leighton said with a shake of his head.

“Just… come on, let’s get this over with.” Victoria sighed, stomping toward the elevators.

We let her lead the way to Theodore’s office. Unlike the outer doors, his office had a standard lock that Leighton had to pick. Once inside, I shut the door behind us and took the bag from Leighton.

“You two can start searching the place. I’ll handle the bugs, and then I’ll handle the laptop.” I said, turning to take in the room while I figured out the best places to place them. The city lights filtered through the blinds, casting slats of light across his desk and the wall of law books behind it. The room had a quiet that settled into the bones of a place after being built over decades. The room seemed to reflect the man I’d met, a touch of Southern charm wrapped in old-world elegance. The furniture was worn but comfortable and sturdy, the kind of wood that darkened and softened with time and upholstered in rich, caramel-colored leather. It invited more than just business;the room suggested long conversations, maybe even a whiskey or two poured in the late hours.

But what stood out most were the photographs.

They lined the walls, perched on bookshelves, tucked into the diplomas and legal awards frames. All of them of Victoria. From her earliest years—toddler curls and a gap-toothed grin—to her polished, poised adulthood. There was one of her as a teen in a bright yellow sundress, and her feet kicked up on Theodore’s desk like she owned the place. Another of her at what looked like some college event, shaking hands with someone who looked important. Her college graduation, Uncle Theo standing beside her, pride written across his face plain as day. Hugo was also in the picture, standing slightly from his ‘daughter.’

It felt like looking at Victoria through a father’s eyes. I glanced at her; she was standing in the center of the room, taking it in as well. There was something on her face I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It was something like nostalgia but heavier with the weight of why we were here.

I set my bag down on his desk and set to work. I pulled out a handful of RF transmitters, an optical transmitter, the wiretap device, wire strippers, and a voice-activated recorder. It was easy enough to find the line from the desk phone and follow it down through the desk, pop open the plastic cover on the floor below the desk to find the nest of organized cables that powered everything. It would have been better to tap somewhere on the line outside his office, but we didn’t have the time to figure out which of the lines was his wherever they came out, so this would have to do. I unplugged the phone line and cut the modular plug to expose the wires inside. Attaching the wires to the access point for the tap was simple enough; I disabled the tap’s microphone, wired in the voice-activated recorder, and plugged it all back in. It wasn’t hard, but it was much more tedious thansetting up a wireless tap, but those were harder to come by for a landline phone.

“Did you two find anything yet?” I asked as I picked up the handful of RF transmitters, turned them on, tested them, and began placing them through the room in hidden places. Behind picture frames on the wall, in the far corner of his desk, another in an empty vase, and even on top of one of his bookshelves just in case.

“There’s nothing here but law books, case files, and client information. And none of that looks out of the ordinary for the types of cases he handles. The only records he has of mobsters are in case files, no personal or professional meetings, no out of place notes.” Victoria said, rifling through one of his file cabinets.

“I found our Az-hole!” Leighton said with a laugh, holding up a file from another cabinet. “His case was pretty open and shut withMa Petit’s testimony being the only real evidence and no conviction, so there isn’t much here either, we didn’t know already. The man did some serious digging into Az to find his criminal behavior, that’s for sure.”

“Interesting… Wonder how he went about that. Az’s record is clean after he graduated.” I said absently, looking up at the smoke detector. The stretch to get that down made my side ache just thinking about it.

“You’re right. Too bad I can’t help you with that.” Leighton said, returning the file to the cabinet.

“No, but you can help me with this. Come get this smoke detector down.” I said, motioning up at it. Leighton snickered but didn’t say anything as he retrieved it. I took it from him and popped it open to place the optical bug inside. There was already a convenient opening, and the camera fit in snugly. It was simple enough and paired with the audio transmitters; we couldpull whatever we needed from his office and off the receivers. I handed it back, and Leighton returned it to its base on the wall.

“We done here?” Leighton asked, apparently getting antsy from the anti-climactic trip into the lawyer’s office.

“Just gotta do his computer, and then we’re good,” I said, moving to the desk and starting up his PC. I scrunched my nose as it booted up, the horror of Windows Vista coming into view. “Oh, good lord. Why?”

“Uncle Theo doesn’t really dochange. He’s old fashioned.” Victoria said, a small smile on her face as she took in my discomfort with what I was seeing.

“This isn’t old-fashioned. This is… You know what, never mind. I’m just gonna take a deep breath and do my job. I can work with this.” I said, actually needing to take a deep breath. I didn’t know who would keep subjecting themselves to this, but it wasn’t my computer, so it didn’t matter. “Would you have an idea of the password, cause I didn’t bring John the Ripper with me.” I hadn’t brought my laptop to use my brute force program.

“It’s Jellybean. Capital J, and the ‘E’s are 3’s. Been the same password ever since I got a jellybean stuck in his keyboard as a kid because he was letting me play on Paint.” Victoria giggled. And sure enough, it worked.

“It’s more than a little concerning that one of the top prosecutors’ computer is so… insecure.” I said, plugging in my flash drive, and after a few keystrokes, I had the tracer and monitor programs loading onto his computer. I’d coded them to be discreet, run in the background to capture everything he did and monitor and analyze the flow of data packets within the system so I could watch his network behavior. Once they were up and I made sure they were working, I shut everything back down and gathered my tools and bag. “I’m done if you two are.”

“Do you… have anymore of those bugs left?” Victoria asked hesitantly.

“A couple, yeah. Why?” I raised a brow at her question.