Page 19 of Save Her Life (Sandra Vos #1)

EIGHTEEN

Sandra let Brice drive because he had insisted, and she couldn’t present a solid argument against the arrangement. Her mind was too preoccupied to safely get behind the wheel. The second the bridge came into view she leaned forward as if she could magically see her daughter or something that would end this mental torture.

Brice parked on the street near Georgetown Waterfront Park, and they walked from there along the path to reach Key Bridge. The wind coming off the river was biting and sent shivers down her spine. She burrowed deeper into her coat.

She scanned the area, looking around for her daughter, hoping she’d find her, and that she’d be ready with some clear explanation for being there and not at her lesson. Also for not answering her phone. But her heart knew Olivia wasn’t here.

Still she yelled out, “Olivia!” while shrugging further into her coat and stepping off the boardwalk to the brush. The ground was mostly dirt, and some areas were wet. With it being winter, it was a beige and brown landscape aside from green vines of ivy wrapped around some tree trunks.

“Olivia!” Brice echoed her.

No response. Even the path was barren right now. Not a single jogger.

Sandra pulled out her phone and called Olivia’s number. She listened carefully for her daughter’s ringtone.

Nothing.

Panic surged through her. She must be too far away to hear it. Then again, between a breeze whipping through the trees, the sound of the moving river, and vehicles passing overhead they created a white noise that could have drowned out the ringtone.

“Shit.” Sandra stopped walking, a hand to her forehead, scanning the area. There was nothing to see. Despite sunset getting later, the sun was already weak and sinking in the sky today. Curse the winter months. She turned on her phone’s flashlight and cast the beam ahead of her. It brought something to life from the shadows. A pile of blankets and cardboard? The lumpy shape of a human body underneath?

Sandra started to run toward it. “Olivia?”

A bearded man with a dirty face peeked out. She saw now that she’d disturbed a homeless man.

“Sir, have you seen this young woman?” She fumbled to bring up a photo of Olivia.

He shook his head but said nothing and retreated beneath his makeshift tent.

“We keep looking. We find her phone, and it might give us a clue as to where she is.” Brice came up beside her, and she wanted to catch his optimism. “There’s no giving up, Vos.”

They were talking about her daughter. “Never.”

“Is her phone in a special case that might stand out?”

“It’s just solid pink.”

“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 taken last 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 living someone 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.