Freeze Frame

by Judith Rochelle

  “Good. They should know we mean business.” He looked at everyone else. “But not quite good enough.” He reached for Lissa, who let out a small scream.

  Mari stepped forward. “Whatever you’re going to do, do it to me,” she told him, with a bravado she didn’t quite feel. “Do you need to hurt children too?”

  “Children?” Pedro leered at her. “She looks like a full grown woman to me. But if you insist.”

  He raised his gun and Mari held her breath, waiting to feel a bullet slam into her. Instead it was the butt of the gun hitting the side of her head, stunning her and knocking her to the floor. Everything spun around her and she had to clench her teeth to keep from vomiting.

  “You bastard.” Eli’s voice was tight with anger. She felt his hand on her, reaching to help her up.

  “Leave her,” Pedro spat. “And if I were you I would not say another word, Señor Wright, or you could be the next victim. And then who would protect your women?”

  Someone—Enrique, she assumed—yanked her to her feet. She stumbled into place. Gritting her teeth against the powerful surge of nausea and praying she wouldn’t fall down. She could already feel a bruise swelling on her temple.

  “All right,” Pedro said. “Just a few seconds of video and we’ll be all set.”

  Somehow she managed to stand in place until she heard the door slam shut, before crumpling to the floor. The last thing she heard before she passed out was Eli Wright’s concerned voice calling her name.

  * * * * *

  As soon as they were inside the suite, Mike dropped their suitcases and pulled Kat into his arms. Holding her tightly against him. She wanted to collapse into his strength, to pull the warmth from his body and melt the block of ice that had taken up residence in her stomach. She was so afraid for her sister.

  “Kat? Honey.” He tipped her face up to kiss her but stopped at the sight of the silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

  “Oh, Mike. Those poor men. Those poor, poor men. What an awful way to die.”

  Pressing herself against him, she buried her face in his chest. She knew her tears were soaking his shirt but she couldn’t let go of his strength and the warmth that seeped into her. His hands stroked her hair and his lips touched her forehead. She wished she never had to move from this position.

  Releasing a shuddering breath, she pushed back a little, rubbing her wet cheeks with the heels of her hands.

  “Sorry,” she snuffled. “I’m just a mess. I need to pull myself together.”

  “Let it all out,” he told her. “Don’t keep it bottled up.”

  She smiled through her tears. “I’ll be okay in a minute. Just hold me some more.”

  “I’ll do more than that,” he said in a soft voice as his mouth came down on hers.

  How had she ever thought she could live without this, she wondered. The heat of his lips, the wet warmth of his tongue as it licked the seam of her lips. She opened her mouth for him and then she was lost in the magic sweetness and unbridled passion of the kiss. It was definitely still there, the incredible sexual pull, the lightning that struck them both. All the pent-up feelings they’d been storing for two years exploded in the one searing kiss.

  It was a long moment before they came up for air.

  “I’d better stop while I still have control of my brain,” he teased.

  “I think I’ve lost the ability to manage mine.”

  “Come lie down for a minute,” he urged, leading her to the sofa. “I promise to stay a safe distance and you can get a little rest. Your tea and toast will be here in a minute. And I’m going to raid the minibar for something a little stronger to warm up your tea.”

  “You were right last night,” she told him. “Things have changed. With Mari missing like this I realize how precious life is and how important it is not to waste it on foolish things like pride. I was just so hurt when you bailed on me but I think—”

  “Water under the bridge,” he interrupted. “And it wasn’t because I didn’t want to be with you. I was scared, Kat. No one had ever gotten under my skin the way you did. Made me feel things so deeply. I was frightened of that kind of commitment.” He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “But now I’m more afraid of losing you than anything else.”

  “Not a chance,” she said.

  “Good, because I want us to be together. I want to be with you.” He kissed her again, not with passion or desire but with emotion and caring. “I’m going to try Ron Pelley again. He should have called us by now.”

