Page 17 of Out of the Shadows (Angelhart Investigations)

least once a month, but it’s hard. His spirits seem good, and he has a lot of faith—faith that I’ve struggled with since my

divorce and my dad’s incarceration. He shouldn’t be there, but he confessed, and while I didn’t believe his guilt before,

now? Maybe. Maybe he really did do it, it was an accident, he didn’t mean to, whatever, but he deserves to be in prison if

he intentionally took the life of another person.”

Laura rested her hand on his. “I can imagine how difficult this had been on you and your family.”

He nodded, because suddenly he was choked up and couldn’t speak. He’d thought he’d gotten out all his anger, his frustration,

his sorrow years ago. He hadn’t realized it was still there, buried deep but always present.

“You and Margo clearly have a good relationship,” Laura said. “I like that—I love both of my brothers. I have much more in

common with Henry and our love of ranch life and animals, but I’m closer to Logan. He’s so smart and kind and generous, but

he’s also a little naive and innocent about things that sometimes stun me. He gets hyper-focused on his projects and can forget

you’re in the room, he can be blunt and undiplomatic with people, and he expects a lot from the people who work for him, yet

he’ll never forget your birthday and will drop everything if you need help, no questions.”

“He’s a good guy,” Jack agreed.

“Have you cleared him as a target? Meaning, you don’t think someone he’s doing business with—or someone he angered and didn’t

realize it, which has happened more than once—is behind this?”

She was grasping at straws and knew it, Jack thought.

“Tess, my brilliant sister who specializes in research, has looked at the people Logan and his admin gave us as possible threats.

There’s nothing there, and honestly, I don’t think this has anything to do with Logan, not directly at any rate. This is about

what Charlie found in that storage unit.”

“Why would he even bid on a storage unit?” Laura asked, exasperated. “And spend over five thousand dollars?”

“I was thinking about that this morning. You’d told me Charlie was trying to come up with business ideas, partly because Logan

has been successful and Charlie both envied and admired him.”

“Did I say that?”

“Implied.”

She nodded. “But that still doesn’t explain the storage unit. He has no experience buying and selling.”

“There are people who make a living or a second income buying secondhand goods and fixing them up for resale. Or looking for

the diamond in the rough. Could Charlie have thought this was a viable business choice? Maybe he had an idea of starting something?”

Laura opened her mouth, closed it, thought. “I was going to say no because that’s a lot of start-up capital—five thousand

for one locker, and the items aren’t even worth that? But he doesn’t think these things through. He might have thought if

those other people wanted what was in the locker, then it was worth something so he had to win the bid. That would be Charlie. Yet to do this successfully, he would need a business plan and some idea of what income he could make, how

much outlay, where he would store the items. He didn’t even think about any of that.”

Laura sighed, rubbed her eyes. “It’s just like him. Jump first. Excuses later. Dammit.”

“I’ve been wondering if someone may have told him about the locker. Maybe a third party gave him the money to bid, or suggested

there was something valuable inside.”

“At this point, I’d believe just about anything.”

It was then that Laura noticed her hand was still on Jack’s. She pulled it away, surprised, and Jack wished she hadn’t. He

liked this connection with Laura; he liked the way she looked and smelled and her faint Texas accent.

“I’m going to shower. We should leave by six thirty for the clinic,” Laura said as she got up.

“I’ll make some breakfast,” he said.

“You don’t have to—”

“I want to.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Jack sat there a moment as he sifted through these feelings he had. It would be irresponsible and unprofessional to act on

any of them while he was working for Laura.

But after? He was going to ask Laura Barrett on a date. Just thinking about it made him smile.

Jack waited two hours in the lobby for Laura while she was in surgery. The receptionist was friendly and chatted with him

between clients. At nine, Laura came out. “Surgery was a success,” she said. “I need to be here for the next hour or so to

monitor the patient, but then I can leave. My vet assistant is the best, she’ll let me know if there are any issues.”

“I’ll be here,” Jack said with a smile.

Five minutes after Laura went to the back of her clinic, two men entered. They looked like federal agents in manner and dress,

and introduced themselves to the receptionist as Miller and Ramirez from Bishop Securities.

The receptionist looked scared—maybe because she knew that Laura’s house had been broken into and Jack was here as protection.

She glanced at Jack, so he rose and said, “Jack Angelhart. What can I do for you?”

The two men glanced at each other, then the taller one said, “Ian Miller. Bishop Securities. Is Dr. Barrett here?”

“You can talk to me,” Jack said. “I’m her representative.”

“We’re actually looking for Charlie Barrett, her ex-husband.”

When they didn’t continue, Jack said, “Go on.”

“We were hired by an individual who wishes to remain anonymous to offer payment for the contents of the storage unit Mr. Barrett

obtained on Friday. I can promise, the payment will more than cover Mr. Barrett’s time and expenses.”

The men were too clean-cut, too professional to be involved with a messy break-in—at least that was Jack’s gut talking. These

were the type of men who would enter and leave a home and no one would know they had been there.

“I will pass the message on to Mr. Barrett if I see him.

“We were hoping that his ex-wife would know how to reach him.”

“Like I said, I’ll pass the message along.”

Again, the men exchanged glances, then Miller handed Jack his business card. It was simple white linen stock with Bishop Securities, LLC, Scottsdale, Arizona in block letters, a phone number in the lower right corner.

“Don’t follow my people,” Jack said as they started to leave.

Miller turned back to him. “I can assure you, we haven’t followed anyone. We only want to discuss a mutually beneficial business

arrangement with Mr. Barrett regarding the files he has. That is all.”

Jack watched the two men exit and approach a late-model black SUV similar to the one Margo had described outside Charlie’s

condo.

What was so important in those files?