MAGGIE waited while Delores Heston attempted to find the right key. The sun was sinking behind the trees. She couldn’t believe how much time they had wasted trying to track down Tess McGowan. And although Heston had been accommodating, Maggie felt on edge. She knew this was where Albert Stucky had killed Jessica Beckwith. She could sense it.

Heston dug out another bundle of keys and Maggie fidgeted, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Heston noticed.

“I don’t know where Tess is. I’m sure she probably just decided to take a couple of days off.”

It was the same explanation the woman had given Maggie over the phone, but again she could hear the concern.

“One of these has to work.”

“I would think you’d have them labeled.” Maggie tried to contain her irritation.

“These are the spare keys. We do keep a labeled set, but Tess must have forgotten to return it after she showed the house yesterday.”

“Yesterday?” Maggie realized her voice must have sounded too shrill, too alarmed.

“Yes, I’m sure it was yesterday. I checked the show schedule before I left the office—Wednesday, April 1. Is there a problem? Do you think the house may have been broken into before that?”

“I really can’t say,” Maggie said, trying to sound indifferent when she wanted to kick in the door. “Do you know who she showed the house to?”

“No, we keep the names off the schedule for confidentiality reasons.”

“You don’t have the name of the person written down anywhere?”

Heston shot her a concerned look. “Tess would have it written down somewhere. I trust my agents. No need for them to have me standing over their shoulder.”

Maggie hadn’t meant to make the woman defensive. She simply wanted the goddamn door opened.

“This house has a security system.” Heston was still trying to find the right key. “Oh, here we go. Finally.”

The lock clicked as Tully bounded up the steps. Heston turned, startled by his sudden appearance.

“Ms. Heston, this is Special Agent R. J. Tully.”

“Oh, my. This must be important.”

“Just routine, ma’am. We tend to travel in pairs,” Tully said with a smile.

As soon as they entered Maggie noticed the security system had been disarmed. None of the lights flashed or blinked.

Heston punched several buttons and the box came alive. “I don’t understand this. Surely Tess wouldn’t have forgotten to set it.”

Maggie remembered Tess McGowan being very careful about activating the alarm systems of the houses she had shown, this one included. Security systems had been one of Maggie’s priorities, and she knew this one had not been anything out of the ordinary.

“Mind if we look around?” Tully asked, but Maggie was already halfway up the staircase. She reached the landing when she heard Heston’s panicked voice.

“Oh, good Lord!”

Maggie leaned over the railing to see Heston pointing to a briefcase in the corner of the living room.

“This belongs to Tess.” Until now, the woman had been incredibly professional. Now her sudden panic was unnerving.

By the time Maggie came down the steps, Tully had taken the briefcase and started extracting its contents with a white handkerchief.

“No way that girl’s gonna leave this and not come back for it.” The panic rushed her words, reducing her previous crisp dialect to a slang version she obviously found more comfortable. “There’s her appointment book, her pocketbook… Good Lord, something’s just not right here.”

Maggie watched as Tully brought out the last item—a labeled set of keys. Maggie knew they were for this house. Suddenly she felt nauseated. Tess McGowan might have shown this house yesterday, but she certainly didn’t leave of her own free will.