  Kat listened to Mike hold onto his temper while he spoke to Pelley but his frustration was growing and she didn’t blame him. If Pelley had nothing to do with the disappearance, why would he avoid them? Unless he’d gotten word it was a full-blown kidnapping and he was ducking them.

  A shiver of dread skated over her as she tried to push the thought away. She needed to try another remote session, this time using Mari’s picture to see what she could pick up. But Mike was right. She needed some nourishment in her first, along with the extra something in her tea. Right now she was too shaky to try anything.

  While Mike was still on the phone, she got up and fished hers out of her purse. Scrolling through the messages she saw another half dozen from Brent. If this didn’t stop she would have to tell Mike about it. The one thing she had to contribute to the hunt for her sister and the Wrights was shaky because of the anxiety Brent was causing.

  She put the phone down on the coffee table and sat back down on the couch. Just as Mike hung up on his call room service arrived. True to his word, he added a slug of bourbon to her tea and made sure she drank every bit of it. She nibbled toast while he worked on a hamburger and iced tea.

  “You know,” she said, setting down the empty cup, “I don’t think Mari and the Wrights are still in the San Diego area.”

  Mike raised his eyebrows. “Honey, we don’t know that. When Mark gets here we’ll find out what the local cops now but we have no clue as to who took them, much less where they are.”

  She ran her finger around the edge of the cup. “I know it doesn’t make sense but I just—”

  The knock at the door interrupted her. Mike touched a finger to his lips, pulled his gun from the small of his back and walked softly toward the door.

  “It’s us,” Mark called. “You can put away the hardware.”

  Mike replaced the gun and opened the door to let the Hallorans in. Mark sat in the big armchair while Faith went to sit beside Kat. Her eyes were full of questions but Kat dredged up a weak smile and mouthed, “It’s okay.”

  While Mike let his partner and Faith in, she turned away from them, pulled out her phone and without making a big deal out of it, scrolled through the messages and missed calls again. Nothing from Mari. Too much from Brent. She could feel the strain of dealing with it sapping her energy and she couldn’t afford to let that happen. Tamping down her anger, she systematically highlighted and deleted every call from him. Then she snapped her phone shut.

  Damn him, anyway. What would it take for him to get the message? If her gift failed her because of the pressure of dealing with hi… No. She didn’t even want to think that way. Surely he’d give up soon.

  “What did you find out?” Mike asked.

  “I’ll give you the short version. The Wrights and Mari left the airport in a car driven by a young man who works for their San Diego office. The security team followed in another vehicle. No problems at lunch, apparently. The last anyone saw of them, they’d retrieved their vehicles and pulled away from the restaurant.”

  “Nothing suspicious?” Kat pushed. “Nothing that caught anyone’s eye?”

  “One of the two kids handling the valet parking thinks he remembers a black van and another car pulling into line behind them as they pulled away.” He shrugged. “But he can’t give us any kind of description. He wasn’t paying all that much attention.”

  “My best guess,” Mike said, “is that the van and the car followed and waylaid them. Someplace.
Certainly not on the road where the SUVs were found but someplace out of the way.”

  “But then what?” Faith asked. “Don’t tell me the trail just stops there.”

  “I told Mike I don’t think Mari and the Wrights are in San Diego anymore. I know, I know,” she said as Mike started to argue with her again. “It’s just a…oh, call it a sense of feeling. I can’t be more specific than that.”

  Faith gave a little laugh. “You won’t get anyone in this room to argue about unexplained feelings. But do you have any idea where they might be?”

  “I told her we don’t even know who has them,” Mike repeated. “So how could we know where they are? And nobody I called is telling me anything. Damn,” He banged a fist on the table. “It’s almost as if they want us just to go away. Which doesn’t make sense. They know Kat’s worried about her sister.”

  “Nothing adds up here,” Mark put in, “unless it’s a kidnap for ransom and whoever got the message was told not to say anything.”

  Mike nodded. “Or is involved. We need to call Andy and see if he’s been able to hack into that video email.”

