“Hey, man,” he said. “What’d I do?”
“On the floor” was all Mack said. He wasn’t going to get into any discussions until he had cuffs on this guy and had searched the root cellar.
“I need my hand to work the lever,” Williams whined.
Mack moved into position so he could see the side of the recliner. “Slowly.”
Williams lowered his arm, his hand dropping straight to the lever. He hitched his string-bean body out of the chair and knelt on the floor littered with empty takeout bags. “Can’t we talk about this?”
Mack gave him a shove until he was flat on his face, hisgreasy blond hair hanging limp around his head. Mack nodded at Kiley.
“Your turn,” she said to the plump woman with equally dirty hair and a white T-shirt that was stained yellow at the armpits—a match for Williams’s undershirt.
Eyes wide and terrified, she slid to the floor and flopped onto her face near a pizza box.
“Hands behind your back,” Kiley said.
She moved her scabbed arms, likely injured from drug abuse, and Kiley glanced at Mack.
He nodded, indicating he had both suspects covered and Kiley was free to search and cuff this woman. She shouldered her rifle and knelt, grabbing cuffs from her belt on the way down. She secured the woman’s hands, then made a thorough search.
Sean came back into the room. “We’re clear. No sign of the girls.”
“Girls?” Williams asked. “What girls?”
So he was going to play dumb. Not surprising.
Mack looked at Sean. “Cover this creep.”
Sean took a wide-legged stance as Mack searched Williams, nearly reeling from the ripe body odor emanating from the man. Mack cuffed him before calling the lieutenant in charge of the county support team. “Subject secured. Get your team in here for transport. We still have the cellar to clear.”
Williams scoffed, “Ain’t nothing down there. Wasting your time.”
He might as well have said,Don’t go down there. I have something to hide.
Mack glanced at Sean and then Kiley. “One of you good to stay here with these two?”
“I got it,” Kiley answered.
Mack nodded his thanks. Sean was lead on the initial investigation, and he more than any of them was desperate to find the girls.
Mack and Sean moved through the kitchen, dirty dishes piled high and roaches scurrying over the walls. They exited the back of the house to a yard covered in knee-high grass and weeds. Mack let Sean go first, and he stopped by two ancient-looking cellar doors built into the ground, white paint flaking in the breeze.
“No dirt or dust on the right door,” Sean said.
“So it’s been opened recently.” Mack’s hope for finding the girls skyrocketed, but he quickly tamped down the excitement.
“Cover me,” Sean said. “I’m going in.”
Chapter 3
ADDY STEPPED OUTof the sleek office building and into the chilly wind whipping in from the Gorge. She was pumped. Ecstatic. Her impromptu meeting had gone well, and she’d gotten the information she needed. Most of it anyway. Still, she couldn’t lose sight of her safety.
She took a good long look around the parking lot for any danger. The shrubbery and wooded area near the two-story glass and steel building held a dusting of snow from a minor overnight snowfall, but nothing else appeared out of the ordinary.
She hurried to her Mustang, double-checked the locks, and got the heat going. She grabbed her travel mug and took a sip of the coffee she’d bought on the way over to her meeting. Thankfully she’d poured it into her mug and the brew was still warm.
Her phone rang. She jumped and nearly tipped over the mug. She grabbed her cell and accepted the call from Warren.
