Page 40 of Final Approach (Lake City Heroes #4)

TWENTY-ONE

It hadn’t taken Kristine long to alert the others to Andrew’s disappearing act. At first, they weren’t too worried, but after numerous attempts to get in touch with him with no luck, Cole, James, and Nathan agreed to look for him while others stayed with Hank.

They were all now back at Andrew’s parents’ bookstore getting the security footage to see if they could tell which way he went when he left the store.

“Here it is,” Mr. Ross said.

He clicked a few keys and they watched Andrew drive away. West.

Mrs. Ross stood, arms crossed, watching everything, blinking back tears. “You think he’s really in trouble, don’t you?”

Kristine went to the woman. “We’re not sure, but the fact that he’s not answering his phone and it’s going straight to voicemail is worrisome.”

“Agreed. He always gets back to us as soon as he can.” She paced to the back of the store, then returned to where they were gathered around the computer. “He was angry about the break-in and would have gone to see Corey, I feel sure. I think you need to check with him.”

Cole and James exchanged a glance.

“Corey?” Nathan asked.

“My nephew. I think...” She looked at her husband. “ We think that Andrew suspects that Corey is the one who broke into the store.”

“Did he?”

She shook her head. “I don’t believe he would do it, but Andrew’s never thought much of Corey or trusted him. With good reason. It’s possible he went to confront him.”

“Do you know where to find him?” Nathan asked.

She nodded, wrote something on a pad of paper, ripped off the top piece, and handed it to Kristine. “We put him up at this hotel. He was going to start staying with us on Friday, but I didn’t have the room ready yet.”

“He said some people were going to kill him,” Mr. Ross said, “if we didn’t give him the money to pay them back, but we couldn’t give him what he was asking for.”

Mrs. Ross linked her fingers in front of her.

Kristine waved the paper at the guys. “Let’s go talk to Corey.”

It took them fifteen minutes to get to the small hotel on the edge of town and note Andrew’s car wasn’t in the parking lot.

It took them five more minutes to identify themselves to the FBI agent on Corey’s door.

They were obviously just getting ready to leave.

Nathan shook the man’s hand after the guy inspected Nathan’s badge.

“We just need to talk to him for a few minutes before you leave.”

“Sure.” He motioned Corey to the door.

“We’re friends of Andrew, Corey,” James said. “Your aunt and uncle told us where to find you. Call them and verify it if you need to.”

“No, it’s okay. What do you want?”

“Andrew was here, right?” James asked.

“Yes.”

Cole leaned in. “You know where he went when he left?”

“Home, I assume. I don’t know. Why?”

“He didn’t say?”

“No.” Corey frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Nathan rubbed a hand down his chin. “He’s missing.”

“What are you talking about? Missing?”

“Meaning no one’s heard from him since he left here and we need to find him,” Nathan said. “And we need your help to do it.” He raked a hand over his head and turned, but Kristine heard him mutter, “And that’s terrifying.”

Kristine had had enough. “I’m going to see if there’s footage.”

She left them with Corey and the agents and found the manager, who was in her mid-fifties, soft-spoken, and kind.

Her name badge read Helen. When Kristine explained the situation and requested the security footage from the previous night, she gasped.

“Yes, of course. Give me just a minute to pull it up.”

Seconds later, they watched Andrew walk to his car.

A figure came into view but had his back to the camera.

He approached Andrew from behind and, when Andrew turned, sprayed something into his face.

Andrew staggered. Before he could do anything else, the figure shoved him into the driver’s seat, ran around to the other side, and pulled him into the passenger seat.

And still, she couldn’t get a look at his face.

“Whoa,” Helen said, “that doesn’t look good.”

“It doesn’t. Can you send that to me?” At least it proved Corey wasn’t involved in the snatch. Unless he somehow managed to get word to the guy that Andrew was there and when he left. Which didn’t seem highly possible since Andrew’s visit was completely unplanned.

“Wait a minute,” Helen said. “There might be more. He shoves him into his car and drives off, but let’s go here to the other camera.” Her fingers flew over the keyboard and she found them leaving. Andrew’s car turned right out of the parking lot. Toward the mountains.

“Okay, that’s his Bucar. They can track it. Maybe.”

She texted Nathan and he answered right back.

Probably not.

Rats. “Can you send someone that footage?” she asked Helen.

“Sure. What email address?”

Kristine had the footage sent to Nathan, Cole, and James. Then stopped. “How did he get here?”

