AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I was already testing the code before you called. And I can confidently say that it should probably work.”
“Probably?”
“Almost certainly could work?”
“Not making me feel any better there, Kevin.”
“How about this? I do the mod to your phone, and I also track the data like you suggested.”
“That’s a plan I can get behind. Feel free to have your way with my phone.”
“That sounds—”
“Just do it.”
After Kevin made the tweaks to Teddy’s phone, Teddy checked the location app. The other phone showed as offline, location unknown.
While they’d been talking, a message had come in from Freeman, confirming Matthew’s Santa Barbara Airbnb rental.
There was still an hour and a half until Teddy expected the video to be sent and, theoretically, the phone turning on. That would leave him with more than enough time to pay Matthew’s temporary residence a visit.
Teddy found the rental in a quiet neighborhood, a few blocks from the beach. It was a studio apartment over a garage, next to the house where the owners lived.
A car was parked in the driveway. Not the Honda Accord Matthew had been seen driving, so it probably belonged to one of the people living in the house.
Donning the persona of a friend coming to visitMatthew, Teddy walked past the parked car to the stairs running up the outside of the garage. At the top, he paused at the apartment door and listened in case anyone was coming from the house to see who he was. When he was sure he’d been unobserved, he placed his ear against the door.
Silence.
He donned a pair of gloves and used his lock picks to let himself inside.
If not for the suitcase sitting near the bed, the place looked as if it were already waiting for its next tenant. Empty counters, chairs tucked under the small dining table, a bed made to what looked like military standard.
He finally saw signs of occupancy when he checked the bathroom. Laid out side by side on the counter were a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a razor, and a can of shaving cream, the bottoms of each perfectly aligned. Piled on the floor at the other end of the room were a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. They seemed oddly out of place, given the neatness of everything else.
Teddy lifted the shirt with the toe of his shoe. Both it and the pants were covered in dirt.
What could Matthew have been doing that would have made such a mess?
Teddy moved back into the main room to conduct a more thorough search. In the kitchen trash can, he found more than a dozen fan magazines.
He removed a few and flipped through them. In each, images had been cut out. All were from articles about Tessa.
He then laid Matthew’s suitcase on its side and opened it. The only things it contained were several pieces of perfectly folded clothes. He closed the suitcase and returned it to where it was, then checked the nightstands and the dresser, both of which were empty.
As he started to turn away from the dresser, something caught his eye. A piece of thin, white cardboard appeared to be nestled between the back of the dresser and the wall.
He leaned in for a closer look.
It wasn’t cardboard from a box, but rather thick poster board. He eased the dresser away from the wall just enough so that he could grab the top of the board and pull it up without it catching on anything.
Taped to it were all the pictures that had been cut out of the magazines. Most were of Tessa alone. But a few also featured Ben. At least, Teddy was pretty sure it was Ben. In each, Ben’s face was scribbled over with a pen until it was completely covered.
Teddy’s phone vibrated. When he pulled it out, he saw that Mike Freeman was video-calling him. That was unusual.
Teddy tappedacceptand Freeman appeared on his screen.
Before Teddy could say hello, Freeman jumped in. “My agent is inside Wagner’s apartment in L.A. You need to see what she found.”
