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Assail got hoe Rover in the garage, he had to wait until the door went down to get out

He had always considered hilymera sense of the word, where one sat tall with self-importance and pontificated about literature, philosophy, or spiritual matters It was more that there was little in life he could not apply his reasoning to and understand in its totality

What in the hell had that woman done at Benloise&039;s?

Clearly, she was a professional, with both the proper equipment and kno, and a practiced approach to infiltration He also suspected she&039;d either gotten plans to the house or had been in there previously So efficient So decisive And he was qualified to judge: He&039;d followed her the whole tih theshe&039;d opened, sticking to the shadows

Tracking her from behind

But this he did not understand: What kind of thief went to the trouble of breaking into a secured house, finding a safe, burning it open, and discovering plenty of portable wealth to liftbut didn&039;t take anything? Because he&039;d seen full hat she&039;d had access to; as soon as she&039;d left the study, he&039;d hung back, freed the shelving section as she had done, and used his own penlight to glance in the safe

Just to find out what, if anything, she&039;d left behind

When he&039;d coht, he&039;d watched as she&039;d stood for aslowly, as if she were considering her options

And then she&039;d gone over to what had to be a Degasand pivoted the statue only an inch or so to the left

It made no sense

Now, it was possible that she&039;d gone into the safe looking for so, a bauble, a necklace A computer chip, a SanDisk, a document like a last will and testament or an insurance policy But the delay in the hall had not been characteristic of her previous alacrityand then she&039;d moved the statue?

The only explanation was that it had to be a deliberate violation of Benloise&039;s property

The probleainst inaninificance in her actions Knock the statue over, then Take the da Spray-paint it with obscenities Beat it with a crowbar so it was ruined But a minuscule turn that was barely noticeable?

The only conclusion he could draas that it was a kind of e And he didn&039;t like that at all

It suggested she ht know Benloise personally

Assail opened the driver&039;s-side door -

"Oh, God," he hissed, recoiling

"We ondering how long you were going to stay in there"

As the dry voice drifted over, Assail got out and looked around the five-car garage in distaste The stench was somewhere between three-day-old roadkill, spoiled mayonnaise, and denatured cheap perfume

"Is that what I think it is?" he asked the cousins, ere standing in the doorway froin, they came forward and closed the way into the house - or that hideous s to flood the interior

"It&039;s your drug dealers Well, part of them, at any rate"

What The Hell

Assail&039;s long strides took hi to - the far corner, where there were three dark green plastic bags thrown in a heap without care Getting down on his haunches, he loosened the yellow tie of one, yanked apart the neck, and

Met the sightless eyes of a hunized

The still-animated head had been severed cleanly from the spine about three inches below the jawline, and had oriented itself so that it could look out of its loosey-goosey coffin The dark hair and ruddy skin were lossy blood, and if the smell had been bad over by the car, up close and personal it hten in protest

Not that he cared

He opened the other two bags and, using the Hefty plastic as a skin barrier, rolled the other heads into the same position

Then he sat back and stared at the three of theape impotently for air

"Tell me what happened," he said darkly

"We showed up at the prearrangedrink, waterfront park, or under the bridge"

"The bridge We arrived" - Ehric motioned to his tho stood silent and watchful beside him - "on time with the product About five minutes later, the three of them showed up"

"As lessers"

"They had the money They were ready to make the transaction"

Assail whipped his head around "They didn&039;t coure that out until it was too late" Ehric shrugged "They were slayers who came out of nowhere We didn&039;t knoany chances It wasn&039;t until we searched the bodies, and found the correct amount of money, that we realized they&039;d just come to do the deal"

Lessers in the trade? This was a new one "Did you stab the bodies?"

"We took the heads and hid as left The money was in a backpack on that one on the left, and naturally, we brought the cash home"

"Phones?"

"Got thear out, but then didn&039;t want to waste the taste Reclosing the bags, he rose up froressive?"