The Christmas Bell Tolls (2 page)

“FBI.”
It was harder than expected to talk from between clenched teeth. Eva could only
hope her dentist would be able to repair any damage.

“I hear it’s a
Christmas wedding.
How sweet.”

Eva set down her
cup of coffee so she wouldn’t break off the handle.
“Christmas
Eve.
It’ll be beautiful.”

“Oh. I guess
you’re in it, right?”

Eva nodded.
“Maid of honor.”

Sarah flashed her
white caps again. “Let me guess: the colors are red and green.” The mockery
dripped from every word.

“Wrong.” Just
being able to say it gave Eva a bit of happiness.

Sarah arched one
of her carefully drawn-on eyebrows.
“A non-traditionalist.
Didn’t see that in Maddie.”

“She’s good at
surprising everyone.”

“I’m sure.” Sarah
lifted the framed picture off Maddie’s desk. “Oh, this is him? No wonder she’s
marrying him. He looks yummy.”

Just
proof that the woman hadn’t changed in the past year.
One of the main
reasons Eva couldn’t stand Sarah was because Sarah came on to every man she
saw.
Even ones with girlfriends or dates.

Even
ones with Eva.

“He’s madly in
love with her, that’s for sure.” Eva knew she didn’t need to defend Maddie and
Nick’s relationship, but she couldn’t help herself. “They’re so happy it’s
enough to make anyone believe in fairy tales.”

“Hmm.”
Sarah set the picture frame back on Maddie’s desk. “Weren’t you dating someone
in the FBI, too?”

Eva made a
non-committal sound under her breath. She didn’t feel up to talking about her
and Darren’s relationship, and especially not with Sarah.

“I thought I heard
you were. Are you still dating him?” Sarah crossed her arms over her chest.
Still smug.
“Is he your knight in shining armor?”

The phone rang,
cutting off the sarcastic retort stinging Eva’s tongue. She lifted the
receiver. “Forensics Lab.”

“Eva—”

“Hey,
Maddie.
What’s—”

“Listen, I need
you to get a team and come to a crime scene.” There was no mistaking the waver
in Maddie’s voice.
“As soon as possible.”

Everything in the
lab fell away as Eva focused on Maddie’s voice.
“Of course.
Where?”
She grabbed a pen and scribbled the street
address Maddie rattled off.

“We need the best
on this one. Bring Peter and Ivan. Either Kurt or Neal is fine. I’m sure the
director will be briefed soon enough, but I want to jump on this immediately.”

Peter Helm was the
TBI Special Agent Investigator, their boss, and Ivan Goins was hands-down the
best latents technician in the state. If Maddie asked for both of them, it had
to be serious. But how was Maddie at a crime scene already? She was supposed to
be with her sister and sister-in-law doing pre-wedding stuff.

“Got
it.”
Eva pushed the intercom button twice for both Peter and Ivan, the
in-lab signal that they had a call. She stood, slipping out of her blue lab
coat and grabbing the team’s royal blue vest with the yellow TBI AGENT on the
back.

Eva slipped her
holster housing her gun around her waist, wedging the phone between her
shoulder and chin. “Can you tell me the basics of what’s going on? So I know if
I need to bring anything special to the scene.” She grabbed her badge and secured
it on her hip before donning the blue baseball-style cap. She held the truck
keys still in her hand as she listened to Maddie’s breathing hitch.

“Abduction.”

The hairs on the
back of his neck stood at attention.

Darren spun around
in his office chair and found Special Agent in Charge Nick Hagar hovering in
his cubicle opening. “Hey, Boss.”

“I need to see you
in my office, please.
Now.”
Nick turned and headed to
his office.

Darren stood and
straightened his jacket over his holster. Nick wasn’t the type of man to summon
anyone to his office without a legitimate purpose. Darren strode down the hall
behind his boss, his mind racing through potential reasons he’d been called in.
Surely the agency wasn’t cutting jobs again. He loved his job, but he also
needed it for the insurance. With Savannah’s pre-existing medical condition, he
couldn’t afford to have to get new insurance.

He turned the
corner, nodding to a couple of fellow agents who acknowledged him. Maybe there
was something missing from his report of his last case. He’d concluded all the
paperwork day before yesterday and turned in everything. At least, he thought
he had.

“Shut the door
behind you.” Nick didn’t sit in his chair behind his desk. He stood to the
side, arms crossed over his chest.

Darren’s mouth
went dry as his knees locked.
“Yes, sir?”

“I think you’d
better sit down.” Nick sat on the edge of his desk.

Not really wanting
to sit, but not daring to disobey his boss, Darren dropped into the chair.
“Sir, what’s going on?”

“First, I want you
to sit there and hear me out. Do you understand?
No bolting
out of here without hearing everything first.”

The muscles in
Darren’s biceps tightened. This had to be personal. He nodded.

“No, I need you to
respond to me.” No mistaking Nick’s commanding tone.

“Yes,
sir.
I’ll sit here and hear you out.”

“Good.” Nick let
out a long breath. “There’s a situation over at the community center.”