  “I’ll do it.” Mark flipped open his phone and pressed one speed dial number. “Yeah, Andy? You were? Good. Then I saved you the trouble. That must mean you have something. Uh-huh. Uh-huh Yeah. Damn. All right. Now that you’re in, I want to know the minute the next one comes through.” He disconnected the call.

  “He got something,” Mark guessed.

  “Yes. Wait until I tell you what it was. We were right about this. It’s definitely a kidnapping.”

  Chapter Eight

  Kat was glad Mike grabbed her arm to support her or she was sure she’d have fainted. He eased her down on the couch, poured the rest of the liquor from the tiny bottle into her cup and held it up to her.

  “Drink,” he ordered. “Now.”

  She swallowed it quickly, her eyes tearing as it burned her throat but it chased away the jitters. “I want to know what your office said.”

  He told everyone what Andy had pulled from the email and what the video had shown.

  “So we know they’re all alive and unharmed. For the moment, anyway.”

  “How did they look in the picture?” She wanted to know. “Could Andy see enough in the video?”

  Mike nodded. “He said they looked dirty and tired but otherwise okay. And now that Andy’s in Pelley’s system and Post’s, he can monitor for the next video email. I think that’s the one where we’ll find out how much they want. But here’s a kicker for you.”

  Mark frowned. “What?”

  “Andy tried to backtrack the link to find out who sent it but it’s anonymous and bounced all over the planet. He’s still working on it. But he then followed it forward to see everyplace it went. Guess who else got an email?”

  “Who?”

  “Rand Prescott. The guy whose house Eli was borrowing.”

  They all looked at each other.

  “I assume you told Andy to add Prescott to his list of people to dig into.”

  Mike nodded. “He said he’d call back in an hour. I just can’t figure out why he’d get the email too, unless he has something to do with all this.”

  “But why?” Faith broke in. “For what purpose? Surely he’s not behind something like this.”

  Mark ran his fingers through his hair. “Right now we’re guessing more than anything. And Detective Wagner didn’t have much more to add to what we already knew about yesterday. The San Diego police didn’t even know the Wrights had anything to do with the explosion, or that they and Mari are missing.”

  “What if the kidnappers know they’re beyond the reach of the federal government,” Mark said.

  Kat stared at him. “What do you mean by that?”

  The two men exchanged a look.

  A muscle twitched in Mike’s jaw. “It’s possible the hostages have been taken out of the country. Someplace where our government can’t reach them or get involved in the kidnapping.”

  “You’re kidding.” She suddenly felt as if she couldn’t draw a full breath. “Someplace like where?”

  “Okay,” Mike told her. “I have nothing to go on, so just call it a hunch but this doesn’t feel like a domestic action.”

  “I still don’t understand. Who would it be, then?”

  Mike sat down next to her and took her hand. “Kitten, it’s entirely possible, with the border situation the way it is these days, that they’ve been taken by people from another country like Mexico and transported outside the United States. Even if the FBI is called in by Pelley or whoever, at least in the past few years Uncle Sam has chosen not to be involved in situations like this. It’s usually a no-win situation for them.”

  “Oh, my god. You’re kidding, right?”

  He shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. But that brings up even more issues. Like, if they were taken to Mexico, which is the most likely, who was the contact for the kidnappers? Because someone had to set them as the mark and help set this up.”

  “Dear lord.” Kat twisted her hands together to keep them from shaking. “I sensed it, you know? That they had left the area. I couldn’t feel their presence, couldn‘t call up a picture. I just didn’t know why.”

  “Let’s see what Andy comes up with,” Mark said in a quiet voice. “He’s getting us everything he can on the three men involved and I’m sure we’ll be able to tell something from that.”

  “I’d like to try something,” Kat told them. “I have an idea.”

  “What is it?” Faith wanted to know. “Can I help?”

  “In some incidents of remote viewing, the viewer doesn’t have the location to fix on but the person. I have a picture of Mari.” She looked at Mike. “If you can find a picture of the Wrights on your laptop, any of you and print it out, I can spread the pictures out on the table, focus on them and see if I can get an image of where they are.”

