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“None that I remember. Anyway, he goes into Brett’s office. They didn’t bother closing the door, I’m assuming because they didn’t know I was still in the building. And honestly, I’m really not paying attention, at least not at first, but every so often I catch bits of conversation, and I start to realize they’re talking about me. At one point, Brett called me a Puerto Rican puta, and that really pissed me off. I was about to march in there and tell him where to shove his job, but then I heard the cop say he’ll take care of me, make it look like a robbery gone bad.” She paused to rub a hand over her mouth. “I didn’t know what to do, so I hid in my cubicle until they left the building.”

“You didn’t go to the police?” Dorcas asked.

Rita stared at her as if she were crazy. “Why would I do that? He was talking to the police about killing me! Besides, even if I found an honest cop, I didn’t have proof...of anything. So once I was sure they weren’t coming back, I went into Brett’s office and searched for something I could use for leverage.”

“The flash drive,” Dorcas said, and Rita’s eyes popped wide.

“How do you know about that?”

“In case you forgot, I’m working with a security expert.” Dorcas jerked a thumb in Nate’s direction, and he winked at her through the mirror. “We followed the clues and found your storage locker in Georgia. Now keep talking.”

Irritation sparked in her sister’s eyes, but she held back whatever smartass comment that was perched on the tip of her tongue. “One of his drawers was locked, so I figured there had to be something good in there. I used a butter knife from the break room to pry it open. That’s where I found the flash drive. And a whole bunch of papers. And these two...well, they looked like white bricks wrapped in cellophane. I don’t know what kind of drugs they were, only that they had to be illegal. So I left the drugs, grabbed everything else, shoved it in a box, cleaned out my desk, and took off.”

“Do you know what’s on the drive?” Dorcas asked.

She shook her head. “I have no idea, but I assumed if it was locked away it had to be important. Unfortunately, as you probably already know, it’s password protected. That’s why I brought it to Mayford. One of my old roommates lives up there now. She’s pretty good with the tech stuff, but she couldn’t crack the password either. She knows a guy who can probably get past it, but he won’t be back in town for another couple weeks. That’s why I left it in the storage locker.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Last Friday.”

“What?” Dorcas’s heart stuttered. “When did you put the key in my house?”

“The day before I left town—well, left town for the second time.”

“How did you—hell, never mind.” Dorcas had given her a key to her apartment shortly after moving in. Rita must have gone in to hide the key while she was at work. Temper building, she gritted her teeth. “This shit’s been going on for a week and you didn’t think to tell me?”

“I didn’t want to drag you into this.”

“You asked me to feed your damn fish. And, you know, it wouldn’t have killed you to tell me about the cat.”

Rita looked at her as though she were crazy. “What cat?”

“The one I found in your house. Little guy, black with a patch of white on his chest. Ring a bell?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. As for the fish, I didn’t want them to starve. I didn’t think you’d be in any danger if you just went in to feed them.”

Dorcas muttered a curse. Her sister had always been a little clueless, but this was frigging ridiculous. And now she had to figure out what to do about the kitten. “So what’s with the papers?”

“I don’t know. They’re all written in code.”

“Great.” Dorcas slumped back in her seat and stared up at the ceiling.

“So what do we do now?” Rita asked.

“Good question.” She looked to Nate. “Are we going back to the house?”

“No, the office. Larissa texted me a few minutes ago.” His gaze flicked to hers in the mirror, and he flashed a cocky smile. “Guess who got into the flash drive.”

ONCE THEY REACHED SIXPoints, they made a beeline for Larissa’s office, where Nate found her tapping away at her keyboard, her focus riveted to her monitor. Her auburn hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore a purple baby sling that held Sophie snug to her chest.

Nate rapped lightly on the doorframe to get her attention. “Hey, sis.”

“Hey, yourself. Hi, Dorcas.” She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose as her gaze shifted to Dorcas’s left. “I take it you’re Rita. Nice to meet you.”

Rita gave an awkward smile. “Likewise.”

Nate stepped into the room, taking in the tightly contained chaos he’d come to expect from her office. More likely than not, the equipment was organized in a way that she could quickly locate whatever she wanted, but it looked kind of strange mixed in with all the baby stuff. “You got good news for me?”