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Charles gave them a grim smile. “Nope, but I can draw you a map.”
***
GARRETT, RYKER, MONROE, and Jac stood behind Kaden, squinting at the grainy security camera footage from a convenience store near Oakley’s workplace. In the footage, a man in a hooded sweatshirt lingered in the shadows, his face obscured but his posture unmistakably predatory.
“Could he be our guy?” Ryker asked, studying the screen intently.
“Can’t say for sure, but it’s the closest thing we’ve got to a lead right now,” Sharlee replied, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “See him get in that SUV. Kinda looks like the one described by the security guard, George.”
“I hate that we had finally gotten into the video cams at the garage, and they were corrupted. They say it has happened before. I say they need better safeguards in place. Some things were great; some, like viruses, are unacceptable.”
“I’ll get on that right after we find Oakley. Meanwhile, we need to dig deeper. We can’t afford to overlook anything,” Ryker said, his resolve unwavering.
Jac’s phone rang. “Mark, what do you have?”
Jac listened for a little bit and nodded. “No, come back. We need to regroup.” Jac turned to the others. “Mark and Carter might have something.” He proceeded to give them the little he had. The men would share the rest when they arrived.
Ryker needed to stay alert and focused, though exhaustion threatened to overtake him. In the two weeks since Oakley’s disappearance, he’d hardly slept or eaten, devoting every waking moment to the search and doing what he could to help.
But so far, they’d had few leads. The imposter client remained a strong focus, but they needed to find Audra. Several were headed up to the cabin today. Other than the last client, none of Oakley’s recent cases seemed suspicious, so this was all they had to go on. Ryker had interviewed Shandra and her office neighbors multiple times, and their stories matched as best as possible. What he wanted to do was find Bella, but like Oakley, no one had seen or heard from Bella since she left work that Friday evening. There were only two likely scenarios: she was part of the reason Oakley was missing, or she was taken as well.
Bella seemed to genuinely care for Oakley whenever she talked to her. She’d questioned Ryker’s motivations, and he had respected that. He had said nothing, although he didn’t fully trust her motivations. He sensed that she was attracted to him and worried she might try to take advantage of the times earlier situations had left him and Bella alone. He was suspicious of everyone and everything. He didn’t have any concrete evidence to suggest she was involved. He decided to stay cautious for now.
Running a hand through his hair, Ryker fought back his frustration. Yes, they might find Audra, but then what. Would she have Oakley, or if she knew where she was, would she tell them? If she didn’t know or didn’t tell, they would be no closer to finding Oakley, and time was running out. If they didn’t uncover a solid lead soon, the likelihood of rescuing her alive decreased with each passing day.
He couldn’t give up hope. Ryker replayed every detail of their investigation, searching for something he may have missed. There had to be a clue, a thread they could pull to unravel the mystery of Oakley’s disappearance. He just had to find it.
The team gathered in the dimly lit conference room, tension and anxiety radiating from each. Ryker clenched his jaw as he stared at the screen displaying a grainy image of Audra, captured by one of their informants.
“Alright, listen up,” Sharlee began, her voice cutting through the silence. “Our informant managed to get us solid intel on Audra’s involvement in Oakley’s disappearance. It appears she’s holding her captive at one of the properties owned by either her or the group she is involved with.”
Ryker’s heart raced, fury bubbling beneath the surface. “How can we be sure this is accurate?” he demanded, his voice strained.
“Because our informant is someone close to Audra, someone who’s been monitoring her movements. Someone who fears discovery but fears more how erratic Audra has become.” Sharlee replied, her blue eyes locking onto his. “We’re not taking any chances here.”
“Charlotte,” Jac continued, turning to the Vaper of the Internet, “you’ve got contacts in the dark. Reach out and see if anyone’s noticed anything suspicious near these properties. We need all the intel we can get.”
“Already in the works.”
The team huddled around the huge computer monitors, eyes flicking between Sharlee and the screen as she typed furiously. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, using her extensive knowledge of hacking to break into the city’s real estate database.
“Got it,” Sharlee announced, exhaling heavily. On the screen, several properties Audra and her group owned were displayed. “Now we just need to narrow it down.”
“Let’s start with the most likely locations based on their recent activities,” Callie suggested, her analytical mind working in overdrive.
“Sharlee,” said Mark, “start researching the security measures and access points for each property. We need to be prepared for whatever we face.”
“What about the cabin?”
“Yes, the cabin is either a red herring or the perfect location. We will check all three out.”
“Looks like we’ve got our targets,” Jac declared, studying the satellite images of the three sites. “But we need to be careful. These places are bound to have security measures in place if they are using them.”
“Agreed,” Levi nodded. “We’ll need to find a way to bypass any alarms and cameras before we get inside for a look. Sharlee?”
“Leave that to me,” Sharlee chimed in confidently. “I’m setting up the hack into their systems, and each building has them. I’m disabling everything remotely. But be cautious anyway.”
“Good,” Ryker said, clenching his jaw. “We can’t risk alerting them to our presence. We don’t know what they might do to Oakley if they realize we’re coming.”