Savannah!
Sweet,
Jesus.
Every muscle in Darren’s body went rigid and he shifted.

Nick held up his
hand. “I’m not going to lie to you, it’s Savannah.”

Darren couldn’t
breathe. A rock the size and shape of the Memphis pyramid lodged in the back of
his throat. Good thing he hadn’t stood because he didn’t think his legs could
support his weight right now.

“She’s missing.”

Those two words
ripped apart his very soul.

“Missing?” He
managed to shove the word out past the boulder blocking his ability to breathe.

“At this point, we
believe she was taken.”

Taken.
Gone.
Abducted.
A million
scenarios sped through Darren’s mind, not a one of them good.
Dear God…not
my Savy!

He moved to stand.

Nick gripped
Darren’s shoulder and eased him back into the chair. “Just listen.” He shook
his shoulder. “Listen to me, Darren.”

He looked up,
focusing on his boss. He needed to concentrate on what Nick said, but all that
filled his mind was his daughter.

“Here’s what we
know. There were a lot of people at the community center: choir people,
florists, bakers, and many others. Savannah was picking out flowers with one of
the local florists in the kitchen area where the flower samples were being
kept.”

It was supposed to
be a fun time for Savannah.
Enjoying the Baxter family
prenuptial party.
Girl time.

“A person or
persons entered the kitchen from the back door and knocked out the florist.
Minutes later, at least that’s what we assume at this point, someone found the
florist unconscious on the floor.”

Darren tried to
process what Nick said, but he could only visualize his daughter’s tear-streaked
face. How scared and horrified she had to be. Did it trigger an asthma attack?
Did she have her inhaler?
Dear God, please—keep her safe. Protect her. Oh,
sweet Jesus Christ, please protect my baby!

 “The police
were called while everyone searched for Savannah. Some thought she might be
hiding, scared, but after turning the community center upside down, they
couldn’t find a trace of her.”

Gone.

No
, he
couldn’t accept that.
Wouldn’t.
Not Savannah.

She was all he had
left.

Nick continued
with the details he knew. “Maddie went outside and searched the parking lot.
She found Savannah’s bow on the ground, far away from where she’d parked when
they’d arrived.”

Definitely
taken.
Someone took his daughter. Darren couldn’t think.

“The police are on
the scene. Maddie called her forensics team. I’m about to head that way myself.
I’ll oversee the investigation unless otherwise directed by the Executive
Assistant Director.”

“Why wouldn’t you
oversee the case?” Darren’s mind wasn’t wrapping around the facts properly.

“Because
the victim is the child of a senior agent in my unit.”

He hadn’t
considered that. Then again, he really couldn’t consider anything.

“If you’re ready,
let’s go.”

Darren jumped to
his feet and followed as Nick led the way out of the office and down the hall.

Images swarmed
Darren’s mind, clenching his jaw as he strode behind his boss.
Savannah smiling as a newborn.
After her
first heart surgery.
As she slept.
Crawling.
Her first steps.
So proud of
herself for saying
dada
.
Her first day of
preschool.

“We’re going to
find her,” Nick said as he slid in behind the steering wheel.

Darren didn’t
trust himself to speak. He clicked his seatbelt automatically. He couldn’t hold
a coherent thought in his mind. Savannah was gone.
Lord, please…help her.
Help me.
He didn’t even know what to pray.

The siren
screeched as Nick peeled out of the parking lot. Loose gravel skidded across
the asphalt.

“I’ve put a call
in to the state office and requested they send in a couple of outside agents to
assist.”

“I don’t
understand. How was she taken?” Darren’s mind finally opened to allow more into
his brain than just that Savannah was gone. “Someone came in and knocked out
the florist and took Savannah? So she was definitely a target?”

Nick nodded as the
cruiser sped toward the community center. “That’s the premise we’re working off
of at the moment. No one else was bothered and preliminary report is nothing
was disturbed.”

Waves of nausea
rocked Darren’s tightened stomach. His daughter had been kidnapped. The
enormity stole his breath.

“Darren, you know
we’re going to have to ask. Go ahead and start building a list of any enemies
you might have. I’ve already requested an update on any of the recently
released from prison cases you’ve worked on. Can you think of anyone else?”

His mind went
blank. All he could think about was his daughter was gone. Like Georgia.

No! Not like
Georgia.
Missing, not dead.
Please, God, let her be
okay.

“Timmons?”

Darren shook his
head. “Not that I can think of right now, sir.” As an FBI agent, sure, he made
enemies, but none stood out to him at the moment. The only thing he could think
of right now was his daughter had been taken. “Sir, what’s the timeline?” Time
was of the essence. The first
minutes after a child was
abducted was
critical.

Abducted.
Savannah.
His baby girl.
Jesus!

Nick glanced at
the clock on the dashboard as he whipped into the parking lot of the community
center. “About forty-five minutes since the incident was reported.”

Forty-five
minutes.

Darren swallowed
against his still-dry-mouth. Nick hadn’t even turned off the car’s engine
before Darren bolted from the car. Already, yellow police tape cordoned off the
back parking lot of the community center.

