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“All right. Got it. You start working a grid from here, and I’ll go over there. We’ll work our way toward each other.”
“Yep. And I’ll keep trying to call it too.” She froze on Olivia’s contact card, her heart cinching at the attached picture takenlast July. Olivia was standing at the back of her grandmother’s speedboat and smiling broadly. She loved the water and the summer sun on her face, the wind through her hair. Sandra hit the call button.
There was faint ringing. She pivoted around and saw a jogger had manifested and was pulling his phone from a pocket.
“Hello,” he said.
Sandra let out a deep breath.No giving up!She ended the call and resumed walking again, doing so slowly and letting the beam from her phone’s flashlight illuminate the steps ahead of her. She followed the imaginary outline of a rectangle, working in a grid formation. Brice would do the same from his end, and by the time they finished, they would have covered a large area. After that they’d chop off another section and repeat the process for as long as it took.
She continued calling Olivia’s phone. Never meeting with success.
Sandra’s phone rang and had her flinching. “Special Agent Vos.” She answered without consulting the caller’s identity.
“Sandra, it’s Eric. I’m at your place, but you’re not…?” He left it dangling as if that were a question.
It took a few seconds for it to dawn on her. He was going to meet her there, and the two of them were going to go out for dinner tonight. “Something has…” Her throat swelled shut with fear. Just for a moment. How so much had changed since that happy state she was in last night. “I can’t reach Liv. Her phone pinged back to the east end of Key Bridge.” She told him the precise location.
“I’ll be right there.”
“We can use all the help we can get. Could you bring a shirt or sweater from her room, something from the hamper that she would have worn? Just in case we need to involve the K-9 unit.” She heard herself speaking and felt like she was livingsomeone else’s life at this moment. Her mind kept haunting her with Avery’s words. The ones about the man in the flannel-lined jean jacket. The one who had shown so much interest in her daughter.
“Will do. Just hang in there, okay? See you soon.” He hung up before she could say another word, but she certainly wouldn’t have discouraged him from coming. It was also probably past time they had the area cordoned off and called in for additional assistance anyhow.
Brice waved her over. He’d covered a fair bit of ground.
“Did you find it?” she called out as she galloped toward him.
“I think so.” He was standing with his legs hip-width apart and pointing at the ground.
She followed the direction of his finger, and sticking out from the base of a shrub was the corner of a pink phone case.
She bent to pick it up, and Brice nudged her arm. “What?”
“You’ll want these.” He was holding out a pair of gloves, and she took them with a “thanks” and a lump in her throat.
It was official. Olivia’s phone was evidence in a crime. Her daughter had been abducted.
NINETEEN
Sandra cracked Olivia’s phone case open and woke the screen. Staring back at her was a picture of Olivia and Avery smiling in red T-shirts with their school’s name and logo on the front in white. She traced her fingers over the screen. If only her desire to have her daughter back possessed the power to make it happen.
“Basis Independent?” Brice let out a whistle. “Nice school.”
She quickly flipped the cover closed, though it was too late to prevent his observation. “It is.”
Brice was looking back at her, his eyes dancing over her face. His mouth opened like he was going to say something, then closed again.
She gave him a few seconds, but he didn’t add more to his comment. That fact was a relief. It wasn’t a cheap school by any means, and she didn’t want him to treat her any differently. “We should call the K-9 unit.” She couldn’t think about them finding her daughter’s body, but they might turn up more of her things that may, in turn, give them a clue as to her whereabouts.
“I’ll handle that. You should probably call AD Rowe.”
“I will.” She stepped away, sliding Olivia’s phone into a plastic evidence bag Brice had given her and took hers out. She selected Elwood Rowe from her contacts. He answered on thesecond ring, and she got right to the point. “Olivia’s missing, possibly taken.”
“What? When?” A swift response like he’d been slapped.
“After school, sometime between four forty-five and five ten.”
“We’ll get out an alert for her.”