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The woman stepped in front of her. She held Katherine in place, a hand gripped on each of her shoulders. While Katherine knew she towered over her and outweighed her, making a move now would be foolish. The smell of stale beer told her he was nearby, and he’d be armed.
The soles of his shoes then slapped the floor and came up to Katherine’s side. His shins were in view as he tied her wrists to the arms of the chair so tightly her fingers tingled. At least her legs were still free. Did she dare make a move?
On impulse, she rose and spun, using the legs of the chair as a weapon, and was able to sideswipe the woman.
She crumpled to the floor with a yelp.
Katherine’s heart was pounding, unsure where the man had gone. She couldn’t see his feet or hear him. Where did he go?
Something hard met her skull, and all strength left her body. As everything became dark, she remembered one of the threats she’d received.
You will hurt. I will get you alone one day.
THIRTEEN
Amanda was doing her best to remain objective about what she found in that desk drawer, but it wasn’t easy. It still might not factor into that day’s events or condemn Katherine as a criminal. “I’m going to let Malone know what we’ve found.” She announced her intention to Trent and made the call on speaker. Malone answered before the second ring.
“Tell me what you’ve got.”
She filled him in on the neighbor, but he fell silent after she told him what she found in the desk drawer.
“You found threats? We need those processed immediately.”
“I’m not sure that would do much good,” she said. “We don’t know how long she’s had them or how often they’d been handled. If there ever were prints left by the sender, they may long be compromised.”
Malone huffed. “Why didn’t she reach out to any of us? We would have helped her.”
Pride and deniability were the two reasons that occurred to her, but she remained quiet.
“Those other things don’t look good for her either. How much cash, do you figure?”
“Close to five K,” Trent said.
Malone whistled.
“Yeah, it’s a lot for her to have lying around,” Amanda agreed.
“We need to figure out what she was caught up in ASAP.”
“We’re doing what we can, boss,” she told him. “As I told you, Trent and I spoke to one of the neighbors, but it might be a good idea to have uniforms talk to more of them. Someone could have seen a stranger lurking around.”
“Do you think these people latched on to her at her house?”
“It’s most likely,” Trent said. “She would have gone from here to the gas station this morning.”
“And how did they find her home?”
It was a question that Amanda and Trent had considered already. “Anyone’s best guess. One option is they found her at the diner and followed her home.”
“And all this raises the question, why didn’t her abductors take her from her bed?”
“We don’t have an answer for you.” As she admitted to that, an idea hit which she’d pursue when she got off the phone. “No updates from you?”
“Nope.” Malone hung up.
Amanda looked at Trent, and he raised his eyebrows. “He’s just a little frazzled,” she said, defending Malone.
“I am too.”
