Grave Secrets (Manhunters 1)

“Shit.” Ian wandered a few feet from the truck and looked outside. Vehicles lined the drive, and Mo talked with more customers leaving their cars. “I’m getting slammed here. After taking off yesterday for the meeting, Mo would be royally pissed if I left again.”

“I gave Savannah my number. Told her to call if she needed anything.”

Ian caught sight of Savannah’s car stopped across the street. “Hold on.”

He wandered that direction, but Savannah took off before he reached her. Ian watched her head straight up Third Street. When she reached Pine Street, where she should have turned left to head home, she turned right instead.

“Oh hell,” he said. “I think she’s headed to Bishop’s house. She’s going to break into the safe to get the ledger.”

“Did Sam figure out if Bishop has another security system in place yet?”

“Not that I’ve heard. Can you find out? Locate her? Call me if she’s at Bishop’s?”

“On it.”

Everly disconnected, and Ian got back under his customer’s hood to tie up the job so he’d be free to leave.

His mind darted to Savannah, to Hank, to the safe. Ian was almost certain Hank would have a security system. Criminals loved keeping their crimes safe and sound.

By the time he shut the truck’s hood, his skin was crawling with unease.

His phone rang.

“What’s happening?” he answered.

“Her car’s parked outside Bishop’s house, and Sam found one of those remote security systems registered to that address. No alarm reported yet.”

“Shit. I’m on my way.” He jogged toward his own truck, parked on a side street, calling to Mo, “I’m grabbing lunch. Back soon.”

Ian was there in three minutes flat, but he lost at least a day of his life in those three minutes. He also reflected on how unreasonable it was to be so concerned about a woman he’d known for less than three weeks. But that didn’t do anything to calm him.

He already knew the layout of the house from the team’s expeditions in bug placement. He pulled to the curb across the street and spotted Everly when she popped her head out from behind a juniper on the side of the house.

Ian’s heart pounded as he surveyed the street. When everything looked quiet, he set a leisurely pace toward the house, only breaking into a sprint once he was mostly hidden behind a picket fence.

He dropped to a crouch beside Everly and pulled the weapon from his ankle holster. “Where is she?”

“Office,” Everly said. “She’s pretty freaked out.”

“How’d she get in?”

“Pulled a hide-a-key from the back porch. Went in the back door.”

He needed to grab her and go before the neighbors noticed activity at a normally quiet house. “Cover me.”

Everly moved to the front corner of the house to watch the street while Ian trotted up the back steps and turned the knob on the back door. It opened smoothly, and Ian hurried through the kitchen to a room on the far side of the house.

He kept his weapon at his thigh as he peered around the doorjamb into the office. Savannah was alone in the room, standing behind the desk facing an open safe that had been hidden behind a large landscape painting.

“Savannah.” His tone was hushed, but she still jumped and swiveled. Her eyes were wide and terrified, her arms laden with books and papers.

“Oh my God,” she said, breathless, her eyes darting behind him. “What are you doing here?”

“Why didn’t you call me?” He moved toward her, sliding his weapon into the waistband of his jeans. “I told you I should come.”

“If you get caught, my life falls apart. Please leave. I’m almost—”

A sound cut her off. Ian swiveled, pulling his weapon as he put himself between Savannah and the office door.