Page 23 of Save Her Life (Sandra Vos #1)

TWENTY-TWO

The motel’s parking lot was full of G-rides, or cars belonging to the FBI. Brice was standing next to one and waved at Sandra when Eric pulled in. She thanked him for dropping her off, got out, and joined Brice. “Any updates on the K-9 search?” she asked him.

Brice shook his head. “I would have called you if there had been.”

She figured as much but had to ask anyhow. Her daughter’s backpack and violin still hadn’t been recovered, but they could be with her. “And her shirt?”

“I folded it and put it on your desk.”

“Thank you.” She proceeded to tell him about the video from DiversaBlend and how the man tailing Olivia could have been Novak. “What room is he in?”

“Seven.”

“You ready?” She didn’t wait for a response but strode toward the door with the silver 7 on it. She knocked, and the curtain on the window was lifted back, then left to fall. She pounded on the door. “FBI! Duane Novak, surrender!” With that last word, she was jettisoned to the past.

“Go away. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Open the door, or we will breach,” she threatened.

A few moments passed, and the door was slowly opened. Brice swiftly wedged himself through the crack and slapped cuffs on Novak and pushed him back on the bed so he was sitting on the edge of the mattress.

“What are you doing?” Novak was pleading, not so tough in the face of FBI agents storming into his room.

Sandra searched for any sign of Olivia or a flannel-lined jean jacket. He could have gotten rid of the latter. Olivia too… Sandra swallowed roughly, walked around the bed and stopped in front of Novak. Brice stepped aside. No doubt Elwood had made it clear Brice was to take the lead, but he was deferring to her. Brice just went up several pegs in her opinion. As for Novak, his looks had hardly changed from fifteen years ago. Her heart pounded, realizing now more than ever he could be that man from the video. “Where is she?”

Novak glared at her. “Why am I not surprised you’re here? Are you back to screw me over a second time? You do know my brother will never walk again because of you.”

“I never pulled the trigger, but thank you for confirming motive.”

“Huh? What do you people want? Should I get a lawyer?”

“Shut your face, Novak,” Brice told him.

“Where is Olivia?” she said, in a voice so cold, it chilled her.

“I don’t know any Olivia.”

His claim did nothing to tamp down her suspicion. Criminals lie. Fact of life. She brought up Olivia’s photo on her phone and shoved it in Novak’s face. “Take a good, hard look.”

“Why should I?” Novak shrugged.

“You want to go back to prison? Fine, let’s go.” Brice grabbed Novak’s arm, and he bucked free.

“I’m not going anywhere. Lawyer ,” he said slowly.

“Olivia. Tell us where she is. Now!” she barked, but Brice glanced at her, a warning look in his eyes. The request for a lawyer should have shut her down. But there was no way. Use his hate for me… “You clearly blame me for what happened to your brother, don’t you?”

“Damn right, I do,” he seethed.

That smacked close to that’s right. He’d feel she understood him, but she was more interested in how this worked against him. “And it sounds like you want to keep your freedom and stay out of prison.”

“Yeah,” he said slowly, scanning her eyes as if trying to understand her sudden shift in approach.

Throwing a suspect off was interrogation gold when it could be done. “Great, then all you have to do is tell us where this girl is.” She held up the screen of her phone again.

“I don’t know her.”

“Her name is Olivia.”

“As you keep saying.”

“Something I’m pretty sure you already knew.” She studied his eyes, disheartened they were blank. Again, that didn’t necessarily mean anything. He could have that deadpan look for many reasons, including to sell his lie. After all, he didn’t want to return to prison.

“I’ve never seen her before either,” he offered up.

“But this is you, isn’t it?” Sandra kept her tone nonconfrontational and replaced the photo of Olivia with a still of the man from the DiversaBlend video.

Brice caught her attention from across the room where he was holding up a garbage bin with gloved hands.

“Ah, no, it’s not .”

She was distracted by what Brice was getting at, but it all became clear when he lifted a DiversaBlend cup out of the trash. “This only works if we’re honest with each other, Duane.” She pointed a finger behind Novak, toward Brice.

Novak looked over his shoulder. “Okay, I was at DiversaBlend today. Is that a crime?”

“It depends. Why did you follow this girl?”

“I didn’t.”

“But that’s you coming out of DiversaBlend right behind her,” she countered.

Novak studied the picture. “That’s not the one I went to.”

Brice was rooting in the garbage, and if she read his mind, looking for a receipt. He shook his head, set the cup back in the trash and set the can on the floor again.

“So if we showed your picture to them at this DiversaBlend, they wouldn’t recognize you?” she asked.

“Where did you say it was?”

“I didn’t, but…” She gave him the location.

“They wouldn’t know me, so go ahead.”

“Duane, I thought we were starting to connect.” Skilled as she was, she couldn’t pull that line off convincingly. “All right, fine, we weren’t. You see, I think you took this girl. I want to know where she is and what you want.”

“I didn’t do anything. I’ve been here all day.”

“You’re forgetting about the cup,” she pointed out.

“That was around noon at the one just down the street from here. I never took that girl. You’ve got nothing on me. Lawyer,” he spat. “If you need me to, I’ll spell it out for you. L. A. W?—”

Sandra shook her head and signaled for Brice to get the man out of her face. She’d already steamrolled past his first request, and if she wanted to keep her job without a reprimand on her permanent record, she’d better not risk doing so a second time.

She left the room behind Brice and Novak, staring through the back of his head. That man had her daughter somewhere. He had to because she couldn’t entertain the thought that he didn’t. That would take the search back to ground zero.