Page 6 of Knight Watch

Chapter Four

Gettinginto Sydney Rutherford’s apartment unnoticed had been a piece of cake, and as far as Kingsley was concerned that didn’t bode well for Sydney. Even worse, the small apartment was just above an auto repair shop, which meant that any sound, any scream would have gone unheard due to the noise from below. Strangely enough, thinking of Sydney screaming and fighting intruders for her life, turned Kingsley’s hands into fists, his body ready to fight to protect her.

Malco had come with him, moving silently through the apartment, examining every surface and piece of furniture.

It had been trashed all right, but not because the intruders were looking for something. No, it looked like their target put up quite a fight. It made Kingsley feel proud of a woman he didn’t even know.

“The furniture has been tossed, a vase was thrown against the wall, there are even knives on the floor, whatever they thought they’d encounter when they arrived, I’m sure they didn’t expect she would put up such a fight.”

Malco’s statement echoed his thoughts entirely. The small living room contained a wall of photos, both old and new, mainly featuring her with two adults. Pictures of her as a little girl with what he believed were her parents, the blond woman who looked so much like her it had to be her mother. She looked happy in those photos. There weren’t many though, and as she’d grown, the woman completely vanished. He knew from the background check they had run before coming that Sydney had lost her mother as a young child. The pictures on the wall of Sydney and her parents had been replaced by her with her father.

Peering closely at the images, Kingsley could see few similarities between the two brothers. Where Raymond was polished and cold, Sydney’s dad seemed larger than life and outdoorsy. Apart from the same wealth of dark hair, it was easy to differentiate between the two men.

Most of the pictures of Sydney and her father had been taken in the woods or on a farm. One with a young Sydney holding a rifle, another with a fish bigger than her lying in her arms. The little girl was beaming with pride.

As she grew up in front of the camera, the grinning little girl disappeared and in her place was a beautiful young woman. The smile was still there, but it didn’t reach her eyes anymore. Kingsley wondered what had happened to make her lose her joy.

“Found her wallet and phone under the bed. The phone is smashed, but maybe we can salvage something interesting from the sim card or phone memory. We can take them both back to base.” Malco continued to move around the room before picking up a brown handbag, looking through it then dropping it on the chair by the bed when it revealed nothing of interest. They would review what they found back at base, which wasn’t a lot.

Kingsley opened his mouth to speak when his eye zoomed in on a piece of furniture against the wall. It contained a bug that had been well hidden and had probably been exposed during the fight.

Unsure if it were still working, Kingsley continued to act as normal as possible, looking around, and walking in a small circle to stand in front of Malco. Discreetly, he signaled him about the bug, and the former Green Beret understood immediately, his eyes not giving anything away.

“I haven’t found anything else. Have you?”

Kingsley shook his head but spoke for the benefit of whoever was listening. “Nah, nothing here.”

They had to get back to base and work on the electronics now. One way or another, it was all they had so far and could be the lead they needed to trace Sydney.

Once they were in the car, Kingsley made a quick call to Mason and Wolf, instructing them to head over and work on the bug they’d found and search for any others that were hidden. Both Wolf and Mason had extensive experience with those sorts of devices, and if there were something they could trace back, they would find it.

“It was clearly an abduction; nothing staged, nothing of value was taken.”

Malco’s words confirmed he’d come to the same conclusion Kingsley had. “Definitely. Did you see the wall of pictures?”

Malco nodded, taking his eyes off the road for a second. “Yeah, see anything interesting?”

“It’s what wasn’t there that caught my attention. The uncle. There was only one picture, and not a good one. It looked like she had blurred the image and cut him out somehow.”

“They don’t look like a close-knit family, and that matches what Rutherford told us.”

“Nonetheless, they’re family. There were other people in the photos, but none of them had him. The family isn’t big enough for it to be an oversight. And he could have been in older pictures before vanishing in more recent ones.”

The men stayed silent for a moment in the car before Kingsley spoke again. “And there’s the bug. The woman doesn’t have loads of money. Nothing in her home indicates she’s wealthy.”

Malco nodded again. “That leaves influence or information. And that’s even more complicated to track. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see what the team digs up from the uncle’s phone. Maybe he has more complex and dangerous enemies than he was willing to let on.”

Kingsley watched the road thoughtfully, his gut tightening. “If the danger isn’t coming from even closer to home.”

* * *

Enteringthe conference room three days later, he felt a sense of urgency and Kingsley worked to keep his head in the game. Ever since he’d seen that bug, he couldn’t stop the dread in his gut that told him time was running out. The team had been hard at work for the last three days, looking for any clues to what might have happened to Sydney Rutherford. Everything they’d discovered so far pointed to the fact Sydney had been missing for less than a week, not the three weeks Rutherford had told them. Alarm bells were ringing loudly and Kingsley couldn’t figure out what game Rutherford was playing.

Mason and Wolf were at Sydney’s apartment again, combing through it with the dubious task of uncovering any more bugs and doing another pass in case they had missed anything the first go through. They needed to find where they led to after getting nowhere with the first bug in the last couple of days. First and foremost, it was the bug that was important.

Cleo was dispatching coffee and breakfast to the people around the room. He liked Cleo, and while he flirted a little, it meant nothing, it was just his way. Cleo didn’t get him bothered under the collar like the thought of Sydney Rutherford did, which was completely inappropriate.

He grinned at Cleo, flashing his flirtiest smile as he took the food. “Keep some for Wolf and Mason. When they arrive, they’ll need to refuel; you know how those two can eat. Anything new?”