Page 31 of Save Her Life

Sandra grinned, her gaze going over the Potomac. “It was the nurse who was by Megan Cobb’s side and saw her through things on the inside.”

“All mushy stuff. Well, this Joshua wanted me to thank you for what you did.”

“I just did my job.”

“It’s far more than that, Vos. You saved people last night.”

This morning… technically…She’d let him have this one. “Just doing what I was trained to do.”

“And the world thanks you. Now, get your butt in here.”

“Yes, sir.” She ended the call. Her boss was many things, but conventional wasn’t one of them. At least he let his guard down with her on occasion.

She turned around to head home and had a near miss with a tall man and his oversized fluffy dog. She hoped to never be grilled on canine breeds. She was more of a cat person. “Sorry,” she called out, but kept moving.

When she got to her building, the concierge saw her through the glass and opened the door for her. “Thanks, Earl.”

“Don’t mention it, Ms. Vos.” The older man dipped his head. “Good day.”

“And to you.” She headed to the elevator bank to take it to the penthouse. There were days she could hardly believe this was her life and she planned to never take her blessings for granted.

FOURTEEN

Sandra arrived at the Washington Field Office at the hour mark, as promised.

“’Bout time you showed up, slacker.” Brice Sutton was her colleague and essentially her wingman. He was three years younger than her, but that age gap made no perceptible difference. Though she liked to think she was more mature. He’d been at the WFO for two years, and his desk was across an aisle from hers.

“Oh, yeah. Where were you at two in the morning when I was in the heat of a crisis negotiation?” She watched his face transform into comical expressions while he tried to come up with a witty response. “Like I thought. Wetting your bed and sucking your thumb?”Maybe not more mature…

“Very funny, Vos.”

She smirked and shrugged. “I thought so.” After that, the conversation died, and they busied themselves with their work. Like her, Brice worked on manhunts when their negotiation training wasn’t called upon. Today, her priority was typing up an incident report and getting it to Elwood’s inbox before the end of the day. That alone would take her hours to put together, as she always included as much detail as possible.

She had recounted up to midnight when her cell phone rang. She caught a glimpse at the clock on the wall, and it told her she’d been at it for three hours. She should scale back on some specifics if she didn’t want this taking all night. But her attention to detail was a curse of her infallible memory. When she saw USP on the screen, her heart ticked up speed. “Sandra Vos,” she answered.

Brice looked over at her rather informal greeting. She batted a hand at him. He didn’t know why she wasn’t in yesterday, or even about her brother. At least, she hadn’t told him, but they were in the information game. It wouldn’t surprise her if he’d dug into her background. She had his. He grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, had two older brothers and a younger sister, and as far as she could tell, he’d never been in a serious relationship. That latter bit wasn’t in any docket but was something she’d picked up being around the guy. Same too for the fact she was safe from any sexual advances because he liked men and feared the next epidemic was inevitable.

Her caller said, “Ms. Vos, I’m calling from the deputy commissioner’s office in regard to the verdict on Darrell Patton’s request for parole.”

Her caller paused for several seconds, which stretched into days for her before he gave her the result. At the end of the hearing, they said it could take until Friday for the ruling to be decided. Was the fast turnaround a good thing?

“The committee members were moved by your testimony and, in considering all aspects of the appeal, Mr. Patton was denied parole.”

She squealed in her head and slapped a hand over her mouth. Brice glanced over again, one eyebrow cocked, forehead furrowed. She shook her head and took a few seconds to compose herself. She cleared her throat and thanked her caller.

“You’re welcome. Have a good day, Ms. Vos.”

“You too.”I will!She’d do a happy dance if Brice wasn’t still watching her like she was some animal in a zoo doing something out of character. She ended the call and positioned her hands over her keyboard, looking studiously at her monitor. Her gaze was on the screen, but instead of focusing on the report, she saw her reflection and smiled at herself.

“What are you smiling about? And you’re really not going to say a word? Who was that? Clearly it was good news.” Brice swiveled his chair to face her. “And good news needs to be shared.”

“Not when it’s none of your business. Don’t you have work to do?” Her words were harsher than her tone. Brice’s obsessive curiosity served him well in the job, but it was a touch invasive when he aimed it at her personal life.

“Go ahead, and keep me at a distance, Vos, but one day we’re going to be great friends.”

“Anything’s possible. Pigs might fly too.” She smiled at him. She didn’t truthfully dislike the guy, but the playful banter and rapport they had going was fun.

She returned to work, but her mind was on that call. It had given her a real reason to celebrate tonight.

---