Page 27 of Save Her Life (Sandra Vos #1)

TWENTY-SIX

Sandra and Brice got out of the car and passed through the security measures at FBI headquarters and then on to where the Science and Tech agents were holed up.

Lakisha waved them over when they were close to her desk and got up to hug her.

Sandra wished she hadn’t done that because she could feel herself flaking apart. “Thank you, but we should probably just watch that video.”

“Yeah, of course.” She dropped back into her chair, clicked on a file, and M Street NW came onto the screen. “Oh, just one quick thing. I was able to determine the man from the DiversaBlend video was six foot two inches. I couldn’t make out anything else that was useful. All right, so are you ready?” Lakisha made eye contact with Sandra.

As I’ll ever be… Sandra nodded, and Lakisha hit play on the video.

The footage was a sideview and captured Olivia leaving DiversaBlend, wearing her backpack and carrying her violin case. She started to move down the sidewalk. The man in the fleece-lined jean jacket was only about ten feet behind. Others were on the sidewalk too, and Olivia was weaving between them. It could certainly be Duane Novak, but none of the angles captured the man’s face directly, and he’d put on a ballcap. His head was facing slightly downward, not affording a strong profile shot either. Likely intentional.

Olivia continued to walk down the sidewalk and picked up speed. There was a black van parked at the curb, and Sandra wished she could climb into the video and travel back in time, because she had this sixth sense of what was about to happen.

She continued to watch as Novak swept behind her daughter and pushed her toward the side of the van. Likely inside. The video didn’t have sound, but Olivia would have likely been so startled she hadn’t a second to scream. And if the people behind this were anywhere close to being professional criminals, they’d have silenced her by some means the moment she was tucked into the vehicle.

The van merged into traffic seconds later, and no one on the sidewalk seemed to pay any attention.

“Liv.” Her daughter’s name left her lips in a whisper.

Lakisha hit pause. If she or Brice had heard her, they respectfully gave no indication. Both kept their gaze on the screen and were silent. But what was there to say? It was a scenario she had pictured, even expected, but watching it take place was surreal. In fact, until now a tiny part of her clung to the hope she was somehow misreading things. That Olivia would miraculously turn up unharmed with an explanation for her disappearance. That was the mother in her begging for a reprieve. What she’d seen just confirmed what the fed in her knew all along. Her daughter was kidnapped.

“Sandra.” Lakisha was the first to break the silence.

Now Lakisha and Brice looked at her. Sandra was numb as her heart raced. “We knew someone took her. We just have the irrefutable proof now.” The more affirmative she spoke, it might sink in.

“It might not have been the Ford sedan, but that guy’s build and gait sure looks like Duane Novak’s,” Brice put in.

She nodded but wavered in confidence. The man on the video was without a face. Was it Novak? Regardless of whether it was or wasn’t, what did this man want? So far, this person was a coward without a voice who’d snatched a child from the street.

Thankfully her mind continued to work, but thoughts were forming so rapidly, it was challenging to grasp one. “The van could belong to another friend. Any shots of the license plate?”

“Let’s find out.” Lakisha reversed until the black van pulled up and the angle made it possible to see that the front plate was blacked out. The tech forwarded and the same applied to the rear plate.

“They thought this through,” Brice said.

Sandra shot him a look. If he wasn’t going to offer something helpful, she’d rather he kept quiet. “We need to know where they went.”

“Already on it.” Lakisha clicked here and there, but it didn’t take long to see the van headed out of the city, across Key Bridge.

Lakisha slumped in her chair. “I’m sorry, Sandra. I wish that…”

Sandra put a hand on her shoulder and took a shuddering breath. “We’ll figure this out even if Novak refuses to talk. We’ll find his friend.” After all, tracking people down was what she was good at, and it always started with a base of facts. “They were waiting for her,” she said. “They must have known about her routine of going to DiversaBlend after school. They waited until she was alone and snatched her.”

“It seems we all agree there were at least two,” Brice said. “Novak and the driver.”

“It’s possible there’s a third in the back, but it isn’t necessary,” Sandra said.

“It kills me that no one called nine-one-one,” Lakisha put in.

“People are too absorbed in their own lives to see what’s going on right around them.” It was a sad observation that Sandra had made over the years. “Can you go back to where the van pulled up?”

“Absolutely.” Lakisha did that, and they rewatched that part.

“Pause.” Sandra pointed at the screen. “If you zoom in, we have the driver’s profile. It might be enough to identify him through facial rec databases.”

“Worth a try.” Lakisha panned in and captured a closeup and got the system started on doing just as Sandra had asked. It would search through several linked databases for a photo showing similar characteristics. Sometimes the hits came back fast. Sometimes they took time. The only thing was a person needed a criminal record to be in the database.

“Can you replay the part where Novak pushes Olivia?” Sandra was just wishing for one split second that captured the man’s face. If they could prove this was Novak, they’d be well on their way to getting Olivia back.

Brice turned to her. “You sure you want to do that?”

Lakisha was watching her expectantly.

“I don’t have a choice if I want to save Olivia. Please play it in slow motion,” she added.

Neither of them said a word as Lakisha did just that, and they were rewarded. In the seconds after the man pushed Olivia into the van, he lifted his head, his face looking right into the camera.

“That’s not Novak,” Brice said.

Sandra’s stomach clenched. “Nope, but I know who he is.”