Page 69 of Seven Deadly Sins

She checked every box and container in the freezer. Empty. No credit cards like her grandmother had done. Of course, a man as wealthy as Thompson wouldn’t have to worry about credit limits.

The apartment looked staged as if an open house would happen soon. Nothing personal. No photos, no books, although an expensive whiskey decanter sat on a sideboard. She moved to the bathroom.

The room was as large as her bedroom. No prescriptions in the medicine cabinet. A vanity drawer held expensive makeup.

Harper scrunched her mouth. The woman she’d seen, the one believed to be the assassin, didn’t seem the type. Maybe another woman lived here with Thompson. They’d only assumed it would be the one he hired.

She went in search of Liam. “Makeup in the bathroom.”

“A variety of women’s clothing in the closet.” He frowned. “Cheap department store clothes and not-so cheap designer labels. Two women?”

“One. A woman who can change her appearance as well as Thompson can.” Another stumbling block in front of them. “We need to get a sketch artist to do the plain woman’s face with makeup and a nice hairdo. Give us something else to look for.” But they did have another potential piece to the puzzle.

She studied the clothes hanging in the closet. “Either our assassin is a chameleon or you’re right, and Thompson has two women in his life. Maybe he keeps the nice clothes for a special woman in his following?”

“Maybe. He probably needed someone on occasion to attend functions with him.” Liam felt around the wall behind the clothes.

“What are you looking for?”

“Another hidden passage.” His voice sounded muffled behind the clothes.

Harper suspected it would be harder than a wall panel. She studied the wall of shoes and started lifting them one at a time. When she lifted the Louis Vuitton’s on the top right shelf, something clicked. “Found it.”

Hair mussed, Liam emerged from the hanging garments. “The built-in dresser swung open.” He withdrew his gun and stepped inside.

Harper followed. Definitely a safe room. She backed out and used a boot to hold the door open before rejoining Liam.

Crates of food and water. A queen-sized bed, sofa…a safe room the size of a studio apartment with all the luxuries they’d seen in the main part of the apartment. “Hiding here wouldn’t be much of a hardship.”

Liam grinned. “No, it wouldn’t.” He returned his gun to its holster. “Wonder where Thompson is this fine morning.”

“Looking for his next sinner, I suppose.” She stepped in front of a wall of monitors. Every room, the street, and the apartment building’s front door were being recorded. No one would be able to sneak up on Thompson if he was home.

“I say we wait here a bit. We’ll see him coming.”

~

So, they knew everything. Robert stood in the entrance to his father’s hidden room. The room that had held all the man’s secrets. The room Robert had one day intended to burn. Ridding the world of his father’s things, the agent and the detective would have been his final cleansing. The fulfillment of his father’s quest for a better world.

If he hadn’t been so deep into the sinful things of the wealthy, his father wouldn’t have needed the oncologist. Without the liquor and indulgent foods, he might not have caught liver cancer. It pained his heart to know that his father had been as much responsible for leaving Robert alone as the doctors had been.

Nancy had done the best she could after Cousin Lloyd took over, but the man’s indifference, often cruel way of dealing with his young cousin and cut to the quick. No matter. Robert had made sure the man paid. Now, he owned everything. He had to be careful about his pride. He didn’t want to fall into the same trap of sin as the others in his family had.

That’s why Robert lived off what he made as a surgeon, leaving his father’s wealth untouched in offshore bank accounts. He only wanted to use money he’d earned himself.

He closed the door to the hidden room, aware that he also closed the door on a chapter of his life. As he walked out the front door of the house, he removed a lighter from his pocket, lit it and dropped it in the trail of gasoline he’d left.

~

Liam straightened. The two front legs of the chair he waited in slammed to the floor. “That’s Thompson. He’s not bothering with a disguise.”

“Which means the manager is one of his people.” She punched a button on the keyboard and pulled up a view of the lobby. “See? The manager said something to him. He’s leaving. So much for waiting in the hall.” She bolted from the room.

“Hold up.” Liam gave chase. “Take the stairs. We’ll cut him off outside.” He placed a call to the office requesting backup.

Their feet thundered down the empty stairwell. Liam held out a hand to stop Harper when the click of a door echoed. He put a finger to his lips and peered over the railing.

A well-dressed woman with dark hair had entered the stairwell. On stilettos, she made her way slowly to the next floor. When she did glance up, dark eyes widened at the sight of him and Harper. Recognition flashed.