Page 45 of Rescuing Sara

“Nope,” and his slow smile warmed her heart. “Where’s Kristopher?”

“He left me a text to say he was running errands and would be back by noon at the earliest.”

“So,” she cooed, moving her hand inside his robe to run her fingers through the fine, soft hair covering his chest. “We have the whole place to ourselves?”

“Why do I have a feeling,” he whispered, “that you’re about to have your oh-so-feminine way with me?”

“I knew you were a smart man from the moment I first saw you,” she whispered. “And that you were really, really cute.”

He frowned. “Just cute?”

“I did say, ‘really, really.’”

“Oh, then that’s okay.” He reached for her, but Danni’s phone buzzed and seeing it was Miller, withheld her sigh of impatience. “Hey, Sergeant Miller. Is Miss Suzy there with you yet?”

“No, but someone who wants to talk with you about The Larsen Case is,” Miller said. “Lieutenant Aubrey Caudwell, whojust got back into town last night. He says it’s urgent and he wants to do it face-to face.”

“I don’t want Danni leaving The Safehouse today,” Patrick argued. “Not even with a twenty car police escort.”

“If you’ll let me, I’ll personally bring him to The Safehouse. You’re only a few minutes from here and when Suzy gets here, we can let her stew in a cell for a bit. Good with you?”

“Sure,” Danni said. “Come on over.” She ended the call and looked at Patrick. “I knew a lot of the police force growing up, but don’t remember an Aubrey Caudwell.”

“Well, we’re about to find out,” Patrick said. “Do you want me with you when you talk to him?”

“Yeah, I want.” Danni lifted his hand to her lips to kiss it. “We’re a team, right?”

“Right.” And that one word from him was all Danni needed.

“Twenty-five years ago,your dad was with Special Crimes working on The Larsen Case. “So was Leo Anderson.”

“But he was with Vice!” Danni protested. She stared at the tall, lanky figure of Aubrey Caudwell. “He was always with Vice. I remember–”

“You would have been too young to remember,” Caudwell interrupted. “They’d been on the Larsen Case for a couple of months when out-of-the-blue, they switched.”

“And The Larsen Case?” Patrick asked

Caudwell sighed and added more cream to his coffee. “Coming upon twenty-five years ago, a ten-year-old girl here in Knoxville named Nancy Larsen vanished. She’d been playing at a friend’s house one street over and walked home. She and the friend had done that for a year or two without any problems. Then that day, boom. According to her parents, Nancy never came home late. They were strict about her being home on timefor dinner and she respected that because they trusted her, and she loved that. It was maybe a seven-minute walk from house to house at the most. Your dad and Leo worked their asses off, trying to find that little girl, exploring every lead, talking to God knows how many people and came up with a big fat nothing.”

“I still don’t understand,” Danni said, her thoughts reeling at this revelation about her dad and Leo. Did they switch because they couldn’t find Nancy?”

Something flickered in Caudwell’s eyes, as if he was trying to come to some kind of decision. Finally, he sighed, and said, “OK. I ran this by Haggerty–who wasn’t here back then, and she agreed that after everything that’s happened to you this week, you needed to know.”

Danni dug her heels into the floor. “Know what?”

“The reason your dad and Leo both left the case after three months was because they got death threats against their families. Meaning you and your mom, and Leo’s wife who was pregnant at the time.”

Horror turned Danni’s skin to ice. “Death threats against me? Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Caudwell sighed. “They had messages left on their cars saying if they didn’t back off and leave the case alone, they’d be coming to their own families’ funerals. The department quietly assigned the case to other detectives who didn’t have families and your dad and Leo switched departments. He never told you, did he?”

Danni’s voice was a hollow whisper. “No. Who were the Larsens?”

“A well-to-do family here in Knoxville. They never received a ransom note or any kind of demand and with their money, they could have paid one. Nancy was just gone. No one ever found a trace of her. Her parents divorced six months later, and the mom moved away. I think the dad is still here.”

Banishing her anxiety back, Danni forced her brain into reporting mode and asked, “What did Nancy’s parents do for a living? You said they were wealthy enough to pay a ransom if necessary.”

“I seem to remember the father worked for World Wide Traders. Or maybe it was the grandfather?”

---