"No, I would have stopped him if I had." Just what kind of guy did they think he was?
"If no one saw him take it, then no one can prove that he did. And I'd be willing to bet whoever took the jewelry wore gloves, so there won't be any fingerprints."
"Then why fingerprint the room?"
Marc closed his pad of paper and slid it back into his pocket before explaining, "Because there's always a chance he fucked up somewhere. People like Keith think they are smart, but they always miss something. We just have to find that something."
"Oh, we'll find something." Dan refused to be made a fool of. He'd had his share of it growing up. He wasn't going to take it now that he was an adult, and especially not off some piss-ant pipsqueak who liked to jerk nice people like Terry around.
"I'll have a statement written up for you this afternoon," Dan told the deputy. "I'll drop it by the office along with the background check I did on Keith. Like I said, he was clean, but maybe you'll see something more in there than I did."
Dan had only been in Cade Creek for a couple of months. He was still trying to figure his way around the small town as well as learn the ropes of working in such a small DEA office. He didn't know the town folks well enough to make a judgment about someone.
"Sounds good," Marc replied. "The techs should be here in a few minutes. Show them to the room, but don't touch anything."
"What about Keith's room?" Terry asked.
"We should search his room," Dan said. "The jewelry might be in there."
Marc nodded. "I'll send someone over to search it. I want this done by the book so we can nail his ass when we're done."
Terry's face tightened in a grimace. "I want to pack all his crap up so Dan can have the room."
"You don't have to do that, Terry," Dan said. "I can just take my stuff back to Chester's."
Terry shook his head. "No, it's fine. You need a room, and it looks like one just became vacant." He smiled, and it seemed like a real smile. "So, welcome home."
