Page 21 of Billion-Dollar Ransom

WHAT SUV? NICKY wanted to ask. There were at least a half dozen vehicles involved in this case, and she struggled to figure out what this SUV was and why it was important. If it was important.

But she didn’t dare ask that question in front of the mayor. Nicky told the group she’d be right back. Mike Hardy followed close behind her.

The moment they were both outside the Sandbox, Mike took her arm and whispered in her ear: “I’ll go back inside and get the mayor on board. Give me ten minutes. Then we’ll head up to Bel Air to meet with Old Man Schraeder.”

Nicky nodded.

As Agent Duffield led her down the hall to the tactical operations center, the junior agent brought her up to speed.

“We’ve been checking the surveillance cameras all along Roscomare, which is where Cal and Finney Schraeder were abducted from their school bus.

All the cameras had been disabled except for one.

From that camera, we were able to track an SUV leaving the scene a short time later and trace it to Westwood, on Hilgard Avenue near the UCLA campus.

LAPD is on the scene and about to enter the vehicle. ”

“So it could be nothing,” Nicky said. “Just someone leaving their house?”

“This happened exactly one minute before the first responders arrived. The timing seemed suspicious.”

Timing, Nicky thought, was everything with this group of kidnappers.

On the screen in the operations center, they watched a live feed of a leafy stretch of Hilgard where over a dozen uniforms were approaching the SUV as if the trunk might contain a suitcase nuke.

Nicky was 99 percent sure they’d find nothing inside.

Even if this vehicle was connected to the kidnappers, they wouldn’t have gone through all this meticulous planning only to leave a clue behind in a cup holder.

Nicky watched anyway.

After a quick visual check inside and beneath the chassis of the SUV, the LAPD began hauling the vehicle up onto a flatbed.

From here it would be transported to the closest LAPD garage, where a vehicle-forensics team would examine every inch before virtually and then physically taking the SUV apart in the hope of finding a useful shred of evidence.

Nicky doubted they would. Her gut was telling her this vehicle was part of the kidnappers’ plan, and that plan was to keep sending the task force on wild-goose chases. Like this one.

“Agent Gordon!” boomed a voice from the hall. Nicky turned just as Michael Hardy poked his head into the tactical operations center.

“We have the green light to visit the old man.”