Page 29 of Closer Than You Know (Vera Boyett #2)
Khatri Residence
Morton Drive, Fayetteville, 11:55 p.m.
Bent walked through the house in search of Vee.
He had deputies crawling all over the property and the surrounding area. There weren’t any streetlights along this stretch of county road, and the neighbors were few and far between. The chances of finding anyone who had seen a vehicle or a person in the vicinity of the house at this time of night was next to nil. Since they hadn’t found a vehicle that didn’t belong in the area, either, there was no reason to believe Eve was out there fleeing on foot with some scumbag right on her heels. Whoever had come here had gotten what he came for, and now they were both gone.
But Bent had to be sure ... that her body wasn’t out there somewhere. The thought twisted inside him.
He’d called Conover to the scene, but it would likely be a waste of time. They’d already learned that, like the Messenger, this perp didn’t leave evidence. Still, there was always a first time. Better to be safe than sorry. If there was anything here that would help them figure out what happened to Eve, he intended to find it.
Vera had called Luna, and Bent had sent another deputy to her house. He wasn’t risking that this scumbag wasn’t finished.
He located Vee in the small bathroom. She leaned against the wall opposite the sink, arms folded over her chest and gaze fixed on the mirror. Suri had explained that Eve had gotten angry and swiped the message from the glass. Not that it would matter at this point. They all knew who had left it.
“We’ll find her,” he promised.
“No question,” she responded without looking at him. “I’m not worried about finding her, Bent. I’m worried about what condition she’ll be in when we do.”
The lack of emotion in her voice told him she was in that place—the one an investigator had to reach in order to keep going when the worst of the worst happened to someone they cared about.
“Baker was alive,” he reminded her.
Her eyes widened with realization. “She could be at the house or barn right now.” Her lips trembled. “Or at that fucking cave.”
Bent had already considered that possibility. “I have deputies searching those areas right now.”
She closed her eyes and blew out a breath. “Thank you.”
“I also called Jones.” He hadn’t wanted to for reasons that were purely selfish and out of place. But he’d done it anyway. This was about the job ... this was about Eve. “He’s on his way.”
“I appreciate it.” She shook her head. “I was going to call him, but I came in here, and I just couldn’t do anything but stand here staring.” Her lips tightened. “I have regretted so many times that I didn’t kill that son of a bitch. Eric said I did the right thing. Now I realize the real right thing would have been to follow my instincts.”
Bent moved closer, his gut tangling into knots. “I will find her, Vee.”
She managed a small smile. “I know you’ll try your best, Bent. We both will.” Her lips trembled again, and a tear slipped down her cheek. She scrubbed it away. “I’ll tell you a little secret.”
He held her gaze, wanted with his entire being to reach out and touch her but didn’t dare. He couldn’t risk she would see it as him taking advantage of the situation.
“Tell me,” he urged when she remained silent.
She swiped at her eyes again. “I cannot do this life ... without her.”
“I know.” The two had clung to each other after their mother had passed. They’d kept their secrets and protected each other all these years. Truth was, he couldn’t imagine one without the other either. “Right now, Eve needs us to put aside our personal feelings and to focus on finding her. We have to think like cops, Vee—not family, not friends. Just cops.”
“You’re right.” She pushed away from the wall. “I’d like to talk to Suri again.” Her breath caught. “Did you send someone to Luna’s house? She could be in danger as well. God damn it, where is my brain?”
“I did, and I’ve explained everything to Jerome. He’s taking time off from work to be with her until this is finished.”
“Jesus.” Vee shook herself. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that already.”
She was only human, but Vee had never liked admitting as much.
“Come on. Let’s talk to Suri again. See if she’s remembered anything more.”
As they reached the small living room, Eric Jones walked through the front door. He went straight to Vee and gave her a hug—something Bent had worried he shouldn’t do. He’d spent the past seven months trying to figure out where he stood with Vee. He wasn’t sure he would ever really know. But he had no one to blame for the distance between them except himself. He was the one who had walked away in the first place.
Walked. Yeah right. He’d run. He told himself it was to protect her from making a mistake. But maybe he’d been protecting himself from something that scared the hell out of him.
“I’m so sorry,” Eric was saying to her, his voice low. “We’re going to do everything possible to get her back unharmed.”
Vee nodded. “I know.”
“We were about to talk to Suri again,” Bent said, rather than what he wanted to say, which was something along the lines of Go home, we don’t need you.
He was having more trouble keeping the personal junk away than he’d anticipated. And here all this time he’d thought he was immune. Vee was the only person who’d ever made him feel like he might be vulnerable to his emotions.
