He sat forward and folded his arms on his knees. “When you get right down to it, there’s no evidence that Steadman has been living above his income. If he’s getting cash out of Thornley, where has the money been going?”
Another silence greeted that observation.
“Well, shoot and damn,” Mitchell muttered. “Why would he commit murder for the tapes and then sit on them for eight years?”
A cunning light appeared in Arizona’s eyes. “Why waste time prying a few bucks out of a small-time state pol when you can hold your ammunition and use it on a genuine U.S. senator?”
Hannah heard a collective intake of breath.
“You know something, A.Z. ?” Rafe’s smile held no humor. “For a professional conspiracy theorist, you sometimes make a lot of sense.”
“She’s got a point, all right.” Mitchell whistled softly in admiration. “Everyone knew from the start that Thornley would probably go all the way to Washington.” He glanced at Rafe. “You know Steadman better than anyone. Think he’s into that kind of long-range planning?”
“Maybe,” Rafe said thoughtfully. “He always likes to talk about the importance of timing and planning.”
Hannah clasped her hands behind her back. “If Jed has been sitting on those tapes all this time, he must be getting a little antsy now that the big payoff is almost within reach. No wonder he freaked when Rafe and I returned to Eclipse Bay and people started to talk about the past.”
“The question is, What do we do with all this guesswork?” Mitchell asked of the room at large.
Rafe looked out over the bay. “We get a little more information, if we can.”
Hannah swung around in alarm. “What are you going to do?”
“There’s a town council meeting tonight. They’re going to be discussing the pier renovations. Jed will cover the session. It will probably run late.”
Understanding hit her. She took an urgent step toward him. “You’re going to search his house, aren’t you? Rafe, you can’t take that risk. What if a patrol car goes past his place while you’re inside and you’re spotted? If you get caught you’ll be arrested for breaking and entering. You could end up in jail.”
“Now that would be ironic,” Rafe said. “Be the fulfillment of a long-standing prophecy.”
“That is not amusing.” She whirled around to face Mitchell. “I’m sure you don’t want him to take this kind of risk. He’s your grandson. Help me out here.”
Mitchell stroked his chin. His expression of wolfish anticipation was uncomfortably familiar. “Well, I sure wouldn’t want him to take such a dumb risk on his own. Reckon I’d better go with him to keep him out of trouble.”
Hannah looked from his face to Rafe’s and back again. She groaned. “Well, shoot and damn. This is a fine time for the two of you to decide to bond.”
Mitchell studied the big house from beneath the branches of a dripping tree. Jed Steadman’s home stood dark and silent in the fog-drenched gloom. “You thought about what we’re going to do if we set off an alarm?”
“Doubt if there is one,” Rafe said. “Not many people here in Eclipse Bay are worried about crime.”
“If we’re right about Steadman, he isn’t exactly a typical resident of our fair town. You and Hannah have made him nervous lately. He might have put in an alarm. All I want to know is if you’ve got a backup plan in case we run into one.”
“You think I’d do something dicey like this without figuring all the angles first?”
“Just tell me what we’re supposed to do if we trigger an alarm.”
“We run like hell.”
Mitchell nodded. “I was afraid of that.”
“You want out before we go inside?”
“Hell, no. Haven’t had this much fun in years.”
Rafe smiled slightly to himself. “I was afraid of that.”
Getting inside was easy. Maybe a little too easy, Rafe thought as he slid the unlocked bedroom window open. He eased one leg over the sill and paused for a few seconds, listening to the silence.
“What’s the matter?” Mitchell demanded.
“Nothing.” Rafe got the other leg over the sill and stood inside the bedroom.
He was conscious of an eerie stillness in the house. A lonely quality permeated the darkness around him. He was only too well acquainted with this bleak, melancholy sensation. He had been aware of the emptiness collecting in his house in San Diego for a long time before he had made the decision to move to Eclipse Bay. Maybe this was how any man’s home felt when there was no woman in it to soften the edges and warm the shadows.
“Now what?” Mitchell whispered after he climbed through he window.
“You take this room. Look for a wall safe. I’ll go see if I can find a study or a home office. Got your gloves?”
“Sure, but we’re not exactly experts at this kind of thing. What if he realizes later that someone went through his belongings?”
“Give him something more to worry about,” Rafe said. “If we don’t turn up those tapes, giving him a good scare may be the only tactic we’ve got to use against him.”
He left Mitchell in the bedroom and went swiftly down the hall. He stopped in the doorway of another bedroom and clicked on his penlight. The room was beyond spartan in its bareness. It looked as if no one had ever slept in it. He opened a closet door. A mound of old camping equipment was piled inside.
He closed the door and went on down the hall to the next room. A quick glance revealed that Jed used it as an entertainment center. A massive television set took up a large section of one wall. Several thousand dollars’ worth of speakers and other electronic equipment were positioned around a large recliner cushioned in black leather.
A wastebasket sat next to the recliner. Rafe glanced inside and saw a small heap of trash. A little square of yellow paper and a bit of foil clung to the side of the basket.
Rafe aimed the penlight closer to the candy wrapper. It looked identical to the one he had discovered beneath the tree at the end of the Harte cottage drive. It wasn’t conclusive proof that it had been Jed who had kept watch on the house that night, but the evidence was mounting.
“Rafe.” Mitchell’s voice echoed softly from the other bedroom. It was husky with urgency. “You better take a look at this.”
Rafe swung around and hurried back down the hall. “What is it?” He rounded the corner and aimed the penlight at Mitchell, who was standing in front of a chest of drawers. “Find something?”