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“Kevin, keep up. We’ve moved on. Anything else?”
“Um, well, kinda. I’m not sure how important it is, though.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“The kidnapping video had metadata attached that confirmed it had been shot on the same day it was sent. It also indicated the video had been recorded by an older model iPhone. No serial number or phone number, though. That’s it.”
“Sounds like you had a busy night.”
Kevin yawned as he said, “I’ve had worse.”
“Get some sleep. We’ll talk again later.”
Teddy hung up and checked his email again. Kevin’s new message had arrived.
Teddy clicked on a link labeledAudio Clean-upAttempt #1. The voice of the kidnapper was clearer than in the original recording, but not by much. Teddy listened to it several times but still couldn’t tell if the speaker was a man or a woman.
He clicked next through the security footage links. At first, he thought the kidnapping had occurred after Rebecca left the flower shop and had driven into the area with no cameras. But as he rewatched the clip of her car leaving the parking lot, he wasn’t so sure.
The shot was taken from a restaurant across the street. Kevin had included a note that he could find no cameras in the flower shop parking area.
Teddy paused the clip at the point where Rebecca’s Mercedes was about to turn onto the street. Try as he might, he couldn’t tell if it was her behind the wheel or someone else. He enlarged the image, but that didn’t help. The glare off the windshield made it impossible to see more than a partial silhouette of the driver. Which meant he couldn’t rule out any possibility just yet.
His phone vibrated, alerting him to a new text message. It was the contact info for Freeman’s men who would be joining Teddy that morning.
Teddy sent both men a text, introducing himself as George Samuels, a fellow security consultant, and letting them know they’d be working with him today. He included the address of where and when he wanted to meet.
After transforming into Billy Barnett, he grabbed the garment bag in which he’d put some clothes for later and headed downstairs. Instead of taking his Porsche, he checked out one of the more anonymous production sedans from a production assistant who met him in the lobby, and drove to the set for his promised visit.
???
By dawn, Kordo was parked back on the street near the Santa Barbara Hills Hotel.
After he’d realized he’d been spotted the night before, he’d returned to the Italian restaurant, in time to be there when the other man from the meeting at the lawyer’s office left. Kordo had followed him to the hotel. He waited to see if the man would come back out, but when he hadn’t after a few hours, Kordo assumed he was staying there. After making a quick stop at the flower shop where he and Neno had grabbed Rebecca, to make sure no evidence of what they’d done had been left behind, he headed back to their hideout.
He believed there was at least a decent chance the man in the Porsche was staying at the hotel, too. Hence his return trip this morning. If it turned out that wasn’t the case, he was certain that the Porsche driver’s friend would lead Kordo to him.
Kordo’s instincts proved correct again, because at a few minutes after seven a.m., the hotel door opened, and the Porsche driver exited.
The man handed the valet a slip of paper, but when the valet returned, he wasn’t driving the sports car. Rather, he brought a far less flashy dark blue sedan. Kordo thought it must be for someone else until the Porsche driver climbed inside.
Interesting. How many cars had the man brought to the hotel?
Kordo followed him, taking even more care not to be spotted than he had the night before. The sedan drove to an area north of downtown and parked on a side street. Oddly, several other people were also climbing out of vehicles, as if they had also just arrived.
Kordo grabbed a spot near the end of the block and continued his pursuit on foot. He made it as far as the corner but could go no farther, due to the road being blocked off.
The Porsche driver did not have the same problem. He walked up to the security checkpoint and was waved straight through.
Kordo looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. Down the street, beyond the roadblock, he could see several large trucks. At least one had a crew removing equipment of some kind.
On Kordo’s side of the barrier, a group of people were standing at the corner opposite of where he stood. Some were talking excitedly, while others peeked at the area beyond the roadblock.
Kordo walked over to a man near the back, standing by himself.
“Hey. Do you know what is going on here?”
The man glanced at him and huffed. “What does it look like? They’re shooting a movie.”
