Page 28 of Lost Hours
Was she looking at the mayor’s murder scene? And if she was, where was Becca? Or was this Becca’s blood, and she was dead too?
8
Nolan didn’t like being left behind. Sitting in the car like a flunky instead of the partner Mina claimed him to be. But he understood her reasoning for talking to Becca alone. They had to do whatever was best for Becca right now. She was the only person who mattered at the moment. But he sure didn’t want to miss out on any questioning Mina might conduct. He had to hope she would share all the information she learned.
Movement on the drive caught his attention. Mina raced toward him. The tight set to her face raised his angst.
No. No. Something had happened.
Something bad.
He was out of the vehicle before she could reach his door. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s a large pool of blood in her entryway.”
“And Becca. Is she?—”
Mina gave a tight shake of her head. “No sign of her, and she’s not responding when I call out.”
“Did you go in?” he asked, though it would be foolhardy to do so without backup if whoever caused the blood pool was still in the house.
“A few steps inside.” She shook her head in wide side-to-side movements. “I saw the blood and stopped. Called my sergeant for backup.”
Okay, so maybe they weren’t partners after all. Or she didn’t trust him. “I’m capable of backing you up.”
“I know. I assume you’re carrying.”
He pulled back his tuxedo jacket, revealing his holster. He drew his sidearm. “Let’s go.”
She held up a hand. “We wait for backup. For someone to mitigate the threat at the door while we go inside.”
She was following sound procedure, but… “Becca could be injured. Needing our help.”
“What good will we be to her if we’re dead?” Mina gave him a pointed look. “My sergeant is on a call only a few minutes out. We wait.”
“Fine.” He tried not to sound surly as he knew she was right. “Did you try calling her?”
“I don’t have her number.” She went around to the driver’s side of her vehicle and lifted the radio through the open door. “I need a phone number for Becca Sutton. Preferably cell.”
She got out her phone, but tapped the rooftop with her finger until dispatch broke through the silence and offered Becca’s information. Mina quickly entered the number in her cell. Nolan could hear it ringing from across the vehicle. In the distance, sirens blared in the night, and he prepared himself for going into the house.
“No answer.” Mina stowed her phone and nodded at the swirling lights flashing ahead. “It’s go time.”
A burst of adrenaline pushed him down the street to meet her sergeant. Mina joined him and handed him a flashlight, which he would definitely use in their exterior search.
The sergeant climbed from his patrol car beneath a streetlight, and the six-foot-tall beefy man with buzzed blond hair planted his booted feet. “Sheriff.”
“Sergeant Abell meet Nolan Orr,” Mina said. “He’s former law enforcement, and I’ve deputized him to help in this investigation.”
Surprise flashed in the sergeant’s eyes, but it quickly washed away. “Everybody calls me Abe.”
Mina pointed a finger at the house. “Nolan and I’ll secure the inside in case Becca is here and injured. I’ll take lead in the house. Abe, you have the door unless I call out.”
“Roger that,” Abe said, not questioning being left behind and having a temporary deputy get in on the potential action.
Maybe he’d been a sergeant long enough to know that protecting the exit was a vital job and one that took skill to handle should an assailant try to flee. More likely he was a good sergeant and swallowing down any frustration he might have.
Mina, not waiting for compliance, set off with clipped but urgent footsteps, her weapon drawn and held in front of her. Nolan rushed after her, taking in every inch of the luxurious property including the glow of outside lights falling softly on the sidewalk, hinting at a peaceful scene, not a place where a murder had likely occurred. The lights illuminated the foundation shrubs, too, the view calm and also belying the danger inside.
