Page 48 of Save Her Life

“Open the door, or we will breach,” she threatened.

A few moments passed, and the door was slowly opened. Brice swiftly wedged himself through the crack and slapped cuffs on Novak and pushed him back on the bed so he was sitting on the edge of the mattress.

“What are you doing?” Novak was pleading, not so tough in the face of FBI agents storming into his room.

Sandra searched for any sign of Olivia or a flannel-lined jean jacket. He could have gotten rid of the latter.Olivia too…Sandra swallowed roughly, walked around the bed and stopped in front of Novak. Brice stepped aside. No doubt Elwood had made it clear Brice was to take the lead, but he was deferring to her. Brice just went up several pegs in her opinion. As for Novak, his looks had hardly changed from fifteen years ago. Her heart pounded, realizing now more than ever he could be that man from the video. “Where is she?”

Novak glared at her. “Why am I not surprised you’re here? Are you back to screw me over a second time? You do know my brother will never walk again because of you.”

“I never pulled the trigger, but thank you for confirming motive.”

“Huh? What do you people want? Should I get a lawyer?”

“Shut your face, Novak,” Brice told him.

“Where is Olivia?” she said, in a voice so cold, it chilled her.

“I don’t know any Olivia.”

His claim did nothing to tamp down her suspicion. Criminals lie. Fact of life. She brought up Olivia’s photo on her phone and shoved it in Novak’s face. “Take a good, hard look.”

“Why should I?” Novak shrugged.

“You want to go back to prison? Fine, let’s go.” Brice grabbed Novak’s arm, and he bucked free.

“I’m not going anywhere.Lawyer,” he said slowly.

“Olivia. Tell us where she is. Now!” she barked, but Brice glanced at her, a warning look in his eyes. The request for a lawyer should have shut her down. But there was no way.Use his hate for me…“You clearly blame me for what happened to your brother, don’t you?”

“Damn right, I do,” he seethed.

That smacked close tothat’s right.He’d feel she understood him, but she was more interested in how this worked against him. “And it sounds like you want to keep your freedom and stay out of prison.”

“Yeah,” he said slowly, scanning her eyes as if trying to understand her sudden shift in approach.

Throwing a suspect off was interrogation gold when it could be done. “Great, then all you have to do is tell us where this girl is.” She held up the screen of her phone again.

“I don’t know her.”

“Her name is Olivia.”

“As you keep saying.”

“Something I’m pretty sure you already knew.” She studied his eyes, disheartened they were blank. Again, that didn’t necessarily mean anything. He could have that deadpan look for many reasons, including to sell his lie. After all, he didn’t want to return to prison.

“I’ve never seen her before either,” he offered up.

“But this is you, isn’t it?” Sandra kept her tone nonconfrontational and replaced the photo of Olivia with a still of the man from the DiversaBlend video.

Brice caught her attention from across the room where he was holding up a garbage bin with gloved hands.

“Ah, no, it’snot.”

She was distracted by what Brice was getting at, but it all became clear when he lifted a DiversaBlend cup out of the trash.“This only works if we’re honest with each other, Duane.” She pointed a finger behind Novak, toward Brice.

Novak looked over his shoulder. “Okay, I was at DiversaBlend today. Is that a crime?”

“It depends. Why did you follow this girl?”

---