Page 37 of The Best Trick

Agent Denko had a first-floor condo in a very modern building made out of huge slabs of concrete with wrought-iron accents. There were tons of windows all around, and lots of state-of-the-art security too, which was probably why it took Odin a full two minutes to crack into the basement door’s digital lock.

“Did you know his apartment was here this whole time?” I asked.

“Know thine enemy, isn't that one of the commandments?” Zeus muttered as we slipped along the hallway and let ourselves into Agent Denko’s condo. “But we've never actually been inside.” He shot Thor a pointed look. “No trashing the place.”

Riiiiight. Because Thor was still in that wild-card mood.

“We’ll see,” Thor said.

I went over and linked my arm in his. I loved him in his crazy moods, but it was obvious that he was hurting.

“I’m fine,” he said.

I kissed his cheek, and then we stole in, silent as the bandits we were.

I don't know what I expected in Denko's apartment—something along the lines of a tidy furniture showroom, I suppose. And yes, there were some showroom-looking pieces, like a boxy red couch, but he also had a lot of framed vintage French movie posters and a buffet that looked like it was partly made out of old machinery.

Thor pulled the photo Denko had given us from his pocket and held it up next to one on the bookshelf, a framed shot of Agent Denko with his arm around a sweet-looking German shepherd. “Same dog,” he said. “Same white markings. Same everything.”

Zeus came up after me.

“It's a start,” Zeus said. “I'll be happier if I find more dog stuff, though. If he’s doing what he’s claiming to do, he’s literally risking life in prison to rescue that dog.”

I found a dog bed that looked used. There were some hairs on it. I called Zeus over to look.

“That's something,” he said.

“What? You think he would have invented the dog and gotten these things to put around in his apartment?” I asked. “Seems a little elaborate.”

“I just want to feel one hundred percent on this,” Zeus said. “I want to know that he's actually trying to find her.”

Odin had wandered off. “Laptop!” he called out from the direction of the den.

I headed into the kitchen with Thor. We found an open pack of dog treats in a drawer. Thor found a half-used bag of frozen dog food in the freezer. It was made from raw meat and contained lots of very fancy-sounding supplements.

“Definitely a respectable amount of dog food,” Thor said.

I checked the refrigerator. There was a lot of chicken, some takeout containers of soup, a bag of carrots, a decent selection of cheeses, and a pie box. “Ooh. Pie from The Pie Hole.”

“What kind?” Thor asked.

“Can’t tell,” I said.

Thor gave me a mischievous look. “Should we find out?”

“It’s sealed shut.”

Thor slid the box out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter. “Grab that knife,” he said, motioning to a butcher block holder of knives.

“Omigod,” I whispered. “We can’t!”

“Don't you want to know what kind of pie it is?” he asked, plucking the knife from the holder himself.

I grabbed his arm. “We could just smell it!”

“But wouldn't you rather taste it?”

“But…it’s Denko’s pie!”

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