Page 62 of Shadow of Death
“Officer Zwick said Special Agent Gleason had disappeared completely. And now we think whoever made him disappear is after Carey and possibly in her house already. So, what did he do with Gleason? Could a camera have caught that?”
They both heard a buzzing again; their phones were vibrating. They glanced at each other.
The caller was Andy Mason.
“We got something from the third house down,” Andy told them. “The fellow who owns it is a cameraman for a local news station. The police hadn’t even reached him—he called it in. He has his front and back doors covered and both side lawns. The screens are in his laundry room. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me—but he was helping his wife with the laundry. He’d seen there was a car watching over Carey’s place the last few days. But he caught the figure in the scarf, hat, and jacket getting Gleason out of the car. He took him by surprise and hit him with a stun gun just as a white van came down the street. Gleason is no lightweight but after the stun gun, he was deadweight—and he was slid right into the van. The van took off. The plates were so muddied they couldn’t be read. We’ve got an APB out on the vehicle with a description of the make and model.”
“And the man who tased him?” Hunter asked.
“Disappeared off his camera’s range—going in the direction of Carey’s place. So far, the police have no sign of him. Or any vehicle in which he might have arrived,” Andy said.
“Maybe the van dropped him off and circled around, which left him time to take Gleason,” Amy said.
“Sounds logical,” Andy said.
“ETA, four minutes,” Hunter said.
“All right. I’ll leave you to manage. Do you have a plan?”
Amy glanced at Hunter. “I think we do,” she said.
“And?”
“I’m going to knock on the door, call out, pretend I’m a friend who is going to get to her one way or another,” Amy said.
“And Hunter—”
“I will be right behind her,” Hunter said, glancing at Amy. “Backup.”
“All right. Keep me posted. I don’t need two dead agents. Play it—”
“Safe,” Amy said. “You bet. But we are going to try to keep Carey alive.”
“Safely,” Andy said.
“Safely,” Amy assured him.
“Who am I kidding?” they could hear Andy murmuring as he ended the call.
His words allowed Hunter and Amy to share a quick smile. “Might have mentioned that plan to me,” Hunter said.
“You said we need to talk—get some reverse messages going. Call on something in him or her—we don’t really know which yet—that causes them to pause and question their assignment. Right?”
“Right. But I didn’t really suggest you just ring the doorbell.”
She grinned at him. “We’re supposed to start off nonthreatening, logic suggests. I’m a hell of a lot less threatening than you!”
“Only in a physical sense,” Hunter assured her. “Seriously, you can be downright terrifying.”
She looked forward. They had reached their destination. Hunter didn’t bother to find a distant location; he parked on the street in front of the house. As they got out of the car, Amy saw an officer at the side of the house step out from cover to identify himself and his position and motion to them that his partner was just across the way.
His service weapon was pointed down, but in both hands, and ready. Amy assumed the man was Zwick and it seemed he knew his business.
But even for a patrolman, the world could be a minefield. Officers learned quickly.
“Good man,” Hunter noted. “In position, and I’m willing to bet he got there with his fellows without being seen. All right. We know our closest backup. But let’s hope we don’t need it.”
“Agreed. Okay, you need to be the backed-up backup now,” Amy told him.
