Page 29 of Noble Hops

“This is what put Harris underwater?”Cam muttered disbelievingly.

Beside him, Nic pointed to the young woman sitting on the front porch, rocking a small child in her lap.“That’s why,” he said.“Better schools and higher property values.”

Were better schools worth being indebted to your gangster uncle-in-law?Worth losing your life?Cam doubted Harris’s kid would grow up to think so.

“Versus our place,” Nic carried on, “this one’s probably worth half a million more, at least.”

Cam’s low whistle covered his delight at hearing Nic refer to the rental asour place.He felt the same, more each day, and on this day, when their world had been turned upside down, it meant everything.

“He’s taken a personal interest in this case,” Nic said, drawing Cam’s attention back to the scene.Cam followed Nic’s gaze to Moore, who’d come out of the house to speak with Harris’s wife.

“You’re not doubting him again, are you?”It had taken serious work to get Nic to bring the AD in on this case.It’d been worth it, Moore providing critical information and political juice when they’d needed it.

“No, it was the right call to involve him, but I am still debating how much our interests truly align.Ultimately, he’s a political climber.”

Cam lolled his head against the headrest, side-eyeing Nic.“Says the man climbing the DOJ ladder.”

“Says the FBI ASAC,” Nic fired back.

They both smirked until Cam returned his attention to Moore, standing tall and in charge on the porch.Nic was right to a degree.“I don’t know why he’s climbing it.But he’s on our side with this one.It somehow benefits him.”

“But if we step out of line, do something that doesn’t benefit him...”Then they’d lose his favor and the leverage he provided, if not their jobs.

Cam nodded.“Proceed with caution.”

They met Aidan and Lauren in front of the truck, and Moore intercepted them halfway up the front walk.“What’ve we got?”Aidan asked.“You wouldn’t say on the phone.”

Moore eyed the gathering crowd of neighbors across the street.“Let’s move this someplace more private.”

They dodged the exiting crime scene techs and huddled in the garage, which, like most Silicon Valley cottages, wasn’t big enough for today’s cars and served as storage and a mudroom instead.

“It looks like a suicide,” Moore said.

“Looks like?”Cam asked.

“Hung himself from his bolted-in chin-up bar.”

Cam winced while Aidan scoffed, repeating, “Looks like?”

“It looked like Price’s father had a heart attack,” Moore said with a significant glance at Nic, who seemed a million miles away.

Cam moved a step closer.“But Harris could be a suicide.Between the debt, the pressure Vaughn was putting on him, the pressure we were putting on him, and the pressure he no doubt put on himself.Then after finding Curtis...”

“It could be,” Moore agreed.“Sixty-forty shot here.”

“That’s more of a shot than most suicide cases.”

“I’ll see what else I can find on his computer,” Lauren said.

“That’s the other reason I give it a sixty-forty shot,” Moore said.“Toward looks like.”

“You found something?”Aidan said.

“The opposite.Harris’s computer is gone.”

“Maybe he left it at the office.”

“Not according to the wife.He never went anywhere without it.”