Page 73 of Save Her Life

“Too late for that.” She inadvertently recycled Jennings’s words. He’d said them with such menace. He’d better not have hurt Olivia, and if he’d touched her sexually, she’d… Well, her thoughts skittered into the darkness, dredging up all that she’dknown man to do to another. Being a career FBI agent, she had a catalog of heinous crimes to pull from.

“Kick him out then,” Brice said with force, popping her into the light again. “You let him set up in there, it won’t do you or Olivia any good.”

“I know that, but this is my daughter.”

“Sure, but you’ve been down this road before. For other people’s daughters, sure, but the stakes have been high. Lives at risk. You show up and get the job done. That’s the Vos I know anyhow.”

She looked at him, not realizing before how much respect he held for her. “And now I’ve got a clock over my head.” The time on her phone said it was eleven thirty. She had until tomorrow at noon. That’s what Jennings had said. She’d justified putting off a conversation with Patton, but now she wished she’d seen the future and had the visit already set in motion.

“Hate to point this out, though I don’t think you missed it. Jennings is escalating. The way you looked at me I think you picked it up too. Is Dennis Eaton even in the picture anymore?”

“Jennings sure didn’t make it sound like it. He talked about Darrell owing himhalf. There were three suspects in the robbery. At minimum that makes for a three-way split. And presumably that third person was Dennis Eaton.”

“I also hate to say this, but if he did kill Eaton, a friend since childhood…”

“You don’t need to finish that sentence.”Killing Olivia would be easier…She could feel herself spiraling despite all the training and years of experience. All thekeep it calmand cool demeanor that she put on like a suit didn’t fit right now.

“Deep breaths, all right. We don’t need to go there yet.”

“Don’t need to, but it’s hard not to. This is my Olivia, not a stranger.”

“I get that, and it’s also why I have complete faith that you’ll get her back. The stakes are higher than ever before.”

“I’m going to do everything I can, that’s for damn sure. I need to get on the approved visitor list ASAP and in to talk with Darrell Patton. There’s no more putting it off.”

“Here’s the flaw in that though. You really think he’s going to want to talk to a fed about a bank robbery he did? He comes clean to you and that’s him admitting to it. You’ve already proven that you’re against him with the parole hearing. Why wouldn’t you find a way to make the armed robbery charges stick?”

Her colleague had a point. Darrell would fear being tried and sentenced for the bank heist next.Which he deserves to be…“He hid that gold and is probably counting on it as a payday when he gets out of prison. He may even have plans to share some with his daughter, Natalie, to win her back. I’ll have him see me as a threat to that happening.”

“But is he going to buy that a fed will let him ride off into the sunset with the money?” Brice smirked at his turn of phrase.

“I’m going to have to talk to him on his level. He took his daughter thirty-three years ago because he thought he was showing love for her. I’ll appeal to that emotion, while I also share the stakes involved for me.” The recent standoff in Woodbridge also taught her this. Gavin had held people in the grocery store because he was desperate to prove himself a good father and provider. She had the recent reminder that a parent’s love knew no bounds. She was also living it.

“You plan to tell him Jennings has Olivia?”

“I see that as my strongest play here. Parent to parent.”

“You’re going to have to put on one hell of a performance.”

“For someone just singing my praises a minute ago, have you changed your mind?”

“This just hits so close to home. Are you really okay with revealing Olivia’s situation?”

On reflection, it wasn’t ideal as Patton could see her desperation as a weakness to exploit, but she didn’t see a way of working around that. “It’s better than offering up some deal to the man who killed my brother.” She hated feeling wedged between justice for her brother and her daughter’s future. “I just can’t do that. Not if you’re suggesting I work something out for early parole.”

“Not at all. I was just thinking immunity against robbery charges.”

Her conscience might allow that. Surely there had to be another way… Then she had it. “There may be a different angle I can work.”

“I’m listening…”

“I could make Patton thinkhisdaughter was taken. It works on the same premise, that Natalie is of utmost importance to him. Lying is part of the negotiation toolkit.”

“That could work.”

“I hope so. Because I’m going to hate every millisecond that I need to sit across a table from that man. On the upside, if I make this work, there might not even be a need to set up an immunity deal.”

Brice smiled. “You just make him believe his daughter’s in danger, he gives up the gold, he gets charged with the bank robbery, gets more years tacked onto his sentence…”

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