Page 66 of Protecting the White Bear

"Let's just hope it's Eloise and not someone we're not interested in."

They hurried out of the vehicle and headed for the pizza delivery van, quickly moving out of sight of the house when they ended up at the driver's door. The pizza delivery guy had blond curly hair, his head shaking to the loud music blaring in the van. He was on his phone when he realized Monica and Andy were at his door, his blue eyes widening.

He rolled down his window. "Are you here for Eloise's order?"

"We'll make the delivery." Andy flashed his badge.

"Oh, oh, okay."

"We want you to keep your van here for appearance's sake until we deliver the pizza," Monica said.

"There are six large pizzas here," the delivery guy said.

Andy glanced at Monica. "All right. Hold on." He called Roger and said, "If you're still in the area, we need some backup."

"I am. What have you got going down now?"

Andy gave him the address. "Eloise is one of the people involved in the kidnapping scheme. We don't know her involvement, but she ordered six large pizzas, so we don't know if some other suspects, or just family or other friends, are there."

"All right. Give us time to get there while I gather some of the guys I can reach."

They really couldn't wait. Not when they worried someone might see that the pizza van was here and the guy wasn't delivering the pizzas or leaving the area.

"Here, let me borrow your hat," Andy told the guy.

"You got to give it back."

"Yeah, sure, it's just for this mission." Then Andy took hold of the pizzas.

"I'm going around the house to the back to wait there in case anyone tries to leave," Monica said.

He didn't want her behind the house, out of view, but they had no choice. He wished they had backup this minute, but he couldn't have gathered a full-scale takedown of the perps without knowing that anyone was even there they might need to detain.

"Hey, man, I don't want my van shot up."

"We'll have you move it after I deliver the pizzas."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. One of the other officers who’s coming will tell you to move it. Are the pizzas paid for?"

"Yeah, online."

"Okay." Andy assumed they would be, but he had to make sure. He didn't want the pizza delivery guy to pay for them.

Monica made a wide sweep around Eloise's house. He hoped the neighbors surrounding the home weren't her friends and would alert Eloise that a woman was sneaking around the back or that no one saw Monica moving that way.

"I've got another six deliveries to make," the delivery guy said.

"Just think. You can tell all your friends that you helped to take down possible suspects in a major federal crime."

"Can I tell them now?"

"No. Wait until we can deal with this, hopefully without hurting anyone." Andy got a text from Monica. She was hiding behind tall snow-covered shrubs with eyes on the back door.

He texted her back:I'm headed for the door before they wonder what's happening.

She texted:Has backup arrived yet?

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