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out the front door to retrieve the last bag of groceries. When she returned the Captain had taken a seat on the sofa with Trooper resting on the floor beside him.
    “Epi Salazar called again,” she said, remembering the message she’d taken before she left the office to run errands. “Does he still live out there on that big ranch by himself?”
    “Yep, he’s lived there since he was a boy. His father bought all that property from a mining company, paid them cash. Nobody ever figured out where Mr. Salazar made that kind of money, but some folks think he did a little mining on his own before he got the deed for the land. Epi still wanting to hire us?”

    Eve placed the bag on the kitchen counter next to the others. She waited before answering. It was the first time she had ever heard her father use the word us when speaking about his private detective business. The significance of the chosen pronoun made her smile.
    “He’s convinced somebody buried gold up there. I told him he didn’t need a private detective, he needed a handyman or one of those metal detectors.”
    Jackson grinned. “What did he say?”
    “He claims you’re better than a metal detector. He said that you had the best nose for missing items in all of Santa Fe County.”
    He shook his head. “I don’t know what he thinks I can find walking around his property with one leg. And if I remember the old Mr. Salazar right, he would never have allowed any gold to stay underground on his property. He would have dug up anything he found and gotten the money. He lost a fortune trying to keep cattle up there on that hillside.”
    She started unpacking the bags, putting things away. She put the canned foods in the cabinet next to the sink, bread in the bread box on the counter beside the refrigerator, and two cereal boxes, Cheerios for her, Grape-Nuts for him, on a shelf in the pantry next to the kitchen. “Well, he found some papers, a map or something. He said he wants you to have it; he says with this you can definitely figure out where the gold was hidden.”
    “Did you tell him what we charge for locating missing stuff?”
    Eve took out the milk and placed it in the refrigerator along with the yogurt and butter. She turned toward her father. “I’ve never billed for locating a missing treasure. Is it the same as for a person?”
    He stretched out his leg in front of him. “Same hourly rate,same success percentage. Buried gold or a dead miner, they cost the same for me to dig up.”
    Eve finished putting away the groceries and headed into the room where her father was sitting. She carried two cans of diet soda and a bag of grapes. She handed him one of the drinks and sat down in the chair across from the sofa. She held the bag of fruit up, an offer to share, but he shook his head and opened the can of pop.
    “I’m worried about Dorisanne,” she said, taking out a grape.
    “I know you are,” he responded.
    “Well, do you think I should try to call someone else to make sure she’s okay?”
    He took a drink of his soda and set the can down on the table. He shook his head. “I don’t know, Eve. Since she left home twenty years ago she’s been out of touch more than in touch. I figure she’s busy and she doesn’t need us right now. I wouldn’t be too concerned about her just yet. Give her a few more days, another week, and then we’ll start calling neighbors and casinos.”
    Eve nodded. “You’re probably right. She isn’t one to check in on a regular basis. I know that.” She waited, ate another grape, and sat back.
    “What?” he asked, as if he knew something was wrong.
    “I don’t know. It’s just a feeling,” she answered.
    “What kind of feeling?”
    “The bad kind, you know, the kind you can’t shake.”
    He blew out a breath. “Okay, tell me again when you talked to her last.”
    Eve smiled and sat up, grateful to be able to talk about her concerns. “You talked to her last. It was May 14. You wrote her a check that