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“Why would he come here?”Shannon asked as she leaned forward to peer in the front window.
“Why not?”Oliver returned.“It’s abandoned, and he’d know that.Lark would have told him that she’d sold the place.”
Yes, she had told her brother.She’d told him that it sold to a new owner.One who was trying—but failing—to rent it out to a tenant.
“It would be a good place for him to hide,” Oliver continued.“Street is quiet.Deserted at this time.He could lay low and come up with a plan.Stay out of sight here.”
“We’re gonna need a warrant to get inside.”Shannon kept peering through the window.“Since she doesn’t own it.Not like she can give us permission and hey—I see a light in there!Small, bobbing—a flashlight!”Shannon raced for the front door.She grabbed the knob and twisted but the door didn’t open.
“Two heavy locks are on the front door,” Lark told her as she hurried after the agent.“You won’t be getting in that way.But the back…the lock there is—”
Shannon had already taken off.The agent had drawn her gun.Lark surged after her.
“Behindme.Behind the people with guns, got it?”Oliver hauled her back.Then he rushed off behind Shannon.
As fast as she could, Lark followed suit.They raced around the building, and she saw that the back door had been thrown wide open.Getting inside wouldn’t be a problem.Someone else had already beaten them to breaking the weaker lock in the back.
Shannon ran inside.
So did Oliver.
Shannon saw a flashlight.She saw someone moving in there.“Lane!”Lark called out.“Lane, they are federal agents!”She hurried into her old shop.
Flashlights bounced off the walls.Lights that came from Shannon and Oliver.They were quickly sweeping around the scene.Ducking into and out of the rooms that snaked from the main area of the old shop as they searched.
Lark could have sworn the scent of flowers teased her nose.Lilies.
She’d kept so many lilies there once upon a time.
Lights flooded on overhead.For a moment, she just blinked against the blinding illumination.Then she realized Shannon had hit the switch.The female agent was turning on all the lights in the building.
“Nothing!No one!”Shannon whirled.“Maybe he ran out back.Iknowthat I saw him!Or, dammit, a light.And someone had to be attached to the light!”
Just then, footsteps rushed from the back of the store, from the door they’d just entered.
Oliver grabbed Lark and shoved her behind him—
“Did you find him?”Everett Callen’s hard voice demanded.
Oliver shook his head.“Place seems clear.Go check the perimeter with Shannon.She swears that she saw someone inside, and the perp could have fled through the back door while we were rushing around the building.”
The two agents hurried to obey him.
That left Lark alone—for the first time since her interrogation—with Oliver.
He swung toward her.“Did you see him?”
Her head shook.“I-I never even saw the light that Shannon mentioned.”Speaking of light…she looked up.“Good thing the new owner is still paying the power bill, huh?”Her nose twitched.The scent of flowers drifted in the air.Not some memory.A real scent.She wassurethat she’d just caught the sweet fragrance again.
But her flowers had been gone for months.
“Why did you bring us here last?”Oliver wanted to know.“Were you trying to give him time to clear out?”
Her attention snapped to Oliver.“What?”
“Did you have extra clothes stashed somewhere in here?”He stormed around the shop.“Maybe a disguise for him to use?”
He couldn’t be serious.“There is nothing here.Everything was sold.”Extra clothes?What— “I thought you believed me.”A fist squeezed her heart.“I thought you knew I hadn’t helped Lane.”
