Until Dark - Mariah Stewart [96]
“Not a problem,” Will replied. “Where you go, I go. Doesn’t matter where. At least until your regularly scheduled guard shows up.”
“Do you know who that will be?” she asked.
“No clue.” He shrugged as she turned onto her road. “I don’t think I’ve met any of the agents who work in this district. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even be here, except for the fact that Mancini thought that I might want to be with Miranda—that is, with her and her family, since we’ve known each other since the Academy.”
“So you’re old friends, then.” She slanted a glance in the direction of the passenger seat.
“More or less.” He nodded noncommittally and stared out the window.
As she pulled into Selena’s driveway, Kendra made a mental note to ask Miranda about Will Fletcher.
Selena, however, was nowhere in sight. Even the gate to the backyard was closed. Usually, when Selena left the house to go to her office in town, she left the gate open so Lola could come and go as she pleased. Today the gate was latched. Kendra searched for Lola for a minute or two before giving up, assuming that Selena had taken the dog with her.
“She must be seeing patients in her office in town,” Kendra said as she got back into the car. “I’ll try to call her again later.”
Kendra drove down the road to her house and pulled in the driveway. Yellow crime scene tape stretched across the back steps, and several police cars were still in the drive. She sat in her car for about ten minutes, watching investigators come and go.
“Want to go see how they’re doing?” Will asked, obviously unaccustomed to sitting on the sidelines.
“Sure.”
As they walked toward the house, Kendra commented on the number of law enforcement personnel on the scene.
“Yeah, well, you’ve got your feds, your local police, and your state police.” Will nodded. “And looks like some county agency, judging by the van there on the end.”
“Why so many?”
“Any number of reasons. You have a federal agent injured, you have a break-in at the home of the daughter of a former U.S. senator, you’ll get the feds. But you have some local jurisdiction, county, and state. Everyone wants in on the action.” He stopped momentarily to survey the scene. “Hard to tell whose detectives are whose, isn’t it? All those tweed-jacket types look alike to me.”
She stood in the backyard and watched the activity around her while Will tried to find a fellow agent to check in with.
While she waited, she called Selena’s office in town, but ended up leaving a message there, too.
“Call me. It’s very important, please.” Practically the same message she’d left on Selena’s home machine, but she wasn’t feeling very original right then.
A tall man wearing a navy jacket with the bright yellow FBI across the back came through the open barn doors and walked toward the house.
“Oh, my God.” Kendra shook her head. “Of course. Why didn’t I think of it sooner?”
Kendra started toward the house, looking for Will. The agent who’d just come from the barn stopped her before she reached the grass at the edge of the drive.
“Sorry, miss. This is a crime scene,” he announced importantly.
“I know. I’m Kendra Smith.”
“Sorry. We’re still not permitting anyone inside,” he told her. “The crime scene crew is still at work. Is there something you wanted from inside?”
“No. But I need to speak with whomever is in charge of the investigation.” She tried to watch with detachment, but found she could not. This was her home, and it had been invaded. “I think I know how he got in.”
“I’ll get Chief Logan.” The agent disappeared into the house.
Minutes later, Chief Logan of the local police department came down the back steps accompanied by Will Fletcher.
“Kendra! You’re all right?”
“Yes, Chief. I am.”
“Thank God.”
Logan took her by the elbow and stepped aside as the photographer emerged from the back door.
“We’ll get copies of these to you as soon as they’re ready,” he told the chief.
“Fine. Great. Thanks.” Logan