Kingston Kidnappings (What Happens In Vegas Book 3) by Matt Lincoln (great book club books .txt) 📗

and to let him know that we were on our way to the house now. He’d told us that he would contact the police to let them know we needed backup, and a few moments later, they’d caught up to us.

With the lights and sirens blaring, we were able to move a little faster, but it still felt like time was slipping away. I was sure that I’d heard a scream just before the call cut off. That being said, Lakshmi hadn’t sounded particularly upset or afraid when Miranda has been speaking to her. She’d sounded worried that whoever had taken her might find out she was using the phone, but not to the point where she wasn’t willing to speak with us. Something about the entire thing seemed strange. My interrogation with Atkins had left me rattled, and I wasn’t sure what to expect anymore.

“Here, turn here!” Miranda yelled.

I turned sharply onto the street she’d indicated, internally chastising myself for having gotten distracted with my own thoughts. I pulled up to the house that Fiona had sent us to. In my haste, I didn’t bother to park correctly, instead stopping the car haphazardly across the middle of the lawn. I’d barely put the car in park before Miranda threw the passenger side door open and jumped out. She ran up to the door and kicked it open in an impressively fluid motion. Normally, we would need a warrant before entering the home of a suspect, but since we suspected that a child’s life was actively in danger, Miranda was well within her rights to bust the door in.

Still, she was too reckless.

“Miranda, wait!” I called as I chased after her. “We have to clear the house!”

“No time,” she called back as she rushed up the stairs.

I swore under my breath as I watched her go. I understood that she was worried about the girl, but she wouldn’t be able to help her if she got herself killed by acting like this. I moved through the bottom floor of the house slowly, making sure to check every room thoroughly. I just hoped Miranda wouldn’t run into any trouble upstairs.

A moment later, two of the cops who’d accompanied us entered the house as well, and I felt a little more relieved now that we weren’t alone.

“Agent Castillo went upstairs,” I called out to them. “She’s looking for the kid. She might need help.” One of the officers nodded and headed upstairs while the other helped me clear the ground floor.

I didn’t find any sign of anyone, child or adult. I did, however, notice that they seemed to have left in a hurry. The kitchen table had three plates of food on it. Two were half-eaten, but the third plate, clearly belonging to a child judging from the brightly colored cartoon characters on it, was untouched. Now that I was certain the house was clear, I took a closer look around and noticed more signs that a child had been living in the house.

“There’s no one upstairs,” Miranda growled as she came back down the steps two at a time. “Did you find anything down here?

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Look at this. There are toys and children’s books all over the place. There’s even a spot at the kitchen table. This is completely different from the homes we searched in the upstate neighborhood.”

“There was a bedroom upstairs, too,” Miranda noted. “A little girl’s. There were toys and posters and a TV. Unless they have another kid, I’m assuming that’s where Lakshmi was sleeping.”

This situation seemed much closer to the one we’d found Dajuan in than the one we’d found Kamya in. It didn’t seem as though these people had been abusing Lakshmi in any way, but we couldn’t be sure what their intentions with her were until we found them.

“Agents,” one of the officers called as she came back down the stairs. “I found this under the bed in one of the rooms upstairs.” She handed us an evidence bag. Inside was a cell phone.

“This must have been the phone we called,” Miranda surmised. “I told her to go hide with it. That’s why it was under the bed. They must have left it behind when they fled, so we wouldn’t be able to trace them. Damn!”

Miranda put her hands on her hips and started pacing back and forth angrily.

“Maybe one of the neighbors saw something,” I suggested.

“Yeah,” she replied. “I’ll call Fiona and have her see what she can find out about the owners of the house. We can put out an Amber alert.”

“That’s a good idea,” I nodded as I stepped back out of the house. By now, a few of the neighbors had come out of their houses to see what was going on. It was understandable, considering there were two police cruisers and an unmarked black van parked on their neighbor’s lawn.

“Excuse me,” a thin, blonde woman wearing a deep blue tracksuit asked nervously as she approached me. “Is everything okay with the Andersons?”

“I’m afraid there’s been a crime in this house,” I answered vaguely. I needed to choose my words carefully. “You didn’t happen to notice anything strange recently, did you?”

“I did, actually,” she informed us. “A little earlier, I was taking my dog for a run around the neighborhood, and I noticed Sue and Greg packing things into the back of their van. I thought maybe they were going on a trip, so I stopped by to ask them about it.”

“What did they say?” I asked.

“Well, they looked nervous or something,” the blonde woman fidgeted. “I asked if they were heading somewhere, and Sue looked at me like she’d seen a ghost. I guess she didn’t hear me come up. Anyway, she just sort of laughed and said they were taking a little vacation. But I could tell something was strange. You know how when people lie, they get all fidgety and start looking around? That’s how she was acting. All fidgety like she didn’t want to