Page 26 of Billion-Dollar Ransom

THERE HE WAS, standing just twenty feet away, watching the abduction as if it were a not-so-interesting piece of street theater.

The witness was a slender man on the tall side wearing a green cap. This wasn’t your typical bystander. He was clearly watching every detail yet doing absolutely nothing about it. A professional gawker.

Even after Boo was deposited into the trunk of her own car and driven off, the witness in the green cap didn’t seem troubled. He made a brief phone call, then strolled away seemingly in no hurry.

“Okay, we need to find this douchebag in the stupid green baseball cap,” Mike said.

“Let’s spread the clearest versions of these images far and wide,” Nicky said. “What do we have on him so far?”

“No facial recognition yet,” Hope said. “He’s too far away from the spy cam. We’ve got digital forensics trying to sharpen it up a little.”

Nicky squinted. “Is that a cell phone in his hand?”

“We think it’s a burner, and we have agents scouring the streets nearby to see if we can locate it.”

“Or pieces of it, anyway,” Mike said. “Not that it will lead us anywhere.” He noticed Nicky was lost in thought.

“What is it, Nicky?”

Nicky pointed to the man in the green cap. “If the kidnappers had someone watching the abduction of Boo Schraeder…”

Mike followed her instantly. “Then someone was probably watching when they took the kids off that school bus. Damn it!”