in the air. “It stays on,” he said.
“And here,” the girl said. “You can compare it to the one we had on display and see that it’s the same, just larger.”
“Yeah. I like it. I’ll take this set,” Roman said.
“And how will you be paying?” the woman asked.
“Visa,” Roman replied, taking out his wallet and giving her his card. He looked at Riley as the woman rang him up. “I’m glad you insisted we start establishing credit lines.”
“I know what I’m talking about,” Riley teased.
The girl handed him a small decorative bag with the ring box inside containing his and Talie’s rings.
“Thank you,” Roman said, taking his receipt and shoving it down in the bag as well, then slipping his card back into his wallet.
“You ready?” Riley asked.
“Yep.”
They walked out and got back in the truck. “Want to go check out the house and neighborhood Talie was living in with Frederick?”
“You know where it is?” Roman asked.
“Patrick left the file on the counter top in the back of the conference room we were in. He expressly told me, ‘I’m leaving this folder with pertinent information in it unattended. Don’t let anyone look into it to get any addresses they don’t have a right to have.’”
Roman chuckled. “I like him.”
“Me, too. He’s experienced, slick, knows what he’s doing, he’s not afraid to do whatever it takes to represent his clients the best way he can, but he’s also got some integrity. He knows that not everything is black and white. You have to step into some gray areas from time to time to make things turn out as they should.”
“In this circumstance… I’ll step all in the black. I’m crossing every line I have to,” Roman admitted.
~~~
Riley drove slowly down the street of the very old, yet well kept neighborhood. They looked left and right, reading the numbers on the mailboxes as they looked for the number Riley had gotten from the folder in Talie’s attorneys’ office.
“It should be right up ahead,” Riley said, reading the numbers on the last mailbox they’d passed.
“I see it,” Roman said, staring through the windshield.
Riley looked up and realized Roman was probably right. There was a falling down, ramshackle home up ahead. There were two rusted cars in the yard that from the looks of it hadn’t been moved in years, and another in the driveway. What little grass could be seen was brown and dead, and the bare branches of what used to be a shrub leaning haphazardly against the front of the house was all it had for landscaping. The paint was at one time a pale yellow, but now just peeled in dingy yellowish-gray strips from the exterior walls.
“This place is a fucking dump,” Roman said disgustedly, leaning forward to better see around Riley as they sat in the truck in front of it.
“Yeah, it is,” Riley said. “Let’s see if anybody’s here.”
Riley parked the truck across the street and together they got out and walked up to the front door.
Roman knocked on the door, and they stood there, waiting. There was no answer so Roman knocked again, more forcefully this time, then rang the doorbell several times. Still no answer.
“Let’s take a walk around back,” Riley said.
They worked their way around the house, peering through windows and trying the back door when they reached it, but it was locked. Looking through the sliding back door, they could see the bloodstains on the floor from where the man had died, and had yet to be cleaned.
“Check out the shed?” Roman asked, walking away from the house and toward the shed. Finding it opened, they stepped into it and looked around. “Nothing much to see here,” Roman said.
“Not much we can do here,” Riley said.
Roman shook his head.
“Come on,” Riley said, heading back toward the house and finishing their exploration by walking up the opposite side yard and back to the front, making a complete circle around the house, before coming to a standstill in front of the door again. Riley pounded on the front door. “Hey! Anybody home?” he shouted.
Both males stood perfectly still, their ears primed toward any sound at all coming from the house, but there was nothing.
“Wasting our time here, I think,” Roman said.
“Yeah, think so,” Riley agreed.
They walked down the driveway and paused, looking up and down the street. “Wonder if we came back after most folks get off work, if we could get a witness or two — at least to the type of person good ole