“You told me they had three kids.”
“They do. Willa’s apparently gone. Her bedroom was the empty one.”
“In the truck? Kidnapping?”
“Can’t be sure. What’d you see?”
“It was a Toyota Tundra, double cab, dark blue. Didn’t see the plates because I was busy trying not to die. Driver and a shooter. Both guys. Oh, and there’s at least one bullet hole in the windshield.”
“Did you see them well enough for an ID?”
“No, but one of them was wearing some serious body armor, like military l
evel. Took a jacketed round from my Sig with no problem. And he was wearing a black ski mask, which made an ID problematic.”
“And no sign of a twelve-year-old girl in the truck?”
“Not that I saw. Probably drugged her too.”
Sean used his cell to call 911 and relay all the information. He slipped it back in his pocket and looked around.
“What’s that?”
Michelle strode across the room to check out the piece of luggage that was sticking out of the closet. “Garment bag, half open.” She bent lower. “It has a tag on it. United Airlines Flight 567 into Dulles with today’s date on it.” She used a washcloth snatched from the bathroom to cover her hand while she slid the zipper open a few inches and peered inside. “Men’s clothes. Must be Tuck’s.”
Sean looked down at the unconscious man’s bare feet and his T-shirt. “He gets home, probably sees Pam, heads up here to drop his bag, starts to change, and wham.”
“Something is bugging me. That Tundra that came out of the garage. Either it belongs to the Duttons or the bad guys drove their own vehicle in there.”
“They might have done it so no one would see them put Willa in it.”
“In the boondocks? At this hour? You can’t even see another house from here. I’m not even sure there is another house.”
“And why take Willa and not one of the other kids?”
“And why would they kill the mom and leave everyone else alive?”
Sean tried to rouse Tuck, but got no response.
“Better leave him alone. He might have some internal injuries.”
They walked back downstairs and then Sean veered toward the kitchen and through it into the garage. There were three garage doors. In one bay was a late-model Mercedes four-door sedan. In another bay was a Chrysler minivan. The third bay was empty.
Michelle pointed to the destroyed garage door. “Truck was parked in this space, obviously. Do you know if the Duttons owned a blue Tundra?”
“No. But the odds are it was theirs.”
“Because the bay is clear?”
“Right. Just about every garage is packed with all sorts of crap, sometimes even including a car. The fact that all the bays were clean meant they had three vehicles, otherwise the third bay would be used for storage.”
“Wow, you really are a detective.”
Sean put his hand on the hood of the Mercedes. “Warm.”
Michelle ran her finger over one of the car’s tires. “Tread’s wet. We had some rain this evening. Must be Tuck coming from the airport.”
They walked back to the living room and stared down at Pam Dutton. Sean used his elbow to flick on the light switch, pulled out his notepad, and copied down the letters on the woman’s arm.