Page 24 of Save Her Life (Sandra Vos #1)
TWENTY-THREE
Before Sandra and Brice left the area, they went to the DiversaBlend that Novak had indicated. He was being transported by another agent back to the WFO where he’d spin in an interview room waiting for his lawyer to show up.
The door chimed when they entered the coffee shop, and a friendly woman behind the counter smiled at them. “What can I get for y’all?”
They both ordered Americanos, and then got right down to their real reason for being there.
Sandra held up her FBI credentials as did Brice, and the woman shrunk back.
“Nothing to worry about, ma’am,” Sandra assured her. “We just need to know if you saw a man come in here today around noon. Were you working then?” It might be a stretch given the hour now.
“I was. What man?”
This was where Brice stepped in with a photograph of Novak on his phone. Sandra was just going to describe him.
“This one.” Brice held his screen toward her, and the woman shook her head.
“Nope, I never saw him. He come in, though? We have a drive-thru too.”
Brice glanced at Sandra, then said to the woman, “He doesn’t have a vehicle, so he would have come in.”
“Then, no, I never saw him. Sorry.”
“Thanks for your help,” Brice told her.
“Don’t mention it. Enjoy your coffees.”
Sandra plucked her cup from the counter and took a long sip as Brice pushed the door open and they left.
“Novak has us chasing our tails, but he made a huge mistake sending us here. This gives us enough to get a search warrant rolling for the Novak property. You drive, and I’ll call Elwood.” She pulled her phone as they walked to their car.
Brice got into the driver’s seat, and just as Sandra did up her belt, Elwood picked up. She recapped their visit with Novak ending with, “I think there’s enough for a search warrant.”
“By a stretch, Sandra. I imagine you want this over with, but just because he recognized you, which we thought he would, that doesn’t solidify motive and support cause for a search warrant for his parents’ place,” Elwood argued.
It wasn’t the response she’d expected. “For which Novak has a key. And he wasn’t recognized at the DiversaBlend where he sent us. Doesn’t any of this mean anything?” Her voice built in pitch as she continued to talk.
“I can’t argue about the key, but the person you spoke to at the coffee shop could have stepped away when he came in.”
She didn’t respond to that.
“I hope you understand why I’m being this way,” Elwood said.
If this way means difficult… But, no, she didn’t understand.
“It’s just if he has Olivia,” Elwood said, “you want everything to stand up in court.”
“It won’t much matter if she’s dead, when I had a chance to save her but didn’t.” Her voice cracked, and Brice looked over at her.
There was silence on Elwood’s end of the line.
She pinched the St. Michael pendant, drew some solid breaths. “I shouldn’t have…” Her head was spinning, and her mouth was dry.
“No, I understand. I’m just on both sides of this.”
She couldn’t let herself travel down the empathy path. Not right now. Not when she was flaking apart inside. “I have a good friend who’s a judge,” she started. “He might be able to get the warrant through.”
“Go ahead, but I don’t think you have enough. And let me express my reservation about all this, Sandra.”
She braced herself for what he might be about to say.
“Why would Novak hold Olivia at his parents’ place and stay at a motel? Why not just stay out there too?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’d counter with why not? You didn’t make it sound like the parents were around the place anymore. You said they moved out weeks ago and haven’t even put it on the market. It would be a good place to keep someone,” she reasoned. “Let me share what else I was thinking. Novak’s brother needs special care. Who’s paying for that? I suspect it would cost a lot of money.”
“So Novak’s motive is money?”
“It’s possible. At the same time he gets some sense of payback for what I did to his brother all those years ago.”
A beat or two passed, then, “You didn’t do anything to his brother, Sandra.”
She remained silent. There were times she had a hard time separating the consequences of an incident from herself. She just held herself to such high standards, scoring herself on some imagined philosophical report card. What would her brother think of her performance? Would her actions have made him proud?
“You might be on to something here though,” Elwood said when he must have realized she wasn’t going to speak. “This gives me a bit more to work with. Let me run this past a judge, see if we can get that search warrant.”
“Thank you.” Her lungs expanded just a bit farther.
When he was gone, she looked over at Brice. “He’s going to push this up the ladder, see if a judge will sign a search warrant. And the good news is he never even told me to stay away from it.”
“Just because he didn’t say it… I’m not sure I like that sparkle in your eye,” Brice told her.
“It’s all good. You’re going back to the WFO and waiting with Novak for his lawyer, and I’m going to the Novak property. I want to be there and ready when that warrant hits.”
“Assuming it does.”
“It will.”
“And until it comes in what will you be doing there?”
“Nothing. I’ll be a well-behaved agent minding her Ps and Qs.”
“Uh-huh.”