Page 33 of Lethal Game

"So, he's dead." She didn't know how to feel about that. She had no compassion for the man who had tried to kidnap her and probably would have killed her if he'd had the chance. But it still seemed surreal that he was dead.

"Yes. Which means Kashin can't tie Novikov to anything that happened to you. But his death won't stop us from finding Novikov. We just have to keep digging. Let's check on your mom, and then I'm going to take off."

"All right." She opened the door and entered the room, which still had the powerful scent of bleach in the air. Shechecked the monitors. Her mother's vitals were good. She was asleep, but she didn't seem in any distress.

"Everything okay?" Jason asked.

She nodded. "It looks like it."

"Then I'll take off. Don't leave this room until I come back. It's important that you don't."

"I'll stay here," she promised, feeling touched that he cared so much about her safety. "I'll see you soon."

When Jason left the room, she felt a chill, a void created by his absence and also by the shocking news that Victor Kashin had been killed. She didn't care that he was dead, but she worried any clues they might have gotten about who had hired him to kidnap her had died along with him. And if someone could take him out so ruthlessly and so easily, then she could never really think she was safe.

As she glanced down at her sleeping mother, she couldn't help wondering if her mom knew more than she was saying, because something was very wrong in their family. Her parents had always been like two peas in a pod, so close to each other, so loving, so honest. Their relationship had set the bar for what she wanted in a relationship.

Now she was terribly afraid it was all a sham. She just really hoped that it wasn't her father who had poisoned her mother. That was unfathomable.

But even if he hadn't done that, he'd left them alone while their lives were in danger, and what kind of man did that?

She had a feeling she wasn't going to like the answer.

Jason got into his office at seven, and despite the hour, there were several people still at their desks. Seeing Savannah, Nick, and Flynn in the conference room, he headed there, eager to find out the latest information on Kashin's accident.

"We just got back the results on the items taken from Mrs.Hunt's hospital room," Savannah told him. "There was a slow-release capsule planted in the flowers that were delivered by the orderly, who we have now identified as Victor Kashin."

He blew out a breath at that piece of information. "That makes sense. He hit the hospital room before he went to the garage."

"It appears so," Savannah agreed. "The capsule probably released a toxin in the air over a gradual period that didn't appear to be a dose strong enough to kill her. Just make her sick."

"Which means her condition is being controlled by someone who wants her incapacitated but not yet dead. That sounds very much like Novikov. Poison is one of his specialties."

"But why Mrs. Hunt?" Savannah asked.

"That's the question. What happened to Kashin?"

"A truck hit the transport van. Kashin and a guard were deceased at the scene. The truck was abandoned four blocks from the accident site. We're coordinating with local police to search the area for the driver of the truck and to look for potential witnesses." She pointed to the monitor. "We have two shots of the driver running away, but we can't get facial recognition."

Dressed in baggy track pants and a sweatshirt, the driver had long brown hair that was pulled back in a ponytail. He was shorter, slighter, and younger than Novikov. "That's not Novikov, which isn't surprising. He would have hired someone to do the hit-and-run. Someone who may not even know who they're working for." He blew out a frustrated breath. "We should have seen this coming. Novikov wasn't going to leave Kashin alive to talk to us."

"It was impossible to predict he'd take out the transport van," Flynn said.

He knew that, but the result still bothered him.

"We also checked into the fire at the Hunt residence," Savannah continued. "A doorbell camera across the street caught some interesting action."

"When was this video taken?" he asked, seeing a suburban house on a dark street.

"Today at five o'clock in the morning. Watch."

A man came out of the house carrying two suitcases. He was also wearing a baseball cap, a jacket, and loose-fitting pants. He put them in the back of a car parked on the street, then went back into the house. A few minutes later, he brought out another suitcase and a large box, putting them in the trunk. Then he returned inside.

"He's in the house for eleven minutes," Savannah said as she fast-forwarded the video. "Then he comes back out with a shopping bag."

He frowned as the man put the bag next to his other belongings and then got into the vehicle. The camera never got a clear look at the man's face, but he appeared to be older, which made him wonder if it wasn't Alisa's missing father.

Savannah paused the video. "That was it. There's no evidence of anyone else entering the home. But at approximately ten a.m., smoke starts coming out of the house. A few minutes later, a woman walking her dog notices the smoke, runs up to the front door, and starts ringing the bell, but no one answers. She goes back to the sidewalk and gets on her phone." Savannah fast- forwarded the video. Then she said, "As you can see, the fire takes off very quickly. The 911 caller said she heard several pops and then the windows blew out and there were flames everywhere."

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