The Christmas Bell Tolls (3 page)

Alone.

“Savannah Timmons
is the victim?” Eva ground out the question to Maddie just inside the community
center. She’d stopped just long enough to scrawl her information on the crime
scene log, then stepped over the threshold and donned shoe protectors.
“Couldn’t you have given me a heads up on the phone?” In full evidence
collection mode, she glared at Maddie as she pulled gloves over her hands.

Kidnappings were
horrid scenes to work. No forensics team ever wanted to work any crime scene
with kids, but kidnappings were better than…well, Eva just thought they weren’t
as bad as some others.
But to know the victim and her
father…to care about them. . .

Eva forced herself
to not think about the little blond-haired girl who made her laugh. The little
girl who wrapped her arms around Eva and squeezed her, making her feel things
she’d never thought herself capable of feeling. The little girl who loved God
in such a way that Eva’s heart cried out.

“I’m sorry. You
know I couldn’t.” Maddie’s eyeliner was smudged.

“I’ve got this,
Eva.” Peter Helm, TBI Special Agent Investigator, cleared his throat. “Who’s in
charge?” He posed the question to no one in particular.

Nick, Maddie’s
fiancé, gave a curt nod. “For the moment, I am. My supervisor is sending in an
outside team. They should be here within the hour.”

“Then take us
through the walk-through.” All business, Eva ignored Maddie’s apologetic look
and followed Peter’s lead. She had to. She would have to push aside all
personal thoughts and connections to Savannah and Darren in order to do her job
to the best of her abilities. Especially since Maddie wouldn’t be able to
assist. Thank goodness she hadn’t had to bring Sarah along. That would have
just been the icing on the cake.

She and Ivan
followed behind Peter and Nick, with Kurt behind her, snapping pictures almost
continuously. Heads turned as they entered. She could understand some of the
looks—they did make a bit of a motley crew.
Especially Ivan.
Sweet as sugar, but he stood almost six-feet tall. It wasn’t just his height,
but was more the bleached ends of his long, black hair sticking out from under
the navy cap that raised brows. Not to mention his array of tattoos and body
piercings.

Nick led them into
the community center’s kitchen. Several floral bouquets lined the length of the
butcher-block top island. One in the center had been knocked from its position,
and the one just to the right of it sat a little further back than the rest in
the line.

On the cracked
tile floor in front of the island, a small circle of blood pooled. A smear was
on the side of the island, probably from where she pulled herself up after
being hit.

“Here’s where the
abduction occurred. At approximately ten-twenty, an assailant or assailants
entered through that door,” Nick pointed at the back entrance, “and hit the
adult over the head. She went down, and from there, we surmise he left quickly
with Savannah the same way he entered. Savannah’s hair bow was found on the
back parking lot.”

Eva’s heart hammered
angrily. Savannah had to have been terrified. Eva could imagine her big blue
eyes growing wider.
The paleness of her little face.
The— Eva looked over the space. “Has anything been touched?”

“Of
course not.
As soon as everyone realized what had happened, Maddie
secured the scene and called it in.” Nick stared at Eva. “We didn’t find any
sign of chloroform or other such drugs, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

That was good
because certain drugs could affect Savannah’s asthma, but bad because that meant
Savannah was totally aware of what was happening to her.

Eva swallowed as
Peter pulled out the sketch pad, already ignoring Nick and forging ahead into
the job at hand. “This is a kid of one of our own. Nothing gets missed, got
that? We bag anything, test everything, and let the results speak for
themselves.
Any questions?”

No one said a
word.

“Then let’s do
it.”

Pushing aside
everything but the task in front of her, Eva set the case on the counter. She
pulled out her extraction tools and swabbed from the small circle of blood on
the floor against the
click, click,
click
of
Kurt’s camera. The adult’s blood, no doubt from the hit on the head, but
sometimes—okay, a lot of the time, assailants’ DNA was transferred during the
crime. She tagged the specimen and listed it on the evidence log.

