Page 67 of The Best Trick

“Omigod. I sense a new era coming in the era of me not losing at poker with you guys anymore.”

“Goddess,” Thor said. “You have many tells.”

“So were you trying to misdirect Agent Alfred? To make him think Ferdinand is involved?”

“I want him off our ass,” Zeus said.

“So interesting,” Thor said, watching Alfred drive off. “Harold lied about being shocked about his brother’s scam. Harold saw a wrongly appraised violin. He knew what his brother was doing. And he lied.”

“Why would Harold lie about knowing about the scam?” I asked. “Could Harold have taken Doris? Could the ledger implicate him in some way? Is that what’s going on here?”

Zeus paused at the front of the Uber. “We need more information on Harold. We need to pay another visit to him. It's business hours. He should be in his shop.”

“Or maybe we make sure he's in his shop and then we pay a visit to his home,” Odin said. “We might get more from his home than from him.”

“Possibly even a dog,” I said hopefully. “What if we actually found Doris? What if Denko is good for his word? Can you imagine?”

Thor looked at me sadly.

“What?” I protested. “Things could work out finally!”

“We need our own car,” Odin said. “What IDs do you guys have?”

I rolled my eyes. Maybe my guys didn’t dare hope for a regular life of peace and love, but I had enough for all of us.

The guys compared IDs that they were carrying around and it was decided that Thor would rent us a car, just to mix things up a little.

THIRTEEN

Two hours later, after a quick confirmation that Harold was still stuck in his shop, we were slipping in through the sliding doors in the back of Harold’s first-floor condo in Mar Vista.

The place was dark, gloomy, and even a bit musty.

“Does he never open his windows, ever?” I asked as we fanned out for a quick search.

“It does smell stale, doesn't it?” Thor said, opening a living room cabinet. “Don’t think we’re gonna find Doris in here.”

Magazines about Los Angeles had been arranged in a careful fan on the coffee table. “Who keeps magazines about their city on their coffee table?” I asked.

“Maybe some people like decorating like that,” Odin said.

“Like who?” I looked around the kitchen. There were no dishes in the sink—not even a coffee cup. The garbage was empty, too. “Too clean,” I said.

“Some people are clean freaks,” Thor said.

Odin settled into the couch with a laptop. “This laptop hasn't been used for months. However, that could just mean that he has a newer one that he uses more often.”

“Or maybe he doesn't even live here.” I headed over to the refrigerator and flung it open. The shelves were empty. The door was mostly empty, too, aside from some condiments. “Correction: he for sure doesn’t live here.”

Thor came over and stood next to me, peering in. “You might be onto something.”

“Might?” I snorted. “No ‘might’ about it. I knew from the coffee table magazines, but this proves it.”

Zeus wandered in. “Nothing interesting in the bedroom.”

“Sometimes nothing interesting is something interesting,” I said, stepping aside so he could see into the refrigerator. “Harold doesn't live here.”

He nodded slowly. “Interesting.”

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