Page 67 of The Attercop

“I know.”

She walked over to Declan’s unconscious body and stroked his chest and abdomen. “Pretty thing, isn’t he? How’s he doing?”

“He’s still alive,” he said, a bit too harshly. He didn’t like her touching him.

“Good. But don’t get too attached to him. This needs to be wrapped up by tonight. We have a plane to catch. And don’t forget, you can’t take him with you. Now, I’ve gotta go get Charlie. In the meantime, enjoy your plaything.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Charlie led Duck up from the basement of the house and took him out into the back yard. The two others followed and Sam shut the door.

Gary crossed his arms. “I don’t think we can declare this anofficialcrime scene.”

“Why not?” Charlie asked.

“We have no search warrant,” Sam explained. “We also didn’t enter the premisesknowingthat a life was in danger, and it hasn’t been twenty-four hours since Declan went missing.”

“So, we’re just going to do nothing?” Charlie demanded.

Gary put his hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “I didn’t say that. Given what wehavefound and know about Declan, I think we can at least start some preliminary investigations. I’ll head into work and see about getting the glass shard analysed and see if we can find out who owns this property.”

“I can get Mrs B to do that for you,” Charlie offered.

Sam raised his eyebrows.

“She’s got contacts who can get the information fast. She’s done it before.”

“Good. Do it,” Gary said.

Sam interjected. “If we’re assuming that this is a kidnapping, the first twenty-four hours are critical. I’ll track down as many of the names on Declan’s list as I can, and check their alibis for when Declan went missing. But I just have a list…no contact info.”

“I can get Mrs B to provide you with that, at least information on anybody that we have on file,” Charlie offered. “Is there anything else I can do?”

“Look, Charlie,” Sam said, “I know you’re worried about Declan, but you still have your own missing persons case to deal with. Focus on the girl, and Gary and I will focus on my son.”

Charlie didn’t like the idea of not looking for Declan, but he knew that with two veteran cops on the job, Sam was right. “Do one of you want to take the van back to the office with you?”

“I think we’d better leave it where it is,” Gary advised. “If we can get a warrant to investigate this, they’ll want everything left as is. And we don’t want to risk the chance that we’ll tip off the kidnappers that we’re onto them by moving it.”

Charlie nodded. “Makes sense. Sam, can you get a lift with Gary? I want to check out Jules’ house. In the meantime, I’ll call Mrs B and have her do her thing.”

Sam nodded, then looked at his watch. “It’s half-past eleven now. Let’s reconvene at your office by two.”

Sam walked Charlie back to his car. “Charlie, I want to make it clear—I’m not going to rest until we get him back here safe and sound.”

Charlie nodded. “Yeah. I know.”

“In the meantime,” Sam said, “I promise I’ll let you know the moment I hear anything about Declan or what we’ve found.”

Charlie sat in the car with Duck riding shotgun. He took out Declan’s phone and called the office. It was answered after one ring.

“Declan?” Mrs B asked in a hopeful voice.

“Sorry, Mrs B, it’s just me. I’m on Declan’s phone. He left it in the van. Look, I need a few favours. I’m going to send you a picture of a list Declan wrote. Can you go through it and identify which of the names on the list were clients of ours and track down phone numbers and addresses for them? Actually, thenumbers and addresses of all of them, if you can find them, and then send it to Sam. He needs it as soon as possible.”

“Yes. I’ll get right on it,” she replied.

“Great. One other thing. Can you use your contact at Alberta Land Titles and look up a property for me?”