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“Our assumptions we’re right once Jane was taken, though.” Luke interjected. “Jane told me the man who held her captive said she was his payday.”
“He was obviously watching you guys if he knew Jane was an option to take,” Hawk pointed out. “He had the ability to score a payout from you and her rich daddy.”
“He was watching us before Jane,” I mentioned. “He brought Leo into it before Jane was an option.”
“Who’s Leo?” Hawk asked.
“Tank’s kid.” Kyle smirked. “And one hell of an intern for me. That kid knows his shit. I’m having a fucking blast teaching him more.”
I grinned at Kyle before correcting him. “He’s not my kid. He thought he was. Somehow, Manny found out and planned to use him to get a ransom.”
“But then Jane came along with bigger potential.” Bear finished, but then looked at Kyle. “You find anything on John Smith?”
“Who’s John Smith?” Hawk asked.
“John Smith left a review for a paint job Tank did on his car at the Sinner’s auto body shop. That review is how Leo found Tank. Leo even talked to John Smith.” Kyle put his hands on his hips. “Only problem is, that review has since been deleted, and there’s no record the dude ever existed.”
I sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Of course there isn’t.”
“You try the phone number Leo had for him?” Bear asked.
Kyle snorted out a laugh. “You really asking me that?” Bear grinned, but his grin fell when Kyle continued. “That number is no longer in service and there’s no trace of that call.”
“Which means…?” Nick prompted.
“Which means, this dude has mad computer skills. He knows what he’s doing and he knows how to cover his tracks,” Kyle replied.
“You find anything on the camera?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Kyle replied. “If that camera was on and recording anything, it’s been wiped clean.”
“Camera?” Hawk asked.
“There was a camera in the basement where he held Jane,” Luke answered. “We recovered it when we investigated and were hoping Kyle could get something from it, but that looks like another dead end.”
“Jesus.” Hawk ran his hand through his hair. “Is anybody else noticing that all the shit Manny’s doing always seems to have the same endgame? Fuck with the Sinners?”
“I noticed that.” Nick jerked up his chin. “I’m starting to think he doesn’t just want money. He wants to hurt the Sinners while getting as much of it as he can.”
“He wants to destroy us in the process?” Gunner asked.
“Looks that way.”
“So we’re back to where we started,” Bear surmised. “We’re still being targeted, but we have no idea why or who’s coming at us next.”
“Do you think he’s worried Jane can identify him?” Hawk glanced at me, and I understood what he was asking because I’d had the same concern.
“She can’t,” Luke replied. “She said he kept her in a basement that only had one small window, which he had a blanket covering. It’s the same window she eventually crawled out of to escape. She also said anytime he came to talk to her, he wore a mask, so she probably wouldn’t recognize his voice. The only thing she thought she knew was that he had dark eyes, but she couldn’t say that for certain.”
“Fuck. This guy really is good at covering his tracks.”
Luke leaned his hip against the pub table. “Yeah, he is, but he’s working with someone.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because Jane said his phone rang while he was talking to her on the night she escaped and he left in a hurry. He gave her a pill that he’d been giving her regularly, which everyone agrees was likely a sedative to keep her quiet, but this time, he didn’t wait for her to swallow. He rushed from the room. So she spit it out, and after she heard his truck leave, she escaped.”
“What if there’s another reason he sedated her?” I stood straight when something occurred to me. “Think about it. They were in the woods where no one could’ve heard her. She could’ve screamed until she lost her voice and not a soul would’ve known. What if he sedated her because he couldn’t chase her if she ran?”
