“An SUV; it was black. It parked in the driveway, and these men knocked on the door. When it was opened, they shoved inside and dragged out all three of them.” He hesitated. “The baby was crying.”
Jax had seen far too many of those vehicles lately. He got the precise date and time from Rich, then said, “And no one on the street called 911 after hearing and seeing this commotion?”
Jax wanted him to realize that he should’ve been the one to call the police. But also, if there had been so much noise that he heard it in his car, someone else must have noticed. Right? It couldn’t have been that everyone on the street was gone or busy or unable to notice their neighbors were being kidnapped.
“No one is around at that time. That’s why I do it then.” Rich swallowed. “She gets off the bus by herself and walks alone.”
Jax clenched his teeth. “And these guys took them out of the house?”
“They rushed the mom down the steps with the baby in her arms. Ellayna was behind them. Hands over their mouths, so they couldn’t make noise. One of them picked up Ellayna and tossed her over his shoulder, then I think he threw her in the vehicle. But I couldn’t see exactly.”
They had been taken against their will.Hands over their mouths.Might have been nothing, but it might have been chloroform. “Did you see the license plate of the vehicle?”
“The back didn’t have one. I didn’t see the front. It sped away.”
“And the men?” Dires asked. “Assuming the kidnappers were men.”
Rich nodded. “One of them looked over at my car. I saw his face. Got a good look. I knew I should remember it, just in case the police came knocking, asking about it.”
Jax didn’t like where this was going.
“If you drop all the charges against me, I’ll give you the sketch of his face that I came up with.” Rich’s expression turned smug. “I used an online program where you can do like a police sketch. It’s a good one, if you ask me, anyway. You can find the kidnappers.”
He’d come up with a serious piece of leverage. Jax was almost impressed. “The warrant covers his computer, right?”
Dires nodded.
Rich screamed. “I want a deal!”
Jax turned back at the doorway to the living room. “Tell them you provided key evidence in their investigation. Maybe even saved lives. You’ll get your deal.”
Of course, he couldn’t promise that, but he didn’t care about anything but getting these people back.
A black SUV sounded a whole lot like those guys from Pueblo. Had they come here to take the Feathers family?
Jax sat on the couch and dragged over the computer. He looked at the files on Rich’s hard drive. It didn’t take long to find the right file type.
The image Rich had come up with was a decent representation, but it would never hold up in court. These things had to be done officially. The hair was dark and curled on the man’s head. High cheekbones and a pronounced jaw. Definitely the hard-edged look of a mercenary. The kind of person who would kidnap a family, probably for money. There had been noransom. The phone calls didn’t fit a revenge plan—they would have been killed already.
Unless Kenna was right, and the calls from Ellayna had been done using theDominatussoftware.In that case, they might not still be alive.
Ryson appeared at the door. “Got it?”
Jax looked over at his friend. “I know who took them.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Undisclosed Location
Ramon paced back and forth in the small entryway where they’d left him. The smell of burned coffee came from somewhere. The double doors to a hall—he could see through a small window in each side—were locked, and no one had passed through there that he’d seen.
He turned and paced again, surveying the empty space.
Stagnant air. A glass door to outside—also locked.
An empty corner with no chairs. A reception counter. No computer, nothing in the drawers, and no electronics.
All that was left to do was punch a hole in the walls and see what he could find. Ramon paced back to the reception desk and climbed up. He reached with both hands and shoved a ceiling tile out of the way, expecting… No idea. And the only thing he could do was look up there.
