Taken in Death (In Death #37.5)(14)

Eve jammed her hands in her pockets, nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking the same.”

“Kill one—halving the time and effort—and allowing her to send proof of life and death to her sister. Bring grief, panic, and a desperation to save the remaining child.”

“And it’s a hell of a scenario.”

“It’s also a logical one.”

“From my take, too. Let’s hope she isn’t logical.”

But the idea weighed on her.

She thought of Stella, the woman who’d given birth to her. If she’d been left alone with Stella, she’d never have survived. Too much time and effort, as Teasdale said. Richard Troy, her biological father, had kept her alive. It hadn’t stopped him from hurting her, raping her, torturing her—but he’d kept her alive because he’d seen her as an investment.

Which direction would Maj Borgstrom take?

She went back into the living area. “Listen up. Teasdale and Slattery will take over for Jenkinson and Reineke. Peabody, contact them, let them know—and tell them to pick up two more of those toys on their way here. We’ll keep communication open and complete between our team and the agents. Everything we know, they know.”

“Agent Slattery and I will afford your team the same cooperation,” Teasdale added. “We’ll move the MacDermits to a safe house in this area, to aid in that cooperation. We are, even now, in contact with Global re the suspect, and any and all information gleaned from that will be shared.”

“I’d like to have one of those boosted units,” Slattery said. “Our location will mean we may be able to pick up a signal.”

“Feeney, show Agent Slattery how that thing works. Peabody, have Jenkinson pick up four of those things. We’ll get a second one to you,” she told Teasdale.

“Callender will show you,” Feeney told Slattery, as he rose and moved over to Eve. “Roarke’s going to get us more data. I don’t know if it’ll add much, but we’ll have it. And he’s coming in.”

“I don’t—”

“I can use him,” Feeney interrupted. “Another big brain wired for e-work. And it’s his toy, Dallas. She’s had those kids better than fifteen hours now, and not a peep out of her.”

“Okay. You need him, you’ve got him. Right now, Baxter, take the unit we have left, take a walk. We’re going to cover the mile radius continually. The kid’s going to try to reach out sometime.”

HE ALREADY HAD, ONCE FROM INSIDE THE FORT, AND AGAIN after Gala tended to his cut. They didn’t have medicine or bandages like at home, but he’d remembered playing war with Daddy. Daddy had been wounded in a battle and showed Henry how to tie a cloth around his arm. He said it was a field dress. It didn’t make sense because it didn’t look like a dress. But the cut felt better when Gala tied a towel around it.

He was afraid she’d cut him with the knife again, or cut Gala. He was more afraid maybe she was an evil witch vampire because she’d licked his blood right off the knife. He’d snuck out of bed one night and seen part of a vid his daddy watched about vampires. And had nightmares after it.

Maybe she’d make him and Gala vampires, too.

They had to get away.

But no one answered when he called out for help.

CHAPTER SIX

Not an apartment, Eve thought as she hammered away at possible locations. Not a condo. Possibly a small building, lower-level unit, but most probably a detached unit, a house.

Somewhere she could get two kids inside without showing up on building security, without worrying about neighbors.

Would she keep the kids restrained? That didn’t seem practical, and wouldn’t explain why she’d taken clothes and toys.

If she bound them, she’d have to let them loose for the bathroom, for food.

“She wouldn’t see a couple of seven-year-olds as a risk, right? She’s bigger, stronger, and kids tend to do what an authority figure tells them. Especially if they’re scared.”

She had, until the end, until the pain and the terror he meant to kill her overcame everything else. But Eve wasn’t sure it applied for all or most, so she glanced at Peabody for confirmation.

“I’ve got a couple cousins who could have taken an adult down and left him begging for mercy when they were seven, but generally? Yeah. The adult’s in charge, in control.”

“So she probably doesn’t have them restrained—or if she has, they’re still free enough to play—or why take stuff? A room, a locked room, closed off—and she couldn’t put a couple of kids in a room near where other people live and work. Windows,” she added. “You could use privacy shields, but it’s risky.”

“A basement?”

“Maybe. A tightly sealed room, probably without windows or boarded and shielded windows. One door’s the smartest. She has to have easy access to it. And it has to be somewhere some bystander couldn’t wander into. We recanvass, a mile radius from the garage. I want officers paying attention to any single residences, any vacant buildings.

“She could, and likely did, walk around this neighborhood. People were used to seeing the sister, and wouldn’t think twice. She probably shopped around here, ate around here. On the recording, the kid said, ‘It says second.’ Second Avenue? He could’ve seen a street sign out the window. Let’s focus there.”