Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

picks in a nearby puddle so they’d melt, the front entrance to the mined mountain. Not back here pulled my glove back on, and eased into the building. in the bottleneck where access was already restricted. Donovan followed me and closed the door behind him. I Still, I palmed one of my silverstone knives, just in stood still for a moment, letting my eyes adjust to the lack case.
    of light. With the darkness and clouds outside, the inteWe crouched behind a bulldozer that was the closest rior of the building was almost pitch-black, as if it were one to the mining office. Nothing moved in the dark already midnight instead of creeping up on seven o’clock. night. The drizzle had picked up and turned into a steady once I was sure no guards were coming to interrupt us, rain. A few damp tendrils had come undone from my I pulled a small flashlight out of my jacket pocket and ponytail. The rain had turned my chocolate locks an even flicked it on. Beside me, Donovan did the same. darker brown, and I used the cold moisture to slick them We stood in a waiting room. Some chairs, a table, back into place.
    out-of-date magazines. A desk in the middle probably
    “Come on,” I whispered to the detective. “Let’s do belonged to a secretary. Behind it, a corridor led farther this.”
    back into the building. That’s where I headed, with the I crept forward. After a moment, I heard Donovan’s detective behind me.
    boots squish in a puddle behind me. I smiled. Just like The corridor ended at a closed door with a brass nameold times. If a mere two months ago could be considered plate that read Tobias Dawson. Just whom I was looking old times.
    for. I tried the knob. Locked, so I had to form two more I eased over to the front door of the mining office. A Ice picks to open it. After I’d picked the lock, I turned sign on the side read Dawson Mining Company. once the knob and held my breath, waiting. But no alarm Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 206-207
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    208 JENNIFER ESTEP
    Web of Lies 209
    sounded. Evidently, Dawson just secured his office as a framed photographs, looking for a wall safe. Nothing. I precaution—or to keep his staff from snooping around ran my gloved hands over the cheap wood paneling, tapwhile he was away. I stepped inside the room. The detecping it in several places. Again, nothing. tive followed me.
    I curled and uncurled my hands into loose fists, thinkI paused for a few seconds, taking in the view. Tobias ing. Since Tobias Dawson was friends and business partDawson’s office had just as much personality as the dwarf ners with Mab Monroe, I imagined there were quite a few himself did because everything had a Western motif. documents—legal and otherwise—he wouldn’t want his The desk consisted of several old-fashioned wooden barunderlings seeing. Locking his office wouldn’t be secure rels with a sheet of glass stretched over the top of them. enough. He’d need someplace to stash them. There had The art on the walls featured bucking broncos and Nato be some sort of safe in here. A secret cubbyhole, hell, tive American designs, perhaps Navajo, from the looks even a loose floorboard. And I needed to find it—fast. of them. one of the lamps on Dawson’s desk was shaped We’d already been inside more than a minute. I wanted to like a miniature cowboy boot. Another one resembled a be gone before the five-minute mark rolled around, if not curling lasso. I looked up. The dwarf even had a longhorn before. Dawson might not have any obvious security here, mounted over the door to the office—its stuffed head and but it was better not to take any unnecessary chances, eshorns at least. pecially since I was going to come back later and kill him.
    “Somebody really needs to move to Texas,” I murSince I’d crapped out with the walls, I dropped to my mured.
    hands and knees and scoured the floor, looking for lines
    “Forget that,” Donovan said. “What are we looking cut into the thick rugs. Nothing. Not so much as a single for?”
    fiber out of place.
    “Anything that might tell us why Tobias Dawson wants
    “This is weird,” Donovan murmured, shining his the Foxes’ land so badly.” I moved off to the right. “So see flashlight across several sheets of paper. what you can find in his desk and in the filing cabinets.”
    “What?” I asked, still crawling around on the floor. Donovan did as I asked. But before he started pulling
    “It looks like Dawson’s hired several gemologists in