Casey strained to see past me without sticking her head out too far. “We’ll have to be careful, places like these are bound to have some level of automated security system. Even if they don’t have cameras, they’ll still have an automatic sensor light.”
“There are two cars up the right-hand side of the drive.” I looked back around the corner of the wall. “If we stick close to the wall, we have our best chance of staying hidden. On three, we move.”
She nodded.
“One, two, three.”
We moved quickly, and quietly, sticking to the right hand wall. Reaching the first car under the shroud of darkness, we squatted down.
Ahead of us, I could see movement in the shadows.
It was a figure squatting down behind the second car. I couldn’t make out which way they were facing.
I indicated to Casey to cover me.
She raised her weapon, and I moved forward, my steps not making a sound on the concrete. With my gun raised forward, I snuck closer to the shadow behind the next car.
“Ben.” My voice was quiet but firm as I looked down at the man squatting low behind the car.
“Jack?” He almost sounded relieved until he turned and saw my gun. He raised his hands. “What are you doing here?”
“Trailing you.” My answer was blunt and I stayed in the shadows, a few feet away from him. “And finding a missing girl.”
“No, Jack, you’ve got it all wrong.” He stayed squatted down, hands still raised. “I’m here to see who’s been contacting me.”
“You’ve got one minute to explain yourself.” My gun was focused on his torso.
“I… I got a call.” He looked to the building in front of us. “I don’t know who it was from, but they said they needed my help.”
“I know you were at the dog park on Saturday morning, Ben. That’s more than a coincidence.”
“Ok. Ok.” He waved me down. “Look, I don’t know who is in that building. All I know is that they needed my help and they sent me a message saying that.”
I wanted to believe him, but I knew he still wasn’t giving me the whole story.
“Ben. You’re family, but that doesn’t mean I won’t kill you if it saves the life of a little girl. Best you get talking. And don’t hold anything back.” He could hear the gravity in my voice.
“Alright, Jack.” He leaned back down, and rested against the car. “Get lower and I’ll tell you everything.”
I squatted down, gun still focused on Ben’s torso, and indicated for Casey to move forward. She moved forward next to the car, within a foot of Ben. He nodded his hello, more instinct than pleasantry, but she didn’t respond.
“I got a message last week saying that if I wanted my one hundred-thousand-dollar investment back, all I had to do was go to the park, call Chase on a burner phone, and get him angry enough that he would have to walk away from the playground. That’s all I was told, and I did it.”
“And then?”
He shrugged. “I went to the park with my dogs and watched as Chase arrived with his daughter. I called him at 10am as instructed and pretended I was a potential debt collector looking to find money that he had ripped off from other people. Chase got angry and stepped away from the playground. I kept him on the phone for ten minutes until I received a message simply saying ‘hang up’, so I did.” He paused and looked around.
“Keep talking, Ben,” I instructed. This wasn’t the time for stalling.
“Ok. I didn’t stick around to be seen. As much as I’m sure he wouldn’t recognize me anyway, I was just a bank check to him, and we only met once in person, but I couldn’t take the risk so I called the dogs over and left. I didn’t know that the person was going to kidnap his daughter. I swear it, Jack,” Ben added desperately.
“And how do you know that now?” Casey asked.
“When Chase went back to the playground, I watched him from my car, he became slightly frantic, and then he read a text message. He sat on the nearby park bench for ten minutes and then left the playground without his daughter.” He shook his head. “That’s when I knew something was up. Something wasn’t right. I kept an eye on all the police reports, but nothing came up. And then you showed up at my door the next day saying that you were working for Chase, well, I put two and two together from there.”
“You didn’t raise the alarm?” Casey questioned.
“What could I say? As a cop, I couldn’t be involved in a kidnapping. It would be the end of my career. Nobody in the department could know about this. I’d be finished.”
“And what about me, Ben. I’m not a cop, you could have come clean to me, but instead you lied to my face. Why? I’m the one person you could have talked to.” I glared at him accusingly.
“I thought I could do it myself. I’m a cop, a professional. Tracking down criminals is my job. I never thought I would become an accomplice. Now I’m the criminal, and I’ve let everyone down. I’m so sorry, Jack.”
Well, I wasn’t going to disagree.
“And now?” I drew the attention back to our current situation. “Why are you skulking about out here?”
“I got a message from a different number, and they said they needed my help to get the money off Chase. Told me to meet them here at 11pm.”
“Who is it?”
“I have no idea. That’s why I’m scoping the place out first.” He popped his head over the
