Page 25 of Save Her Life (Sandra Vos #1)

TWENTY-FOUR

Duane Novak would be getting comfortable in an interview room at the WFO while she was pulling into the driveway of Novak’s parents’ place. Elwood had made the mistake of telling her the agents’ names who were headed out there. She’d called Agent Gabe Radcliffe and got the address. This saved her the trouble of looking it up in the system and needing to defend the search to Elwood. As she and Brice had agreed, he was staying back at the WFO.

The property was in Alexandria, Virginia, twenty minutes from Washington. The house was a backsplit with an acre of land bordered by a six-foot-tall privacy fence. There was only one car in the driveway, and the exhaust was billowing plumes of white into the cold night air. Two silhouettes were in the front seat. Agents Radcliffe and Karl Shaffer must have carpooled, but why were they just sitting there?

She parked the fed car she was driving behind theirs and got out. There was a streetlight right out front, but she grabbed a flashlight anyhow. She rapped on the driver’s window of the other vehicle, and Radcliffe put it down.

“Why are you just sitting here?” she asked him.

“We finished looking around, Sandra, and there’s nothing that gives us probable cause to take things further,” Gabe said. “We were just waiting for you to turn up.”

“Well, thanks for that, but AD Rowe’s working on a warrant. Just curious, but are there any outbuildings on the property?”

Karl leaned forward in the passenger seat and looked over. “Two, both fairly large.”

“So a warrant’s coming through then?” Gabe asked. “My first time hearing of it.”

“Fingers crossed that we’ll have it any minute. But in the meantime…” She turned on her flashlight and cast the beam toward the front of the home.

“We’ll accompany you,” Karl said, tugging on his door handle and getting out.

Gabe shut the car off and joined them.

She led the way to an opened gate. “It was like that?” she asked her colleagues.

“Yes, it was. That’s why we could justify going in the yard. That, and seeing the outbuildings,” Gabe added, and she was grateful he didn’t elaborate on what he meant by that. Her imagination had already veered down that path. They would make a good place to hold someone.

There was an upper deck attached to the back of the house with steps down to the yard. To the side of it was a walkout from a full basement. She walked over there, but it was futile to think she could see inside. It was dark in there and out here. If she shone the flashlight toward the glass, it would just reflect like a starburst.

Her phone rang, and she flinched first, fumbled later, as she tried to fish it out of her pocket. She tucked her flashlight under her arm and finally got a hold of it. Elwood’s name was on the screen. “Tell me you have the search warrant,” she answered.

Gabe and Karl, who had turned their backs on her and started into the yard, stopped and turned around.

“I do,” Elwood told her. “It covers the entire property, including all structures.”

She pinched the pendant. If her girl was here, they’d find her, and it would all be above board.

“Where are you, by the way?”

“I’m…” Did she confess to being here? As Brice had pointed out, while he never told her to stay away, he didn’t exactly tell her to come here either. Surely, he could appreciate she’d want to be here when the warrant came through.

“You’re at the Novak property, aren’t you?”

There’s no fooling him… “I am.”

“How did you know where it was? I never told you, and I know you didn’t run a search, or I would have seen that.”

She might be imagining it but could swear she detected some amusement and pride coming through. “You told me you sent Agents Radcliffe and Shaffer, so I called them.”

Both their heads perked up, and she could feel them drilling her with their gazes through the darkness.

“But they’re not complicit in any wrongdoing,” she rushed to add.

“Neither are you, that I know of. Just tell me you didn’t cross the line.”

“You should know me better than to ask that.”

“Good.” With that, Elwood was gone.

“We’re clear to breach and search this entire property, including the outbuildings.”

“I’m going back to the sheds,” Gabe told her, and she didn’t care for the somber note of his voice.

“I’m coming too,” she told him, and Karl also tagged along.

They got outside of the nearest one, and she called out, “Olivia?”

Gabe and Karl exchanged a look.

“You tried that?” she asked on a hunch.

“We did,” Karl admitted.