Ivan hummed under
his breath as he dusted the counters to search for fingerprints. If the person
who took Savannah touched anything, Ivan would find it. Eva knew there was no
one better in the business.

Peter finished
sketching, the reached for the tape measurer from his kit. Eva squatted and
studied the vicinity, searching for splatters. She found several, took samples,
tagged and stored them.

“Eva, look at
this.” Ivan stood over the counter closest to where the flower arrangements had
been displayed. He pointed at a particular spot in his dust. “There’s been a
drop of moisture there.”

She nodded.
“Could be a water drop from the flowers.”
But she grabbed a
swab anyway. “Or it could be a drop of sweat from the assailant.” She gathered
from the site and secured it. Eva smiled at Ivan. “Good catch.”

Almost two hours
and twenty-three evidence specimens later, the team moved out to the parking
lot where Savannah’s bow still laid on the ground where Maddie had found it.

Nick met them with
another man. “Everyone, this is Special Agent in Charge, Leo Wilson. He’ll be
taking over the investigation from here.”

“Thank you, Agent
Hagar.” Leo Wilson had a nasally voice that didn’t match his appearance. He
stood about 5’11” with narrow shoulders and a neck almost thicker than his
bulging waistline. His arms were beefy and his thighs like tree trunks.

Peter made
introductions of the team.

“Nice
to meet each of you.
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that we need to
make sure nothing is missed.”

Eva pressed her
lips into a tight line.

“We’re very
thorough.” No mistaking the defensiveness in her boss’ voice.

“I didn’t mean to
imply you weren’t.” Leo waved off Peter’s attitude as he gave them the
information they knew, which
wasn’t much
. “No one saw
any vehicle back here, either before or after the abduction. There are no
security cameras in the area.”

Basically,
nothing.

Click. Click.
Click.

“Eva, go ahead and
take samples from all these spots in this area.” Peter turned away from Leo and
pointed at the little stains of fluids marring the parking spaces around the
mitten.

She nodded and
started taking specimens as Peter measured, Ivan dusted the handrail on the
back stairs, and Kurt kept snapping a steady stream of photos. An EMT brought
Eva several vials of blood, taken from the victim.
The
florist.
She never even realized the new agent had left them, or when he
had.

The team fought
against the cold breezes as they finished up hours later. If there had been any
trace evidence on the lot, it’d surely had blown away. Eva tried not to think
about it. She couldn’t deal in what-ifs, only what was.
Reality.

The reality was
that Savannah had been abducted.

Eva’s stomach
grumbled,
and she glanced at her watch: 4:42. Working a
scene and collecting evidence took time, unlike the fantasy shown on current
television shows. Contrary to public popular opinion, a crime scene unit had to
be methodical and thorough, and could not be completed in under an hour. Not
counting the twenty minutes of commercials.

She glanced at her
watch again, calculating. Savannah had been missing over six hours. Why hadn’t
they been updated in so long?

Eva found Peter in
the building, talking with a uniformed officer. She paused just out of hearing
range.

He waved her over.
“About done?”

She nodded.
“Ivan’s loading the truck.” She twisted her watch around her wrist. “What’s the
update? Any ransom demands?”

“We don’t get
updates.”

Eva’s fists popped
to her hips, almost of their own accord. “Excuse me?
Since
when?”

“According to
Special Agent in Charge Wilson, details regarding the case are on a
need-to-know basis and according to
him,
the CSI unit
doesn’t need to know.”

This had to be a
very bad joke. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish I was.
He’s very adamant.”

“He’s very stupid
is what he is.” She turned to see if she could find this SAC.

Peter grabbed her
arm. “He says he doesn’t want the information of the case to jeopardize our
findings. I checked—he’s within his right to keep us out of the loop if he
feels there’s a chance the facts of the case could influence our findings.”

Her blood could
very well be at the boiling at the moment.
“Seriously?
This bozo actually said if we knew the facts, we might let that influence our
scientific
findings?”

