Page 25 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!”

CHAPTER 27

Wednesday, 10:11 p.m.

JUST AFTER TEN o’clock Nicky decided she was willing to accept defeat, at least temporarily. There was nothing more she could do in the office, and she neededsomemodicum of rest before returning in a few hours. Plus, she had to lay eyes on Kaitlin, even if it was only to make sure she was fast asleep in her bed. Long ago Nicky had sworn that no matter where her career took her, she would do her best not to let a single day pass without seeing her daughter.

“Give you a lift?” Mike asked.

“My SUV is right downstairs,” Nicky replied.

“Givemea lift, then?”

Nicky smiled and shook her head. “You’re absolutely shameless, Detective Hardy.”

“I’m just trying to be efficient. Why travel all the way toseparate homes when you know the two of us will end up texting about the case all night long?”

“I need sleep,” Nicky said.

“What a coincidence! So do I.”

In the end Nicky relented, and not just because of Mike’s self-serving (and shaky) logic. She simply enjoyed being around him. Usually their meetups were squeezed into the spare moments between their cases, which, until today, had rarely coincided.

Right now, Nicky felt spoiled by having been with him all evening. And she liked the idea of this particular “date”—no matter how crazy it might be—not ending. Could they figure out a way to be a family someday? Kaitlin seemed to genuinely like him, which was supremely important. Nicky had spent way too much time building her bond with her daughter to have an outsider upend everything. Maybe Mike was the missing piece they hadn’t known they needed. Maybe there was a life outside all…this.

Still, there were priorities.

“I mean it,” Nicky said. “Just sleep.”

“I’m too exhausted for anything else.”

“And not too much talking.”

“I’ll barely say a word.”

Something occurred to Nicky. “Wait. You should message Haller. And I’ll message Tighe. Maybe they can help us search for the man in the green cap.”