Faceless (Sinister Secrets Book 2), Candle Sutton [dar e dil novel online reading txt] 📗

Dak stepped back and retrieved a notepad from his desk.

Sid jerked his head to the left. “Everyone’s in the conference room now.”

Kevyn came out from behind her desk.

Maybe this time the kidnappers had made a mistake that would be their undoing.

She could hope. They weren’t gaining any traction with the Jason Boggess case.

As she walked into the conference room, her attention locked on the monitor hanging on the wall. An image, frozen in time, showed a baseball-cap wearing man in a parking lot.

Clearly security footage. Only security cameras produced that kind of grainy, low resolution image these days.

Sid took his seat and started the video without a word.

The man walked across the parking lot. The image was too small for her to make out any details, other than the fact that he looked trim. He moved at a decent speed, making her think he wasn’t elderly, but she couldn’t make any guesses as to age.

He approached a white sedan, pausing with his hand on the door handle.

After a second, he stepped toward the front tire and leaned over the hood.

Two figures approached rapidly. Both wore jeans and t-shirts, one in blue and the other in white. Blue Shirt grabbed the man’s arms while White Shirt did something she couldn’t quite see.

Probably injecting him with a drug of some sort.

The man struggled for a moment before going slack.

While Blue Shirt grabbed the man under the arms, White Shirt grabbed his legs and they hauled the unconscious man to a cargo van parked a few spaces away.

The whole encounter took under a minute and matched Jason Boggess’ abduction almost perfectly.

Silence lingered.

A minute. That was all it took for a man’s life to be irreversibly changed. Even if they did find him alive, he’d never be the same.

She thought of her friend Wendy, who had been abducted by a serial kidnapper about eight months ago. Therapy had helped – Wendy would also credit her progress to God – but Wendy would never be as carefree as she’d once been.

Looking over her shoulder would forever be part of her life.

“Do we have an identity?” Dak’s question snapped her thoughts back to the current victim.

“Wes Andrews. Twenty-Six. He’s a speech therapist.” Sid rattled off the details that he’d likely only heard once, but somehow managed to retain.

“How long ago did this happen?” Kevyn gestured to the frozen image on the screen, which showed Andrews’ abandoned car and a blur where the van pulled away.

“About seven last night.” Sid shook his head slowly. “Happened as he left a rock climbing place.”

That should be a pretty public place and time. “And no one saw anything?”

“Not that have come forward.” Sid rocked back in his chair. “Andrews is a regular there and the owner knows his car. When the car was still there this morning, the owner reviewed security footage and found this, then called the police.”

“Why didn’t he call it in first thing?” Felicia asked, a hint of irritation in her tone.

“He thought maybe Andrews was picked up by a friend. Said he didn’t want to get the police involved if it wasn’t anything to worry about.”

That made sense, except for one thing. “And he didn’t think it was odd when the car was still there last night?”

“I guess it’s not uncommon for people to do a climb, then leave their cars at his business and walk to a nearby restaurant or bar.”

Dak pursed his lips. “Have you spoken to him?”

“Nope.” Sid gave his head a single shake. “All my info comes from the police report.”

“Let’s change that.” Dak flicked his attention between Sid and Felicia. “Why don’t you two head to the rock climbing place and question the owner. Find out what you can about who else was there last night so we can look for potential witnesses. JD, you get the detectives who responded to the case. Kev, you’ve got our vic. Let’s get his picture up on the board, plus a basic profile. See if you can figure out who might’ve had it out for him. I’ll work on connecting him to Boggess.”

As the team dispersed, Kevyn sent a final glance at the still-paused security image.

Their victim had been missing for over twelve hours and the clock was ticking.

₪   ₪   ₪

Tio studied the profiles in front of him.

The thorough workup Russ had done on each of the candidates was critical to his continued success. This latest batch from the Philippines was disappointing. At best.

He’d have to talk to his men about being more selective.

Of the twenty that had been brought over on the latest boat, at least a dozen were inadequate.

Such a waste. Go to the trouble and expense of bringing them all this way just to eliminate them.

He turned his attention to the eight candidates who might be viable.

Not bad. Not in the same league as Jason Boggess and Wes Andrews, but not everyone could be.

They might be of use to him.

He reached for his phone and called Zane, his head of security, who appeared in his doorway thirty seconds after disconnecting.

“This group goes into holding.” Tio passed the files of the viable candidates to the gorilla of a man who kept his enterprises secure. “The rest of them…”

He shook his head slowly, letting his silence convey his displeasure.

“Want me to see if Russ can use them at all?” Zane’s whisper-soft voice contrasted sharply with his massive size.

“I’ll talk to him. You tell the men that this,” He held up the stack of rejected candidates. “Is unacceptable. Next time, there will be consequences.”

₪   ₪   ₪

“Agent Taylor?”

Kevyn jerked as a deep voice spoke her name from the doorway.

A stocky man in a crisp white shirt, black pants, and perfectly-shined shoes stared at