Page 100 of Final Approach

“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?”