Deadly News: A Thriller (7 page)

She had to put it back, she couldn’t steal from the cops. She clenched her fists, rubbing the thumbs against the side of her index fingers as she looked around again. No one was watching her. Were there cameras? Too late for that, if nothing was missing they’d have no reason to look. She took a deep breath, bit her lip and began the motion to reach into her purse, but then the detective rounded a corner, holding two cups.

That was
fast
. Shit, shit. She slowly, and she hoped subtly, eased back into her seat.

He reached her and held out one of the cups. As she took it, he frowned, tilted his head to the right. “Are you okay?”

Abby let out something that wasn’t a laugh. “No.”

The frown left his face, and he patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out. Now, let’s see if we can’t help you remember what you saw.” He settled back onto his desk.

“I told you everything I could remember already.”

“So you say. You might be surprised by what the human mind is capable of.”

“I’m a reporter.”

He smiled, a broad, genuine smile. “And I’m a cop, and you’re not even thirty. Kid, you ain’t seen nothin’.” He put up his hand. “Just play along. Humor me. If you can’t, you can’t. But if you don’t try, you’ll never know.”

Abby held her tea in both hands in front of her chin. “Fine.”

“How much did you tell them?” you ask.

“How much did I tell them?”

“Earlier,” you say, “you said you didn’t trust them. I was thinking maybe you didn’t tell them enough.”

“I told them everything I knew.”

“Oh. Good.”

“Wait, they know we’re here then?” the champagne catcher asks.

“These trains have sensors,” the long-haired man says. “They would know anyway.”

“So,” Abby says, “I told him everything this time, and then I was put into protective custody, somewhat unofficially, since both places I’d stayed at had been broken into in the period of a few days.”

“But they didn’t know that yet,” the man with the suit jacket says.

“Right. Not then. It wasn’t until the next morning, when Robert came back on—”

“Who?” the thirteen-year-old asked.

“Officer Delano. The one you thought was corrupt.”

“Ah, right.” She made a rolling motion with her hand. “Continue.”

Abby grinned. “Anyway, they took me to a hotel, had a cop stay with me—”

“In the room? Was he hot?”

“He was a she. And yes, in the room.” She put up her hand. “And no, before you ask, there were two beds.

“The next morning, we were eating breakfast—room service—when Robert called and said they had something solid.”

“On video,” Robert said.

“So you know who they are? Is Ecks all right?”

“We don’t know. And, uh, we don’t know about Ecks either. There’s nothing obvious on camera. Only one of them got in the car, then we think pulled up to the front of the building. It was late though, no witnesses.”

“So you don’t have anything.”

“We have the video. Which I’d like you to take a look at. I’m going to have Fe bring you to the station.”

“We’re eating breakfast,” Abby said, then regretted it. She didn’t know why she said it, she didn’t care about eating. She wanted to find Ecks.

“Fine. When you’re done then.”

“Okay,” Abby said. “Do you want to talk to Fe?”

“Sure, put her on.”

“Here,” Abby said to Fe, holding out her cellphone to her.

The other woman took it. “Hey Delano. Sure.” She looked at Abby’s plate, then her own. “Yeah, almost done here. Thirty minutes?” She looked at Abby as she asked this.

Abby nodded.

“Okay, see you then.” She handed the phone back. “I’m done.” In response to Abby’s look, she added, “New diet, stop eating while there’s still food left on your plate.” She shook her head. “Seems wasteful though.”

Abby frowned. “You don’t look like you need a diet.”

“And how do you think I manage that? By eating whatever I want? Or by going on diets when I notice my weight start to creep up?”

“I hadn’t… thought about it,” Abby admitted. “That makes sense though. Like preventative medicine.”

“Exactly.” She got up with her plate, looked out the peephole, then opened the door and placed the plate outside it. “I’m gonna use the bathroom. Don’t open the door till I come out.”

“Okay.”

