Chapter 10
AVA
Ava stared down at the two tracksuits in her hand, her mind racing as she tried to sort through both the mystery of Alex’s surprise location and the recent developments with Raven.
She tugged her phone from her pocket, tapping to access the last message he’d sent. So far, no confirmation of receipt of the flash drive. Her jaw tensed as she considered texting him about the rose.
She decided against it for the moment, shoving the phone back into her pocket as she returned to pondering her wardrobe choice.
A soft knock on the doorway to her walk-in closet pulled her from her own ruminating. She twisted to find Alex. Holding up both, she asked, “Which one do you think is better for this location? Sparkles or unicorns?”
From the expression on his face–a wince with a wrinkled nose–she immediately knew something wasn’t right. Had he heard from Raven? “What’s wrong?” she asked.
He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “Kyle’s missing.”
“What?” She dumped the clothes on the island counter before she crossed to him. “Do they know what may have happened?”
“He got into his car with some guy, but I couldn’t tell who,” Alex choked out, his upset obvious.
Ava’s eyebrows pinched as she rubbed his arm, her stomach tightening with dread.
Every scenario she imagined was more serious than the last, from Kyle being hurt to being coerced into dangerous situations.
She couldn’t help but envision the worst for her friend’s stepson, her heart racing with the fear of what they might discover.
“So, your phone tracker didn’t lead Julia to him? ”
“She found the phone, not him. Looks like he got into the car of his own free will, but…something’s off.”
Ava narrowed her eyes. Something was, indeed, off, and not just with the Kyle situation. Alex’s easy responses to her questions didn’t make it sound like he was upset over the missing stepson of their college buddy. But something had him twisted in knots.
“So, we’re looking into this, I assume?”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice shaky and unsure.
“Hey, we’ll find him. You’re the best at this stuff.”
He shook his head. “But…”
“Yeah?” she asked.
He heaved a sigh. “Avs, I have to ask you again to wait for your surprise.”
She chuckled for a second until the worried look on his face stopped her. “Alex, come on. This clearly takes precedence.”
“Seems like everything takes precedence these days. You’re going to start to wonder if you really are my top priority.”
She lifted a shoulder, shooting him a coy smile. “You’ve hacked my webcam enough times just to look at me which more than makes up for this.”
“I’m being serious,” he answered.
“So am I. This is clearly the priority. And if you want to know the truth, I would have been more disappointed if you’d have insisted on taking me to the surprise and not helping Julia when she needs it.”
“Really? Are you sure? Because I don’t love Julia. I mean, I like Julia. Not…like that. Not in a more-than-friends way. I like her, but I love you. I also like you. But I love you.”
Ava clamped a hand over his mouth to stop his babbling, a trait that clearly showcased his nervousness. “I get it. Stop worrying about it. Let’s go find Kyle.”
A cautious smile crossed his face as he studied her.
“Really? Will you help? Because I feel like this could be a needle in a haystack situation. We don’t have much to go on.
And also, I don’t want you to think my efforts are misplaced, that I should be focused more on us, especially with everything going on. ”
“I don’t think that. Now, come on. You hack those cams, I’ll watch ‘em,” she said with a grin as he slid her hand into his.
“Sounds like a plan.” He kissed her forehead before they made their way downstairs. “You know, I’d normally make you hack the hospital cameras yourself because I know you can do it, but time is of the essence with Little G missing.”
Ava lifted her hands in the air as Alex shifted her laptop toward him, pounding on the keys for a few minutes before he shoved it back toward her. “There we go. Checking the security footage from last night just before this video occurred.”
Alex tapped his finger against the illuminated surface of her screen, each poke echoing slightly in the quiet of the warm living room lighting.
She narrowed her eyes as she watched the video play out. Kyle Carter, Julia’s stepson, appeared to get into the car with a man, his face obscured by a dark hood, slid into his passenger’s seat.
“Did Julia see this?”
“Yep,” Alex answered as he stared at his own screen. “I don’t think it sat well with her. And it doesn’t with me either, but I can’t pinpoint why.”
“Uh, maybe the creepy guy with the hoodie who gets into the car with him?”
His lips curled into a smile as he slid his eyes sideways. “Yeah, maybe that. I can’t see his face and that bothers me.”
“It bothers every woman who has ever walked to her car alone in the middle of the night, too. I know it’s different for men, but…if you saw this video footage of me, please keep looking for me.”
