Page 79 of John’s Yearning

John met her inquisitive gaze. “I was supposed to. But I couldn’t.”

Understanding suddenly lit up her eyes. “That’s what that argument between you and Samson was about. He didn’t want you to help me, did he?”

John sighed. He didn’t want her to get the wrong impression about Samson. “Samson only did what he had to do. We’re short-staffed. We didn’t have the capacity to take on this case.”

“But you took it anyway.”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “Because I couldn’t bear to see you suffer.”

“But how did you convince Samson?”

John let out a slow breath. “I told him I’d quit if he didn’t let me work this case.”

She stopped and turned to him. “You risked your job for me?”

He’d risk much more for her if it came to it. He’d risk his life. For her and for Buffy. But she didn’t need to know that. “It’s just a job.”

“Oh John, I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. I just need you to stay strong. We’ll get through this. Will you do that?”

“Yes, John.”

He tugged at her hand. “Now let’s talk to Donnelly.” He pushed the door at the end of the corridor open and entered the reception area.

Donnelly shot up from the seating area, and the woman sitting with him did the same. He waved. “John.”

John walked to him and shook his hand. “Mike, good to see you.”

Donnelly turned to Savannah. “Evening, Ms. Rice.”

“Hello, Detective Donnelly.”

“Grayson got me caught up on everything. I brought a sketch artist to work with the children. This is Emily Bolton.”

They exchanged greetings, then John said, “Ms. Bolton, I’ll have somebody escort you down to the medical facility. I believe the children are still down there being checked out.”

It took only a minute for John to arrange an escort to take the sketch artist to the children, before the three of them went to John’s office. Once the door was closed behind them, Donnelly sighed.

“I have some news for you too,” Donnelly announced.

“I hope it’s good news. We could use it,” John said.

“Well, you tell me. Remember the ransom note you had analyzed? Well, there was indeed a chemical substance on it. It’s actually a compound used in dry cleaning facilities. Which gives us reason to believe that the paper was stored at a dry cleaners.”

“Can we narrow it down any further?”

“Afraid not.”

“There must be hundreds of dry cleaners in the Bay Area,” John mused.

“That’s all I have. It’ll take us weeks to check them all out to see if any of them might have a connection to the trafficking ring.”

“We don’t have time,” Savannah said, her voice shaky. “We need to find Buffy now.”

“I know, Ms. Rice. I understand. But I’ve got nothing other than a hunch on where the paper is from. There were no fingerprints, no DNA, nothing.” He looked at John. “Were you able to trace the phone number used to contact the kidnappers?”

John shook his head. “No. I put Thomas on it. But we got nothing, no location, no IP address.”