by Dale Mayer
“Harder than I thought, yes,” Asher said quietly. “Which makes it a very good cover on the kidnappers’ part.”
“So, instead of tracking the boat, why don’t we track the men?” Mickie said.
He glanced at her and said, “That’s in progress.”
“Sure,” she said, “but they must have connections.”
“We haven’t found anybody with a boat connected to them. The sister that we dumped off with the authorities, her boyfriend has a boat, but it’s too small and still in place.”
“But the men must work? Or was this a private job?”
“They were hired,” he said.
“So who hired them? How did they contact them?”
He stared at her, sighing audibly.
She shrugged. “I get it. You’re on it.”
“Yes, we’re on it,” he said. “But answers are few and far between.”
“I know,” she said, slumping in her chair. “I’m just frustrated.”
“Understandable,” he said.
“You guys want a refill on drinks?” When both nodded, she hopped up, asked at the counter for a full carafe of coffee and another of ice water. Asher smiled at her as she placed them on their table, a waitress behind her with a platter carrying cream and sugar, spoons, and clean coffee cups and water glasses.
“Thank you both,” Asher said to Mickie and the waitress, before she smiled and took off. Asher glanced at Ryker. “I wonder if the bank accounts would help.”
“I’ll find out,” Ryker said, as he started working on his laptop.
“You can’t really get into people’s bank accounts, can you?”
Asher gave another sigh of frustration.
“Like you said, we need answers.” She immediately zipped her mouth closed and settled back into her chair. Eventually she lay her head on her arms and dozed off.
Meanwhile, Ryker worked on the bank accounts and the method of payment to the kidnappers, which in Asher’s mind would likely be cash, considering where they were, and Asher kept working on the boats. The trouble was, so many people owned fishing boats in a place like this, probably make their living that way. And the boat didn’t even have to be terribly fancy, it just needed to be big enough to hold three people.
If both of the twins were unconscious, that was even easier. Not to mention the fact that the kidnappers may have taken the twins up the coastline, but that didn’t mean they didn’t move them onto land when they got there. Or that they were shipped from here onto land. Asher went back to the hospital’s location and checked the feeds. If they couldn’t track the kidnappers on water, then he had to get back to ground zero and track them from there.
And forty more mind-numbing minutes of sifting through satellite feeds, that’s when he, just by accident, caught sight of the van exiting the hospital on the feed. He slowed down and realized it pulled in behind two others. But that one was the one he had been looking for. He slowly tracked it as far as he could, picking up different cameras and watching it disappear and then reappearing online as it headed north. He frowned as it did a series of turns. He lost it several times and then found it again as the traffic cameras picked it up. Once located again, the van headed onto the main freeway and moved up along the coastline.
“Doesn’t look like they found a fishing boat in town,” he said. “They’re moving north.”
“Which makes sense,” Ryker said. “They need to keep those famous faces hidden.”
“I wonder if they knew that that would be the more challenging part of this job.”
“They probably didn’t think about it.”
“And yet,” Asher added, “the medical angle may be the hardest part. The kidnappers just have to hide the models to avoid them being recognized. And—like Mickie has said—they want to be home, alone, in the garden. But their recurring medical issues—the diabetes, the stomach ailments, plus dealing with their autism—must require a lot of time each and every day. Not to mention the money needed to treat these two. I don’t think the five-million-dollar ransom is their final demand.”
Asher knew what Ryker meant because every job had one surprising aspect. Even though you considered as many angles as you could think of, there always seemed to be something that you couldn’t quite envision or control. And, in this case, it was the twins’ famous faces. But then, how famous? Particularly over here. “Got them heading toward a small—smaller,” he corrected, “town.”
“You mean, a village?”
“Well, he’s getting off the freeway and going through a village,” he said. “But now I’ve lost the cameras.” He swore softly and checked through the time stamp but found nothing afterward. He quickly switched over to the satellite feed and checked for the time stamp that he had backtracked to see if the vehicle showed up anywhere.
“Too bad we can’t get real-time on some of this stuff,” Ryker muttered.
“Check and see if you can,” Asher said. “I’m still trying to track the vehicle once it left the freeway, but the satellite feed isn’t helping.”
“Which just means that either they got off the main road or the feed itself is in the wrong time stamp.”
Asher checked the date and the time and quickly backtracked a little bit more, and, sure enough, he found something resembling the van. But, from the satellite feed, it was not anywhere near as clear as he needed that van to be. The local cameras were much clearer. But the satellite feed was his best bet, so he followed it as far as he could, until they pulled into a small parking spot along the edge of a marina. He watched as one man got out and, moving at a fast pace, headed toward a boat moored at the side. But, instead of unloading anybody from the back of the vehicle, he hopped onto the boat and took off, heading up north again. “Well, he didn’t get anybody out of that vehicle,” he whispered.
“Could be meeting somebody,” Ryker said.
