CHAPTER 50 The Kidnapper
The Kidnapper
There are a handful of people around, and I scan each face hurriedly as they move in and out of the buildings.
A group of men in walking gear, one with binoculars (how useful they might be). A couple emerging from the first bar, carrying takeout drinks in plastic cups with straws. A man in a cowboy hat with a tiny dog that shouldn’t be out in this heat.
I stand under the shade of an awning, across the street from them, just watching. Watching for anybody young and female, thinking that she has no idea that I’m here, that she’s vulnerable to me. I’m already at an advantage.
Maybe she’s good at hiding, I find myself thinking. Maybe she knows to hide well.
I see a woman, eventually, emerging from a side street. Ponytail. Baseball cap. Shorts and T-shirt. Bronzed skin. Shoes that kick up the dust as she goes. She doesn’t look behind her as she leaves, me pursuing her.
But then – I lose her. She dips into an alley and doesn’t come out. By the time I’m in, she’s gone. Out the other end, or into a building somewhere, I don’t know.
I’ll try again tomorrow.