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The foyer was dark

Rich flipped on the light just inside the door Auto it in a defensive motion

“He’s not home,” Sloane stated tonelessly “And he wouldn’t kno to hold a gun, much less fire it”

“It’s procedure, Sloane,” Derek replied “You know that as well as I do Thisto assu and Wallace didn’t answer the door As soon as we’re sure all’s clear, I’ll holster my weapon”

Sloane nodded

“Rich, you and Sloane start looking around,” Derek instructed “I’ll cover you”

They h the foyer and stepped down into the sunken living rooht dih toin it

The first object they saas the painting of the little Chinese girl Wallace had put it on an easel just inside the room, so the eye would be drawn directly to it

“That’s beautiful,” Sloanethe innocent quality of the little girl

“It should be,” Rich responded drily, walking up close to the painting and studying the details of its design and frahly successful Chinese artist It was stolen froo”

Sloane’s head jerked toward Rich “Stolen?”

He nodded “So we’ve already got grounds for Wallace’s arrest”

“What we’ve got is grounds for that second search warrant,” Sloane corrected hi He told ift from her and her uncle”

Derek had already flipped open his phone “I’ll call Jeff and have hiive Cindy Liu an extraat her apart to Johnny Liu, it will be a real coup”

“It’ll get you the warrant But it won’t get you Liu,” Rich apprised hiht it He’s probably already fabricated a paper trail to make the provenance as murky as possible”