Twenty minutes later, having made it through traffic in a magically short amount of time, they were at the station, and Officer Robert Delano was fast-forwarding through several hours of surveillance video in which nothing happened. Fe was leaning on the edge of the table next to Abby. The video was playing on a moderate sized monitor, set against one wall. The room was either a small conference room, or a well-appointed interrogation room. Abby hadn’t decided which. Earlier in the video, an all-black car had pulled into view, then parked. Half of its rear end was visible, and the top was cut off, but something about it was familiar to her, she stared at the hyperspeed video, the car remaining stationary as the shadows shifted and the day progressed, and frowned.

Delano was shaking his head as the video sped forward. “Real professionals to sit there all day. One hellova constitution.”

“God,” Fe said, “don’t remind me about the existence of stakeouts.”

Finally, the car doors opened and feet appeared from the driver’s side, and Delano fumbled with the mouse to stop the racing footage and play it at normal speed.

Something clicked for Abby, and she leaned in close to make sure she saw what she thought she did. “That’s an Uber car.”

Delano looked at her. “You like cars?”

She frowned at him. Then she shook her head. “No, I mean it’s Uber, the company, the cab company.”

“Oh.” He looked into the distance. “That’s right.”

“I’ve been meaning to try them,” Fe said.

Delano looked back to the screen. “Well that’s interesting then. You think people like this, they would have hired a cab?”

Both Abby and Fe shook their heads.

Fe said, “No way.”

“Me either,” Delano said. “Which means it’s either stolen, or one of their drivers…”

“Is the criminal,” Abby finished. “That might be possible. The drivers aren’t actually employed there, just managed by them. They handle the dispatch, and payment, take a percent. They don’t do background checks or anything like that. Credit report, I think, actually.” After a moment of awkward staring, she added, “I did a story on them. I’m a tech reporter, mostly.”

“Well, depending on how this turns out, your options might be expanding outside the technology field.”

“Not how I imagined. Or wanted. I’d trade it for Ecks being okay.”

Fe put a hand on her shoulder. “He will be. And the cab thing, that’s certainly worth looking into.” She smiled at Abby. “Good obs. We completely missed that.”

Delano patted her once on the shoulder. It was almost a punch. “Yeah, good job there,” he said, then made to leave the room. “I’m going to get something started about that. You watch the rest of the video. Let Fe know if you notice anything else we missed.”

“Will do,” Abby said.

After a minute of watching the car just sit there, Fe said, “I’m gonna get some coffee, want some?”

“No thanks.”

“All right, be right back. Let me know if you see anything.”

Abby nodded, and then was alone in the room. The door shut, and she rewound the video to before the people inside the vehicle got out, then watched the screen as they did. People who had stolen Ecks from right beside her while she was sleeping. And she had been completely unaware.

She did something like shiver, an involuntary convulsion, at the thought.

She watched the entire video, but, despite prodding from a caffeinated Fe, got nothing else of use out of it. It was like Robert had said: Only one of them came out and got into the car, then drove off. Like when they went in, the kidnapper who had come out hadn’t been wearing a mask on their return either, but the angle was even worse than when they’d first gotten out. And he—or she, Abby couldn’t be entirely certain—was moving much faster. But the car did a U-turn in the street, then only creeped forward, out of frame. The way it drove off frame, the speed, made it seem like it went to the front of the building, or somewhere else very close, planning to park again. Not being able to see allowed Abby to hope. There was still the chance that Ecks was fine. That she hadn’t gotten him involved in something that had gotten him killed. She clenched her teeth. If that was the case, she’d find them. She didn’t know what she’d do when she did, but she made a promise that she would. And whatever she decided to do with them, they wouldn’t like. That, she was certain of.

When Delano came back, a few minutes after the video ended, he said they were going to try to see if they could find more cameras in the area, but there weren’t that many stores that close to Ecks’s place. At least not ones that would have cameras outside. So she shouldn’t get her hopes up. They were also now going to send officers out to set up a crime scene, see if Ecks’s car was still there.

And so, her civilian role played out, Abby was again stuck in a hotel room with Fe, the TV, a slow internet connection, and her laptop—and nothing to do. So, after looking at the TV for a while without actually seeing anything that was happening, she opened her laptop, created a new document in her work’s Dropbox folder—encrypted using EncFS—and started writing down what had happened to her.

When Fe finally said, “Wow, you’re a typing demon,” Abby had forgotten where she was. Although, she would have remembered soon enough, since she was almost at that part in the story.