“If I saw that video footage of you, I would claw the internet apart bit by bit until I found you.”
“Thanks, babe, that’s sweet,” she said. “And it’s very sweet you feel the same way about Kyle.”
“Uhh, let’s not go that far. Just say I’m disturbed and intrigued at the same time. I’d be sick if that was you in the video.”
“Okay, so are we looking for another angle on this or…”
“Anything. Another video of Kyle, a clear shot of Hoodie McHood. Anything.”
She bobbed her head as she sucked in a sharp breath. “Okay, I’ll try to backtrack on the odd numbered cameras, you take the evens?”
“Cool,” he said as he isolated his set and spun the footage back in search of any familiar figures.
It took them hours to crawl through all of the footage in search of any clues to the hooded man’s identity, but they found none. Instead, all they found was a questionable video of the still-obscured man in what looked like a tense confrontation with Kyle.
“I should send this to Julia and get her take on it.” Alex grabbed his phone, ready to call when Ava clamped a hand on his arm.
“Wait, you can’t call her. It’s way too late. Text her. People don’t stay up all hours of the night like we do.”
Alex snapped his gaze to her, a grin playing on his lips. “Say that again.”
“What?” she asked.
“You said…we, as in…us. Like together.”
She shook her head at him. “Just text Julia first.”
“Okay, okay,” he said, firing off a text message.
Julia answered him in record time.
Alex shot Ava a glance as he pressed the call button. “See, she’s up.”
“Alex, you found something?” Her worried voice filled the air between them.
“I did. It’s…not conclusive, but…when you mentioned your concern with Hoodie, I tried to find some footage of his face.”
“Did you?”
“No. Which makes me…suspicious. Someone that good at hiding their face from a camera probably has something to hide. I’m sending a video of Grant 2.0 now. Let me know what you think once you watch it.”
Ava rubbed his arm as he sent the video along to her.
“Okay. And thank you for this. I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything, kid. I am thoroughly intrigued.”
As they waited on the other end of the line, Ava toggled into her browser, doing a quick search on Vivienne and Theodore Bancroft to study whenever the crisis with Kyle ended.
Julia’s voice finally answered. “Okay, that looks…scary. It looks like someone confronted him and made him go to the car. He was flustered enough to drop his phone. This is clear evidence that something happened to him.”
“I’ll admit I had a similar thought,” Alex said.
“Hi, Alex, this is Alicia, I don’t know if you remember me but–”
“Detective Dynamo, I do remember you. Are you also sleuthing the case?”
“I’m helping Julia sort through this, yeah. This isn’t conclusive evidence, but it doesn’t sit right with me. Any other angles on this?”
Ava flipped through a few pictures of the Bancrofts as Julia’s cop sister discussed the video with Alex.
“None that I can find,” Alex said. “But I’m digging a little further. I just need some time.”
“Oh, Alex, thank you. I’m so grateful for this. I’m really worried.”
Ava’s heart pinched at the concern in her friend’s voice. They had to help in any way they could.
“It does seem something nefarious might be going on. Will you be up for a few hours?” Alex asked.
“Yes. I’ll wait up. If you find anything, please let me know right away.”
“Will do, Sunshine. Ace out.” He ended the call and glanced at Ava.
“What’s your plan?”
“Hack the traffic cams and follow his car?”
She smiled and nodded her approval. “You want me to help?”
“Always,” he answered with a kiss to her forehead.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked as she set her fingers on her keyboard.
“Can you see if you can get a good angle on the Grantling’s license plate? I’ll hack the city’s traffic cams and see if we can get a hit on those letters.”
“On it,” Ava said as she returned to the screen with the hospital’s cameras and searched for the footage showing Kyle climbing into his car and leaving the parking lot.
After snagging a still shot, she enhanced it, easily reading off the combination of letters and numbers on the Louisiana plate. “Got it.”
“Nice work, Sparky. Give it to me.”
She read off the plate number as he tapped it into his new program and turned it loose on the traffic cameras. With a frustrated growl, he shook his head.
“What?” she asked, tearing her eyes away from her screen.
“Stupid thing doesn’t want to track.” His fingers continued to pound against his keys, making adjustments to the program to ensure a better result.
Ava tilted her head as she returned her eyes to her screen, opening a new tab in her browser. She searched for the name of the hospital and did a quick scan of the roads around it.