Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(45)

His gut burned with even the thought of it, and Zach had to admit he’d never felt so damned helpless in his life.

“How the hell could she have moved Shauna?” Zach asked quietly. Liz could have dragged the bodies of the other girls, especially if she wrapped them in a blanket like they suspected she had. But those girls were smaller than Shauna, and not nearly as muscular. Muscle was heavy. It would have taken more time than Liz had to drag Shauna any distance. Or at least he thought it would.

“I don’t think she could. She’s tall, but she doesn’t seem like she’d have that kind of strength.”

They had already checked to be sure Jonathan Sawyer hadn’t left his home. “She has to be working with someone else. If it isn’t Sawyer, who is it?”

Ronan didn’t have any more answers than Zach did. “She couldn’t have moved her to another location unless she had help. She wouldn’t have had time. The cook said she left the house at five o’clock and Shauna was there when she left.”

“Unless the cook is lying,” Zach said. “But, I gotta say, I don’t get the feeling she is. Not that I trust my judgment right now.”

“I didn’t think she was lying, either, and she checks out. She has no criminal background,” Ronan said.

The men stared at each other for a long time. They could hold Liz Gordon for twenty-four hours, but then they’d need to let her go. And if Shauna was injured or in danger, they might not have twenty-four hours. It was hell racing against a clock when you had no idea when the clock would run out.





Chapter Thirty-four





Shauna awoke with a start, though her eyes found only pitch black when she did. It was the kind of darkness you could only achieve from a truly enclosed room, the kind without any cracks or crevices for light to enter.

Flashes of memory came back to her. Only confused images and bits and pieces of time. The sound of her own breathing was harsh in her ears and she took the time to settle herself so she didn’t hyperventilate. Her breathing was obstructed. Tape. Heavy tape covered her mouth and part of her nose.

She remembered pain. Searing, burning pain in her abdomen. It was gone now. Her limbs were numb and she knew without seeing them that she wouldn’t be able to move them when she tried. Her arms were secured behind her back and her legs were taped together at the ankles and knees.

She thought she’d heard voices. Had there been people here? Had that been what pulled her out of her haze? She held still, listening. There was nothing.

She began the slow work of moving her wrists and ankles to begin to ease the blood back into the limbs. The pain was instant and electrifying as the blood began to move and the nerve endings tried to come back online and engage. She almost laughed. If she thought the pain from a simple leg that had fallen asleep on a long car ride was bad, this went tenfold past that.

She would need to wake her arms and legs up. If she could do that, she could get her hands free. Once she did that, it was a simple matter to free herself of her bindings. She just had to hope Liz Gordon didn’t return in the meantime because Shauna was in no shape for a fight with anyone, even a teenaged girl.





Chapter Thirty-five





“What if Liz didn’t get her out of the house?” Zach turned and walked out of the bathroom, knowing Ronan would follow him.

He went to the bullpen, unlocking his desk and grabbing his service weapon. Seeing him, Ronan did the same then proceeded through the steps of readying himself the same way Zach was.

Zach took out the backup revolver he kept in his ankle holster and checked that, before slipping it into its space and grabbing his raid jacket he wore instead of his suit coat when they were raiding a suspect’s home. He put on his utility belt, checking for flashlight, cuffs, and ammunition before putting on his coat and zipping it up. A large NHPD embossed on the back identified him as an officer.

“Hey Reynolds!”

Zach turned to see Cal coming toward him. He tipped his chin up in acknowledgement.

Cal answered the signaled question. “The captain just released your suspect.”

“Are you shitting me?” Zach yelled. His partner and Cal had the wherewithal not to warn him about his language.

“Sorry, Zach. I heard he was getting calls from some people in pretty high places. They aren’t happy with you holding a teenaged girl who, up until a couple of hours ago, was a witness we were worried about keeping safe.” Cal looked like he truly was sorry.

“We’ve got more than that,” Zach gritted out, even though it wasn’t Cal he needed to convince. “The timing of the uncle’s admission to the hospital and the fact Liz Gordon is knee deep in the current investigation speaks volumes. Not to mention, we’ve got a missing cop. What does he think? That Shauna just walked off the job to grab a fucking ice cream sundae?”

“We headed back to the house?” Ronan asked when they’d made it into the elevator.

“Going to stop and talk to Jonathan Sawyer. I want to know if there’s anything about that house he can tell us. Liz made it seem like there’d been something between them. Maybe he’s been there. Maybe he knows some of the secrets that family has clearly been keeping.”

They were quiet as Ronan drove them out to the Sawyer house. Zach couldn’t have carried on a conversation if he tried. Tension had taken over his body. It thrummed in his veins and set his lungs burning with every breath.