“Calm down, Eva.”
Peter’s voice was low and steady. “He doesn’t know us. He’s doing what he
thinks is best for the case.”

“It’s insulting.”

“Yes, to us, but
realize there are many labs that don’t have as high standards and ethical
levels as we employ.”

True. There’d been
a couple of scandals the last few years where labs fabricated results to fit
the investigators’ theories.

“He doesn’t know
us, Eva. Don’t take it personally. He’s only trying to do the best job.”

It was hard not to
take it personally. Harder still to not know what was happening.

“Before you go off
half-cocked, remember the best thing you can do is just what you always do:
your job.”

He was right. She
nodded. “I’m about to head up back to the lab and start work.”

“You’re tired.
You’ve been in the field all day, not even stopping to eat.”

How could she eat
when Savannah was missing? Poor Darren must be climbing the walls. She couldn’t
even imagine. “I’ll be fine. Without Maddie…well, I’m it.”

“Actually, you’ll
have Sarah Newton to assist.”

Eva stiffened and
glared.

Peter held up his
hands. “Not my decision, Eva. Dr. Sebrowski made the determination. Sarah’s
prepping the lab for scanning in the evidence.”

“She’s in
my
lab?” The trembles skittered out from Eva’s spine.

“Under
Dr. Sebrowski’s supervision.
Dr. Sebrowski also pulled in two interns to
assist.” He reached out and put a hand on Eva’s shoulder. “You’re in charge
since Maddie’s out. Dr. Sebrowski has made sure of that. You’re just going to
need some help processing because you’ll need to be in the field as needed.”

She still couldn’t
speak.
Sarah Newton in
her
lab.

“This case is top
priority. If they need evidence gathered anywhere else later, we’ll be
responding. I’ll try to balance our members so everyone has plenty of time to
rest, but also to do our jobs.”

Arguing with Peter
and Dr. Sebrowski would be counterproductive anyway. She had to focus on
working the case to find Savannah. If that meant working with a she-beast, then
so be it. “I’ll let the team know.”

“I’ll meet you at
the truck as soon as I touch base with Wilson. Don’t forget to have everyone
sign out of the scene log.”

She nodded and
headed to sign out. She knew Peter was right, that this wasn’t personal, but
everything about the case felt personal. Eva could almost feel Savannah hugging
her.
Could almost smell the recess smell clinging to
Savannah’s golden curls.
Could almost hear the child’s laughter as
Darren tickled her side.

It was all
personal.

“Why don’t you try
to eat something, Agent Timmons?”

Darren stopped
pacing long enough to glare at the agent sitting in front of the computer set
up in the corner of Darren’s living room. Eat?
Seriously?

Maddie intervened,
jumping up and looping her arm through his. “He’s just doing his job by the
book.”

He let out a long
breath and ran his hands down his face before dropping to sit on the couch. “I
know.”

Maddie sat beside
him, laying her arm across his shoulders.

“Why haven’t I
gotten a demand?” While he asked the question, he didn’t really expect an
answer.

Maddie gave one
anyway. “You know the drill.
Better than most.
What
does your training tell you?”

“Maddie.”
Nick joined them on the couch and gave her a hard stare.

“No, she’s right.”
Darren leaned back. “I know what it means. So do you, sir. Every hour we don’t
get a demand…”

Maddie turned to
face him. “Don’t think like that.”

“I know. Stay
positive. Deal with the facts as they come in. You’re right, Maddie, I know the
drill. I know what I’m supposed to do. Stay focused. Keep thinking of anyone
who could have done this.” He leaned his head against the back of the couch and
closed his eyes. “I know all that, but that doesn’t help. This is Savy.”
Despite his best efforts, his voice hitched. “This is my baby.”

“I know.”

“She doesn’t have
her inhaler, Maddie. It was still in her coat left at the community center. If
she has an asthma attack…”

A knock at the
front door shot everyone to their feet.

Darren crossed the
room and opened it before anyone else could move.

“Agent
Timmons?”
A husky man stood there.
In a suit.
The agency.

“Yes.”