Chapter 27
Tristan
My fingers hover over the keyboard. Breathe.
First things first. Uncover what happened.
I glance at the closed office door. I basically shut it in Peltz’s face, but won’t stand outside listening to me. Or would he?
Is he in on this? I’d determined he wasn’t. There’s no trail.
Was his reaction to Lucia resigning genuine? Rumpled hair. Stained clothes. My gut tells me yes.
And if I’m wrong, and he’s in on it, then letting him figure out he’s got an Interpol officer on his trail might trip him up.
But I’m jumping ahead of myself. I’m assuming she’s missing because of this case. What if it has nothing to do with the case? What if she genuinely panicked about the pregnancy, didn’t want to see me again, and resigned? Would she do that? It’s illogical.
But hormones and all. What do I know about pregnant women? I was bloody horrible to her yesterday.
I push away the keyboard and dial Penny.
“Hello dear.” The sound of keys clicking continues, letting me know I’m probably on speaker and she assumes this will be a quick call.
“Penny. I have a situation.”
“Oh.” The clicking stops. “Do you need Nigel?”
“Not yet. I need to access any available street camera footage on streets surrounding the Lumina headquarters. Also, can you check to see if we have any video on any street between Lumina and Lucia Oliveira’s address?”
“What are we looking for?”
“Lucia Oliveira. She’s an executive assistant. She theoretically resigned this morning. I need to see if she entered Lumina’s buildings this morning. If we can footage of her home, then I’d like to see how she left her home.”
“You suspect something nefarious? Do you have her mobile?”
“I do, but she theoretically returned her phone and laptop to the office. There’s no way to track her. I want to see if she returned it or if someone else did.”
“Lucia Oliveira is already in our system. We have a file on her. Did you know this?”
“Yes. I created the file.”
“Well, it’s your lucky day, then. Since she’s already in the system, we can get facial recognition lickety split. Shall I launch a blue notice?”
“Please. Let me know the minute you locate her.”
“Well, you know love, it’s not me that does the locating. But the request is off. Shall I pull Nigel from his meeting?”
“No. There’s not much he can do until we learn more.”
“There’s a chance she resigned on her own?”
“Yes.” God, I hate admitting that.
“What’d you do to her, love?”
“Why would you assume I did something?”
“It’s your tone of voice. You sound like you give a damn.”
“I always give a damn.”
“Sure you do. Alrighty. I’ll be in touch.”
The line clicks. Call ended.
What else can I do?
Her work email. Accessing her work email, and for that matter, all employee email, had been something I did weeks ago, but with a couple of clicks, I entered Lucia’s Lumina email. A quick scan showed me all emails were work related. And interestingly, her last email was sent at 5:45 pm the prior day to Peltz and there is no mention of resigning.
But he said he received her resignation. Did she drop off a printed resignation? How would she do that? She doesn’t have a printer at home.
The firm uses Google docs, and I know her username and password to get into her account. I sort the documents by the date of creation. She didn’t create any documents yesterday or today.
My skin lights with awareness. This has nothing to do with her pregnancy. Someone has taken her. And it has to be the same group responsible for the Watson girl’s abduction. It was the same scenario, although in that case, a resignation was emailed when she left the company.
I open the case file and read through the specifics, confirming what I thought. Yes, the email claimed she had fallen in love, something her sister flagged as unbelievable.
What exactly did Lucia’s resignation claim?
I’m up and out of my seat, ready to request a copy of Lucia’s resignation, regardless of risking Peltz’s suspicion when my mobile vibrates.
“Did you locate her?”
“Log into the network. We have her getting into a black limousine at 7:42 am. She doesn’t appear to be in duress. You can watch the video and decide for yourself.”
I click in and scan the image. It’s a view from a traffic camera at the intersection, and it’s grainy. A figure that might be Emelia stands on the stoop. If it’s Emelia, then she witnessed it all.
“Where’d the car drive her? Did she come to Lumina?”
“If she came to Lumina, we haven’t yet located that footage. And we have reliable coverage on all the streets around the building. If that black limousine drove on one of those streets, or into the underground parking, we’ll pick it up. Now, we’re still combing through footage and you know facial recognition has limits. It’s possible she was dropped off away from the building and walked in.”
“Lucia doesn’t take limousines. She walks to work. Why would she get in a limousine?” I’m more or less speaking to myself. I flip through the still frames, searching for luggage. “Did you watch the video? Did she have luggage?”
“No.”
Someone took her. Who knows what they told her or why she agreed to go?
“What about the driver? Do we have an ID on him?” I can’t make out any details in the grainy long shot, only his gender, male, shaved head, relatively tall, and the black suit he’s wearing makes him look like a hired driver.
“Tech is working on that.”
“Do you have the plate?”
“Got it when he drove through the intersection. We’re working on tracing the route.”
Good. They won’t get far if we have the tags.
“Ozzie messaged. Looks like we got her on street cam footage through twenty-two intersections. Then she’s not there.”
“That means she’s nearby.” As I say the words, I know that’s not true. “Unless they transferred her to another vehicle.” My peripheral vision darkens as the ramifications of such a possibility play through. “Which means we would have no way of locating her.”
“True. But we have the ownership of the vehicle. It’s a rental company.”
“Send it to me. I’ll go visit them.”
“You realize if you show up interviewing them, your cover will be blown.”
“Abducting Lucia is our first real lead to find whoever is behind this.”
“Nigel needs to know.” The call clicks.
Alright, Penny love. Go tell Nigel.
I snap a photo of the address and log out of the network and set about shutting down my computer.
When I exit the office, I take in the dark screen on Lucia’s monitor and the eerie stack of devices on her desk. If someone else placed those on her desk, we could fingerprint them.
I reach into my bag, put on gloves, and slip her devices into my briefcase. My briefcase is lined to prevent any device inside being located, a benefit to my line of work. Between potential miscommunication between the Human Resources and IT departments, it could take them days to confirm the devices are no longer in the building.
With one last glance at Peltz’s closed office door, I charge out of the building. As soon as I step onto the street, I press Jack Sullivan’s name on my mobile.
It rings twice and his assistant answers. I request to speak to him, and twenty seconds later he’s on the line.
“Jack here.”
“Hi Jack. We’ve got a break in the case.”
“Go on.”
“An assistant is missing. I suspect the same people who abducted Sloane Watson took her.”
“Logic?”
“Same MO.”
“But an assistant? Why?”
“That I’m not sure, but now it’s personal. She’s my girlfriend.”
“Who knows that? Everyone in the company?”
I give it some thought. No one knows, right? But why else would they take Lucia? Was she involved? Is she a loose end?
“She’s the assistant who informed Sage her sister had resigned. I didn’t think she was involved.” Fuck me. “We’ll get the questions answered after we find her. We have a Blue Notice out and tags on the car she got into. I’m on my way now to meet with the car service.”
“Let us know how we can help. As you know, we want to find those responsible.” He lost a teammate to these fucks. This is personal for him too.
“Once I’m back at my place, I’ll send you everything we have. We’ve got our guys on this, but your guys?—”
“Aren’t encumbered by international law. Send over whatever you’ve got and we’ll see what we can do.”