Page 27 of Catching Fire

“Absolutely.”

Even as she said it, Kalan heard the knock on the front door and the low but projected voice. “FBI.”

Seline moved her head to see out the front window, her gun still in hand, still aimed to the floor. She shrugged at him. Someone she didn’t recognize?

With a nod, he moved toward the door and slowly opened it. He didn’t recognize them either. “Agents?”

Both women, fully in FBI gear, whipped out leather wallets with badge and ID. Though they seemed a little frustrated at the checkpoint, he was not letting anyone worm their way in. Sanders already made personal contact with Seline at least twice.

He motioned to Seline. Neither of these women could possibly be the BRK and that made him feel better. When she said, “Hello,” he opened the door full width, but it was Seline who motioned them inside.

“Thank you,” the shorter curvier one said without looking at him. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail that was too bouncy for the mood. Giulia Rossi if he remembered correctly.

The blond was Amy Verner and she immediately pulled out a detector that looked almost like a handheld vacuum but clearly was much higher tech. They traced an odd path around the room, their serious expressions letting Seline and him know how concerning the situation was.

“Metal detector?” he asked, curious.

The first agent was already through the living room and was in the kitchen, waving her machine back and forth. Rossi answered as she headed the other direction down the hallway. “We followed the transmitter to this general area via laptop, but this finds it to the inch.”

“Transmitter?” Seline asked as though she didn’t understand the word.

Kalan caught on, because the agent had heard the French accent and was going to explain the meaning of “transmitter,” but Seline’s grasp of English was probably the best in the room. So he quickly said, “Remember, Balero was wearing a tracker.”

Verner emerged from the kitchen, motioning to Rossi the detector lax at her side. But she said, “No. She wasn’t wearing it. It’s in her.”

Oh dear God,Kalan felt everything in him go still for a moment.

They hadn't found Marina Balero. They hadn't seen or heard her. No one had answered, though they had called out her name a few times.

Was her body here at Seline’s house?

Chapter Seventeen

Seline watched as both agents converged at the back of the house in her lab. They’d had to move around a little to pinpoint the tracker, but they’d been led here.

She stood back but watched as both agents slowly knelt toward the floor, placing the devices directly on the hard wood. Simultaneously, they looked up at her, two ponytails bobbing with the motion.

“Under the house?” Seline asked cautiously. She could see the small screen stating the tracker was about four feet directly below them.

Neither answered her directly, but Rossi asked “Can you show us?”

Seline nodded quickly. She could do this even if it meant finding her new friend’s body stashed under her house … Maybe she kept it together because she just couldn’t believe that could happen. Luckily, her lab was the room that led to the back porch and thus the yard.

Stepping to the glass paneled door, she threw the bolts rapidly, even as she realized they were completely useless. Someone could simply bust out a pane of glass and reach in and flip the locks to open. But there was no time to contemplate the errors in her home security.

“Follow me.” She was barefoot but didn’t care as she tread through the gravel that covered the flowerbeds ringing the house.

She carefully cut between two of the pruned bushes and reached out to touch the trellis that skirted the house. In the dark it was hard to find the exact spot she needed. But she grabbed her phone and used the light to locate the handle and pulled the door open, allowing access.

She watched as the two agents quickly ducked into the dark space. She used the light again, shining it into the dark before thinking maybe she shouldn’t.

“Turn it out, please.”

Seline couldn’t tell which of the two had called back, but she quickly shut it off. At least she hadn’t seen Marina’s corpse shoved under the house. Then again, she hadn’t had time to get a good look. Her stomach churned for a moment, but she forced herself to keep it together.

The agents pulled out their own maglites, lighting the place up like day.

“There is no body here.” They reported to someone, probably not to Seline.

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