LITMIR.BIZ

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has a sailboat and I bet he’d take us out so we could observe the drop area from the water. What do you think?”

      “I say reach out,” Ray said. “The more eyes we can get on the drop area without being noticed, the better.”

      Keri texted her friend, a crusty old sailor named Butch. He was actually less of a friend than a sometime drinking companion who liked scotch as much as she did. After she lost Evie, her marriage, and her job in quick succession, she’d bought a decrepit old houseboat in the marina and lived there for several years.

      Butch was a friendly, retired Navy man who liked to call her “Copper,” didn’t ask about her past, and was happy to swap professional war stories with her. At the time, that was exactly the kind of companionship she was looking for. But since she’d moved from the marina to her apartment and significantly reduced her alcohol consumption, they hadn’t hung out much recently.

      Apparently he wasn’t holding a grudge as she heard back almost immediately with a text that read: “no problem – see you soon, Copper.”

      “We’re good,” she told Ray, then let her mind drift to something that had been eating at her. She didn’t realize how long she’d been quiet until Ray broke into her thoughts.

      “What is it, Keri?” Ray asked expectantly. “I can tell you’re turning some clue over in your head.”

      Once again Keri marveled at how he seemed capable of reading her mind.

      “It’s just the drop. Something about it bugs me. Why would this guy, assuming it’s a guy, give us the location so early? He must know that if the Raineys contacted us, we’d have hours to do exactly what we’re doing – establish a perimeter, install surveillance, gather manpower. Why give us a head start? I understand demanding the money early to give them time to gather it. But if it was me, I’d call at eleven forty-five p.m. to reveal the drop location and say the meet was at midnight.”

      “Fair question,” he agreed. “And it fits with your suspicion that he doesn’t really care about the money.”

      “I don’t want to belabor it, but I really don’t think he does,” she said.

      “So what do you think he cares about?” Ray asked.

      Keri had been mulling this over in her head and was happy for the opportunity to share it out loud.

      “Whoever this guy is, I think he’s fixated on Jessica. I feel like he knows her or has at least met her. He’s been watching her.”

      “That fits. Everything suggests he’s been planning this for a while.”

      “Exactly. Those special sunglasses he used at FedEx, knowing where the cameras were there, abducting her at the perfect time when she was out of sight of the school but not yet to her mother, in a part of the neighborhood where no neighbors had exterior security cameras. These are all signs of someone who has been working on this for a long time.”

      “That makes sense. But the security officer at the school came up empty with staff. I checked again at the station. No teachers had records of anything more than parking tickets.”

      “What about school janitors or bus drivers?”

      “They’re employed through outside companies. But everyone who comes in contact with the school has to pass a background check. We can go through the list again. But the guy was pretty thorough.”

      “Okay then, what about employees at businesses along her bike route or construction workers on a house being built nearby – people who would see her every day and be familiar with her routine and who have a record?”

      “Those are good leads we can pursue in the morning. But I’m hoping we nab this guy tonight and none of that is necessary.”

      They pulled up to the Rainey house and noticed a police car parked far down the block. It had been instructed not to park too close to the house in case the abductor drove by. They walked to the door and knocked. An officer opened it immediately and they stepped inside.

      “How are they doing?” Ray asked him quietly.

      “The mom has spent most of her time upstairs with the little boy, trying to keep him busy,” the officer replied.

      “And keep herself busy,” Keri added.

      “I think so,” the officer agreed. “The dad has been mostly quiet. He’s spent a lot of time studying the park layout on his laptop. He’s been asking us all kinds of questions about our surveillance, most of which we don’t have answers to.”

      “Okay, thanks,” Ray said. “Hopefully we can provide a few.”

      Just as the officer said, Tim Rainey was seated at the kitchen table, with a Google map of Burton Chace Park on his laptop screen.

      “Hi, Mr. Rainey,” Keri said. “We understand you have a few questions.”

      Rainey looked up and for a moment, barely seemed to recognize them. Then his eyes focused and he nodded.

      “I have a lot actually.”

      “Go ahead,” Ray said.

      “Okay. The note said not to contact the authorities. How are you going to keep from being seen?”

      “First, we’ve set up hidden cameras throughout the park,” Ray answered. “We’ll be able to monitor them remotely from a van in a nearby parking lot. Also, the park is populated by some homeless people and we’ve dressed up an officer accordingly to fit in. She’s been there for hours so as not to draw suspicion from the others. We’ll have people at the Windjammers Yacht Club next door, watching from a second-floor room with tinted glass. One of them is a sniper.”

      Keri saw Tim Rainey’s eyes widen but he said nothing as Ray continued.

      “We’ll have an overhead drone available but won’t use it unless absolutely necessary. It’s almost silent and can operate up to five hundred feet. But we don’t want to take any chances with that. In total, we’ll have almost a dozen officers offsite but within sixty seconds of the location to assist you if things go south. That includes Detective Locke and myself. We’ll be on a civilian boat in the marina, far enough away to avoid suspicion but close enough to watch events through binoculars. We’ve thought this through, Mr. Rainey.”

      “Okay, that’s obvious. So what exactly do I need to do?”

      “I’m glad you asked,” Ray said. “That’s what we’re here to go over now. Why don’t we prep right here, since you already have the map up?”

      He and Keri sat down on either side of Rainey and she took over.

      “So you’re supposed to meet him on the bridge between the pergolas at the back of the park near the water. And that’s exactly what you’re going to do,” Keri said. “The park itself will be officially closed so you can’t park in the metered lot. That’s probably partly why he’s doing this at midnight. Any car in the lot would look suspicious. You’ll park in the public lot a block away. We’ll give you change. All you have to do is park, pay, and walk toward the drop area. Does all this make sense so far?”

      “Yes,” Rainey said. “When will I get the ransom money?”

      “You’re going to pick it up at Waterside shopping center near the park.”

      “What if the kidnapper is watching?”

      “That’s okay,” Keri assured him. “Your boss will be making the handoff to you, right in front of the Bank of America ATMs. He’s being prepped by one of our detectives right now. There will be officers in the area, also out of sight, in case the abductor tries to grab the money then.”

      “Are you tagging the money with some kind of GPS locator?”

      “We are,” Ray admitted, jumping in, “and the bag too. But the locators are all very small. The one in the bag will be sewn into the stitching. The tags placed on the money are tiny, clear stickers placed on individual bills. Even if he found the exact bills, the tags are very hard to see.”

      Keri

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