Faceless (Sinister Secrets Book 2), page 12
The man nodded, his head bobbing like a toy dog on a car’s dash. “Well, yes, obviously. It’s a terrible tragedy and we’re all upset by it. But I still have a business to run and this, well, it sends a bad message to our customers.”
“Like I said, we’ll be done when we’re done.” The detective paused, his glare causing the owner to fidget. “It’ll go a lot faster if you leave us alone.”
The owner hesitated only a second before whirling and stomping off.
The detective assessed the crime scene technician and uniformed officers. “Keep me updated.”
As the detective strode for the unmarked sedan, Dak turned to her and the rest of the team. “Let’s reconvene at the office. I’m going to see about getting a copy of that surveillance video.”
Dak headed toward the owner while Sid and Felicia returned to their vehicles.
Kevyn moved in for a closer look at the victim’s car, being careful to stay back far enough to be out of the way.
A wallet and cell phone sat in the cupholder. The car keys rested on the floor mat.
It was a small miracle the car hadn’t been looted or stolen during the night.
A cardboard takeout container lay open on the ground by the driver’s door. The box was smashed, as if it had been stepped on during the struggle. The lack of food and the way that the few remaining pieces of rice were scattered made her think birds or animals had already scavenged the leftovers, but forensics would tell them for sure.
The dome light inside the car wasn’t on, in spite of the door hanging open. Had the battery run down? Or had the light been disabled so the kidnappers could avoid detection?
The crime scene should answer that one. Not to mention the surveillance video.
Well, there was nothing more to do here. She turned and headed for her car.
Looked like Sid and Felicia were already gone.
As she slid behind the wheel, her attention returned to the abandoned car.
Another victim.
Would she turn up within twenty-four hours as Noelle Orson had? Or would she join Jason Boggess and Wes Andrews wherever they were?
₪ ₪ ₪
Dak started the surveillance video and felt the attention of his team shift from him to the monitor.
The parking lot was better lit than most. Albeit grainy, the video clearly showed a woman approaching her car. No one else was in sight. As she reached her car, a stealthy form rapidly approached from behind.
It was like watching a b-grade horror movie. Part of him wanted to tell her to turn around.
Instead, she opened the driver’s door and deposited her phone and wallet in the cupholder before backing out and reaching for something on the hood of her car.
Probably a paper under the wiper blade. Just like the other victims.
A man rushed her from behind, pinning her against the open driver’s door.
The takeout container in her hands hit the ground, popping open. The attacker stepped on the container as he struggled with the victim.
The video was too far away for them to make out the details of what happened next but after a few seconds of struggling, Cummings went limp.
Since the detective had said Cummings was injected with something, Dak guessed that the restaurant’s surveillance system was high-end enough that they’d been able to zoom in to see what happened. As soon as they finished watching this, he’d try to enhance the image to see if they could do the same.
A van zipped up, jerking to a stop beside Cummings and her assailant. The man pulled open the back doors and deposited Cummings inside before climbing in after her.
The van was in motion before the doors were even completely closed.
He looked at the timestamp. The whole thing took only fifty-seven seconds. Impressive, in a disturbing sort of way. These guys were good at efficiently abducting their victims.
Too good.
Backing the video up, he zoomed in on the abduction.
The image pixelized, but he was able to make out the man jabbing something in Cummings’ neck.
He checked the timestamp again, then watched until Cummings stopped struggling.
Thirty-two seconds.
Not a lot of drugs had that quick of a turnaround time.
The video continued to roll. As the van pulled up, he zoomed in on the license plate.
The image was too blurry for him to make anything out, but maybe the tech guys could clean it up. They were practically miracle workers.
He paused the video as the van pulled away and turned to his team.
“Looks a lot like the other abductions.” Sid leaned back with his fingers laced behind his neck.
With her attention locked on the monitor, Kevyn’s forehead wrinkled and her lips pursed slightly. “It does… but there’s something…”
Dak turned his attention back to the video. Had she noticed something unusual?
Backing the video up, he replayed it. Nothing new stood out to him. He refocused on Kevyn. “You see anything?”
She slowly shook her head. “Something’s bothering me, but I don’t know what it is.”
“It’ll probably come to you when you least expect it.” Felicia grinned. “Like in the middle of the night. That’s how it usually works for me.”
Kevyn didn’t look convinced, but they didn’t have time to wait for her to figure it out.
“Felicia, take a look at our vic’s financials. Sid, you get her social media, family, and friends. Kev, you track her movements. We’ll reconvene when JD gets here.” While they all focused on the latest vic, he wasn’t quite done looking at Noelle Orson. So far, she was the anomaly. Maybe her abduction could point them to the location of their remaining vics.
Or maybe he was chasing his tail.
There was only one way to find out.
₪ ₪ ₪
Stacy Cummings didn’t have much of a life outside of work.
Sounded hauntingly familiar. Kevyn pushed the thought aside.
