Page 28 of Save Her Life (Sandra Vos #1)
TWENTY-SEVEN
The moments following Sandra’s realization swelled and stretched. She couldn’t stop staring at the man’s face. She’d seen him for the first time a few days ago, but what possible reason could he have for taking Olivia? “We need to cut Novak loose,” she said. “And call off the agents Elwood would have dispatched.”
“I’ll call Rowe in a minute,” Brice said. “But you said you know him?”
She nodded while her mind tried to unravel the riddle. Why had he taken Olivia? What did he want from her?
“Sandra?” Brice prompted. “Who is he?”
Brice and Lakisha were watching her with eyes full of worry and expectation.
She saw her insecurities reflected in them and stiffened. She filled them in on her past, including mention of the recent parole hearing and its verdict. “This man’s a friend of Darrell Patton’s. He was at the hearing and spoke to his character.”
“His name?” Brice prompted.
Her mind was blank under the pressure. Despite the adrenaline coursing through her, the sound of her heartbeat in her ears, she was finding it hard to focus.
“We can call the parole board and find out.” Brice pulled his phone.
She held up a hand. “No, I know it. Just give me a minute to think…”
Brice and Lakisha shared a glance. She didn’t much like that it communicated their concerns over her welfare, her capabilities. It didn’t help that she felt their apprehension was valid in that moment. Her memory never let her down.
Focus, Vos… She snapped her fingers. “Lonnie Jennings.”
“Okay, good. We’ll look him up in the system, track him down,” Brice summarized, and Sandra could only hope it was that easy. “But why would he take Olivia?”
“To extract revenge for his friend not getting released?” Lakisha put in, leaning back in her chair and looking at Sandra.
Sandra shook her head. “But what does he expect me to do about that? And it can’t just be about revenge. Kidnapping is usually done for leverage. He wants something from me, but what?”
“Would he know you’re FBI?” Lakisha asked.
“Yeah.” Now she regretted making that clear during her statement. She’d thought it would make her sound more authoritative.
“He could think you have the power to have the decision reversed.” Lakisha curled her lips, clearly wanting to offer something, but not confident with what she said.
“Surely, he would realize Sandra doesn’t have that authority,” Brice countered. “There has to be another endgame here.”
The energy of the room intensified. If she was reading it right, they might be thinking that “endgame” wasn’t good for Olivia. That she might be the victim of spite, but Sandra knew better. From all her years with the Bureau, and talking people down, one thing was clear. People acted the way they did for a reason. There was always motivation and a goal in mind. She looked at the screen, concentrating on Jennings’s face. “He’s smug, arrogant, challenging. He’s taunting me. He deliberately looked at the camera knowing I’d be watching.”
“Rather brazen,” Brice put in.
“He’s also intelligent. He calculated the risks and took some precautions on being tracked down. He blacked out the plates on the vehicle.”
“Except that tinted covers could get him pulled over.”
“Which again confirms he’s smug and brazen. As we’ve established, he’d know I’m FBI from the hearing, but he took Olivia anyway. Then he stares right at me. He’s obviously after something he thinks I can get for him and is using Olivia to force my cooperation.” Surprisingly that admission eased her stress. It put her in familiar territory. If she could keep her emotions out of it, she’d be able to navigate the terrain with skilled practice. The big part being if .
“To go to this trouble, whatever he’s after must be high stakes,” Lakisha put in, and turned to her computer and started pecking on the keyboard.
“All right, well, he knows you’re FBI, but does he know what you do for the Bureau?” Brice asked.
She thought back to her statement at the hearing and nodded. “I said I was a negotiator for the FBI, but what could that matter?”
“You don’t seem to think this is about revenge, so that brings us back to leverage. Why you? Why Olivia? I don’t think this is just because you spoke against Patton’s release. It has more to do with who you are, what you’re capable of, or what he thinks you can do. In sticking with your skillset, is there something he needs to get out of Patton that he’s not giving up until he’s a free man? He could have taken Olivia to coerce you into getting Patton to talk.” Brice pressed his lips as if that was an easy conclusion and the resolution was just as simple.
Her colleague made a good point, but until she heard from Lonnie Jennings, it was risky to make assumptions. She could demand an audience with Patton but that would sacrifice time she didn’t have. Getting to Olivia was more important than trying to predict what Jennings was after. “Not going there yet. If we’re right, and Jennings wants me to do something, I’ll be hearing from him. When he’s ready.” Forcing her to wait was a form of torture but also a means of trying to establish control. Jennings wanted her to believe he was in charge, so she’d be more willing to comply.
“I’ve got the guy’s info,” Lakisha said, and the screen split to show the background on Lonnie. “No criminal record. Single, fifty-eight, living in Brentwood. He does have an older GMC van, black. Too old for GPS tracking.”
“Cell phone?” Most people had a satellite on them.
Lakisha shook her head. “Good thinking, but nothing on file for him.”
“Guy like him probably has a prepaid phone,” Brice said.
Sandra would like to disregard the “guy like him” comment but Brice was right. At least from a statistical viewpoint. Brentwood was an older neighborhood and one of the roughest in DC. It boasted high records of violent crime, but the city was working to revitalize it with new housing developments. Most residents were poor and lived in rowhouses, some of which had been around since the late 1700s. This reflected George Washington’s intention for Washington to be a rowhouse city. But more noteworthy than that was it was where Darrell Patton had grown up. It was possibly the same for Lonnie Jennings. He had said at the hearing they’d been friends since childhood. But what about the driver?
An alert popped in the middle of the screen at the same time as Lakisha’s computer beeped.
“It’s a hit from facial rec,” Lakisha said.
As much as Sandra wanted to know who she was dealing with, the fact he was in the system sank in her gut. “What’s his sheet say?”
“One second…” Lakisha brought the results up on the screen. “The driver was ID’d as Dennis Eaton, fifty-seven. He has a record for assault in his twenties and served five years.”
Violent crime… She hugged herself.
“Address?” Brice asked when Sandra didn’t speak. But she was frozen. She’d never heard of Eaton so why was he doing this to her? To Olivia?
“Brentwood. Looks like him and Jennings are roommates. No phone for him either.”
“Let’s go.” Sandra was the first out of the room, her heart pounding. They had the names of the men who took Olivia but still had no idea where she was or why they were doing this. And their first stop to gather more intel was a neighborhood that hated cops.