Jones, Vee at his side, followed Bent to the larger of the two bedrooms in the house. The bedrooms were on one end of the house, while the living room, kitchen, and bathroom were on the other. It was a small home, with a couple of acres of woods around it. Suri’s grandmother had left it to her since both her parents were deceased and her brother had already moved to Huntsville to start his business. Bent had suggested Suri call her brother and let him know what was going on. But he doubted Suri would be willing to go and stay with him until this was done. She would want to be here just in case. Bent would assign a deputy to her as well.
It was a damned good thing he’d gotten his personnel quota up to where it needed to be. He had a good, solid team now.
Vee sat on the bed next to Suri and put an arm around her shoulders. “This is Lieutenant Eric Jones. He’s an analyst I worked with in Memphis. He’s familiar with the perp we believe is behind what’s happening, and he’s going to help us.”
Suri glanced at Jones. “She’ll be pissed.”
Jones frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Anything or anyone that threatens the people she cares about makes her angry. She’ll give him a hard time.” Suri’s tears started again in earnest. “That’s the part that worries me the most. She won’t be easy to handle. He’ll wish he hadn’t taken her.”
A shaky smile tugged at Vee’s lips. “She will. She’ll give him hell.”
Bent suppressed a chuckle. They were right about that. Eve was a fighter. She wouldn’t take this lying down unless she was unconscious. Otherwise she would be fighting tooth and toenail. Not to mention raising hell.
“Walk us through what happened once more,” Bent suggested.
“We both had stressful days.” She glanced at Bent.
The confessions about Gates. He asked, “Did the two of you go back to work after leaving my office?”
Suri nodded. “We were both behind for the rest of the day. We didn’t get home until around nine. We ate. I took a shower, and when I got out ... the message was on the mirror.” She closed her eyes and shuddered. “ Eve, you’re next. I screamed for her. She came and saw it. It made her angry, and she scrubbed it away. I told her she shouldn’t have done it, but it was too late.”
“She didn’t harm anything,” Jones explained. “It’s unlikely that the person who put the message there left any prints or other usable evidence.”
A slow nod, and then Suri continued, “We both understood we needed to call Vee.” She glanced at the woman next to her. “She said she would, so I got dressed and dried my hair. When I finished, I went looking for her since she never came back and told me if she got in touch with you. That’s when I found the back door standing open and Eve’s cell phone on the floor.” She moistened her trembling lips. “There was a chair overturned like she had reached for it ... there was blood on the floor too.”
Bent gritted his teeth. It wasn’t a lot of blood, but enough to suspect Eve hit the floor face first. Her nose or lips may have been injured and bled from the impact. No way to be certain.
“I called Vee,” Suri went on. “Locked myself in here like she said and waited.”
Vee gave her shoulders a squeeze. “I’m so sorry about this, Suri.”
Bent looked to Jones and then jerked his head toward the door. The other man followed him out of the room. When they reached the living room, Bent turned to him. “At this point, I think we can accurately assume he’s been here for at least four or five days.” He kept his voice quiet to prevent Suri overhearing. “Whoever this guy is, he’s been watching and getting the lay of the land.”
“Which means he has a landing place,” Jones said, concurring with the scenario. “I wouldn’t doubt he’s been here even longer.” He exhaled a heavy breath. “My advice would be to do a press conference. It’s time to warn the public. Have people call in any strangers they’ve seen. Any suspicious behavior. Basically, anything or anyone that doesn’t belong.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Bent agreed. “We can’t really provide a description other than the image the sketch artist came up with, based on Carl Baker’s account of the man he encountered who claimed to be from my department.”
Frankly the image could be anyone. No definitive hair or eye color. Medium height and weight. Baseball cap. No logo Carl could remember. Jacket and jeans. It was basically worthless.
Jones grimaced. “That sketch is so generic I’m not sure I would even use it. We don’t want people ruling out anyone because some tiny characteristic didn’t fit the sketch.”
“I agree.” Bent mentally ticked off the folks he would need to call. “I’ll set it up.”
By dawn he wanted to have a community-wide search in place, just as they had done for Baker. He couldn’t even fathom how terrified Eve would be right now. It was true that she would be fiercely ticked off, but beneath all that bravado, she would be scared, and he hated the idea of her going through that. Eve had suffered plenty in her life, and she didn’t need this kind of crap. She was like a little sister to Bent.
Wherever she was, he intended to find her and bring her home. And if this bastard had harmed her, he would see to it that he didn’t need a trial.