Page 64 of Seven Deadly Sins

Ten minutes later, a young woman led them to a booth and handed them menus. A man brought them chips and salsa.

Liam’s phone buzzed. “We’ve got an address.”

Harper started to slide from the booth.

“We might as well eat. Thompson won’t be stupid enough to stay in his childhood home, and we don’t have a warrant yet.”

She shrugged. “If he’s arrogant enough to think we’d never find out his real identity, he might.”

“That would be easy for us, and nothing has been easy so far.” He chose a chimichanga.

Harper ordered flautas. “This could be our big break.”

“That’s what I’m praying for.” He dipped a chip into the salsa and popped it into his mouth. “Got a bit of spice to it.”

By the time their order arrived, the warrant had been approved. Since Harper wolfed her lunch down and stared at him while he finished, Liam sighed, tossed money onto the table, and slid from the booth. “Come on, Miss Impatient.”

“I don’t want to miss him if he’s there.”

“He won’t be.”

“Ugh.” She marched to the jeep. “Are you ever wrong?”

He chuckled. “Rarely.”

“Show off.” She smiled and got into the vehicle.

When he joined her, he grasped her hand. “I am wrong sometimes. But I’m not wrong about this or about how I feel about you.” He pulled her close for a kiss.

“I feel the same, but let’s keep this from the chief and Macey and Harris, okay? I don’t want them to think our feelings for each other will cloud our judgement.”

The only thing that might send him off course was if something happened to Harper. If she was injured or missing. Then, Liam would turn vigilante. It wouldn’t be pretty.

Chapter Five

Falling for Liamwasn’t smart in any sense of the word. Harper stifled a sigh and stared out the passenger side window as they drove to the Thompson residence. Emotions clouded a person’s judgment. People made mistakes. She needed her mind fully focused on the case, not on the handsome Irishman.

“You’re awfully quiet.” Liam pulled onto a gravel drive. “Anything you want to talk about?”

“No, just running things through my mind.”

The drive wound through lines of crepe myrtle trees before stopping in front of a house that looked so out of place. Even in Harrington.

A large dolphin fountain, long gone dry, took up prominence in a lawn full of weeds. Bushes in need of trimming lined the porch that circled around half of the monstrosity, because there was no other name for the place in Harper’s mind. The huge steel, glass, and stucco building looked as far from being a home as it could get.

“It doesn’t look as if anyone has been here in a long time.” She shoved her door open. Where had the young Thompson gone after his father’s death? Had the man immediately set off on his quest for revenge toward the living relatives of his father’s doctors?

Their feet crunched across gravel as they made their way across the lawn toward the double doors painted an inky black. When no one answered the doorbell or Harper’s knock, she stepped back.

Liam turned the knob. The door opened with the squeak of unused hinges. Dimness greeted them. Dust motes floated on what light did manage to get through broken blinds on the windows.

Rat pellets littered the floor. Harper shuddered. The place must be crawling with rodents.

A curving staircase rose to the second floor.

“I don’t think anyone is here.”

Liam nodded. “I agree, but maybe something was left behind that would give us an idea of where the son might have gone. Do you want upstairs or down?”