Ellie studied Katarina for a long time. “Funny. Once upon a time, I would have agreed with you, but I don’t know, Volkov. I think the motherhood gig is softening you up like a campfire marshmallow.”
Katarina screwed up her face. “Whatever. Let’s throw down sometime soon, and we’ll see who’s soft.”
Despite the challenge, Ellie sensed an undercurrent of relief in the woman’s voice. “Oh, and if you ever need to learn mom tips, I’m sure mine would be more than happy to share. Once we find her.”
“And Bethany.”
Both of them sobered over the reminder of what was at stake. Katarina scooted closer to the desk and focused on her monitor.
Another ten minutes passed before Ellie located her mom heading for the museum’s exit. “She’s leaving. Let’s check the footage from just outside the front entrance and the parking lot. You take the parking lot. I’ll do the entrance.” Pulling up one feed on each monitor saved time.
After a minute of silence, Ellie surged forward. “There. I’ve got her walking down the front steps.”
“Anything look weird?”
“No. Nothing at all. She doesn’t talk to anyone, doesn’t stop to check her phone. What the hell?”
Tension hitched Ellie’s shoulders toward her ears as she tracked her mom’s progress as far as that camera allowed. What if this entire endeavor turned out to be a huge waste of time? For all they knew, her mom could have been abducted after leaving the museum.
Katarina pointed. “Here she is, close to the parking lot.”
Ellie crowded closer to Katarina and leaned forward to get a better view of the monitor. “Okay, she’s walking, walking, walk…wait, why’s she stopping?” She’d been the source of Helen Kline’s impatient head tilt enough to identify the gesture, but the annoyed gesture was quickly displaced by a far more troubling expression. “Freeze it. There, does she seem worried to you?”
Katarina frowned. “I don’t…yeah, maybe. Or confused? By whatever caught her attention off screen. What’s she looking at? Can we find out?”
“I think so. Let’s finish this feed out first, though. Use slo-mo.”
About ten seconds in, Helen Kline turned away from her car and headed toward an alley that lined the far side of the museum.
What the hell are you doing, Mom?
“Is your mom usually impulsive like that?” Katarina asked as Helen’s image disappeared from the camera’s view.
“No. I’m not even sure impulsive is in Helen Kline’s vocabulary.” Ellie’s stomach filled with lead as she turned to the security guard. “Hey, can you tell me what’s over here?”
He scooted his chair across the floor to peer at the screen. “That’s the delivery bay, where the vans come to bring the food.”
“Then there should be a camera feed there, right? Since it’s an entrance into the museum?”
“Yeah. Check number eight, I think?”
“Thanks.”
Ellie clicked on the file for the number eight camera and fast-forwarded to the correct spot. Her mom appeared in the frame, striding past the kitchen entrance and disappearing from view again. Ellie smacked the desk. “Dammit.”
She went to rewind the footage, but Katarina’s hand stilled hers. “Look.” Katarina pointed to the edge of the screen.
A car cruised into the frame, following the same path Ellie’s mom had walked only moments before. Something about the silver vehicle’s deliberately slow pace made Ellie think of a predator. Like a hungry shark approaching a swimmer.
She shivered as the images continued to stream. The car rolled to a stop, blocking the only exit. A door opened, but the parking job had been well planned, far enough from the camera that only the intruder’s legs showed.
She let the video play through. Sixty seconds passed. Two minutes. Nothing happened, but then—
Ellie hit stop and rewound. “Watch closely. Tell me what you see.”
Katarina nodded, and Ellie hit play, unsure whether or not her imagination was running haywire. She’d half convinced herself of that when Katarina pointed at the rear tire. “You mean, that bounce there? Like something heavy just got dumped in the trunk?”
“Yeah.” Neither of them needed to voice their fears out loud to understand what the other one was thinking.
The heavy item deposited in the trunk was very likely an adult body.
Ellie’s mouth went dry. If that was true, then Kingsley had abducted her mom at eleven-thirty-seven that morning. And because of the stupid camera angle, they had no way of knowing if she was injured or even breathing when he shoved her in the trunk.
A tiny hiccup of distress escaped from between her clenched teeth. Katarina slanted her an alarmed look.
“Shoving the victims he abducts in the trunk is one of Kingsley’s go-to maneuvers, and they’re almost always healthy and alive. Remember, it’s all about the game for him, and dead people make for shitty players.”
“Thanks.” Ellie was glad there were no mirrors around. She figured she must be giving off serious breakdown vibes for Katarina to bother with reassuring her. She gazed helplessly at the screen. “I just wish we could see something useful. All we have now is a silver car, and knowing him, he ditched it already.”
As she was speaking, another figure appeared in the frame. Much skinnier, and short enough that the camera caught the better part of her head.
The girl’s face was only in profile a brief moment before she turned her back to the camera, but that second was enough.
Just to be sure, Ellie rewound, hit play, and froze the feed when the girl’s face came into view.
“Bethany?” Katarina whimpered the name,
