Save Your Breath (Morgan Dane #6)(54)

“Everyone is OK,” he said quickly. “It detonated but only did minor damage to the porch.”

Stella’s eyes turned back toward the barn. “None of this makes sense.”

Sharp agreed.

“But is this connected to Olivia’s disappearance?” Stella asked. “Did she discover something about the guns in the basement?”

Every lead they followed generated far more questions than answers. Mr. Olander had been murdered. The Olanders had been into something dangerous. They were no closer to finding Olivia, and now someone had tried to blow up his office.

“Did Olivia stumble onto an illegal arms deal?” Sharp asked.

The thought of Olivia in the hands of an arms dealer gave Sharp a pain behind his sternum. He bet Mr. Olander had been executed. If Olivia had been abducted by the same person or people and they considered her a threat, would they have any reason to keep her alive?





Chapter Twenty-Three

Lance stood in Morgan’s office, staring at the whiteboard, when he heard the back door open and close. He glanced at the doorway. A moment later, Sharp appeared. His face looked leaner, and the bags under his eyes were more pronounced than they’d been that morning. Of course, none of them had slept much the night before, and it was nearly four o’clock in the morning.

“Where’s Morgan?” Sharp walked into the room and stood next to Lance, his tired eyes on the board.

“Asleep on the couch in your office.” Lance had taken a nap earlier, but he was sure he didn’t look fresh either.

“You’re back.” Morgan entered her office and beelined for the coffee maker on the credenza behind her desk. She was barefoot. Her skirt was rumpled and her blouse untucked. On the way past the men, she stopped and rested a hand on Sharp’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”

“Honestly, no.” Sharp shook his head. “And I’m not going to be until we find Olivia. But I don’t know what else to do except keep looking for her.”

Morgan gave his shoulder a squeeze. “And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Realistically, they couldn’t maintain the pace at which they were working for much longer. Mental function declined drastically with sleep deprivation. Naps would hold them for only a couple of days. But when would Sharp agree to back off? It was Sunday. Olivia had been missing for two days.

Morgan checked her phone as she brewed a cup of coffee. “Olivia’s agent left me a return message while I was asleep. She’s available this morning.”

Sharp perched on the corner of Morgan’s desk. The exhaustion in his eyes went beyond lack of sleep. Worry for Olivia was wearing him down. “Would you make me a cup of that poison?”

Morgan’s eyebrows shot up. “Again? Are you serious?”

“Yes. Very.” Sharp rolled his neck. Something cracked.

Morgan pulled a clean mug from her shelf and inserted a pod into the machine. A minute later, she handed him the mug. She pulled a bag of cookies from her drawer and ate one.

Sharp took a cookie.

“Did you eat dinner last night?” Morgan asked.

Sharp shook his head.

“You need some real food.” She rounded her desk and left her office.

Lance felt helpless. What if they didn’t find Olivia? “You’re sure Mr. Olander was murdered?”

Sharp nodded. “The medical examiner confirmed the red rings around his wrists were ligature marks.”

Looking for energy in any form, Lance helped himself to a cookie.

“Since the guns were at the farm yesterday, and now they’re gone, I assume his murder was related to them.” Sharp bit into his cookie.

“Seems likely someone stole them.” Lance could hear the soft beeping of the microwave in the kitchen.

“It does.” Sharp washed the rest of his cookie down with coffee.

A few minutes later, Morgan returned with a bowl of soup, a spoon, and a steaming mug of tea. “Sit.” She gestured toward her desk.

After Sharp sat in her desk chair, she put the soup and tea in front of him. He picked up the spoon and dipped it into the bowl. “Thank you. This is just what I needed.”

Morgan smiled. “It’s your soup from the freezer, but you’re welcome.”

“Who put the pipe bomb on our doorstep?” Sharp blew on a spoonful of soup.

“Are we agreed it was related to Olivia’s disappearance?” Morgan asked.

Lance nodded. “Yes.”

“Did they want to kill us or scare us?” Morgan stood next to Lance and studied the whiteboard.

“Good question.” Lance’s eyes were dry and his vision blurry. Not that it mattered. He had been staring at the board most of the night, trying to make connections or generate ideas about where Olivia might be or who might have taken her. Unfortunately, the investigation wasn’t narrowing. Instead, the leads were spiderwebbing.

They didn’t speak again until Sharp had finished his soup.

“I set up some additional motion detectors and cameras outside,” Lance said. “Turn on notifications in the app, and you’ll get an immediate message whenever anyone approaches the house, and you can see their approach in real time.”

“That’s great. At least no one will sneak up on us.” Sharp pushed away the bowl. “Stella let me walk Olander’s murder scene with her.”