Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(38)

Zach guessed she was almost eighteen. It seemed reasonable to leave her for a weekend here or there, but for months on end? What would that be like for a teenager? It was a miracle she didn’t throw parties every weekend. Hell, forget every weekend—every night. He wondered if child services had ever been involved with this family.

“Do you have any idea who might have left the note? And what they meant when they warned you not to talk?” Shauna asked gently.

Liz nodded, a little too quickly, like her nerves were taking control of her movements. She bit her lip and looked away.

“We can help keep you safe if you talk to us, Liz,” Zach said. And we’ll get your fucking parents back in the damned country to care for you properly, he thought, but didn’t voice his opinion.

“I told Kate,” she said quietly. “I think she must have told him.”

“Told who?” Shauna prompted.

“Sawyer. I mean, Jonathan Sawyer,” she said as if remembering to identify him properly with them instead of with his nickname.

Zach stopped talking now. He’d let Shauna lead the rest of the talk.

“Can you tell me what you told Kate?” Shauna asked.

“Only that he asked me to come to the clubhouse sometimes when the other kids weren’t hanging around, that’s all.” She raised a shoulder. “It wasn’t a big deal. It’s just, well, after hearing what happened to Adrienne when he had her at the clubhouse, I thought he might be trying to...um, you know.”

Shauna nodded and Zach remained still.

Shauna tapped the note Liz had received where it sat on the table in front of them. “Do you recognize this handwriting at all?”

“I don’t know, maybe.” Liz looked at it and shrugged her shoulders. “It could be Jonathan’s but it’s not how he writes. I mean, he doesn’t write in all caps like that.”

“Have you seen Jonathan’s writing?” Shauna asked.

“In class, sure. We were lab partners once in science for a semester.” She frowned down at the paper again. “I think it could be his writing.”

She looked up at them again and Zach had the feeling she was close to crying. This girl had to be used to burying her feelings with parents like hers. “I don’t want to go home. The cook is there and all, but I mean, I don’t think I want to be there alone.”

Zach could see how the girl would feel alone even with someone on the property with her. She’d mentioned a cook and the gardener. He wondered if there were others.

“It’s all right, Liz,” Shauna said. “We’re going to get in touch with your parents and get them home. I’ll stay with you at the house until they can arrange to get here. Do you know where they are right now?”

“Japan.”

Zach was about to assure Liz they had Sawyer under surveillance when he realized the kid must have at least gotten out his back door and over to Liz’s house without being seen. He stood, leaving the room. He needed to get the cops tailing Sawyer to split up so one of them could cover the back of the property.

Then he was going to call Liz’s parents. If he had to get on a plane and drag those people home from Japan himself, he’d do it. And he’d have a word with them, too, when he saw them about what the hell it meant to parent a child.

Shit, it killed him seeing people treat their child like that. His brother, Luke, and him counted their blessings every damned day that they had Naomi in their lives. They’d learned early on how quickly life could be taken from you and how precious it is to have someone in your world to love.





Chapter Twenty-six





“You taking her home?” Zach asked under his breath when Shauna left Liz sitting in a chair across the bullpen and came toward him. The girl looked remarkably calm now.

“Yeah. If we had the budget to have patrol on her house, I might do that, but we don’t. Besides,” she said, looking over at the girl, “with no one in the house with her at night, I wouldn’t feel right.”

“I had the surveillance team knock on the door and asked to see Sawyer. They’ve confirmed that the whole family is inside. I told the team to split up and cover the front and back of the property as best they can. They said there’s a side street they can sit on and watch the back of the house with binoculars. It’s the best we can do.”

Zach’s desk phone rang and he answered it while Shauna waited.

She looked at him with raised brows when he hung up.

“That was Dr. Kane. Candice had no signs of sexual activity but there was Rohypnol in her system. No GHB.”

Shauna only shook her head and he knew how she felt. It was a baffling change for their killer. Of course, it also supported the idea that Sawyer was only involved in the rapes, but not the killing. Maybe now that Sawyer wasn’t involved, the partner was continuing on his own.

Zach searched for a reasoning that would fit. “Maybe the killer is working with Sawyer? And whoever his partner is isn’t interested in sex?”

“Impotent?” Shauna suggested. “Or a woman?”

“It’s possible. We haven’t looked all that carefully at Sawyer’s mom, although, if it’s her, she’s a hell of an actress. I really thought she was genuinely surprised her son was involved with all of the girls when we interviewed Sawyer.”