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He grabbed the curved edge and jiggled the cover a few times before the disc popped free.
To his surprise, it was a button. Not the kind sewn onto shirts and the like, but the kind with messages on them, which could be attached to a bag or a hat or a jacket.
Printed on one side were the wordsi love you tessa. Underneath the type was a picture of Tessa Tweed and a guy who looked to be in his twenties. Both were smiling at the camera.
Though Hansen had never talked to Matthew, he had seen him from a distance several times. The guy in the picture was not Matthew. But hewasfamiliar.
As Hansen stared absently down the street, trying to place the man’s face, something fluttered on the windshield of a car, several vehicles away.
He blinked, then cocked his head, realization dawning on him.
He immediately shut Matthew’s trunk and jogged over to the other vehicle, then grabbed the flapping sheet from the windshield.
Printed on it in bold type wasmissing: justin rogers. Above this was a picture of the same smiling man who was on the button with Tessa. In fact, in the picture on the flyer, Justin was wearing the very button Hansen was now holding.
He pulled out his phone.
51
“Stop pacing,” Pavel said. “You’re driving me crazy.”
Instead of stopping, Neno altered his course toward his colleague, and promptly slapped him on the side of the head.
Pavel jerked. “Ow! What the hell?” Rubbing the spot where he’d been hit, he turned angrily to Neno, looking like he was about to jump up to challenge his much smaller boss.
Neno pinned him to his seat with a glare. “Since when do you think it’s okay to talk to me like that?”
Pavel grumbled something under his breath, his nostrils flaring.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
They stared at each other until Pavel finally looked away.
“Sorry, okay?” Pavel said. “You don’t need to be so touchy.”
When Neno pulled his hand back as if he were going to strike the useless ingrate again, Pavel flinched. Instead of hitting him, Neno said, “You need to learn to keep your mouth shut.”
“All right. All right.” When Neno cocked his arm again, Pavel raised his hands in defense and said, “I’m shutting up.”
Neno held the pose for another moment before scowling and walking back to the other side of the room.
Pavel had far too much self-confidence for someone with his limited experience, and he acted like the world revolved around him. Neno shouldn’t have let the punk get to him, but he was too keyed up.
In another few minutes, it would be time to send today’s video. It would be the last before the countdown ran out, twenty-four hours from now. Tomorrow, there would be no video, just an email with directions to where Rebecca’s body could be found.
With things finally coming to a head, it was understandable that Neno would be on edge. Add in the factthat it had been more than a day since he’d last heard from Kordo, it was a wonder he hadn’t killed Pavel instead of only hitting him.
He looked at his watch: 6:04 p.m. Three minutes to go.
Across the room, Pavel was pointing the remote at the TV and flicking through channels. A scene from an old movie. A commercial. A news report about a car accident. Some kind of sporting event.
The hair on the back of Neno’s neck stood on end. “Go back.”
Pavel continued rotating through channels, as if he hadn’t heard him.
Neno rushed over and yanked the remote out of his hand.