The work schedule she’d gotten from Cummings’ boss showed Cummings working at the bar from 4:30pm-1:00am for the last four days. Today should have been her day off.
No telling how she would have spent it if she hadn’t been abducted.
The GPS on Cummings’ cell phone confirmed that she had only been to work, her apartment, and a corner coffee shop during the last two days.
A visit to the coffee shop was in order, not that she expected to find any leads there.
If only she could figure out what was bothering her about the Cummings abduction! It felt important, but she couldn’t nail it down.
She’d watched the video four more times. The feeling that she was missing something persisted, even though she couldn’t figure out what that something was.
Maybe if she watched the videos from all four abductions back-to-back. Maybe that would help.
She returned to the conference room and closed the door, then cued up the video for Jason Boggess’ abduction. Slowing the speed slightly, she leaned against the table and watched the action unfold.
The cocky swagger, the waiting van, the injection and swift abduction. Nothing new.
Next, she watched the Andrews abduction.
No cocky swagger, but still a waiting van, injection, and swift abduction.
She brought up the Orson video. No waiting van, just like with Cummings. The van jerked to a stop beside Orson, the man jumped out and forced her inside…
Wait!
Her skin tingled and her muscles jerked as she launched off the table.
That was it!
She backed the video up and watched it again.
Noelle looked across the parking lot. In the direction of the van. Before it drove toward her.
Almost like she knew it was there?
Maybe she’d heard it coming, yet she didn’t seem concerned or alarmed.
As the man jumped from the back of the van, Kevyn slowed the video further and zoomed in.
The low-resolution of the video blurred the faces beyond recognition. Even so, the video clearly showed Orson looking at her unmasked attacker.
Orson saw him. For more than just a brief look.
So why had Orson lied and said she hadn’t gotten a good look?
She watched as the abductor gripped Orson’s forearms and shoved her into the waiting van.
Was it her imagination or did it look like Orson was actually working with him instead of fighting him?
A rock settled in her stomach.
Had the whole abduction been staged?
It would certainly explain Noelle Orson’s disposition at the hospital, the way she hadn’t seemed too worried about the attackers returning.
But why? What would Noelle Orson hope to gain by staging her own kidnapping?
She restarted the video.
No denying it. Noelle Orson not only saw her kidnapper, she seemed to know they were coming and also didn’t seem to resist like she should have.
Now that she looked more closely, the abductor in this video didn’t look like the one from the previous two videos. While the men who’d abducted Boggess and Andrews were both built like football players, this guy had a more average build.
She switched over to Stacy Cummings’ abduction, focusing in on the build of the abductor. Large. Like the Boggess and Andrews abductions.
But not like Orson’s.
It was always possible that the abductions were the work of a large crew, but there were too many things that didn’t add up with Orson’s abduction.
Not the least of which being her quick release.
She settled back against the table with a jarring thud that made her tailbone hurt.
What did it all mean?
₪ ₪ ₪
“Got her.”
Tio looked up, frowning at Zane’s announcement. Zane had already told him that they’d abducted the latest target last night. Why did he feel the need to announce it again? “You told me that this morning.”
Zane’s head wagged atop his thick neck. “Not that one. Mitch’s girl.”
What? Now that was interesting.
Less interesting was that Zane had taken it upon himself to grab the woman without talking it over with Tio first.
Tio shoved his laptop away and gestured for Zane to have a seat. “Where is she? And why the heck would you grab her without clearing it with me?”
“I didn’t.” Zane dropped into the chair. “But we found her. Found calls to a PI in Mitch’s phone. Told the dude I work for Mitch and Mitch asked me to get a recap of the work he’d done so far. He told me all ‘bout how Mitch had hired him to find this hot blonde chick.”
So. Mitch had been lying about dating the woman.
No surprise there.
The bigger question was who the woman was and why Mitch would go to so much trouble and expense to find her.
“Did the PI give you her name?”
“Nope.” Zane laced his fingers together across his muscular six-pack. “Dude started getting suspicious at that point and clammed up. Asked me why Mitch wasn’t tellin’ me all this, if I worked for him.”
That was the problem with cover stories. They only went so far.
“You want me to pay him a visit in person and convince him to talk?” Zane cracked his knuckles.
It would be effective, but did he want to draw extra attention to something that might not pay off? “Did he give you any indication of where you might find her?”
A single nod responded. “He mentioned that she goes to a coffee shop almost every day. Figured it’s gotta be that one we followed Mitch to, huh?”
Seemed likely. “What time were they there?”
“‘Bout 1:30.”
Tio checked the clock on the wall. If he left in the next half hour, he could be to the coffee shop by a little after one. Maybe catch her, if she truly was a creature of habit.
“You want me to head down there?” Zane’s question pulled Tio’s attention from the clock.
“No. I think today is a good day for me to get out of the office.”
