He closed the door, turned on the light, and pointed to the filing cabinet. “Let’s start with the easy stuff. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  CHAPTER 24

  Drake Hartfield pulled up to a modest single-story house and parked along the curb. He had been here a dozen times or so over the years. He knew from the address the place was not cheap. Nothing in this part of town was.

  Still, this brick-front Cape Cod with flower boxes hanging from the windows and a patch of grass barely big enough to be called a yard did not reflect the standard of living Alec Garcia could have afforded. Drake was certain of that. After all, he knew how much the accountant had been paid.

  Drake had never explicitly told Alec he was paying as much for his silence as he was for his skills. Until recently, he wouldn’t have thought he needed to.

  It’s time to make sure that message hits home, he thought, getting out of the car and chuckling quietly at his own pun.

  At this late hour, he knew Alec’s wife and son would be asleep. It was a big part of the reason he hadn’t stopped by earlier. The other part was that he could be confident the neighbors would be, as well.

  He removed a baseball bat from his trunk, then casually walked down the driveway to the kitchen door at the back of the house and swung at the window inside it. Glass shattered. Alec’s ADT system went off instantly. That would no doubt piss off the neighbors. It might even bring a few of them to their own windows.

  He would be inside before anyone would see him, though. All he had to do was reach through the window, turn the deadbolt, and step over the threshold.

  As Drake entered the kitchen, he noted the time on his watch. On average, it took an alarm company eight minutes to notify the police and the police another ten minutes to respond. Even if Sofia dialed 911 from her cell phone, he still had plenty of time to do what he came here to.

  He called for Sofia to show herself. “You’re only going to make this worse if I have to come find you,” he said when she didn’t.

  He moved quickly from the dark kitchen to the dining room. There, he had a clear view of the living room and, beyond that, the front door.

  Sofia would not be moving as fast as he was, Drake thought. She would have been disoriented when she awoke. Even if she correctly assumed Drake had broken into the house, she would have needed time to collect herself, to get her son. He might not have been able to hear her with the alarm screaming in his ear, but he knew she could not have gotten to the door yet.

  Since the house was designed with the bedrooms accessible only from a hallway on the other side of the living room, he also knew she could not get to it now without going through him first.

  Drake charged down the hallway to the first door and threw it open. Because he had been here so many times before, he knew that led to the child’s bedroom. He flipped on the light switch, ready to scoop the boy up in his arms and carry him into Sofia’s room, where he could punish them both for Alec’s betrayal.

  When he got to the crib, though, he saw it was empty.

  Drake remembered what Alec had told him when he threatened Alec’s family: I’ve been expecting it for weeks now.

  Had they gone into hiding?

  As he hurried out of that bedroom and headed to the next one, he told himself not to worry. They would be here. Sofia didn’t have any family nearby. Alec had never spoken about any close friends. He worked too much to have any, and she was too busy with the kid. Besides that, Sofia’s Mercedes had been parked in the driveway. Alec had bought it for her as a birthday present one year. Drake knew how much she loved that car. It was her pride and joy until her son came along. Sofia would not have gone into hiding without that.

  Likely she had the kid in the room with her, Drake reasoned. Perhaps she had figured if a night like this ever came, they would be able to escape out the window.

  Drake threw open the door to her bedroom and found it empty, too. The wrought-iron canopy bed was neatly made. No clothes were on the floor or the chair in the corner. There was nothing to indicate the woman had left in a hurry.

  Still, his gaze shifted to a pair of large windows, one on each side of the bed. Both were closed. Drake made his way over to them to confirm that meant they were also locked, which it did.

  At that point, there was little reason to check the rest of the house. Sofia might not have any close friends or family nearby, but there were plenty of hotels around Atlanta.

  Alec was right—Drake was never going to find them.

  Drake was still standing in front of one of the windows when he had this realization. The button-tufted armchair he had noticed upon entering was directly beside him. He grabbed it and heaved it across the room with frustration.

  Had Sofia left her beloved car here as a ruse? A way to fool Drake into thinking she was still living at the house if he were to do a drive-by?

  Maybe.

  Then again, Alec drove a Hummer, and Drake had not seen his car when he arrived. Perhaps, no matter how much Sofia loved her Mercedes, she had left in the bigger vehicle so she could take more stuff with her.

  Both of those possibilities occurred to Drake within less than a second. Of course, he did not have the time at that moment to figure out which of them was correct and decided it might have been a little of both.

  Feeding his rage another serving of revenge, Drake toppled the dresser.

  As he surveyed the damage to the room, he decided that although he might not be able to get to Alec’s family tonight, he could still make this trip count.

  Drake returned to the kitchen and scoured the drawers for a lighter. He knew there had to be one somewhere. Sofia loved her candles almost as much as she did her car—there were two on the nightstand, others on the dining room table, and still more on the kitchen counter.

  What he found instead was a box of long-stick matches, which he decided would work just as well.

