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“So, this needs to be done in the website setup?”
“It’s the easiest way, yes. Why, what are you thinking?”
I stare at the note on the sheet in front of me, and another puzzle piece falls into place. “Rendezvous’ website was designed by Tobias’ company.” I let that hang in the air a moment while my mind works to put it together. Because something doesn’t add up here.
“Jay, do a search on Adam Masters.” He taps away on his phone no questions asked. I get up needing to keep moving as my body thrums with restless energy.
“…Adam Masters, died in action, sister is Alicia, which we know. Parents are… mother works at a local bank, father…”
“What?”
Jay looks up at me. “Peter Masters died in an accident a month ago on his way home from work at Lux Designs.”
“Looks like we found another link to Rendezvous and Tobias. I think we need to go and have a chat with Alicia.” I take a quick snap of Alicia’s address from Jess’ folder before we leave.
It takes us twenty minutes to get to Alicia’s house. And we pull up just as she’s entering the house.
Jumping from the car, I jog across the road and catch her door with my foot before she can shut it.
“Hey, what are you doing?” she exclaims as panic widens in her eyes, and she tries to close the door on my foot again.
“Alicia Masters?” I ask, and her eyes narrow suspiciously.
“Yes. Who are you?”
“I’d like to have a word with you about Rendezvous, you work there, right.”
“I don’t know who you are, and where I work is none of your business, so please leave before I call the police.”
“Calling the police sounds like a good idea. I’m sure they’ll be really interested in what goes on at that place.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says, sounding less than convincing. “Please leave.”
“Do you know someone called Garcia?” As soon as the words leave my mouth, she shoves the door, squashing my foot, before bolting away inside the house.
I don’t hesitate to go after her. It’s obvious she knows something, and I’m not leaving here till I get answers.
I catch her as she leaps a footstool in the lounge heading for the back door.
“Please, please, I haven’t told anyone about the auctions. I swear.” Her hands are flying all over the place as she tries to get away. I get a slap to the face for my trouble, but eventually we get her restrained long enough to explain that we aren’t here to hurt her.
When she’s finally calmed down and with a little bit of persuading, she spills everything she knows.
Turns out that when her dad, Peter, died a month ago, she got a visit from a man claiming that Peter owed him money. With no way to pay and not wanting to involve her mother, who had been struggling since her dad died, she’d agreed to sign on at the agency.
She had no idea about the secret auctions the agency ran until she overheard a conversation a week ago. When she tried to leave with the promise to pay her father’s debt another way, they had threatened to kill her mother, and effectively forcing her to stay.
Before we leave to pay Tobias a visit, I call Scott and arrange for Alicia to be moved to a safe house.
We park downthe road from Tobias’ Mayfair house and walk the rest of the way. We stop and watch from across the street for a few minutes, but there’s no movement from inside.
“Come on,” I say, taking a step forward.
“That’s not a good idea,” a female voice says from the left, and we both turn to find Roxy walking towards us.
“I think it’s a very good idea if it means I can find out who took my son and Jess,” I tell her.
“He doesn’t know anything, Rick.”