And hopefully figure out what the heck Mitch was up to.
Eleven
“I found it.”
Dak’s attention jerked from the computer screen.
A flush colored Kevyn’s cheeks and her eyes sparkled like shiny emeralds as she stood in front of his desk.
He hadn’t seen her this excited since before her father showed up. “What?”
“You know that thing that was bothering me? It wasn’t with the Cummings abduction at all. It’s the Orson abduction. It doesn’t fit.” Kevyn pulled in a deep breath. “She’s lying. I knew she was, but now I can prove it.”
Dak rose. “Show me.”
She led the way back to the conference room. “You need to watch all four abductions back to back. Then you’ll see it.”
As many times as he’d watched each one, he didn’t see what he could have possibly missed, but he nodded anyway.
Several minutes of silence passed as he watched the Boggess abduction, followed by the Andrews abduction. Kevyn cued up the Orson abduction and glanced at him as she started the video.
The van pulled into the frame and a guy jumped out.
He frowned.
Noelle Orson was the smallest of their victims. As big as the guys were who abducted both Boggess and Andrews, the abductor should have looked like a giant compared to her.
Yet he looked average.
“It’s not the same guy.”
She paused the video. “I already compared the file from the Cummings abduction and I think he matches, but this guy,” she pointed at the man on the screen, “definitely does not.”
Why did he still feel like he was missing something that she knew? “How does this prove Noelle Orson was lying?”
“Keep watching.” She resumed the video.
He watched. Orson being grabbed and shoved into the back of the van. The van peeling away in a cloud of burning rubber and noxious exhaust.
Nothing new.
Yet somehow he felt he was missing something critical.
She laughed. “It took me a while to see it, too.”
“How about you tell me.” He didn’t have time to figure out the secret she obviously knew.
She backed up the tape and slowed the playback speed, then moved closer to the monitor. “See right here?”
On the screen, Orson approached the driver’s door, but her attention kept shifting to her right. Nothing was there, so it must be something off screen.
“That’s the direction the van came from. I think she knew they were coming.” Kevyn pointed to Orson’s face. “That looks like dread to me.”
He froze the frame and stared at Orson’s face. The picture was so small and grainy he could hardly tell it was Noelle Orson, much less see dread. “How can you tell?”
“See the way her shoulders are curled forward? And her body is angled away from whatever she’s looking at? Start the video again, okay?”
He did.
“Okay, freeze it again.” Kevyn pointed to Orson’s hands. “She wiped her palms on her pants for the third time since exiting the building.”
“How did you notice all that?”
Kevyn’s smile grew. “Well, first I noticed something that’s coming up in the next few seconds. Then I went back and examined her every movement. It’s all very telling when you put it together.”
“I guess I should watch the rest of this then.” Rather than unfreezing the video, he looked up at Kevyn. “Care to provide narration?”
“Sure thing.”
He started the video again, slowing it down even further.
“Right there.” Kevyn pointed as Orson faced her attacker. “She told us she didn’t get a good look at her attacker, but here…”
“She’s looking right at him.” It was only for a second or two, but how had he missed that?
“It’s hard to see when watching the video at normal speed.” Kevyn pointed to something else. “Then see this here? Doesn’t it look like she’s hardly fighting him at all? In fact, to me it looks like she climbs into the van on her own, don’t you think?”
He backed the video up and watched it again. Possible, although it’d never hold up in court. “Why?”
Kevyn lifted her shoulders. “That’s the big question, isn’t it?”
Orson had repeatedly told them that she didn’t know her attackers. That she’d had no idea why they had taken her.
This video, if Kevyn was interpreting it correctly, indicated otherwise.
“Should we go talk to her again?” Kevyn’s question brought his attention away from the video.
“Not yet. Let’s do a little digging first. See if we can’t figure out why she would lie about her abduction.”
They were missing something.
When they went to talk to Noelle Orson again, they needed more than a grainy, vague video. They needed something concrete to back it up.
He sighed. “I could use a strong coffee.”
“I’ll go. The fresh air clears my head.” She paused. “Besides, I keep hoping Mitch will show up there again.”
A sour taste filled his mouth. “What will you do if he does?”
She pressed her lips into a thin line. “I’ll handcuff him to a table and ring you. He’s not going to deceive me again.”
₪ ₪ ₪
Tio sipped the strong blend and looked at his watch for what had to be the tenth time in as many minutes. Almost 1:45.
Maybe she wasn’t coming.
Or maybe she’d come early and he’d missed her.
He pulled up his email on his phone and scanned for anything new. Nothing since he’d last checked two minutes ago.
A sigh built in his chest.
How much time did he waste before bagging the whole thing?
The bell above the door dinged.
A trim woman with blonde hair pulled back in a loose ponytail stepped through the door.
He pulled up the photo Zane had forwarded to him.
It was her!
He quickly threw out the remaining coffee and got into line right behind her.