“In what way?” But just as he asked, Asher watched the small boat picking up and meeting with a slightly larger one. He pulled up beside it, and the two men had a conversation, and then both boats headed back. As he watched, the two of them tied up the boat, and one hopped out and returned to the van. The man from the other boat came with him. And very quickly, two people were moved from the back of the van into the bigger boat. “Gotcha,” he whispered softly.
Immediately Ryker got up from the table and came around to take a look at Asher’s laptop screen and nodded. “Well, that’s the vessel. But how do we identify it from any other?”
At that point in time, the satellite feed got glitchy, which was so common unfortunately. He tried to adjust the settings, but it blacked out for a moment. When it came back on again, it was for a completely different time on the same day. And, of course, the boat was long gone. Asher swore again. He quickly backtracked it to where he got the last visual. He came in as close as he could and took several screen shots of the vessel as well as of this van, but they were blurry, and he knew it wouldn’t help much. “At least we know this boat is somehow connected to the drivers, and the boat guy knew the other guys. He headed out, met up with them, and brought them in.”
“What we need is a way to track the fishing boat now,” Ryker said. “Try running that satellite feed through a different optimizer. It might give you a few more pixels. Likely broken up, but who knows.”
Because the satellites rotated around the world, they would have to shift from one satellite to another to continue monitoring a fixed location. Asher quickly ran the link through another program and dumped it into the chat window. Then he explained where he needed the missing minutes.
The waitress came by, switching out their empty carafes for two more full ones. Mickie woke up, gave her a sleepy smile and said a quick “Thank you,” as the waitress left.
The answer came back quickly. You mean missing hours?
Whatever. I need to know where this boat went from there.
And he sent them the last-known feed with the time stamp.
After that, feeling slightly
better but frustrated to have lost it yet again, he saw still more food remained and realized that his appetite was in no way appeased. He quickly refilled his plate, looking to see if the others were eating. “Anything on your end?” he asked Ryker.
“Yes. Lump sums paid into a special account under one brother’s name.”
“What about the other brother?”
“No,” he said.
“Interesting. I wonder if the unpaid brother is aware that his brother is getting this money.”
“It’s possible. It’s hard to say though.”
“Maybe,” Mickie said quietly. “But it would be good ammo when we get them together.”
“Right,” said Asher. “It’s easier to pit brother A against brother B and see what comes up.”
“They could be sharing it, or the brother could be paid for something else?”
“True enough. Any withdrawals against it?”
“Two,” he said. “And decent amounts.”
“Possibly paying for the boat, possibly paying for the hospital.”
“Could be both,” he said. “Could be paying for his brother too.”
“What kind of a percentage against the whole amount?”
Ryker shrugged. “Negligible. We’re talking about fifteen hundred out of the whole fifty thousand.”
“Interesting,” Asher said. “Definitely something we need to follow up on. Any way to check where the money came from?”
“Working on it now but it’s gone through a couple international banks.”
“So, not from Shanghai itself?”
“No, not a local bank.”
“Interesting again.”
“Find the son’s bank accounts to see if he has any transactions overseas,” Mickie suggested.
“He does a lot of business, so he will,” Ryker said.
“If he’s involved, surely he’s smart enough not to run any of this through his business accounts,” Asher said. “Much better to have done it personally, via cash or a fake ID, and keep audits out of there. So I doubt that money trail will lead directly to him.”
“I agree. Much better to have done cash,” Ryker said.
“And that is quite possible. Pay somebody cash to run it through their account.” He frowned, thinking about it. “We still don’t have any motive though.”
“No,” Mickie said. “And I hope you’re wrong about it being the twins’ brother.”
“I’m not saying it is their brother,” Asher stated, as he plowed through his food. “What I am saying is that the brother is a suspect.”
“But then you might as well make the mother a suspect too,” Mickie said in astonishment.
He froze, turned to look at her, and asked, “Why?”
Mickie settled into her chair, as if to explain a long story, and then ended up saying, “It’s a bit convoluted, but she gave the twins away at one point in time. Sometimes I think she’d be happier without them.”
“Now that’s a very interesting take,” Asher said. “When I met her, she seemed extremely concerned about her daughters’ whereabouts.” He studied Mickie’s face. “Was there ever any sign that she didn’t want anything to do with them?”
“I mean, outside of the fact that she was never at home and that she was always traveling and that they never went anywhere with her, and then, out of the blue, this trip happens?”
“Oh,” Ryker said. “That brings up a very interesting possibility too.”
“But there are a lot easier ways to get rid of them,” he said.
“And what are we talking about? Getting rid of,” Mickie cried out. “The twins are lovely people. Nobody should be just tossing them away like garbage.”
“When it comes to kidnapping,” Asher said, his tone low, “if ransom isn’t paid on time, which in this case is due in five days, or, if any of the other demands are not met, that’s when the twins do become garbage.”
Mickie’s eyes widened, and she swallowed hard.
