“How long did you drive?”
Something cagey moved in Davis ’s eyes. “I don’t remember.”
Chloe’s annoyed huff let Luke know she’d seen it, too. “I think you do, Mr. Davis.”
“I’m ready to go back to holding.” Garth turned to his attorney. “Keep looking.”
Keep looking for what? Or who. “Must be rough, having your wife desert you that way,” Luke said mildly. “Not knowing where your kids are, or if they’re okay. Two boys, right? Seven and four. Awfully little to be on the run. So many dangers out there.”
A muscle in Davis ’s unbruised cheek twitched. “You know where she is.”
Luke lifted a shoulder. “I don’t remember.”
Davis sat down. “I want to see my wife and my children.”
“I may be able to arrange that,” Luke said quietly. “How far did you drive that night?”
Davis ’s cheeks hollowed as his eyes grew ice cold. “Less than an hour. It was a cabin. Up in the mountains.”
“That’s all?” Luke asked. “That’s not nearly enough.”
“It was a goddamned cabin, all right?” Davis snarled, eyes blazing. “It had a fireplace and a kitchen. Like every other goddamn cabin up there.”
“Any knickknacks, anything to tell you whose it might have been?”
Garth’s eyes grew cold once more. “Yeah. And you’ll get it when I see my kids. And not before. I don’t know why that cabin’s so important to you, Agent Papadopoulos, but it is and that’s all the leverage I’ve got right now.” He stood up. “I’m done.”
Chloe waited until they were back in the viewing anteroom. “You mind telling me what that was all about?”
Luke sighed. “Granville’s last words were ‘Simon was mine. But I was another’s.’ Someone was mentoring him. Guiding him. Maybe even pulling his strings.”
“Could be his trafficking partner,” Chloe said. “Or not. Could have been the owner of that cabin. Or not.” Then she smiled. “But that was a good Hail Mary, Luke. You got us some leverage without dicking around with a plea. I may still deal, but I’d rather hold that card as long as I can.”
Over my dead body that asshole gets a deal, Luke thought. “Thanks. I only hope we can get Mrs. Davis back here before those missing girls are so far gone we never find them.” He turned to Agent Germanio, who’d been watching the entire interview. “What was Garth doing when you picked him up?”
“He was on the phone with the airport.” Germanio looked at Chloe. “Just don’t ask.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Hank, how many times do I have to tell you the phone is off limits until I get a damn warrant?”
Hank was unapologetic. “I told you not to ask.”
“So who was he talking to? When you hit redial,” she added in a mutter.
“A lady named Kira Laneer. She works check-in at one of the smaller airlines.”
“Sounds like a stripper’s name,” Chloe groused. “I’ll find out if Mrs. Davis and her boys boarded a flight, either yesterday or today. You keep away from Kira Laneer until I get a warrant for Davis ’s phone records.”
“Did you get enough to beef up the warrant to cover anything we find in Davis ’s house linking him to trafficking?” Luke asked, unsurprised when she shook her head.
“No. But look anyway.”
“I will. Pete Haywood is waiting with his search team at Granville’s house for your call. As soon as that judge signs his name, call Pete and let him know he can go in. It’s been almost three hours since we discovered the girls were missing.”
“If they’re headed out of the country, they’ve got a good head start,” Germanio said.
“I know,” Luke said grimly. “We’ve posted advisories with the Coast Guard and border patrol, but until we get a description, either on the partner or the girls, we got nothin’. I’m going back to the bunker and see what Ed and the crime lab have found.”
Atlanta , Friday, February 2, 6:45 p.m.
Susannah stood at the hospital waiting room window, trying to block out the constant stream of activity behind her. It seemed every cop in Atlanta had heard about Daniel and had come to sit with the family. Her lips lifted, but bitterly. She was the family. I’m it. For all the good that does either of us.
Everyone who came wanted to tell her how wonderful her brother was, how brave. How honorable. Susannah’s face hurt from the smile she’d forced while thanking each cop for their kind words. Alex had arrived a half hour ago, after visiting her stepsister, Bailey, so Susannah was letting her greet the well-wishers and retell the story of how Daniel had yet again vanquished the evil foe.
And Susannah had escaped to this window. From here she could see city lights, the movement of cars as rush hour subsided. If she pretended hard enough, she could believe she was home in New York and not here in Atlanta caught up in this nightmare.
Because after the initial adrenaline of the drive from Dutton, of the search for thích, reality had intruded. She’d been poked with needles, fore and aft. They’d taken her blood and shot her in the behind, just as Alex had said they would. Some kind nurse had given her scrubs to wear as her clothes had been ruined.
Luke’s boss, Chase Wharton, had questioned her about the events of the afternoon. The girl was in surgery, never having regained consciousness in the helicopter.
Susannah thought that was just as well. Her heart quailed thinking of the horrors the girl had seen, endured. Her heart froze thinking of the girls Granville’s partner had spirited away. What they’d be subjected to if they weren’t found quickly.
She didn’t need imagination to know what they’d do to those girls. She’d seen the aftermath of prostitution and rape. Up close and very personal. The hum of activity around her faded as her mind brought back one very personal victim. There had been blood that day, too. And a body battered beyond saving.
Darcy, I’m sorry. I was afraid. I failed you. But Susannah knew her apologies were worthless. Darcy would never hear them. Darcy would never hear anything ever again.
“Excuse me.”
The soft voice yanked her back from an old nightmare to this new one. She straightened, ready to greet yet another well-wisher. This one was a petite blonde.
“I’m Felicity Berg,” she said. “I’m with the medical examiner’s office.”
Susannah’s mouth dropped open and the woman quickly patted her arm.
“Nobody’s dead,” Dr. Berg said, then winced. “Well, that’s not true. Lots of people are dead, actually. But not Daniel.” She leaned closer. “And not the girl you saved.”
“How did you know?” Susannah asked. Chase and Luke were keeping the girl’s existence as closely guarded a secret as possible.
“Luke called me, told me what happened this afternoon at the bunker. We’ve had a busy week, with Mack O’Brien’s victims, and now these. They’ll start arriving soon and I won’t have a chance to see you after that. I just wanted to tell you that your brother is a kind man. I’m praying for him. And for you.”
Kind. No matter what Daniel had done, and what he had not, that he was a kind person was a fact Susannah could never deny. Her throat tightened and she had to swallow before the words could escape her throat. “Thank you.”
Dr. Berg glanced at the noisy cops. “My mother was here for surgery last year, and the waiting room was one big party with her friends from bingo night and her clogging class.” She made a face. “Let’s not even discuss the friends from Chippendale night.”
Susannah smiled and Dr. Berg smiled back, shyly pleased. “I escaped to the chapel,” Berg confided. “It’s always quiet there.”