Page 85 of Save Her Life

“Did Little tell her that a teenage girl will die if Patton doesn’t talk? And that the only way he’s going to do that is if she agrees to this?”

“I’m sorry, Sandra. It didn’t seem to make a difference.”

“It didn’t make a…” She swallowed roughly and rubbed her throat. “She’s a mother herself.”

“I’m sorry. We’ll have to get Patton to talk another way.”

Strangling it out of Patton wouldn’t be effective. Dead men couldn’t talk. But there might beanother way.Her conversation with Eric last night felt like it had taken place years ago, but she remembered one finding he’d passed on that might help. “Wood tar was found on Dennis Eaton’s shoes. Jennings needs to be holding Olivia somewhere isolated or remote, possibly an unused or abandoned warehouse.”

“Already on it. Detective Birch contacted me at an ungodly hour, and I got an agent running a search in Washington and the outskirts. We figured that Jennings likely isn’t holding Olivia too far away from the park considering where he dumped Eaton’s body.”

The van he took her in did go across Key Bridge, but it didn’t mean he had gone far on the other side. “I’d do the same. By the way, thank you for being up so early and on this.”

“No need to thank me, Sandra. I want Olivia back safely too and this scumbag behind bars. Or in a body bag.”

She couldn’t fault Elwood for that admission. It was impossible to feel empathy for the man who took her child. “I’m just going to freshen up and hit the road.” As she said that she became aware she hadn’t even changed before passing out. Then it filled in that she didn’t have any toiletries or a change of clothes with her anyhow.

“See you soon. And drive safe.” Elwood hung up.

While Elwood might be expecting her at the field office, she’d be making another stop first. Two, if she counted hitting a drive-thru for a coffee and a bagel to consume on the way.

Sandra raised her hand to knock a second time, not even concerned by her lack of makeup and rumpled clothing. It was nine thirty in the morning by the time she reached Natalie’s door. She had two and a half hours left to get her approval, have Simon cut the deepfake, and convince Patton to talk.

The door eventually cracked open, and when Natalie saw Sandra standing there, she shook her head immediately.

“I told that agent I don’t want to deceive my dad. I don’t want anything to do with him. At all.”

Her denial wasn’t connected to any sense of loyalty toward her father. Sandra could work with that. “Can I talk to you mother to mother?”

“Ah, sure.”

“And that agent told you that your father’s friend is threatening to kill a teenage girl?” Not a question. Elwood told Sandra the agent had. She wanted to stress for Natalie what was at stake.

“Yeah. They want to know where he put the gold bars. But I don’t know anything about it.”

“It sounds like you don’t want anything to do with this, but your help?—”

“By which you mean deceiving my father and making him believe that I’m in danger? I do that and he talks, he’s admitting to the robbery. He’ll get more time. I don’t have a relationship with him, but he is still my father.”

“A father is someone who is by your side, Natalie.”

She crossed her arms and shook her head. “No, I’m not doing it.”

“If you don’t do this, that girl might die.” The words slipped out. A huge mistake, and Sandra rushed to backpedal. “None of this is on you. I’m sorry as I shouldn’t have insinuated that.”

“Please leave.”

Sandra’s heart was pounding. “That girl that he has… She’s my daughter.”

A dense energy swirled between them.

“Her name is Olivia, and she’s sixteen,” Sandra pressed on. “She’s an A student, loves to play the violin, and volunteers at a nursing home two Saturdays every month.”

Natalie’s shoulders lowered slightly. Her facial expression softened. “I didn’t know, and I’m sorry, but…”

“I get it. Darrell’s your father. Family can be complicated, but you don’t need to worry about implicating your father in the robbery. We do this video, even if he gives up the location of the gold, it would be fruit of the poisonous tree. Any DA would dismiss charges against him. It won’t even get that far anyhow. The FBI is willing to cut your father a deal. He’ll get full immunity.”

Natalie worried her bottom lip. “You’re telling me his sentence won’t be increased?”

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