He strode forward,
whipping out his badge, but was stopped by a plainclothes officer. “Sir, please
go around to the front door.”

Nick took hold of
his elbow and led him to the front door. “Timmons, I’m allowing you onsite—at
the scene, but remember to stay out of the actual investigation.”

Darren nodded, but
he’d already made it to the front steps.

“Darren!”

He halted, staring
up at Maddie’s pale face.

“I’m so sorry.”

He wanted to be
mad.
Wanted to be furious.
Wanted to scream at her
that it was her fault his baby girl was missing. That Savannah had been in her
care and she’d let his daughter get taken. Why hadn’t she been watching his
baby?

Darren wanted to
hate her, but he couldn’t. He loved Maddie like the sister he’d never had, and
he knew she would have taken a bullet before allowing something to happen to
Savy. He grabbed her into a hug and held her tight. He could feel her pounding
heart and her hiccups. “It’s not your fault,” he whispered into her hair before
pulling away. Any longer and he wouldn’t be able to control his emotions.

He had to stay in
control.

“What happened?”
Nick pulled Maddie against him as he led the way inside the community center.
He and Darren stopped log enough to sign in on the crime scene log, then
entered the building’s main room.

“We’d just
finished listening to the first bell choir’s piece and the florist had set up
the bouquet samples in the kitchen. We were starting with the smallest bouquets
first, so Savannah went with the florist to pick out the flowers she wanted in
her arrangement.” Maddie perched on the edge of a table as various law
enforcement officers milled around.

Nick nodded. “I’ll
be right back. I’m going to talk to the Detective in charge.”

“Then what
happened?” Darren asked.

Maddie chewed her
bottom lip. “The second bell choir played their piece and the third was setting
up when I realized Savannah hadn’t come back yet. I thought she might be having
trouble picking flowers, so Riley went to go check on her. She found the
florist on the floor and no sign of Savannah.”

Darren looked over
the room. Riley Baxter Simpson sat on a chair in the corner of the room, two
uniforms and a detective taking her statement.

“At first, we
thought the florist had fainted or had a seizure and passed out or hit her head
or something, but we soon realized that was incorrect. When we got her up, she
confirmed that she’d been hit while talking with Savannah. Everyone began
looking for Savannah.”

Darren spied a
woman who was most likely the florist talking with several police officers, both
in uniforms and cheap suits.

“When we didn’t
find her after calling, I ran out the back door.” Maddie’s eyes filled with
moisture. “I found her bow in the back, so immediately called the police, Nick,
and my team.”

“Why didn’t you
call me, Maddie?” Darren struggled to keep the accusations out of his tone.

Maddie swiped at
her eyes. “You know why I couldn’t. If I’d called you first, you would’ve come
right over. You’d have been distraught and driving, might have caused an
accident. You know protocol.”

Yes, he knew
protocols, policies, and procedures well. They were the backbone of his work
ethic. But he’d never had his daughter abducted before, where he felt like
everything worked against him.

Nick returned.
“Darren, I just got off the phone with the Executive Assistant Director.
Officers are going to drive you home and wait until the unit the EAD has sent
arrives.”

“I don’t need to
go home, sir. I won’t get in the way here, I promise—”

“Timmons, this
isn’t up for discussion. The EAD wants to run this investigation by the book of
a kidnapping. You know that means the parent goes home and waits for contact
from the kidnapper. The agency has already dispatched a unit to set up at your
house.”

Right.
He was the parent, not the agent working the case.

Maddie hugged him.
“We’ll keep you updated.”

He turned to face
his boss again. Nick shook his head as two uniformed officers approached. No
sense arguing. He let out a long breath. “Update me when you can.” That single
sentence was one of the hardest to say.

Everyone nodded.
Nick squeezed his shoulder. Darren turned and followed the two officers out the
front door. He’d just made it down the stairs when the CSI van whipped into the
parking lot.

Darren paused at
the bottom of the stairs and watched as Eva jumped out of the driver’s seat and
headed toward him. He’d just assumed Maddie would head up the CSI team, but now
he realized she couldn’t. She was a material witness, even if she didn’t really
see anything. That left her partner and best friend, Eva, to actually work the
field.

Eva Langston stood
about five-six, had a pair of long legs, and shoulder-length blond hair. It was
soft and silky to the touch, Darren remembered that. He shook his head to clear
the memories. He shouldn’t think about that now. Funny how the mind went to
something safe when it couldn’t process the harsh reality.

She led the others
in her team to the building. The way she moved, how she carried herself…people
could feel the confidence oozing from her. Eva was one of the best in her
field, maybe even better than Maddie at times. She’d do a good job. No, she’d
do a great job. She was professional like that. At that moment, Eva caught his
stare and her step faltered.

For just a split
second, Darren felt the urge to run to her and let her wrap him in her arms. To
have her hold him and tell him it was going to be okay.
To
let her comfort him.

But he couldn’t do
that.

He followed the
police officers to the cruiser parked in front of Nick’s and ducked into the
backseat.