by Beth Abbott
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Megan offered. “I feel awful sitting here while you’re doing all the work.”
“If you want to take over from Abbey for a while, I’m sure she’d be happy to take a break.” Hannah suggested.
“Of course.” Megan stood up immediately. “Just show me what to do.”
Evan watched as Megan and Hannah made their way over to Abbey, and the younger woman happily gave up her seat.
“I just don’t get it.” Robbie murmured. “Why would a woman be behind kidnapping other women?”
“Women are often behind a lot of crimes.” Suzy smiled at him. “They might not have the same physical strength as men, but they use their brains to plan things out, often better than a man would. However, their motivation is usually different.”
Robbie stared at Suzy with a deep frown on his forehead.
“How so?” He asked.
“Men are likely to be motivated by something simple like money, or even sex.” Suzy smiled. “Women are more likely to be motivated by revenge, or greed, or envy. As in many areas of a woman’s life, her response will be more of an emotional reaction than a man’s would.”
“So, you mean like wanting something she can’t have?” Evan watched Robbie’s head turn to look at Cerys.
“Or wanting someone she can’t have.” Suzy glanced around and looked at Lacey.
Matt and Evan both looked in the same direction and then back at each other. Both blondes.
“Could you hear the voice on the video Hannah showed you?” Robbie asked Evan.
“No, not clearly.” He shook his head. “The only words you heard were slurred, probably because the woman was drunk.”
Robbie pulled his phone out of his pocket and called up the message he’d been sent about the ransom.
“Hannah?” He frowned. “Were you able to trace where the ransom message came from?”
Hannah turned to face them, her expression one of surprise.
“I passed it to my contact in the telephone company.” She confirmed. “I asked them to check where the call came from, and then check that number for incoming calls and so on.”
“What did they come back with?” Robbie asked.
“I have no idea.” Hannah admitted, reaching for her tablet. “We got the call from Megan shortly after and were all over the place, first with the rescue and then getting to the hospital. I never checked their reply. It completely went out of my mind.”
“We did have a lot going on last night.” JT grinned.
Evan watched Hannah going through her emails until she found the one she wanted.
“Here you go.” She settled next to Abbey and handed her colleague another tablet.
Abbey tapped something onto her tablet screen and then frowned.
“Are you sure those details are correct?” Abbey asked, her face a picture of confusion as she turned the screen to Hannah.
“It’s what they’ve given me.” Hannah nodded.
Evan watched Abbey and Hannah stare at each other, as though they were having some kind of telepathic conversation.
Hannah turned and looked around the room.
“I need to speak to the Alpha directors and David.” She announced. “Suzy and Abbey stay put, but I’d appreciate it if everyone else could wait downstairs for a few minutes. Please don’t discuss this with anyone downstairs.”
Hannah didn’t wait for anyone to ask any questions, she simply marched to the door and held it open, fully expecting everyone to follow her instructions.
“Come on people.” Claire smiled at Hannah as she chivvied people along. “I’ve got some cake downstairs you might like.”
“Thank you.” Hannah whispered to Claire as she passed her. “I’ll fill you in later.”
Evan glanced at Hannah, hoping she was going to reconsider, but she silently shook her head.
Obviously, for her to be excluding the Guardians, not to mention Megan and Robbie, there must be something pretty serious going on.
He led Megan out of the room, following his team mates and fellow employees.
As he walked past her, Hannah snagged his hand.
“Just give us a few minutes, Ok?” She murmured. “Everything will become clear very soon.”
Evan nodded and walked towards the stairs.
Soon really wasn’t soon enough.
Chapter 70 – Hannah
“What’s the deal, Hannah?” JT turned to her as soon as she’d closed the door. “You’re not usually so secretive, and you’re definitely not one to hurt people’s feelings by kicking them out of meetings.”
“Abbey just checked the coordinates of where the sending and receiving phones were located, at the moment the ransom text was sent.” Hannah explained. “I’d already confirmed that the message was originally sent from the phone we confiscated.”
“Ok, and what did that tell us?” JT asked.
“It told us the original message was sent from the kidnapper’s phone, while it was at the factory where Suzy and Megan were held.” Hannah nodded. “No surprises there.”
“So, what’s the problem?” Luke frowned.
“The problem is that the message didn’t go straight to Robbie’s phone.” Hannah shrugged. “We checked the destination, and the call was made to an unregistered, and therefore untraceable pay-as-you-go phone.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Danny frowned at her.
“No, it doesn’t.” She nodded. “What makes even less sense, is that the message was forwarded from that phone, to yet another untraceable pay-as-you-go phone, before it was sent to Robbie.”
“They’re bouncing it around?” JT shrugged. “Trying to make it un-trackable?”
Hannah shook her head.
“Maybe, but I don’t think that’s it. If you were going to do that, you’d have to bounce it more than twice.” She held out her tablet. “And anyway, that’s not even the craziest part. The most bizarre part of this whole mystery, is that both pay-as-you-go phones were in the same location when they sent and received the message.”
“Where were they?” Matt asked, reaching for the tablet.
Hannah watched him look at it from all angles before raising his head.
“This building?” He looked shaken. “You’re trying to tell me that the messages were being sent from this building?”
“Either this building or as close as makes no difference.” Hannah shrugged. “All of the buildings around here are offices, right? So, it would be reasonable to assume that at ten o’clock at night, most of them would be deserted.”
