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Rebecca hurried to the door, but it slammed shut before she could get there. She raised a fist to bang against it, but then lowered it when she heard voices outside.
One of her kidnappers laughed. When the other made a comment that she couldn’t understand, another memory hit her. In the kidnappers’ car as she was losing consciousness, she’d heard two men speaking in something that had sounded like Croatian. The voice beyond the door was using the same language.
Were her kidnappers from Croatia?
She shuffled back to the cot and sat.
Why would someone from her husband’s home country take her hostage?
She turned the question over in her head. But no matter what angle she looked at it from, the answer eluded her.
13
By six a.m., Teddy was up and ready to get back to work. His drive back from Hollywood had gone smoothly, landing him in Santa Barbara around three a.m. Getting only a few hours of sleep was nothing new for him. In his former life as an intelligence operative, there had been plenty of nights when he hadn’t slept at all. Three hours of shut-eye felt like a luxury in comparison.
A check of his emails revealed that in addition to the normal flood of production-related messages, he had one from Kevin, asking Teddy to call as soon as he woke up.
“Finally,” Kevin answered.
“Why, Kevin, I didn’t know you cared so much. Have you been sitting by your phone, waiting for me to call?”
“No, of course not.” Kevin paused. “Well, maybe a little.”
“What do you have for me?”
“For starters, I figured out Rebecca Novak’s route before she went missing.”
“Please tell me you found video of the kidnapping.”
“I wish I could, but no. I was able to piece together where she went, though. Security camera footage shows that she stopped at the hospital first, then a drugstore, and then the wine shop you mentioned. From there, she went to a picture framing place and then the flower shop.”
“And after that?”
“I don’t know. Her car left the flower shop, and a few blocks later traveled into a dead zone. I searched around to find where she came out of it, but there was no sign of her.”
“Are you saying she’s within that dead zone?”
“I’m saying I saw her car enter it but not leave. That doesn’t mean it’s still there now. I only checked a two-hour window from the point I lost track of her. The car could have left any time after that. Or maybe it was put on a flatbed, covered, and driven out before that.”
Teddy frowned. He’d been hoping for more. “I’d like to see what you found. Can you send me the clips?”
“Hold on.”
In the background, Teddy heard the distinctswooshof an email being sent.
“The links should be in your inbox now. I figured you’d want them, so I prepped them ahead of time.”
“Gold star for you.”
“I’ve also included a link to that audio you wanted me to clean up. It’s just a first pass, so don’t get excited. I’ll take another crack at it after I get some rest.”
“Kevin, you’re making me regret every bad thing I’ve ever said about you.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Any other surprises?”
“You’ve said bad things about me?”
