Although the Labe family did not rank among Portland's wealthiest, they were certainly near the top of the food chain.
The estate covered 200 acres, or roughly 0.8 square kilometers. A national park lay behind the luxurious villa, and more than 500 acres of woodland there were their private property.
Making a person or two "disappear" in a place like this would be child's play.
Earlier, Nick and Andrew Wu had inadvertently teamed up, taking advantage of the Labe family's report of a break-in to inspect the villa inside and out.
Unfortunately, they had found nothing.
Ordinarily, a case that reached this point could hardly proceed any further, despite the many suspicious details. For instance, such a luxurious villa had neither security guards nor even a dog, and the family left the house in the care of "neighbors" several kilometers away whenever they went out.
But Nick could find no motive. On one side was an unemployed punk; on the other, a partner at a prominent Oregon law firm. He could not apply for a search warrant based on suspicion alone, then bring in hundreds of officers to turn the estate and its surroundings upside down.
Never mind that no judge would sign such a warrant-even if he actually did it, he would be kicked out of the PPB in a heartbeat. The same would hold true even for someone in Inspector Raynard's position.
Fortunately, they were not entirely without leads at the moment. They just needed a few special tricks and a little luck.
An hour later, the Ford Explorer's all-terrain tires once again rolled over the gravel country road, while Wu complained from the passenger seat.
"That kid might have panicked, run into the National Forest Park out back, and gotten lost. The two of us can't cover