Page 80 of Save Her Life

The man popped into the window of the door, and Sandra shook her head at him. No way was Patton getting off that easy.

Patton’s shoulders lowered when the guard didn’t come into the room. “Listen, if you’re here to berate me some more, I don’t want to hear it.”

“Berate…” She snapped her mouth shut.Remember Olivia.“This has nothing to do with you and me. It involves Natalie.”

“What about her?” Tossed out with nonchalance. Not the reaction she’d expected, but it could be a performance.

“Your daughter,” she stressed. “And she’s found herself in a dangerous situation.”

“I’m not sure why I should care.” But his words and tone were in conflict with his body language. He shuffled forward on his chair if only a bit, and his shoulders tensed just enough to tell her he did care.Good.

“Because you’re her father. Years apart doesn’t change that. There was a time you put everything on the line just to be with her.” She hoped that she wouldn’t need to go deeper than that.

“Huh, and look where that got me. The brat won’t even talk to me. I haven’t seen her since that day. She’s an adult now. She could come here and visit. As you pointed out, she wasn’t even at the hearing.”

His bitterness had Sandra believing his claim more than she had initially. Though it would have been in his favor to lie before,bolster up the hope for reconciliation. She released the need to check visitor logs, but she’d need to deepen her lying. “Natalie wants to reconnect with you.”

“And how would you know that?” His tone softened a minuscule amount.

“Her husband told me.”

“She’s married?” There was a slight hitch to his voice, and she knew she had him.

“Yes, and she has two children. A boy and girl. You could meet them someday, but right now Natalie needs your help.”

“Is she hurt?”

He was clearly invested now. “It’s hard to say.” The longer she was here, the easier it was getting to speak with him. Most of the time, she could even set aside that it was really Olivia who was in danger. She’d dipped into this world of make-believe, and it gave her the strength to do what she had to do.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Just that. Lonnie has her.”

“Lonnie? Why the hell would he…?” But he abandoned the question there. His eyes met hers, and there was a moment of truth and understanding. He knew why he’d take her. “She’s no good to him. Why is he doing this?”

“Why is he doing this?” she parroted, as if she didn’t know and wanted him to provide the answer. Letting the silence stretch was tough. Jennings’s deadline wasn’t far from mind.

Patton narrowed his eyes. “Tell me what you think you know.”

He clearly wasn’tbiting.“All right, I’ll play along. A week before you kidnapped your own daughter, you and two friends, Lonnie Jennings and Dennis Eaton, robbed Liberty Bank in Washington, DC. You made off with nine gold bars. Lonnie said you hid them until things cooled down. But that didn’t happen because you got yourself sent to prison. Well, he’s run out ofpatience. It’s the gold bars or your daughter’s life, Mr. Patton.” She set all that out there coolly, but her body stiffened. Also for one tiny flicker of a moment, she’d lost the narrative and her voice fluctuated.

Patton met her eyes, smiled, and shook his head. “Nah, it’s not Nat in danger. It’s someone who means something to you. You want to know what I think?”

She splayed her hands as if to say,By all means, tell me.

“I’m starting to think it’syourdaughter, the way you keep throwingdaughteraround.”

Her turn to shake her head. “Even if I had a daughter, why would Lonnie take her? I can’t offer him anything.”

“You’re assuming I can.”

“You know where the gold bars are.”

“Says who? You’re trying to rope me into confessing that I robbed that bank. But I ask you, what proof could you possibly have?”

He had her in a corner, and she didn’t particularly like it there. They didn’t have any solid evidence against him, but they had logic. “Why else would Lonnie be demanding to know the location of the gold if you didn’t know where it was?”

“Lonnie’s lost his mind? I don’t know.”

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