Page 53 of Chasing a Kidnapper

She quickly texted back the thumbs up sign. Then frowned.

If Nick Cutter hadn’t taken Renee Mills’s car, then who had? Someone who had a duplicate key for some reason, or who knew where she kept them.

The moment Gabriel drifted off to sleep, she set him in his portable crib and went back to West’s computer. Peanut stretched out at her feet as if glad to rest. Renee Mills had purposefully remained silent about her stepbrother’s access to the car keys.

Maybe the woman had lied about someone else having the ability to sneak the keys out of the house, too.

It would be better to confront Renee in person, maybe even take her down to the police station for an interview. She liked the idea of West threatening to arrest her for aiding and abetting a criminal.

In the meantime, she’d see what she could dig up on the woman’s social media pages. She’d looked at them before, which is how she’d found Nick Cutter, her stepbrother, but maybe there was something she’d missed.

This time, she planned to take the time to dig into every one of Renee’s friends’ profiles.

It was something to do since she was stuck at the safe house, anyway. She wondered why West had to stick around at the precinct but resisted the urge to text him with more questions.

West would fill her in later. Hopefully whatever had kept him later would help break open that case.

Her case was currently dead in the water.

The process of going through social media posts and diving deeper into the profiles of each of Renee Mills’s friends was painfully slow.

Gabriel cried a little, causing her to spring from her seat. Peanut jumped up, too. She took the teething ring from the freezer and tucked it next to her son. With his eyes still closed, he grabbed it and stuck it in his mouth.

She stood for a moment, watching him. He and her sister were the only family she had left in the world. The two most important people in her life.

West, too, she silently admitted. Maybe he didn’t feel the same way. After all, she hadn’t planned to open her heart again. But there was no denying she was falling in love with him.

She forced herself to turn away. Enough. This wasn’t the time to moon over West Cole. As she tiptoed from the bedroom, a flash of something bright caught the corner of her eye.

What was that?

Frowning, she rested a hand on her weapon and moved closer to the window. Then gaped in shock when she saw the bare tree right next to the safe house was on fire.

Fire!

Reacting instinctively, she scooped her sleeping son into her arms and ran toward the kitchen. Grabbing her phone, she quickly called 911.

“This is the 911 operator, what is your emergency?” The calm voice of the dispatcher asked.

“There’s a tree on fire.” She quickly gave the address, then caught the hint of smoke. “Please hurry.”

“I’ve dispatched two fire trucks to your location,” the kind dispatcher said. “Please evacuate the premises.”

“I will.” She ended the call, then hesitated. Why was there just one tree on fire? If so, why? No storm to cause a lightning strike.

What if the house had been set on fire, too? Going still, she put all senses on alert. Catching the scent of smoke, she knew there wasn’t a second to waste.

They needed to get out of here! She fastened Gabriel into his car seat and looped the diaper bag over her shoulder. She glanced down at Peanut, deciding not to put the dog on leash. Leaving probably wasn’t smart, but she couldn’t sit there as the building burned, either.

Holding Gabriel’s car seat with one arm, her muscles groaning in protest, she held her weapon in the other and peered out the back door. The area looked clear.

Still, she ran to the front, to check there, too. And saw more foliage burning, yellow flames jutting out from the bushes along the front of the house.

Not good. She holstered her gun and used the phone to call West. He didn’t answer, but his voicemail invited her to leave a message.

“It’s Trish. The bushes and trees around the safe house are on fire. Hurry back!” She ended the call, stuck the phone in her pocket and made her way toward the back door with Peanut.

This could be a trap. An effective one at that. She hesitated, wondering if it was safer to stay in the house. Yet the way the smoke stung her eyes, she feared for her son’s safety.

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