Okay. She cared, but she could deal with it. “What I want to know is, how are we going to find him? He doesn’t live here. I don’t have a clue where he might hide a child.”
“Do you have any way to mirror my screen to that TV?” Sabrina asked no one in particular.
“Sure.” Luke tossed a remote to Zane. Moments later, the TV screen filled with an image. It was Tez, but what took up most of the screen was a super close-up of his glasses.
Sabrina stood and walked to the TV. “I caught a hint of something in the reflection. I don’t know why the bad guys don’t watch more television, but as long as they forget about the reflective properties of glass, it will continue to make my job easier.”
She looked around the room, then bounced her focus between Gil and Zane. “Do you see it?”
Ivy wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be seeing. In her peripheral vision, Gil leaned toward the table. “Is that a crane?”
“I believe so.” Sabrina traced an image on the screen. “I was intrigued by this.” Only Sabrina would say a picture of a kidnapped child was intriguing, but then again, she volunteered a lot of hours to searching for human trafficking victims, so she had unique expertise in this area. “The abductor has made an effort to disguise the location. A hotel room gives away more than most people realize. Bedding, carpet, wall decor all can be used to determine location. This photograph has none of that. They’ve propped up Tez against a nondescript brick wall. There are no distinguishing features around him, so he could be almost anywhere. But the crane will help.”
Ivy reached for the hope that flickered just out of her grasp. “There can’t be many cranes currently in use in Raleigh.”
“Probably not. But based on the timing of the abduction and the sending of the photograph, we don’t need to know where all of them are, just how many are within a five-to-ten-minute drive from the ball field.”
Ivy found herself abandoned on both sides as Gil and Tessa jumped to their feet and went to a tall cabinet along the side wall. Together, they pulled out a large map of Raleigh and propped it across the arms of two chairs.
The map turned out to be multiple maps in a thick stack, bound at the top. Tessa and Gil stood on either side and flipped the firstmap over, studied the map beneath it, then flipped that one over. This happened three times before Gil indicated a location in the left quadrant. “There’s the ball field.”
Faith, Luke, and Zane converged on the map and blocked her view. They pointed out various locations approximately ten minutes from the ballpark. Two minutes later, they pulled back slightly. Ivy peered in between Tessa and Faith. The map now had a large shape, hand-drawn in red ink. It wasn’t a rectangle or an oval but something in between, with irregular and wavy lines.
Zane studied the photo. “Where is the crane?”
The five agents stared at the map.
Sabrina pulled her phone from her pocket, wedged herself between Luke and Faith, and snapped a photo of the map. She returned to the table and tapped the screen a few times. A male voice answered through the speaker. “Bri?”
“Would you please give the locals the picture I sent you. Tez is somewhere in that space—or to be precise, he was when the photograph was taken—and that location is somewhere near a crane.” She rolled her eyes at Ivy. “Federal agents sometimes forget the local officers know exactly where that crane is.”
Before anyone could respond, the voice, Ivy assumed it was Adam Campbell, came back through the speaker. “New subdivision. Million-dollar homes. Two miles from the ballpark. A crane is being used to set trusses.”
“Are the houses occupied?” That question came from Tessa.
A garble of unintelligible voices rose, then faded. Then Adam was back. “They say not yet, but some are far enough along to have power and water, maybe even HVAC, but probably no appliances.”
“They would be easy to get into, especially in the middle of a storm. No one around at night and the house is dry, warm. Locationmakes sense. Brick could be on the side of the house. Crane in view,” Gil said. “Adam, is Morris around?”
“Here.” The grumbly voice of Detective Morris came through the line. “We’ll work on locating Tez. You get Dr. Collins covered. They’ll send the details of what they want from Ivy soon, and we need to be ready.”
38
FIVE MINUTES LATER, Ivy’s phone buzzed on the table in front of her.
Gil stood and leaned over Ivy’s shoulder. A string of individual texts and photographs filled the page.
Ticktock. Tez is going to wake up soon.
Be a shame for him to be scared.
The photo that filled the screen was of an electric hacksaw.
Be an even bigger shame for him to lose an arm.
Follow my instructions to the letter.
I’ll know if you don’t. And Tez will lose an arm.
