At six am Jared came into the office. “Hey boss, you’re here early.”
“Yeah, I found our boy, too.” I said smiling at him.
“No way!” Jared exclaimed.
“He is using his mother’s name, Price, these days. I pulled up the picture on the screen. I’ve sent it out to all the LEO’s.”
“Why didn’t I think of that?” he chided himself.
“You would have eventually.” I smiled enjoying the moment.
“Maybe, but it might have been too late.” Jared shook his head.
“Well, we still don’t know what he is up to and when. But now we can at least draw some better lines between him and known associates and maybe get a better handle on this thing.” I tried to reassure him. There was certainly plenty of work to be done on this case yet.
Jared sat down and got to work. About half an hour later Logan and Stephanie joined us. By noon, we had a much better picture of Joey Price’s network.
Greg’s face appeared on my computer. “Hey boss, you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here Greg what have you got?”
“A lot! So, you were right about Russo’s phone. Someone had a remote tracker on it so it could not only track his movements through the GPS, and it was capturing keystrokes.”
“So, all of Russo Security files are exposed?” I needed to know.
“Yes, not just company files but his personal files too.” Greg elaborated.
“Okay, well we know Mike Russo is a target. But, is he the only target?”
“I’ll keep digging.” Greg said.
“Greg, do you know what hotel Mike Russo check into last night?”
“No.”
“Okay, I’ll call the chief.” I hung up and then dialed Jim’s number.
“Corey, here.”
“Jim, it’s Ethan. Look we got a good line on Branigan using the name Price. And Russo is definitely a target. What hotel did he check into last night?” I asked.
“Damn! He is staying at the Renaissance. I’ll call the two officers watching him and tell them to stay close.” He answered.
“Thanks Jim, I’m on my way over there. We can put him in a safe house.” I said, thinking that would be a better situation.
“Alright, then.” Jim clicked off.
“Logan you’re with me.” I turned to Jared and Stephanie, “keep connecting the dots.”
We were almost to the hotel when my phone chirped.
“Craddock.”
“Ethan, it’s Jim. I just spoke to my two officers and they say that Russo is gone, looks like he was taken by force.”
“Damn!”
“Sorry, Ethan.”
“Thanks for the heads up, Jim. I’ll call you later.” I clicked off.
“What’s happened?” Logan asked.
“Looks like Russo is gone, maybe kidnapped.” I sighed in frustration.
We were met in the lobby by two plain clothes and two uniformed officers.
“Gentlemen, I understand from Chief Corey, that Mike Russo is gone, what can you tell me?” I asked showing them my credentials.
“There looks like there was a struggle up there and his personal belongings are still in the room. We think he was taken by force.” One of the plain clothes officers answered.
I looked at Logan and he was already pulling out his cell phone and dialing our forensic team to get over here right away.” “Show me!” I demanded.
The two plain clothes officers took me upstairs. The door to the room was still open and there was yellow tape across it.
“You touch anything in there?”
“No, we came up here when we got the call from the Chief that you were on the way and once we realized he was gone, we stepped out and called the station as soon as we saw this mess.” The officer looked around at the overturned furniture and blood stain on the bed.”
“Great.” I ran my hand through my hair. “FBI has jurisdiction over this scene now.”
“Yes, sir.” They replied and walked away.
Logan came up and looked around. He let out a small whistle. “What a mess.”
“In more ways than one.” I added.
“You think Price did this?” Logan asked looking around the room.
“I’d bet my Redskin’s tickets on it.”
Logan whistled again. “Forensics will be here soon.”
“Okay, well let’s wait out here.” I stepped back out into the hallway to make sure no one disturbed the scene until our team could get there. “Call the office and tell Jared and Steph what’s going on.”
Logan nodded and stepped away to use the phone.
I called Greg. “Greg can you and the team there check the traffic cameras in the area. I’m going to go talk to hotel security as soon as the forensic team gets here. “
“On it.”
“Okay, thanks.” Just when I thought we were getting ahead of this thing; I shook my head.
“You okay boss?” Logan asked as he slipped his cell phone back in his pocket.
“Just frustrated.”
“Yeah, I know how you feel,” he agreed. “You seem worse for wear lately, anything going on?”
“No, no. I’m good.” I lied.
Logan wasn’t one to press. We’d worked together a long time and he knew me as well as anyone. He wasn’t going to push the issue and I was grateful for that. How do you explain dreaming about a woman you only ever spent two nights with, and it wasn’t even intimate? I sounded like a crazy person even to myself.
I shook my head. I needed to focus on Joey Price and our missing security executive.
“We’re here Agent Craddock!” Andria Chapman called from the elevator.
“Good, it’s a mess in there so you’ll have
