Find Her Alive (Detective Josie Quinn #8) - Lisa Regan Page 0,109

long time, he wished he had kept the storage container. Then he wouldn’t have to hear her whine about going home, about her sister, the cop. Trinity didn’t know it, but he’d watched her twin on television. He’d seen the clues she had planted, the tableau she had prepared especially for him. He had felt a stirring he hadn’t felt in a long time. He should have taken her when he had the chance. He’d been too cautious.

From the upstairs bathroom came pounding on the pipes. Trinity again. Alex trudged upstairs and listened at the door. He felt her throw herself against it. “I know you’re out there!” she shouted.

“How many pages do you have today?” he asked.

“I ran out of… tape or ribbon… or whatever the hell this is. Please, I need a laptop. I can’t do this on a typewriter.”

“You think I’m stupid,” he answered. “I know you’ll be able to use a laptop to access the internet somehow.”

“No, I promise,” she cried. “I wouldn’t do that.”

Her sister wouldn’t have lied to him. She would not treat him as if he was stupid. She knew how smart he was. She was, possibly, the first person who had ever understood the depth of his intelligence. She hadn’t made a move since his last communication. He was beginning to worry that she had figured out more than she let on. Of course she had. She wouldn’t show him her hand. She wasn’t going to make it easy for him. He didn’t want to, but he liked her.

“I’ll get you more ribbon,” he promised Trinity.

“I don’t need more ribbon. I need a laptop.”

“No,” he said. “I can get you ribbon, but you must finish.”

“I can’t finish this without talking to Zandra. I want her side of the story.”

He sighed. “You can’t meet her. I told you, she went away a long time ago.”

There was silence. He waited for more demands, more questions, more complaining, but there was nothing.

Alex said, “I’m going to get you more ribbon now so you can finish. We don’t have much time left.”

Her voice came again, more high-pitched this time. “Much time? What are you talking about? What’s going to happen? What are you going to do with me?”

“The raptors are coming,” he said. “I need to be ready.”

Fifty-Nine

It seemed like days later, but in reality it was only hours by the time they arrived on the outskirts of Easton. Josie, Noah, Gretchen, and Mettner suited up in tactical gear but sat out of the raid on the caretaker’s residence at the back of the arboretum property. They waited outside the FBI’s perimeter, near the college. Drake had decided to go in just before dawn, when the rest of the staff and students who normally used the arboretum would be absent and they could creep in under the cover of night, approaching the house just as daylight crept in. As much as it killed her to sit out, Josie knew she had no choice. She and her team stood outside their vehicle, listening to the comms as the FBI carried out the raid.

When Josie heard the words, “Suspect is in custody,” her knees went weak. She waited for some chatter about Trinity, but there was none. Instead, came a report of an “unknown male in one of the upstairs bedrooms, elderly, disabled and in need of medical care.” Over the comms she heard a horrific sound, like a rabbit caught in a bear trap. “Aaahhmaaxx!”

She looked around to see Noah, Gretchen, and Mettner all wince at the same time she did. “What the hell is that?” Noah asked.

It came again over the comms, this time abbreviated. “Mmmaaxx.”

Max.

One of the ambulances on standby in the nearest college parking lot sped past them and off onto the narrow drive through the arboretum. Then came calls of “all clear” from various agents.

“No!” Josie said.

“Boss,” said Gretchen, reaching for Josie’s arm, but she swatted her away and started marching into the arboretum. They’d studied maps of the place extensively prior to the raid so Josie knew exactly where she was headed although even if she hadn’t, she need only follow all the FBI vehicles. A light sweat broke out all over her body by the time she reached the back of the property. A large, stately old house with pillars at the entrance, it stood beneath a copse of tall trees.

The pickup truck sat next to it, partially covered with a blue tarp. The ambulance was parked just feet away from