Page 13 of Dusty and Dented
“Maybe she went for a walk or something?How long’s she been gone?”
“Not long,” Dagger shook his head.She wouldn’t have left the door open to go for a walk and she would have told him if that was what she was going to do, wouldn’t she?“She was on the couch when I went to the bathroom and gone when I came back.Everything looks the same, except the door was open.I don’t think she would leave the door open.”
“Where’s her phone?”Dax asked.“Women rarely leave their phones these days.”
Dagger frowned.He tried to remember if he’d seen her with her phone since they’d gotten back this afternoon, but he didn’t remember seeing it.
“Call Hawkeye, tell him what’s going on and see if he can find her phone.I’ll check inside.”Dagger turned and headed inside without waiting to see if Dax did as instructed.In the living room, he looked around, but didn’t see anything but his own phone.He picked that up and shoved it in his pocket as he headed into the bedroom and looked at all the surfaces in there.Still nothing.He tried to remember everywhere she’d been, then headed into the bathroom to see if maybe she’d left it in there after her shower.
“Anything?”Dax called from the doorway as Dagger came back down the hallway.
Dagger shook his head.
“I don’t see it anywhere.Hopefully she has it on her.What did Hawkeye say?”
“Said he’ll do some looking into it and reach out but to search the whole trailer park while we wait.He also said to look around and see if anyone has cameras.Businesses, the park office, that kind of thing.He said not to forget all the neighbors.A lot of people have those doorbell cameras now.If anyone has those, he can try to hack in and see if they caught anything.”
Dagger shoved a hand through his hair, resisting the urge to grab a fistful and pull.It wouldn’t do any good anyway.He went to the end of the driveway and looked both directions, then turned back to Dax.
“Haul all this inside, then you take that side, I’ll go this way and look for her.Call me if you find anything.”
“Don’t forget to look for cameras,” Dax called as Dagger took off down the dirt path that ran in a circle around the trailer park where Andy lived.He didn’t call out but checked out each house on both sides of the road as he made the circle.He was almost back to Andy’s when he ran into Dax.
“Nothing?”Dagger asked?The longer she was gone, the worse the pressure on his chest got.
“Nope.Any cameras?”
“Just on that one.None of the others have anything at all.”Dagger waved toward the one house where he’d spotted the doorbell camera.“Go check the unit number and I’ll call Hawkeye.
Dagger was reaching for his phone when it rang.He pulled it out and saw that it was Pike calling.Pike was the other tech guru in the Angels.Though why he was calling, especially now, Dagger didn’t know.
“Hey,” Dagger said in greeting.
“Hey, I’ve got a delivery van for a local furniture store pulling into the trailer park then out again under five minutes later, about two minutes before Dax called in that Panther’s sister is missing.”
“Any chance it’s a coincidence?”Dagger’s heart seemed to thunder in his chest.His stomach churned and he had to swallow bile as it inched its way up his throat.
“Unlikely,” Pike said.“The only reasons I can think of for a delivery truck to be in the park for that short of time, other than they’re the ones who took her, is that they looped through the park to turn around.That’s out because they continued down the highway in the same direction they’d been going in when they arrived, or if whoever they were delivering to wasn’t home.That one I think is still unlikely, because usually if no one is home they’ll wait a few minutes and often attempt to call whoever they’re delivering to.So even if no one is there, they’re usually there longer than they were.”
“Do you know if Hawkeye’s had any luck tracking her phone?I’ve looked everywhere I can think of here and can’t find it.I’m hoping that’s because she has it.”
“I’ll check.Give me a sec.”
Dagger heard Pike talking, but his voice was muffled as if he’d put his finger over the microphone.“He says he’s working on it, but the system is being difficult at the moment.On the other hand, I just got into the local pig pen.That truck was reported stolen two hours ago.”Pike’s sigh echoed across the line.“Give me a minute, I’ve got to do some hunting.I want to see if we can track where it’s gone.It looks like they disabled the anti-theft GPS device but there may be another way.Give me a few minutes.I’ll reach back out.”Pike disconnected the call without waiting for Dagger to answer.
Dagger stared at the device in his hand for several seconds, trying to process what Pike had said and decide what to do next.He needed to get to Andy.He needed to figure out where she was and who took her.Once they figured out who had her, they’d have a better idea of why, and what they needed to do, but getting her back safe was most important.
Deciding he still needed to talk to Hawkeye, he dialed that brother and waited.
“I’m almost into the phone company, give me a second,” Hawkeye said instead of hello.“Give me just a couple more minutes.Though, if they realized she had her phone on her, whoever has her has likely ditched it by now.We may have better luck with Pike’s lead.”
Dagger didn’t bother to hold back the growl that vibrated through him.This was taking too long.Every second they delayed, whoever had Andy was getting farther away.Were they hurting her?Just the thought made him want to start ripping out throats.
“Okay, I got her phone.It’s popping up about a half mile from the park and not moving.”
“Where exactly?”Dagger ducked back into the trailer, grabbed the keys to Andy’s car where he’d left them on the bar in the kitchen and darted back outside while Hawkeye gave him directions.His heart seemed to skip a beat as he started the car and backed out of the parking space.Maybe whoever took her realized they had the wrong person, and they just put her out.
He knew it was an insane hope, but he had to hope.It kept him going.The knowledge of how unlikely it all was also had his mind spinning with possibilities.Was this because she was tied to the Angels?Was this tied to whatever group was responsible for the drive by that had killed Panther?He had to fight to stay under the speed limit as he hurried to where the signal from her phone was coming from.
