ROY
As Duke’s partner drove through the exit gates of Bel Air, Duke filled him in as to what had happened inside. Although everything pointed to a child having recently been in the house, there was no sign of Gage Buckner anywhere.
“While I was covering the backyard, I noticed the pedestrian door to the garage was wide open. There were two trash bins outside the door. I took a quick peek but didn’t see anything of interest in there—just some fast-food wrappers, grass cuttings, and a curtain or something,” the partner said.
Roy felt the anger radiating off of Amber in waves from the other side of the sedan’s backseat. “You know damn well that Gage was in that house. There must be a way we can get a search warrant,” she said, glaring at him.
He shook his head. “We don’t have enough probable cause. But Robyn was right about one thing. She was at the courthouse the morning of the kidnapping. There’s no way she took Gage, had time to drive him to Bel Air, and then arrive at the courthouse in time for court.”
“Maybe someone else took him—the man in the video—and then handed him off to her later,” Amber said.
“Why involve someone else?” Duke shook her head. “It increases her chances of someone talking. Look at the lengths she went to hide her identity in order to hire O’Neil and Kendell.” Duke frowned. “Which brings up another thought. How did McGee know where and when to set up the stunt?”
“Because I pretty much drew her a map of our whole schedule, how we shared custody. Her questions about how we made it work seemed innocent enough at the time, but I can see now…she asked a lot of questions about routes we traveled and the logistics of it all. I thought it was weird, but I also thought she was just into me.”
Amber groaned.
“She might have even been with me once when I picked up Gage from pre-school.”
Amber crossed her arms and glared at him again. “Gage was in that house. I know it within the depths of my bones.”
Duke sighed. “We can still do some digging. Tomorrow we’ll talk to the neighbors and see if anyone saw the boy.”
Amber frowned. “Why wait? Let’s talk to the neighbors now.”
Roy chuckled. “This is the ritzy side of town. Things don’t work the same here.”
His wife focused her raging glare on him once again. “What do you mean?”
Duke looked at her in the rearview mirror. “If we start knocking on doors in Bel Air at this hour, tomorrow morning the chief, councilman, the mayor, and maybe even the governor’s phone would be ringing off the hook at eight tomorrow morning.”
“And?”
He patted Amber’s hand. “And the days of forging ahead with an investigation and inconveniencing influential witnesses are long gone. Nowadays, we have to schedule around their pickle ball games and visits to the plastic surgeon.”
Duke smiled. “I can get enough info to verify McGee’s nephew story tomorrow.”
“She mentioned a housekeeper. You should talk to her as well.” Roy placed a hand on the top of the front seat and inched forward. “Lavonne, is there any way we can get someone to sit on her house? If Gage is in there, we don’t want her to move him.”
“I’ve got the black-and-white sitting on the house until day watch. If anyone comes or goes tonight, they’ll call me directly. I’ll arrange for some plainclothes detectives to take their spot in the morning.”
“She has my son all right,” Amber said. “I just don’t know what she did with him.”