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“Will do. I’ll call you if he has any other questions.”
Teddy received two texts as he pulled out of the restaurant parking lot. The first was from Mori with the license number for the Mercedes, and the second from Novak containing the addresses.
Teddy headed to the hospital first, hoping Rebecca’s Mercedes was there. But it wasn’t in any of the nearby lots.
He drove by the wine shop next. It had its own parking area in front of the building, but again, no Maybach.
As he headed toward the flower shop, he checked his rearview mirror. On the trip between the hospital and Christine’s Fine Wines, he had noticed a car a half block back, maintaining a constant distance between them. He had thought it a coincidence at the time, but the car was behind him again.
Not a coincidence, after all.
Keeping his speed down so as not to tip the other driver off, Teddy turned at the next road, then turned again two blocks down.
???
Sava Kordo eased his sedan around the corner and spotted the taillights of the Porsche, right where he expected them to be.
That afternoon, after he and Neno had kidnapped Rebecca Novak, Kordo had followed Neno, who was driving the woman’s Mercedes, to a neighborhood far from where they’d taken her. There, they’d ditched her car, then transported her to their hideout and transferred her into their makeshift holding cell. Kordo had then returned to the Novaks’ neighborhood, and parked on a street that overlooked their estate. From his observation point, he kept watch on the house.
Thirty minutes after Kordo arrived, a man left the house and climbed into the back seat of a car. The vehicle remained where it was until another man exited the mansion and hopped into the back seat on the other side.
A short time later, the Novaks’ lawyer left. Things quieted down after that. Over the next two hours, the only people Kordo saw were a gardener trimming some hedges and a man sweeping the driveway.
When his phone alarm went off at 6:07 p.m., Kordo perked up. That was the time the video of Novak’s wife was to be delivered. He was sure he’d see some actionthen, and he wasn’t wrong. Novak had rushed out of his house only a few minutes later and sped away in one of his cars. Kordo had followed him to the lawyer’s office.
A half hour after he’d begun keeping watch on the office building, two men arrived in an old Porsche. Kordo recognized the older of the pair as one of the men he’d seen leave Novak’s house that afternoon. The driver of the Porsche was unfamiliar to him, but he had no doubt the pair were there to see Novak and Mori.
They stayed inside the office for less than twenty minutes. When they reappeared, Kordo pointed a directional microphone at them in time to pick up the man he’d recognized from earlier saying, “If anyone can find her, it’s you.”
Kordo and Neno had predicted that Novak would reach out for help. It was why he’d been keeping a close eye on Novak all day. Good thing, because it looked like they were right to be concerned.
These two didn’t look like FBI or local law enforcement, though.
Kordo kept the mic aimed at them as they climbed into the Porsche, but neither said anything more.
He had planned on continuing to trail Novak the rest of the evening, but given what he’d overheard, the two men seemed a more immediate threat.
He followed them to an Italian restaurant. The manwho was going to “find her” stayed for only a short time before leaving again.
If Kordo had any doubt the Porsche driver was trying to rescue Rebecca Novak, it vanished as soon as he realized the guy was retracing a part of the route Rebecca had taken that afternoon.
At least he had been until he took an unexpected turn into a residential area and then another a couple of blocks down.
Curious, Kordo continued his pursuit.
11
For a moment, the road behind Teddy remained dark. Then like clockwork, the lights of the other sedan came around the corner.
No question about it. He was being followed.
This was not the first time he’d been in this position, so he wasn’t concerned. In fact, he was feeling quite the opposite. It seemed a fair bet that whoever was following him had something to do with Rebecca’s disappearance.
If Teddy could turn the tables on his new friend, he might be able to wrap this whole thing up before the night was over.
When he took another turn, he immediately dousedhis lights and pulled into the empty driveway of a dark house. He yanked up on the emergency brake, killed his engine, and ducked low so that the car looked unoccupied.
???
