“Right.” He looked over at Keane and said, “Charlotte mentioned that, when she was tied up in the back of a refrigerator truck, and the guys were at the end of the trailer, where the door is, and smoking. And one of the guys complained. What I want to know is, who the guy in jail is, which one of the two still alive out of those original four kidnappers.”
Just then his phone buzzed. He checked it and walked over to his laptop. “Miles just sent us part of the interview with that guy, our captive.” He sat down and brought it up on newsfeed.
She looked at it, sighed, and said, “I think he was a smoker.”
“Yeah, but was he the smoker who stopped?”
She looked at it, frowned, and said, “I think so.”
Just then the voices filled the air, and their captive asked if he could have a cigarette.
“You should quit,” the interviewer said. “It’s bad for your health.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “The other two guys smoked like crazy men, and they’re dead.”
“And that’s what I wanted to know,” Nico said. He hit the Pause button, looked over at Keane, and said, “We’re dealing with two separate issues here.”
“In what way?”
“What if the two kidnappers were killed not because they failed at the kidnapping or at the handoff or whatever but because of the smoking?” Even Joshua snorted at that. But then, as Nico explained, he said, “This is the guy who stopped when he was ordered to. The other two did not.”
“So, you’re saying that the fourth guy is the local boss man,” Keane asked, “and he is the one who we’re really looking for?”
Nico nodded. “So, what we have is one killer who took out his cohorts because he was disgusted with their smoking behavior, but that had nothing to do with the kidnapping.”
“So, we still have to find out who this guy is and what his relationship is to Charlotte.”
“Well, his relationship is likely that he was hired, but who was he hired by is the real question. Probably the merc.” Nico hit Play on the interview, and the same guy was being asked questions about the fourth man who didn’t like the smokers.
“He’s the one who hired us. He used to get pissed off because they were supposed to do what he said.”
“How did he contact you?”
“I was on the street one day, smoking outside the hotel, and he came out and asked if I was interested in making some money. I didn’t realize that it would get this ugly.”
“What were you supposed to do?”
“I was supposed to help kidnap this woman, who was being taken to a businessman who wanted to question her.”
“And do you have any idea why?”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t. It didn’t matter. But then killing wasn’t involved.”
“Do you know who the businessman was?”
He shook his head. “No, and we were told we’d never know.”
“Makes sense,” the interviewer said. “So, if you can’t tell us who hired you, then how about the fourth guy? The one who was the leader? How would we contact him?”
“I’ve seen him around. He hangs at the coffee shop. A couple coffee shops actually, all in the same block around the hotel.”
Just then the Mavericks chat window popped up. We’ve picked up a fourth man.
“Yes,” Charlotte said, her hands on Nico’s shoulders and squeezing tight. “They got him.”
“Yes, and that is very good news.”
The chat box texted again. He’s not talking but has been ID’d by the other kidnapper.
“So now we have ID’d the four locals who were hired.” Nico typed into the chat box, Have forensics check this guy to see if he killed the two dead men in the apartment.
A question mark came back.
Nico explained. They were smokers, heavy smokers who wouldn’t listen to him when he told them to stop. What are the chances that this is just a simple case of You work for me, so you do what I say. And, when you don’t, I’ll pop you one?
The word Shit showed up in the Mavericks chat box, and then it disappeared again.
“Which would mean that the kidnappers didn’t really intend to kill me,” Charlotte said slowly.
“Not these guys,” Nico said. “But that doesn’t mean that the one who hired them wasn’t thinking about it.”
“You know what? Businessman still takes us back to Andy’s real father,” Keane noted.
“It does,” Nico said. On another thought, he added, “I want to know what the boy’s birth mother did for a living.” He typed that question in the chat box. An answer came back almost immediately.
I believe she worked in the hotel industry. Why?
Just searching for some answers. Keane raised an eyebrow at the chat box exchange, and Nico shrugged. “That might be how she connected with a merc. Maybe someone who stayed at the hotel? Or someone who knew someone. The average person isn’t going to be able to pick up the phone and call for a hired killer.”
With the idea that they now had the four men who had been hired to kidnap her, coffee was poured, and their conversation was animated as they came up with ideas.
Finally she got up and said, “I need breakfast. Bacon and eggs for anybody?”
Nico laughed. “Absolutely,” he said. “You can feed me bacon and eggs any day.”
She tossed him a special smile and pulled out the bacon and put it in the pan. He absolutely loved the domesticity of this. But, at the same time, he also knew that Keane and Joshua were well aware of the change of status in Nico and Charlotte’s relationship. Tough. If they didn’t like it, too bad. He was a happy camper.
Chapter 14
Charlotte made bacon and eggs for everyone, while they waited for more answers. She didn’t know how much of a change
