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I hear a scream and then the line cuts out. I try to call her back but it just rings and rings. I take the phone, run downstairs in my pajamas, hoping to find Leo.
The house is empty. I can’t find anyone. The kitchen is full of empty bottles and cans, dining room too. All the other doors are locked. I call out but no one answers.
I hear something in the distance. A humming sound, somewhere out back.
I run that way and find Sergio sitting on the back of a ride on mower, cutting the croquet lawn. I wave to him and he brings the mower toward me as I run his way. He comes to a stop and then climbs down. “What’s up?” he asks as I shove the phone toward him.
“Something happened to Fleur. She got cut off. Is there any way of tracing this call? Finding her phone?”
He frowns, taking the cellphone out of my hand and running his fingers down the screen. “Maybe,” he says. “Come with me.”
He marches surprisingly fast toward the house. “Tell me what happened,” he says.
I sum up the phone call and he listens in silence. “I don’t think it’s Leo taking the dinosaur skeleton,” he says when I’m done. “I’m guessing it’s Amato.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Leo would have told me if he was going to do it.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a key, unlocking Leo’s study.
“Sit there,” he says, walking around the desk, reaching into the top drawer and pulling out a long silver cable. He plugs one end into the phone and the other into the computer.
“I hope I don’t get fired for this,” he says. “I’m supposed to just keep an eye on you. Make sure you stay here.”
“You’ve got to help me, Sergio. What if Amato’s got Fleur?”
“We’ll soon find out, won’t we?” He hits some keys on the computer, typing fast, squinting at the screen. “There,” he says, grabbing a pen and writing down a set of numbers. “Out in the sticks in Montana.”
“How long will it take us to get there?”
“From here? About five hours if the jet’s ready. I better tell Leo.”
He pulls his own phone from his pocket, typing a message out. “There,” he says a minute later. “I’ve let him know where we’re going and why. Shit, Anna. I’m not sure about this. Maybe we should wait until he calls back.”
“But Fleur could be dead by then. We need to find her.”
“You said she screamed and then the phone cut out. I can only get you to the location of the phone. What if she’s no longer with it?”
“You either help me, Sergio, or I go alone. What’s it to be?”
“You don’t leave me a lot of choice, do you?”
“We’ve got to try. Call the local cops. Tell them to look for her.”
“If Amato has got her, that would only alert him that we’re coming. If we’re doing this, we need to move fast and quiet. Just the two of us. Can you shoot?”
“Not really.”
“Point and pull the trigger. It’s not hard.”
He crosses to a chest of drawers by the wall, pulling out two guns, passing one of them to me. “Keep the safety on as long as you can. I’ll send a message to the pilot to be ready. We’ll take the chopper. Leo took the boat.”
“Let’s go.”
He disconnects my phone, handing it back to me. “Keep trying,” he says. “Maybe it’s just been a mix up.”
“I doubt it. I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Sergio. I’ll never forgive myself if anything happens to her. She’s not part of this. Why would Amato take her?”
“To get to you.” He stops dead. “Fuck. What if this is a trap and I’m taking you right to him?”
