“So what does all of this mean for us getting home?” Dotty said. “If Vextar has gone to ground or is in hiding, is he even concerned with Monroe? She took down the photos. Why is he sending anyone after us? We were clearly leaving.”
“Actually, I think I might have solved that mystery,” Brody said as he brought up the photos on his laptop screen. “And this is the interesting part of all of this. I haven’t told anyone else other than Ink about this yet. Oh, and my, uh, boyfriend.”
The mysterious Dr. Claw.
“So I started looking into the photos, trying to figure out what the issue with them might be. Anyway, there were a few cars in the background of this photo here, so I just ran their plates on the off chance that one of them might have been a rental car.”
“He didn’t have a car,” Monroe said.
“Well, see this car here.” He pointed to a black car. “About ten hours after this photo was taken, this car was driven in front of a car carrying Zinnia Danes to the hospital.”
“Wait, what?” Dotty asked. “Zinnia Danes? The country and western singer?”
“Yeah. She was in Las Vegas at the time, and she was about to play at a venue the next day. While she was there, she suddenly became ill, and her manager and brother were driving her to the hospital when this car sped out in front of them. Luckily, her brother has reflexes like you wouldn’t believe.” Brody put on some other footage to show them. “This is fairly grainy, but it was what was taken by traffic cams and ended up on the news.”
The car seemed to come out of nowhere and slammed on its brakes right in front of the vehicle carrying Zinnia Danes. Addie watched in amazement as the driver of the other car managed to drive around the parked car.
“I don’t get it,” Monroe said. “So what if that car was sitting there? It has nothing to do with Vextar, right?”
“Maybe not,” Ink said. “Or maybe it does. At the time, they thought that it was an accident. Although the driver took off and disappeared. The theory was that he might have been wanted by the cops, or perhaps he just thought he was going to get into trouble for nearly causing an accident. But it was curious that he could disappear so easily.”
“What do you mean?” Dotty asked.
“Do you think someone was waiting for him?” Cash asked. “That he had an accomplice?”
Ink nodded. “I think it’s possible. Unfortunately, the camera angle didn’t capture the driver’s face. Detective Jackson is making a request for some more information. But because of who Zinnia is, the Las Vegas PD is being tight-lipped.”
“I always thought it was a strange coincidence that she grew ill in the middle of a concert, and then as they were driving her to the hospital, somebody nearly plowed into her,” Dotty said.
“A very strange coincidence,” Ralen agreed. “So you think that Vextar was in Las Vegas because of Zinnia Danes?”
“It’s all guesswork at the moment,” Ink said.
“Who was the owner of the car?” Cash asked.
“It was stolen,” Brody said. “But it was never reported because the owner was an elderly man who barely drove it. It was only when the police turned up on his doorstep that he realized it was even gone.”
“So someone stole the car,” Cash said. “And then they used that car in a near accident with a car containing Zinnia Danes. If it was on purpose, what were they trying to do? Kidnap her?”
Everyone fell silent at that moment as the thought of that sunk in.
“And you think that Vextar might have had something to do with that? Because of this photo?” Monroe asked.
“It does seem quite coincidental,” Dotty added. “There’s no real evidence linking him, the car, and Zinnia.”
“The car might not have anything to do with him,” Ink said. “But there has to be a reason those men chased the three of you after those photos went up on social media.”
“So he might have been willing to let us leave before Monroe put those photos up, because there was no evidence linking him to Zinnia. But once the photos went up, that changed?” Dotty asked. “That’s very circumstantial evidence. No way would any of that hold up in a court of law without a lot of other evidence to back it up.”
“Well, luckily we’re not cops,” Ink said. “And we don’t have to take this to court. All we’re trying to do is get you guys home safely and eliminate any threat.”
Dotty ran her hand over her face. “I don’t know that this gets us any further ahead, even if it is interesting. Monroe’s taken the photos down, will he come after her for the originals?”
“It’s a possibility. Which means I can’t really tell you when you can go home,” Ink told her.
“We really can’t stay much longer. Monroe, does he know where we live?” Dotty asked.
“I didn’t tell him,” Monroe said. “But he does have my handbag. It might have had something in there with my address on it, or more information.”
