Page 46 of Protecting the White Bear

"Well, I hope he's not too upset that his girlfriend stole his money."

"Hopefully, the other agents will catch up with Denny and the rest and still have the cash on them."

They located Pierre's house and parked in the driveway. The one-story brick home looked quiet, with no lights on. "Maybe he's not even home. I didn't think of that." She was afraid this was another failed mission.

"Did he say how much Denny was asking for?”

“Five hundred thousand. My main goal was to find Helen and rescue her.”

“Understandable. What does he work at?"

"He’s independently wealthy.”

“That must be nice.”

“He made money off the stock market and invested in real estate, so as far as I know, he just works out of his home."

"Okay."

They left Andy’s SUV and headed to Pierre’s front door, and she knocked on it.

But then she smelled Wendell Marquart and his cohort's scents around the doorway. "Do you smell what I smell?"

11

Andy smelled Denny and Helen had been there—naturally, when the kidnapping scheme happened. But why were Wendell, Teague, and Lionel’s scents at Pierre’s front door? “Yeah, the whole lot of them have been here,” Andy said to Monica.

He’d never heard of a case where the kidnappers seeking the ransom money would go to the victim’s house. They always made the transfer secretly so they wouldn’t get caught.

"It appears they came here to get the money from Pierre." Monica called the agents she'd spoken with about telling Pierre what had happened. "Hey, did you get hold of Pierre?" She put the call on speakerphone.

"No. He never answered his phone. We dropped by there, but he wasn't home. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, and his car wasn't in the driveway, so we figured he was out. His phone went to voicemail."

"Thanks." They ended the call, and she turned to Andy. "Okay, I don't like this. Since Wendell and his cohorts all came here, maybe they killed Pierre and took the money."

Andy cupped his hands and peered in through the living room window, but it was covered with drapes, and he couldn’t see anything. "Then we have probable cause to check inside Pierre’s home to ensure he’s safe."

"If we're asked how we thought he was in peril, that would justify us breaking in, we can't tell them what we know—that we smelled Wendell and his men had been here, and they had the ransom money with them. Why wouldn't they have had Pierre drive to another location to exchange the money?”

“That’s what I was thinking. It’s too easy for someone to catch sight of them. Why didn't he wait longer to pay the ransom money? I mean, most people couldn’t afford to pay out a substantial amount of money in a matter of hours. If he had delayed paying them, that would have given you more time to catch up with Denny and Helen," Andy said.

"I was thinking the same thing. Unless he didn’t want me to really catch up to them." She glanced around at the outdoor security cameras. "He has cameras."

"Yeah, I noticed them right away."

They went around the whole house, looking through windows, but drapes covered most of them, so they couldn't see inside. A couple of uncovered windows only gave them the view of a laundry room and an exercise room, and he was in neither of those. No lights were on in the house, and no electronic or appliance sounds were being made.

They knocked on the windows. "It's me, Monica O’Connell."

"I've got a tool we can use to get in through the back door to check on him." Andy pulled out the tool attached to his keychain and used it on the lock. He managed to unlock the door with a click and opened it. "Police officer! Is anyone home?"

"It's me, Pierre," Monica said again. "We're worried you might have come to harm. Are you here?"

No one responded,and Monica grew more worried about him by the second. On the other hand, she didn’t smell a dead body or blood anywhere in the house, indicating they had severely injured or killed him.

They checked the entire house and didn't find him anywhere. No signs of a struggle or cleaning solution had been used to cover up a crime scene. It looked like he was just out running errands.

She peeked into the garage. “His Mercedes is gone. I guess he has gone out, and it doesn’t look like he has had any difficulty with anyone.”

---