He didn’t need to say more as she took the following silence to mean there had been no answer. She tried the door handle, expecting and fearing that it would be locked. It turned without resistance. The Novaks must have forgotten to lock it behind them when they moved. Or Duane had been here with Olivia and left… The latter thought had her trembling. After all, where would he have taken her from here? And even if he had kept her here, there were neighbors close enough to hear screaming. And just like that her whirling mind intensified her fears.

Just think positive…

She stepped into the shed, flashing her light over the space. Patio furniture and lawn decorations filled most of it. As she rolled the beam into all the corners, desperation was rising within her. “There’s nothing here.” She turned to leave, almost bumping into her fellow agents, not sure if she was relieved or disappointed but sided with the latter. It still left her girl out there. Somewhere.

She checked the second shed next. This one was locked, but Karl picked the lock. Inside was lawn equipment, bags of potting soil, and garden tools. No sign Olivia had ever been.

The garage was searched next and gave up no obvious secrets, even as Sandra continued to inhale deeply to see if she could pick up even a subtle trace of Olivia’s perfume.

Her colleagues trailed behind her, more than capable of branching out on their own, but she respected that they stayed close to her. It communicated they had her back literally and figuratively. Neither of them had commented on Olivia or expressed their sympathies about the predicament, but she could feel it coming from them.

They entered the house, flicking on the lights there, and she found the stairs to the basement.

“Olivia!” she called out as she took the steps down.

The lower level was finished in this area, but the absence of furniture made it quick to work through. She entered the utility room and tugged down on the chain attached to a simple overhead fixture. This room housed a furnace and water heater, but there was also a washer and dryer, a fridge, and an upright freezer jammed into the space. She moved to the back of the room, catching sight of a door there.

Her heart was pounding as she reached out to pull the handle.

A loud banging came from upstairs.

“Son of—” Sandra laid a hand on her chest.

“Sounds like someone’s at the front door,” Karl said.

“Go check it out then,” Gabe told him.

Karl’s steps thumped up the stairs, sounding like he was taking two at a time. Not a challenge for his long legs.

She stood there, her heartbeat sounding in her ears, and faint voices joined the rhythm.

“You can go ahead,” Gabe gently prompted her, and when she looked at him, he gestured toward the door.

She’d almost forgotten what she was about to do. Almost. She pulled on the door. It was cold storage, and it was empty.

Gabe put a hand on her shoulder but didn’t say a word. She nodded, getting his expression of camaraderie and support.

They left the basement and found an older man standing in the entry with Karl.

The man pointed at them, and Karl turned around.

“This is Tim Hewitt. He lives next door,” Karl told them. “He was curious who was here because he knows the Novaks have moved.”

“Just being a good neighbor.” He winked at Sandra.

She smiled at him but was struck by the oddity of having this flirtatious old loon hitting on her right now. Especially considering her reason for being there. She left the area and swept through the main level, but it took just about as long as the basement had.

When she returned, Karl and Gabe were deep into conversation with the older man.

“I did see the younger fella park in the driveway earlier this evening,” Tim said.

That was enough to lure her over to join in the discussion. Duane Novak would have no reason to come here and, from what she knew, he didn’t have a vehicle. “Duane, their son?” she asked to clarify.

“Uh-huh, that’s right, ma’am.”

“What time was this?”

“Around six thirty. I’d finished dinner and was settling in.”

“Did he say why he was here or was he with anyone?” She knew the second the double question slipped out that she was steamrolling the poor man. She added a smile to soften the assault, which seem to work.

“I never spoke to him, and he was alone.”

Duane could have had Olivia lying in the backseat or in the trunk. “Did he go into the house or onto the property?”

“Not that I saw.”

That wasn’t reassuring. Duane could have moved Olivia without the older man seeing. “Did you catch a look at the vehicle?”

“Yes, ma’am. A Ford sedan, powder blue, older.”

Could be a Taurus or other model for that matter. She wasn’t up on cars. But where did Duane get the wheels? Brice had told that woman at DiversaBlend he didn’t have a vehicle, which Sandra took to mean as he’d looked at Novak’s record. So did this blue sedan belong to a friend? Where was it now? And would finding it get her any closer to Olivia?