Split Second

CHAPTER 38

“We don’t know that Stucky had anything to do with this.” Tully tried to sound convincing, but he wasn’t sure he believed his own words.

It was obvious he needed to be the objective one. Ever since Ms. Heston left them, Agent O’Dell seemed to be coming apart at the seams. The calm, controlled professional now paced, quick long steps, back and forth. She ran her fingers through her short dark hair too many times, tucking strands behind her ears, tousling it with her fingers and tucking it in again. Her voice was clipped, and possessed an edge that hadn’t existed before. Tully thought he heard it quiver several times.

He felt as if he was watching from the sidelines as she passed by him. She didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands. They ducked into her trouser pockets, then a quick swipe through her hair again. Several times they slipped into her jacket, and he knew she was checking her revolver. Tully wasn’t sure what to do with her. This was so unlike the woman he had spent most of the day with.

It had gotten dark, and Agent O’Dell had gone through the entire two-story house, turning on lights and pulling closed what few draperies there were, but only after staring out into the night at each window. Was she expecting him to be there?

She was doing a second check downstairs now. Tully decided they needed to leave. The house was spotless. Though the master bedroom smelled strongly of a recent dousing of ammonia, there was no trace that anything had occurred in the house. Least of all, a brutal murder and a violent kidnapping.

“There’s no evidence that anything suspicious happened here,” he tried again. “I think it’s time we leave.” He glanced at his watch and cringed when he saw that it was after nine. Emma would be furious with him for having to spend the entire evening with Mrs. Lopez.

“Tess McGowan was the real estate agent who sold me my house,” O’Dell repeated. It was the most she had said to him in the last several hours. “Don’t you see? Don’t you get it?”

He knew exactly what she was thinking. It was the same thing he was thinking. Albert Stucky would have known too, especially since he must be spending a good deal of time watching Agent O’Dell. He would have seen the two of them together, just the way he saw the pizza girl and the Kansas City waitress. But the truth was, they had absolutely no evidence that McGowan was even missing, other than a forgotten briefcase, and that was hardly proof. He refused to fuel O’Dell’s panic.

“Right now there’s nothing substantial to prove Ms. McGowan was abducted. And there’s nothing more we can do here. We need to call it a night. Maybe we can track down Ms. McGowan tomorrow.”

“We won’t track her down. He’s taken her.” The quiver was there though she did her best to hide it. “He’s added her to his collection. She may be dead already.” Her hands reached for her holster then disappeared into her pockets. “Or if she’s not dead, she may be wishing she was,” she added in almost a whisper.

Tully rubbed his eyes. He had removed his glasses hours ago. O’Dell was starting to spook him. He didn’t want to think about the fact that Albert Stucky may have added to his collection. Back on his desk, buried under manuals and documents, he had a bulging file of missing women from across the country. Women who had disappeared without a trace in the last five months since Stucky’s escape.

The volume wasn’t that unusual. It happened all the time. Some of the women left and didn’t want to be found. Others had been abused by husbands and lovers and chose to disappear. But too many were gone without any explanation, and Tully knew enough about Stucky’s games to pray that none of them in his file folder were actually in Stucky’s new collection.

“Look, there’s nothing more we can do tonight.”

“We need to do a luminol test. We can have Keith Ganza bring it and the Lumi-Light, so we can go over the master bedroom.”

“There’s nothing here. There’s absolutely no reason to believe anything happened in this house, Agent O’Dell.”

“The Lumi-Light might show any latent prints. And the luminol will show any blood left in the cracks, any stains we can’t see. He obviously tried to clean things up, but you can’t clean enough to get rid of blood.” It was almost as if she didn’t hear him. As though he wasn’t there and she was talking to herself.

“We can’t do anything more tonight. I’m exhausted. You must be exhausted.” When she started for the stairs again, he gently grabbed her arm. “Agent O’Dell.”

She wrenched her arm away, turning on him with eyes flashing anger. She stood solidly, firmly in place, staring at him as though challenging him to a dual. Then without warning she turned on her heel and marched to the door, snapping off lights in her path.

Tully followed her cue before she changed her mind. He ran upstairs and shut off those lights, and when he returned, O’Dell was in the foyer, activating the security system. It wasn’t until he locked the front door and walked alongside her to his car that he saw her revolver in her hand, dropped at her side but in a tight grip.

Suddenly Tully realized that the hysteria, the frustration, the anger he had witnessed was actually fear. How stupid of him not to have seen it before now. Special Agent Maggie O’Dell was scared to death, not just for Tess McGowan, but for herself, too.