“What?”

“The guy who grabbed Andrew. Andrew wasn’t planning on coming here. One more thing. Can you pull up the footage of the front door for the two hours preceding Andrew’s arrival? Then run it on fast forward until I tell you to stop.”

“All right.”

Cole came into sight on the camera live feed monitoring the lobby, and she stepped out of the back office to wave for him to join her. “James and Nathan are still with Corey,” he said. “The guy’s a little messed up. We’re going to help him, though.”

“Good.” Kristine motioned to Helen. “This is our new BFF, Helen. Helen, this is Cole.”

“I got the file,” Cole said. “Thank you.” He nodded to the screen. “What else are we looking for?”

“How the guy got here. We know what he was wearing. It was a navy blue hoodie and he had a beanie under the hood. I want to see if someone dropped him off or what.”

“We’ll check the back cameras too,” Helen said. “I can do that over there on that computer if you want to look on this one. It’ll go faster that way.”

“You’re the best,” Kristine said. She motioned to Cole. “I’ll let you do the honors.”

Helen shifted to the other computer and Cole moved into her seat. Kristine found herself bouncing between the two.

“He was watching Andrew. I’m guessing he even followed him here.” She texted Nathan.

Come to the lobby, will you?

He arrived seconds later.

“Can you use your resources to trace every plate in the parking lot?”

“Of course, but unless we have a face to match the driver to, it’s not going to help much.”

“I have an idea about that too.” She dialed Andrew’s father and he answered mid first ring. “Hi, Mr. Ross, this is Kristine. Can you look at your street footage around the time of the robbery and take note of all the cars there? Every make, model, and plate you can find.”

“Sure. I can do that.”

“Great, text them to this number when you’re done.”

She hung up. “The guy got here somehow. The first thought is he left his car in the lot when he grabbed Andrew. The second thought is that he parked down the street somewhere, so we might need to cover those cars as well.”

Cole pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’m going to pull in some manpower.”

Minutes ticked past and Helen shook her head. “No one matching his description got out of a car at the entrance. But look at this.”

She played a section of the footage where a man came from around the edge of the bushes, head down, hoodie up. And beanie on his head. “That’s him.”

Thirty minutes later, her phone pinged with a text from Andrew’s father with a list of plates. She looked at Helen. “Give me what you’ve got so far.”

“Printing now.”

The printer whirred behind her, and she snatched the sheet from it and started going through the list.

And came up empty.

Deflated, she flopped back. “Rats.”

“You know,” Helen said, “there are two other hotels near here. Maybe he parked at one and walked over?”

“Yes.” Kristine straightened. “It makes sense the direction he came from. Maybe he did.” Assuming he hadn’t already come back for the vehicle. But they had to try. She got on the phone with the other hotels, requesting the same information on all the cars in their parking lot.

It didn’t take long to get it. With a prayer on her lips, she started comparing the first one while Nathan worked on the second one. Cole and James hovered. Helen excused herself to help someone at the front desk.

“There! I found it. The plate at the hotel next door is the same as one of the plates Andrew’s father sent.” She looked up, met Nathan’s gaze, then Cole’s. “We were right.”

“You were,” Nathan said. “So who does it belong to?”

“Whoever it was, he followed Andrew from the store. He knew Andrew was going to be there and waited for him to leave. Followed him here and then grabbed him.”

“Which means the robbery was just a ploy to get Andrew to the location?” Nathan asked.

Kristine hesitated. “Could Andrew have been the target all along, and we just assumed it was Hank because of how everything played out?”

“I’d say that’s a really good theory.” Nathan looked up from his phone. “The plate belongs to someone named Isaac Mason.”

ANDREW HAD RUN HARD. So had Ty. While Andrew had desperation on his side, Ty had rage and a knowledge of these woods. Andrew had no idea how much time had passed, as Ty had taken his smartwatch from him as well as his phone. But according to the sun, he’d say at least two hours, possibly more.

He was cold, but not frozen. Tired, but not wiped out. His hands were cold, but not numb. Ty had left the zip ties loose enough not to cut the circulation off.

Moving kept his blood pumping. He’d even broken out in a sweat as he’d walked, then run, then backtracked in his own steps to throw off Ty.

He wouldn’t fool the man forever, but he hoped he was buying himself some time.

He was going downhill, looking for any route with tracks or disturbed snow. He saw bear tracks, deer, and more.