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Bud barely had to sniff the shoe to get her scent since he was already so familiar with her. He barked, letting him know he was ready, then took off at a lightening fast pace.
Bud tore through the house, guided by his nose, taking the hallways so surely that Kane felt hope in his chest. With Bud hot on the trail, surely they would find her?
He led him into the gym, then skidded to a stop by an open window that proceeded into the grounds beyond. He barked three sharp barks — Bud, for “hurry up” — until Kane caught up to him.
It was clear that Lexi had gone out of the window, bypassing the cameras by the doors.
Together they went outside as Bud led him around the back path until they reached the area on the side of the house that was currently being used as the staff parking lot.
Bud reached one of the empty spaces, ran around in a circle, alerted and whined.
This was where the trail ended. Knowing what this meant, his heart hammered like a drum.
She’d been taken off the property.
He knew it without any doubt.
Lexi had been forced into a waiting vehicle and driven away. His eyes squeezed closed as an image of her, terrified and struggling, forced its way into his mind. The thought morphed into a memory next of the acrid heat of the Afghan desert where when women were taken, they never returned whole again — if they were returned at all.
He choked at the sudden dryness in his mouth.
He forced himself to focus. He couldn’t let the fear get in his way, not when she was counting on him. Whenever a kidnapping occurred, time was of the essence. The sooner she was found, the better her life expectancy.
With this fact coldly etched in his mind, he hurried to the security office where Stan was already examining the footage that had been recorded throughout the night.
The CCTV footage didn’t show much out of the ordinary. Other than the guests who came in through the front door but then were led directly through to the back gardens, all the faces they could see were staff that they knew. All were people who should be there.
They looked through the footage of the camera that covered the staff parking area. Saw the white van in the spot that Bud had led him, too. But mud covered the license plate — they wouldn’t be able to ID it through the usual means. All they could see were a man and a woman heading to the rear of the vehicle. The woman didn’t even look like Lexi. She was dressed casually and had blonde hair.
Kane studied the footage, fighting to keep his panic down. Unhelpful thoughts came into his head, blaming him for this. If he hadn’t gotten involved with her, if he had just been professional and kept her at arm’s length, he wouldn’t have gotten upset when that actress had embarrassed him; he wouldn’t have made a stupid mistake.
And Lexi’s life would not be at risk.
It was his own insecurity that had brought them here.
His entire life he’d been trying to run away from his history, from his background. Worried at repeating his parents’s loveless marriage, he’d swung too far the other way, not letting anyone in. But just as he’d come to understand how much she meant to him, it was all coming too little, too late.
Something in the footage on-screen caught his attention, pulling him from his pity party.
“Rewind that back a few seconds.”
Stan turned the wheel on the player, shifting time back. When the action played, Kane studied the screen with the intensity of the desperate.
Something wasn’t right with the picture, but what was it?
And then he saw it: the woman wasn’t wearing any shoes.
His mind flitted back to Lexi’s room, to the heels that she had dropped onto the carpet.
“That’s her,” he cried out. “That’s Lexi.”
He explained his reasoning to Stan, cursing the angle of the camera that didn’t show much beyond that. Seconds after the Lexi apparently got into the van, the van left. He wasn’t able to ID the driver as he’d kept far away from the camera.
Kane’s fingers dug into his palms.
“Where’s our list of staff vehicles? Crosscheck that with who’s on shift today. Who’s not here anymore? I want to know what vehicle was parked in that space and who it belonged to.”
“What about the other cameras? Inside the house?” Stan offered.