  He grabbed a bottle of vodka from the cabinet, doused the curtains, the sofa, the beds. Then he set them all aflame and left the same way he had come in.

  Drake looked at his watch again. He had been in the house for no more than four minutes. Fire spread fast. By the time the police got here, it would be impossible to put out without the fire department. And by the time the fire department arrived, the house would be engulfed in flames.

  Sofia would never live here again.

  Drake got back in his car and sped away. As he merged onto I-85 South, it occurred to him that even though Sofia did not have any family nearby, Alec did. He had a brother in Dahlonega, which was only about an hour north, and parents in Miami, which was still close enough to drive to.

  Would Alec have sent Sofia to stay with them?

  Maybe.

  But aside from the city, he didn’t know where any of them lived. Fortunately, there were people who could find that out for him, and, even if Sofia wasn’t there, one family member would probably work as well as another. Especially after Alec learned his house had burned to the ground.

  You think I’m going to stop? I’ll never stop. I’ll take everything from you like you’re taking everything from me.

  Alec would get the point. Shaving a few years off his sentence might have sounded good at first, but not at the cost of everything that mattered to him.

  CHAPTER 25

  The filing cabinet at Surplus Storage was better organized than Connor anticipated. He and Dylan found Leon’s job application almost immediately. It contained his name, address, and work history, in addition to a few other incidental pieces of information Connor had no interest in.

  He tapped the top of the second page, where the work history began, to draw Dylan’s attention to it. “Look.”

  She did.

  Leon had listed his most recent job as “Entrepreneur.” This was not code for prison time. His employer would have known he had been incarcerated. Not only that, but based on his start and end dates, he’d stopped being an entrepreneur the month he was arrested. Instead, it was code for something else, and Connor and Dylan knew all too well what that was.

  “Once a liar, always a liar,” Dylan said.

  Then Connor noticed the neat block print Leon had used when filling out the application. He pulled out the photocopied note, placed it and the application side by side on the desk to compare.

  Dylan did not have to ask what he was doing, but after Connor had stared at the papers for a while, she did ask, “What do you think?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “Let me look.”

  Connor stepped aside to make room for her, and Dylan spent as long studying the papers as he had.

  “Well?” Connor asked.

  She sighed. “I couldn’t say for sure. There are differences. Leon may have been trying to disguise his handwriting.”

  “That’s what I thought, too.” Connor put the photocopy back in his pocket and typed the address into his phone. “At least we know where he lives.”

  “We’ll check it out tomorrow when he’s at work.”

  When Connor and Dylan got back to the hotel, they looked up the address so that they knew what they were in for.

  The apartment complex where Leon lived was a massive, garden-style community that wrapped around a pool and clubhouse and was surrounded by a fence. Connor did not expect to find the man in a place like this. The complex was practically a fortress. He was certain that if it was in a better part of town, it would have been well outside of Leon’s budget.

  “How are we going to get past that?” Connor said, referring to the fence.

  “Don’t worry about it. I got it,” Dylan responded.

  “You know, there’s not going to be a lock there you can pick your way through.”

  She looked at Connor like he was stupid.

  “All right, then how are you going to do it?”

  “After that wise-ass comment, I think you’re just going to have to wait to find out.”

  And that was as much of an answer as Connor was going to get until they pulled up to the gate at 6 a.m. with Dylan in the driver’s seat.

  “So?” Connor asked.

  She smiled, rolled down her window, and hit the buttons on the digital callbox. There was the click of a connection, and the line started to ring.

  “You’re not calling him—”

  “Of course not.”

  The call rolled over to voicemail. Dylan hung up and repeated the process.

  “What are you doing then?”

  A man answered before Dylan could respond. He sounded like he had just woken up.

  Dylan leaned out the window, getting as close to the callbox as she could. “We’re here to pick up Frank for work.”

  “No Frank here.”

  The man hung up.

  “What was that about?” Connor asked, hoping Dylan would finally clue him in on her plan.

  “Social engineering. You know a thing or two about that, right?”

  Connor did. Most of the hacking he engaged in involved good old ones and zeros, but there were a lot of hackers out there who would exploit human nature to make their way into a computer. Apparently, Dylan was doing something similar now.

  “Do you really think that’s going to work?”

  “Somebody will let us in.”

  Dylan tried a third number. She repeated the lie, and again the person hung up.

  “Are you sure?” Connor asked.

  Dylan tried a fourth number. This time, when she said she was there to pick up Frank, the woman on the other end of the line groaned. Just when Connor was sure she was about to hang up, too, her voice was cut short by an annoyingly loud beep.

  The twin gates that barred entrance began to open.

  “I told you it would work,” Dylan said. She pulled onto the property. “Actually, it was easier than I thought it would be.”

  They drove around the complex until they found Leon’s building, and then parked far enough away that their car wouldn’t draw his eye when he left for work.

  Dylan pulled up on the parking brake, cut the engine, and slid the seat back to make herself comfortable. “Now we just have to wait.”