He could see her fingers clenched tightly together in her lap.
She nodded slowly and said, “I hope that never happens. Even though the twins have some issues, it’s not fair. They’re lovely people, and they deserve to have a happy life.”
“Nothing about this is fair,” Asher said. He put down his fork again, his fingers thrumming on the table. “So, now we’ve got the mother and the brother.” He again checked his watch.
“Together, do you think?” Ryker asked.
Asher shook his head. “I highly doubt it. But then again, why would they bother with all this? The twins could just be committed somewhere in a home, where they’d be happy. The mother has enough money that that would be a negligible expense.”
“Yes and no,” Mickie said. “The twins are quite wealthy.”
“So then, their own money could go toward their own medical care and housing,” Asher said. “Unless you know something we don’t know.”
“Possibly,” she said. “The twins have not just their own money but their grandmother’s money that was left for their care.”
“How much?”
She winced. “A lot.”
“We’re talking superwealthy people here already,” Asher said. “What’s a lot?”
“I think $140 million,” she said, as she consolidated some of their dirty plates together and set them on the empty table beside them. Then she gathered their trash and placed it all atop the plates. When she sat down again, she noted that both men had stopped to stare at her.
“Great,” Asher said. “That’s enough for mass murder.”
“Again this is too convoluted,” Ryker said. “Much easier to just lock the twins away. That money shouldn’t be accessed by them. Somebody’s looking after it, like a trustee or a guardian or even some bank executive or an attorney. The twins won’t have guardianship on their own. Somebody has guardianship over them.”
“Chandra does. But she can’t touch that money.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw some paperwork Chandra was trying to talk to the twins about.”
“Do you know what it was?”
“Chandra was pretty frustrated. It was about investing their money to make more money, I think.”
“Sounds like something we might need to take a look at,” Asher said.
Ryker cracked his knuckles and said, “That’s my kind of thing. I’m on it.”
“It’s not like you can get a copy of it,” Mickie said.
“Maybe not,” he said. “But I can certainly find out what lawyer is dealing with this. And just what those documents were.”
“He won’t talk to you,” Mickie said. “Why would he? Chandra is his client, and so are the twins and likely the brother. That’s confidential.”
“Well, if I was the brother,” Asher said, “I would certainly have a different lawyer. Particularly if I didn’t get along with my mom or my sisters.”
“But that’s you,” Mickie said. “In my case, I’d have the same lawyer so the lawyer understood the family dynamics.”
“But then he can’t back one versus the other,” Asher said. “And, if the brother is involved or is trying to separate ways, he needs someone on his side, not on the family’s side.”
Chapter 8
The internet café had a few more customers now, but the three of them were undisturbed.
Mickie didn’t think Chandra could possibly be involved, but Mickie had certainly seen enough frustration on the mother’s part when dealing with the twins and could understand that maybe Chandra had the odd wish to change the situation. The twins would need a lifetime of care, but the money was there for them. There was no need to go through this elaborate ruse. “It would make more sense if it was a competitor,” she said.
“Why? Her reputation is much greater than an event like this,” Asher said. “This is more likely about sympathy.”
“What would that do for her?”
“Make her even more in demand than normal,” Ryker said. “Except she’s
already in demand.”
“And thinking of downsizing,” Mickie added.
“But we only have her word on that,” Asher said, studying Ryker’s face. “Maybe do a check into that. See if we can get into her schedule and confirm that she is actually booked out four to five years.”
Ryker nodded. “I guess the question is, if her business isn’t so good, and she’s not quite ready to retire, would this help bring in more business?”
“I don’t understand why it’ll bring in more,” Mickie said. “Nobody, including the media, is allowed to know about it.”
“Until it’s all solved,” Asher said, “so it could be a big publicity stunt.”
That was like a blow to her gut. She stared at him in shock. “Chandra is not like that. Besides, the twins have lots of money. Surely Chandra could access it, if she needed to, right?”
“For some people, who crave attention and success, pulling a kidnapping as a publicity stunt would be the worst thing for them. It would mean failure,” he said with some spirit. “I would hope not, considering these are her own children, and they have special needs as well. But I have seen a lot of cases where the parents have done much worse.”
She swallowed hard. “I’m pretty sure I don’t like the world that you normally live in.”
“No,” he said. “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t.”
“I guess it makes sense why we never stayed together.”
At that, Ryker lifted his head and looked at the two of them. “Uh-oh.”
Asher waved his hand at him. “It was a long time ago.”
“Still …” Ryker continued.
“No still,” Asher said. “She broke up with me, before I became a SEAL.” He turned back to her.
She could see almost a reinforced blank look in his eyes.
“I don’t understand what you are saying.”
She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I just don’t think I would have liked to stick around you while you were learning to do all this.”
“You didn’t stick around for anything,” he said, his voice harsh.
Mickie winced, realizing this had gotten a whole lot more personal a whole lot faster than she had expected. “That’s not what I meant.”
