“The closet.” Creed runs towards it, stopping at the closed door and the little pool of blood.
She didn’t make it to the gun.
“Head wounds bleed a lot. That doesn’t mean she’s dead.” Creed stares at it in horror.
“They would have left the body if she were dead.”
***
“How did they get her? My security system is state-of-the-art.”
“Through the back yard.” Everett doesn’t look away from the wall of screens in our security room.
I didn’t hesitate to call everyone I knew, asking for help to find Greer.
“You turned your security camera away from it a while ago.”
So that means we have nothing to go on. “What about her security?”
“There are no breaches shown in the log. But I don’t believe that.”
We need to look into the drug dealers. They’re the ones that took her. I know it. I start pacing the far too small space. It’s closing in on me. “Why didn’t they send a message? When people take hostages, they reach out.”
A hand lands on my shoulder. “We’ll find her.”
Rogue’s right. The question is, will she be alive when we do?
“There’s a helicopter incoming.” Volt shouts. “Does anyone know who this belongs to?”
“I do.” Creed steps forward from where he was silently standing in the corner. “That’s Greer’s lawyer. He manages her whole life. So I called him. I think we should call her friends, too. They’re all really rich, and one is a cop.”
“The last thing we want is a cop involved.” Not with what I plan to do when I find Greer. Not one of the ideas that came to my mind is even slightly legal.
The helicopter lands, and the well-dressed older man I saw with Greer the first day steps out.
Fly meets him there and escorts him down to the clubhouse and through to the bunker.
I walk over to my son and whisper, “You should have talked to the group before bringing a stranger in. You know we don’t like prying eyes.”
“He knows Greer more than any of us. If the drug dealers aren’t responsible, then he might have a clue to help us find her.”
“Found something,” Everett shouts. “Your security did come in handy.” He pulls up a dozen images and puts them on the screens.
Each of them is the front of my house, and every one of them has the exact same van in the image. “For the last four months, this van has driven past your home. It’s not registeredto any of your neighbors. As a matter of fact, the tags are registered to a ninety-year-old woman living in an assisted living facility in Florida.”
“They’ve been surveilling my house.”
“Oh yeah. And the person inside is smart. They’re wearing a hat and keeping their head down.” Everett grins. “But not smart enough to cover their hands. Smart move investing in the best cameras available.” He zooms in until the fingers on the wheel become clear.
“Tattoos.” This creep has hand tattoos.
“They’re just as good as fingerprints now. It might take us some time, but we’ll find this guy.”
Time feels like the opposite of what we have. What if they discover she’s pregnant?
The door opens, and Greer’s lawyer steps in. “This is quite impressive looking, but completely unnecessary. I know exactly where Miss Greer is.”
“What?” Creed steps forward. “On the phone, you didn’t know anything.”
