Page 80 of Grayson’s Challenge

Grayson walked around the desk to look at the screen, when Monique’s phone rang.

She pulled it out and looked at the display. “It’s Mom, I’ll take it outside.”

“Sure, babe.”

She stepped out into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind her.

“Babe, huh?” Quinn asked with a smirk.

Grayson shrugged. “Guess our fathers weren’t completely wrong after all.”

“Well, they have been around for a while and know a thing or two.”

“And hopefully they’ll be around for a lot longer.” Grayson pointed to the screen. “This is where all our leads point to. Apparently, there’s an old decommissioned post office that’s been condemned because of asbestos. That’s where I would lock up hostages. I’d start there.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Quinn promised and reached for the phone. “We should know more in the next half hour.”

“Thanks, buddy. And can you please send a message to all hybrids who’re not on assignment as well as the top brass for a meeting in half an hour?”

“Will do.”

Grayson left the office. In the hallway, Monique was still talking to her mother, giving her encouraging news. He exchanged a quick glance with her and pointed to Thomas and Eddie’s office to make her understand, where she could find him.

He knocked on the office door, then entered. Eddie was still on his own, and looked up from the computer.

“The voodoo spell worked,” Grayson said.

“Oh, was that the boom I heard earlier?” Eddie shook his head and rolled his eyes. “What did he destroy this time?”

“Blew out the door.”

“Is that all?”

“Hmm. The spell confirmed the same location as the one you found for the van and Rufus’s last cell phone location. So I asked Quinn to send in drones to check out that old postal facility.”

“Good.” Eddie pointed to the screen. “About Orlando…”

When he hesitated, Grayson felt his heart pound faster. “What did you find?”

“No phone calls or text messages between him and Rufus, so that’s a good thing. But the night before New Year’s Eve, Orlando’s and Rufus’s cell phones were in the same area at the same time. Now, that’s not definite proof that they met, particularly since it happened in the Castro. There’s one bar after the other, so they might have been in different bars, but since we only have Orlando’s exact GPS location because we own his phone, but not Rufus’s, I can’t say with a hundred percent certainty that he and Rufus met.”

“Hmm.” But what if they had? “What would Orlando do in the Castro? It’s mostly gay bars. And I’m pretty sure he’s straight.”

“He is,” Eddie confirmed. “But he might have just been there to find somebody to feed from. It’s a very lively area, crawling with humans in various states of inebriation. Easy prey.”

Eddie had a point. But until he could rule out Orlando as the leak, it was best to take precautions. “If Orlando calls you for any reason and asks you how the rescue mission is going, tell him we’ve got nothing new.”

“Do you think that’s really necessary?”

“Yes. What did you find on William?”

“I had to hack into his cell phone provider’s records, since we don’t own his phone. He had no contact with Rufus, and he didn’t cross paths with him in San Francisco either, at least not according to the cell phone data.”

“Okay, so he’s probably clean.”

“Looks like it.”

“Thanks, Eddie. I’ll talk to Isabelle to make sure Mom and Faye don’t let anything slip in Orlando’s presence.”