  CHAPTER 26

  The sun came up, and still hours more passed. So far, Leon had not emerged from the building.

  “What if he’s not here?” Connor asked.

  “We need to know for sure before we go inside.”

  “I could go to the front desk, say I’ve got a delivery for him.”

  “Empty-handed?”

  “They won’t ask.”

  “What if they do?”

  “I’ll say it’s in the car and too heavy to carry up on my own. Regardless, if Leon’s the kidnapper, the call will alarm him. He might even think it’s a trap. He’ll want to find out what’s going on.”

  “If the police were closing in on him, they’d just come to his door.”

  “Maybe he’ll think it’s us. So what if he does? He’s probably not keeping Jerry here. The walls in these sorts of buildings are too thin to hold somebody prisoner inside, and there are too many people around to risk moving somebody in or out against their will.”

  Dylan considered the plan. She nodded. “That might work. If he’s our guy, he probably won’t want to stick around after that. He’ll probably go into hiding.”

  And he would probably take Jerry with him, they agreed—if he didn’t try to get rid of the boy first.

  “Either way, Leon will lead us straight to where he’s keeping him.” Dylan playfully punched Connor’s arm. “Look at you, putting a little social engineering of your own to work.”

  Connor shrugged and climbed out of the car. The office was located in the center of the complex. He walked straight in and did exactly what he’d said he would.

  “He’ll be right down,” the leasing agent said when she got off the phone.

  Connor thanked her and told her he would meet Leon outside. Then he returned to the car. He obviously did not plan on hanging around to meet with Leon, if Leon was, in fact, coming to the office at all. He might just up and leave.

  The leasing agent would be confused if Leon showed up and Connor was nowhere to be found. But then again, so what?

  Connor climbed back into the car. “Leon’s here.”

  “Good,” Dylan said. “Let’s see what happens.”

  After a minute or two, a man exited a nearby building and approached the leasing office. Connor had no trouble recognizing him as Leon. He looked exactly the same as he had the last time Connor had seen him.

  Dylan slid her seat forward. But neither she nor Connor said a word until Leon stepped back out of the office, looked around, and returned to his building.

  Dylan started the car. “Get ready. He’ll probably take off any minute now.”

  Only problem was—he didn’t.

  CHAPTER 27

  Another two hours passed.

  “It’s been a long time,” Connor said. “What if he never leaves?”

  Dylan shrugged. What else were they going to do? He had to go somewhere eventually, and he was the only lead they had. “It is strange he didn’t go after Jerry like we thought he would.”

  “You think he might be innocent?”

  “I mean, that’s what we’re here to find out, right?”

  Finally, Leon appeared.

  Dylan spotted him first. “Look,” she said, sliding down in her seat and pointing at the building.

  Connor followed her lead, and they stayed like that, hunkered down in the car, until Leon climbed into an old beat-up Chevy and drove away.

  “All right, we’re going to have to make this quick,” Connor said. “We have no idea how long he’ll be gone.”

  Dylan agreed.

  They were in and out in no more than fifteen minutes. When they were done, Connor did a quick walk-through to make sure the apartment looked like it had when they arrived. The place was small, and Leon did not have much to fill it with. Connor did not have trouble remembering where everything belonged.

  Then Dylan used her lock picks to lock the door behind them and they returned to the car.

  “So that’s it,” she said after she climbed into the driver’s seat.

  Connor understood what she meant. Although their search had been fast, it had also been thorough. Still, they’d found nothing.

  “Maybe he’s not our guy,” Connor said.

  “He’s got to be. Or else . . .”

  Or else we’re out of leads, Connor thought.

  That was a possibility neither of them was ready to face yet, but Connor could see it weighing on Dylan as they drove back to Atlanta and could feel it weighing on him, as well.

  Somewhere between one small town and another, Connor’s phone rang.

  Dylan’s head whipped around. “Do you think it’s him?”

  Connor assumed she meant the kidnapper. He pulled the phone out of his pocket and looked at the number. “No.” Then he answered. “Hi, Rebecca. What’s up?”

  “You busy?”

  “It’s just . . . Kind of.”

  “More secret private investigator stuff?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Okay, I’ll be quick,” Rebecca said. “You want to have dinner Friday night? I mean, you kind of screwed up the last one, so I thought you might want to make it up to me.”

  “I . . .”

  “That was meant to be funny.”

  “It was.”

  “Good, because I went by the apartment a couple of times, and you weren’t there. I wanted to do this in person so I could see your face, but eventually, I figured the phone was just going to have to do. You sure it was funny?”

  “I’m sure,” Connor said. “And, yes, I’d love to have dinner Friday night.”

  “Good. Consider it a date.”

  Connor felt his heart flutter, and he smiled in spite of himself. Then he looked over at Dylan, who seemed to be enjoying the call a little more than she should, and said, “I have to go. See you then.”

  “So,” Dylan said, when he got off the phone, “you have a date.”

  “Yes.”

  Now she was smiling. “Good for you. Tell me about her.”

 

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