Page 66 of Vanishing Point
And still the gravel road went on, the house not coming into view until they’d been driving a good ten minutes. It felt like the deadest of dead ends, but Thomas didn’t say that. They had to check into every possibility. That was why he was lucky to have so many people helping. All over Bent County, people were working to find Vi.
He tried to have that be the central anchor of faith he held on to. Because he’d worked a lot of hopeless cases and found hope somewhere along the way. He’d done what felt impossible, time and time again, so why shouldn’t he believe the same was possiblehere? When it mattered to him most.
He couldn’t give up hope on Vi.
He stopped his car in front of the house and got out. Palmer got out on his side, then let the dog out. He gave the dog whatever orders it needed, and the dog got to work.
Though theworklooked a lot like running around.
Thomas moved for the house, hand on the butt of his gun in its holster on his hip. He did a quick perimeter check, then carefully walked up one of the porches. He tried to look in windows, but most were grimy or covered with curtains.
The knob had one of those Realtor lockboxes on it. He could get the bolt cutters out of his trunk and take care of it. Maybe he would, but… He looked out at the dog, who sniffed the porches, and different trees. But everything seemed heavily deserted, and even the dog didn’t alert toanysign of human life.
Thomas went to the back door, jiggled the knob there, then listened with his ear on the door. But he heard a whole lot of nothing.
Palmer came to stand at the bottom of the stairs of the porch Thomas stood on. He gestured at the dog, bounding through the tall grass of the side yard.
“He’s not coming up with anything,” Palmer said. “Except squirrels. I can send him out into the woods, but…”
“Seems like a waste of time,” Thomas finished for him.
Palmer nodded. “If someone had been around here in the past few days, even if they hadn’t been in the house, the dog should come up with something.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I can have the dog trail the car back up to the highway, see if he sniffs anything along the road. I doubt he’ll come up with anything, but you’ll feel better if we cover every base.”
Thomas blew out a breath. It was the death of any case. Focusing so much on tiny details you missed the big picture—or being so obsessed with the big picture, you missed the details. You had to find a middle ground, and Palmer’s idea was probably it.
“All right.”
Palmer called the dog, gave him some more orders as Thomas climbed in the driver’s seat.
“You don’t have to drive slow enough for him to keep up, just slow enough he can keep us in sight,” Palmer said as he took his seat. Thomas nodded and Palmer rolled down the window and Thomas drove.
Impatience bit at him. Hopefully the other two groups were having better luck, but what if they weren’t? They were reaching a second night of her being gone. Every minute was a chance something bad could happen to her, and he was driving around damn dead ends.
Not dead ends. Lead after tiny lead. But there was a war inside him. Between a detective who knew what to do, and a man desperate to save the woman he loved.
They were not compatible.
About halfway back up the road, Thomas’s phone started pinging, and he realized they’d been out of cell range. He steered with one hand, pulled his phone out of his pocket with the other. He had texts and voice messages coming in. He started with the messages. The first one was from Jack.
“We’ve got something,” Jack said. “We haven’t even let the dog out because there’s a run-down cabin with a car out front. The rental car.”
Thomas didn’t even bother to listen to the rest. He just tossed his phone down, slammed on the brakes.
“Get the dog,” he ordered Palmer, who was already halfway out the door. When Palmer got back in the car with the dog, Thomas put both hands on the wheel and hit the gas pedal. Hard.
VI’S KEEP-A-STIFF-UPPER-LIP MANTRAwas slowly fading. Because she was almost certain Dianne was dead.Dead.Eric had just strangled her like she wasnothing, and it left Vi feeling…alone or less protected. Even though Dianne had been working against her, she’d been a hope. She’d been a distraction to Eric. She’d beensomething.
Now it was just Vi and her ex-husband. Who’d justkilledsomeone. Someone he thought he loved. Or had thought loved him. Vi didn’t even know anymore. She just knew she had to get out of here.
“I thought you were going to draw this out, not kill me,” Vi managed to say, but her voice shook. And Eric grinned. It made her want to throw up.
“I don’t think she’s dead.” He looked back at Dianne’s lifeless body. Shrugged. “Or she is. But you’re right. I’ve got plans for you before I kill you.” His eyes moved over her whole body, until death seemed a better alternative than what she had a horrible feeling he was thinking about.
He put his hand on his belt, laughed when she followed the move with her eyes, no doubt fear and terror evident on every last inch of her face.
“Oh, come on, Vi. You always liked it.”
Vi had to breathe through the terror, the utter panic. How would she fight him off? Kicking and fighting hadn’t worked for Dianne, and she’d had all her limbs free.