She looked up from her screen, looking around the hotel room and past Fe. Then she rubbed her eyes and focused on Fe and smiled. “I guess so. You always hear keeping a journal’s good for you. It’s one of those rare sayings that’s right.”

“You writing about what happened? A story?” She lowered her voice, grinning, “Am I in it?”

“Nothing so formal. Just a freewrite of what happened. I’d never publish it like this. Becky wouldn’t let me—that’s my boss. And you’re not in it.”

“Oh,” Fe said. “Well, that’s… good I suppose.”

“Yet,” Abby added.

“Gee Abby, you nearly hurt my feelings.”

Abby laughed. The situation was almost normal; just two friends talking. But then, she was suddenly overwhelmed with the situation, and the smile vanished from her face. “Ecks,” she said. “I don’t know— For— I mean, I miss him. I’m worried about him—but I miss him too.” She let out a laugh. “I didn’t even like him.”

“It’s okay,” Fe said. “We’re doing everything we can. I’m sure we’ll find him.” She stood, walking over to the table with her gear on it. “Here, how about we check in, see if they found anything?”

Abby nodded. “Yeah, okay. Would have called if they found him, but could have something small.”

“Exactly.” Fe sorted through her stuff until she found her phone, called up a number, then held it to her ear. “Hey Delano.

“Just checking in.

“I know, couldn’t hurt.

“You’re not that busy.

“Oh? Why didn’t you call us?

“Calm yourself officer.

“I’ll let you get back to work then.” She lowered the phone and stared at it.

“What is it?” Abby asked.

Fe sat back down on the other bed. “Your friend Sellwood’s car. It was broken into. A smash and grab apparently.”

“Ecks’s car? Was anything missing? What were they looking for?”

Fe shrugged. “He didn’t mention anything, though they wouldn’t really know, not without Ecks giving a list of everything that was in there.”

“This is good though, right? More chance for fingerprints.”

“If it’s the same suspects, they were wearing gloves.”

“Hm, that’s right. Maybe they’ll find some hairs.”

“It’s possible. I wouldn’t bank too much on it though.”

“Don’t get my hopes up too much, huh?”

Fe shrugged. “I’m just saying that’s a long shot.”

“Just like Ecks still being alive.”

“Abby.”

“What? Aren’t I right? Most kidnappings after a certain point, the victim is dead?”

“This isn’t a normal situation.”

Abby had no response to that, and the conversation died. It
wasn’t
a normal situation, and it just made things that much harder to figure out.

“I’m hungry,” Fe said after a while. “You?”

“I could eat I guess.”

“Room service?”

Abby sighed. “I’d rather go out somewhere, but I guess that’s not an option.”

“It is, just not a good one. If you were followed to Ecks’s apartment…”

“Yeah,” Abby agreed, setting her laptop aside and lying down on the bed. “What about trapping them?” she asked, staring at the ceiling. It was tiled, giving it a regal feel, in contrast to the room itself. If she just stared at the ceiling, she could imagine she was somewhere nice she’d never been, like the Plaza Hotel, or the Taj Mahal.

“Let me guess, you’d be the bait.”

“Why not? It would be worth it.”

“That’s not necessary right now. If we don’t find something in the next day or two—”

“It will already be too late.”

“Don’t think like that.”

“It’s true, isn’t it? I don’t know the numbers, but most people who are kidnapped, the chance of them being found alive decreases with every day they’re missing.”

“Like I said, this isn’t a typical situation.”

They sat in silence. Then Fe said, “Tomorrow.”

Abby rolled her head to look at Fe, raised her eyebrows in a question.

“If nothing happens, I’ll talk to Delano about your idea.”

“Is this his case now?”

Fe shook her head. “Not sure, think it might be Masterson’s.” She smiled. “In any case, tomorrow. Good enough?”

“Better than nothing.”

“Good. Now hand me that menu.”

The next morning came and went. Nothing else was found. There was evidence in the car, but that would take a while to process. And so, with no other prospects, Fe agreed to take Abby into the station, and see about using her as bait.

This was not to be however, because as they were walking out the door to their hotel room, Abby’s phone rang.