  “Will that work?” Mike asked.

  “I don’t know but I want to try.”

  “All right, let’s get the picture, then we’ll hit the FBI. Kat, you sure you’re okay doing this? You still seem a little shaky.”

  She nibbled on her bottom lip. “I want to try anything but I have to tell you something. My…gift has been a little on the fritz lately. I haven’t always been able to count on its reliability. Which is only ninety percent at best, and lately as low as eighty sometimes.”

  “Is there some specific reason?” He turned her to face him, his hands caressing his arms. Apparently he didn’t care if the Hallorans were aware of the changing nature of their relationship. “Is that why you went to see Faith’s aunt?” Kat nodded.

  “She gave me some meditation exercises to do, which have helped a little.”

  “I don’t suppose whatever’s interfering with your gift has anything to do with the calls you keep erasing from your cell phone, would it?”

  “It’s nothing,” she insisted. “But—”

  “But it’s enough to throw you out of kilter. Okay. Let me boot up the laptop and get those pictures sent. I can’t believe we stupidly left our little portable printer behind but there’s a business center on the second floor here. I can print them out there. Mark, while I’m downstairs you can try Pelley one more time. Then we’ll decide whether or not to call our federal friend.”

  “Got it covered.”

  It took scant minutes for Mike to Google the Wrights and get exactly what he wanted. He saved it to a flash drive and closed his laptop.

  “I want to go with you,” Kat said, afraid to be away from him now for even a moment. More messages had been left by Brent and they gave her a very unsettled feeling. She knew she shouldn’t wait to tell Mike but she wanted to get this taken care of first.

  “Kitten, you’ll be perfectly safe right here with Mark and Faith. And you’ll have some time to compose yourself.”

  “Please,” she pleaded. “Just…take me with you.”

  He studied her face carefully. Whatever he saw made him nod his head. �
�Okay.” He bent to brush a kiss against her cheek and whisper in her ear, “But later we will discuss whatever this problem is that’s getting in the way of your concentration. Make no mistake.”

  As they passed Mark on the way out of the room, he was punching buttons on his cell and mouthing, “Calling Pelley now.”

  * * * * *

  Rip paced back and forth, checking his cell phone every few minutes. He was now convinced the process was flawed and would lend suspicion rather than deflect it but Nando wouldn’t listen to him and now the die was cast. But he knew why Nando had done it.

  When the phone rang in his hand he was so startled he almost dropped it. He looked at the screen and saw the text message scrolling across—Go to computer, check next message.

  He had his laptop open and was logged in. Sure enough, the email was there. He clicked on the video icon attached to it and the snippet of video began to play at once. At the sight of the picture nausea rose in his throat. The long cut on Sydney’s face and the bruise on Mari Culhane’s temple were signs of exactly what he’d feared. The men who worked for Nando were addicted to cruelty the way some men were hooked on drugs. He hoped this was the worst that would happen.

  At the end of the video was a shot of the message, Ten million dollars. You will be contacted with further instructions.

  Then everything disappeared.

  Ten million dollars. Would that even be possible in a short period of time? Whatever, it would have to be done. There were sources he could tap into to get this done. He just hoped he could be quick enough about it.

  Rip collapsed into an armchair, feeling sweat pop out on his forehead. He’d have to call the others. He was sure they’d gotten the same message and contact would be expected. Right now he just wanted to get the money together and reassure himself that everyone would be returned safely. Alive.

  And that he would be rid of Nando forever.

  * * * * *

  The limo carrying Brent Fontaine pulled up under the covered entrance to the hotel and the driver jumped out to open the door for him. One of the perks of having unlimited financial resources, he mused, was not having to deal with the hassle of cabs or ride in vehicles contaminated by the general public. He nodded at the uniformed men who opened the double glass doors into the lobby for him, his driver behind him carrying his small suitcase and his laptop.