“And?”
Evangeline raised a brow. Their gazes remained locked for a moment before she gave up with a huff. “And the silk protein wasn’t the most interesting I’ve found. The cloth it was on wasn’t from the victim, and it also carried some skin cells, of which the DNA is currently running through all databases I have access to. It’s from a female, by the way.”
“You’re the best.” Andi smiled at her. Unknown female DNA in a place where it could have only gotten when the victim was chained strengthened their theory about another, unknown player and affirmed what Andi had gotten from the arthropods.
Evangeline took his praise by slightly inclining her head. “I’ve also come up with a suitably scientific explanation how I found the silk in the first place, since it didn’t pop up in the overall sample tests I made. If you crack this case, I’m going to write an article about it.”
“Whatever pleases you. Can you send us the report? This is going to help us a great deal.”
“Loe. Consider it done.” She turned in the direction of her office, the dismissal clear, but neither Andi nor George took offense. Evangeline was a hardworking woman who had just given them another puzzle piece to solving the case. The least they could do was respect her privacy when she wanted to be left alone.
“What do we do now?” George opened the main door of the precinct, to which they had gravitated without talking about it. Neither of them wanted to stay in there any longer. Not with the chief so obviously on the warpath.
“Until Evangeline hopefully gets a match on that DNA, we might as well drive to the hospital, see if I can’t get a feel of where Holway went.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” George stated while he opened the door on the driver’s side of his Escalade.
“Don’t worry. I have absolutely no intention of going deep. I’m just going to listen to the general hum. Perhaps we’ll be lucky.” Andi sat down in the passenger’s seat, leaning his head back.
“Yeah. Lucky.” George didn’t sound too hopeful.
22. By a Hair’s Breadth
AS ITturned out, George had been right to be pessimistic. All Andi could discern was that somebody who looked like a nurse but hadn’t belonged to the hospital had wheeled Holway out of the hospital and to a car when he was supposed to have been getting an X-ray. How the fake nurse had ditched the two cops on watch duty, Andi couldn’t tell because the overall excitement made it hard to pick up any details. Once Holway was in the car, the arthropods had lost interest because he was out of reach and moving too fast, which was the end of what Andi was able and willing to discern, much to George’s relief.
They were almost back at the precinct when the call came. Andi fished out his cell and put it on speaker as soon as he had taken a look at the screen. Detective Mescew’s voice came through slightly distorted over the background of a moving car.
“We’ve found Holway. He was spotted in the Goose Creek area by one of our beat officers. He followed him to one of the old houses at the end of Mapleridge Drive. Holway is hiding there. We’re on our way.”
“Meet you there in ten.” While Andi ended the call, George changed lanes and raced toward Goose Creek. Memories of their first drive there came to his mind. He and Andi had just been paired up and had been called to investigate the murder of a woman, which eventually put them on track to the human trafficking ring led by Jake Castain and Clayton Harris. Their first case together. George felt a little nostalgic thinking about it.
They reached Mapleridge Drive, and he slowed down so as not to alert Daniel Holway. Several police cars were parked out at the curb, Detective Gentry waving them over. He was wearing a bulletproof vest, his badge clearly displayed on the leather belt around his waist. He looked more than ready to spring into action. As soon as they were both out, Gentry started rattling off the facts while leading them toward the back of an abandoned house. “He’s hiding in the last house on the street. You’ll see it as soon as we reach the corner. The beat officer who recognized him followed him here and has been watching the house with his partner until we arrived. Holway is still in there. The heat cameras show he’s on the second floor. We already have the building surrounded and are ready to go in.”
They reached the corner, and George got his first view of the house. It looked almost identical to the one they were hiding behind, the high grass on the front lane barely obscuring different items of trash such as old tires, a toilet broken in half, and an entire pile of pipes in various sizes. The door looked to still be quite solid; the windows were nailed shut with planks of chipboard. All in all, a sad though not uncommon sight in this area. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Andi stiffen.
“It’s a wonder that thing is still standing.”
Gentry turned toward Andi. “Surely it can’t be that bad? I mean, it looks relatively solid compared to some of the others, and Holway is in there….” He trailed off when he saw the expression on Andi’s face. Detective Mescew stepped next to him. She had been watching the house through a pair of binoculars.
“How bad is it, Andi?” Her voice was calm, as if they were talking about the weather, not something Andi shouldn’t know by simply glancing at a building that showed no glaring signs of decay. At least not if the normal laws of the world applied. It was something that always puzzled George anew—even though Andi kept his distance to all his colleagues, most of them were willing to follow his lead even when things were in no way clear-cut. George didn’t know if it said more about Andi’s personality or the underlying willingness to believe in some higher power that seemed to be inherent in human beings.
“Too bad to send anybody in, least of all an entire group of police.”
“How do you want to do this?” Mescew didn’t question Andi; she didn’t discuss. She simplytrustedhim.
Andi closed his eyes for a moment. “Surround the house but keep a healthy distance, especially on the southern side. That balcony is a death trap. George and I will go inside and try to drive Holway outside.”
“Fine by me. Be careful.” Mescew turned to Gentry, who nodded and started barking orders into his radio.
George touched Andi’s upper left arm. His partner smiled weakly at him, the familiar lines of exhaustion around his eyes and mouth already deepening, indicating he was inside the house with at least half his mind already. George wasn’t happy about it, because this was the third time within less than a week Andi was consciously deepening his contact to the arthropods. Knowing how stressful this was, George was already mentally preparing for a good excuse to get Andi back home as soon as they had Holway.
“It’s fine, George. I can get us through unharmed. I think.” Andi had obviously picked up on George’s worry and misinterpreted it. George didn’t bother to correct him. They had more important things to do than wasting Andi’s precious mental capacities on such petty things.
“I trust you.”
“Good, let’s get going.” Andi got out his gun and took the safety off. “Stay behind me and only tread where I do.”
“Roger that.” George checked his own weapon before following Andi toward the house. His partner’s gait was a bit wonky, no doubt because he was trying to remember that the body he was using had only two legs instead of six or more. He didn’t try to hide their approach, which told George that Holway didn’t know they were coming. George did his best to keep his attention on his surroundings while at the same time being alert to where Andi stepped and what he was saying, a constant stream of words coming from his lips, the only way he could share what he was feeling and sensing. It was stringent, meaning Andi had—at least for the moment—enough mental distance to just translate and not slip under the current. How long he would be able to maintain that distance was anyone’s guess, and George was ready to catch his partner should he fall. Just dividing his focus on four things at the same time was taxing for George, and he didn’t want to contemplate what Andi had to endure every minute of every day.