“Yeah, but this building had all of us, plus half of the staff downstairs still working, waiting to see whether we were going to find Suzy and Megan.” Matt nodded. “They didn’t lock up the building and go home until after we got Suzy to hospital. Midnight, maybe?”
“Hold up.” Luke frowned. “Are you seriously trying to say that the two unregistered phones were inside this building last night, and they were used to forward the ransom message.”
“It sure looks that way.” Hannah nodded.
“That actually makes sense.” Suzy nodded. “Megan and I were discussing whether it could be an inside job, and whether the person behind it was someone who knew us both. We figured that a good way to tell would be if they came and asked for contact numbers for Robbie and Matt, to make the ransom demands.”
“And did they?” Hannah asked.
“Nope.” Suzy shook her head. “They obviously didn’t need to.”
“Shit!” Danny growled. “How are we gonna figure out who the two phones belong to?”
“The only way we’re going to find out is if they still have the phones on them.” Abbey shrugged. “If they don’t, or whoever had them hasn’t come in today, we’re not going to find them.”
“Matt, do you have any of those wand things? The ones we use to check people for weapons before they go into stadiums?” Hannah asked. “Those metal detector things?”
“Yeah, I think we�
�ve got a box of them downstairs.” Matt nodded. “What did you have in mind.”
“I think I might be about to ruffle a few feathers among the staff, but I think it’s necessary.” She shrugged before turning to JT. “Permission to stir shit up?”
JT looked around at his fellow directors.
“Any objections?” He shrugged.
“To catch whoever put those assholes up to kidnapping Suzy and Megan?” Matt snorted a particularly sinister laugh. “No objections whatsoever.”
“David?” Hannah turned to their long-time friend. “Would you like to be wand-master, so that there’s a chain of evidence if we’re lucky enough to find out who did this?”
“Wand-master?” David grinned. “Well, I guess I’ve been called upon to do dirtier jobs in my time.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Danny asked.
“Well, how about this…?”
Chapter 71 – Matt
Matt waited for his fellow directors to spread themselves throughout the room, before starting to speak. When Danny came back through from reception and nodded to him, confirming that the front door had been locked up tight, he stepped forward.
“Ladies and gentlemen. I’m sorry for the interruption.” Matt stood outside his office, addressing his staff and their visitors. “Could all family members and Guardians go with Claire, and wait in her office for a short while?”
He smiled and nodded reassuringly at Evan, Megan and the rest, and waited patiently for them to depart. When they’d made their way to Claire’s office and the door was closed behind them, he turned to his anxious looking staff.
“Now, could all staff please make your way to the upstairs conference room. Leave your desks as they are, but take all your personal belongings with you, because you won’t be returning to work today.”
Matt watched his staff turn and look at each other in bemusement.
“Is the office closing down?” Someone shouted from the back. “Are you shutting the Birmingham office?”
“Absolutely not. The Birmingham office is doing fantastically well.” Matt smiled reassuringly. “I promise you we’ll be open for business as usual tomorrow. However, for today, I just need you all to grab your personal belongings and head upstairs.”
Matt watched all the staff gather up bags and jackets, and the rest of their personal belongings, and start making their way upstairs. Each of the directors kept a close watch over everyone, making sure they didn’t try and hide anything before they left their desks.
If necessary, they would make a complete sweep of the entire office before anyone left the building, but Matt was hoping they’d find what they were looking for first.
As they followed everyone up the rear staircase, Danny pointed in front of him, and it wasn’t lost on Matt that there were quite a number of blonde females in the crowd.
As they reached the top of the stairs, Matt stopped everyone.
“Can I have all the men go into the conference room first, please?” He said loudly. “Ladies, could you wait out here, please?”
As the male staff shuffled into the conference room, Hannah called them all forward.
“Come on in everyone.” She stood on a chair, so she could be seen. “I know this is highly unusual, but could I ask all of you to stand around the conference table? That’s it… spread yourselves out.”
Matt understood what Hannah was doing, and why Ellen, Luke and Danny had stayed out on the landing, keeping a close watch on the women to ensure that while they stood around quietly, they couldn’t hear what was going on in the conference room.
There were more male than female employees, and realistically, neither Hannah nor any of the other directors suspected any of the men of being involved. This would be a quick and easy way to eliminate them.
“Gentlemen, I’m sorry to have to ask this, but can you remove from your pockets any keys, phones or any other metallic objects.” Hannah instructed. “Anything else you can leave in your pockets, but Chief Superintendent Roan will be checking you over for any other metal objects with a wand.”
There were about twenty male staff members, and with barely a murmur, they all emptied their pockets. Most of them had two phones, one issued by the business, and one personal.
“While David is doing his wand thing, can I ask each of you to open up your phones and turn the volume up halfway.” Hannah continued. “JT and Matt will come around and check that the volume is high enough. Please be assured that we won’t be looking at your phones for any other purpose.”
As JT and Matt verified the volume settings on each phone, instead of handing them back to the men, they simply placed the phones on the table in front of their owners with the screens facing upwards.
When David gave her a nod to confirm all the checks had been completed, Hannah motioned to Abbey to continue.
Matt watched Abbey dial the first number, and they waited for a whole minute.
There was complete silence in the room.
“Try the next one.” Hannah murmured.
Abbey dialled again, and again there was total silence.
Matt almost sagged with relief.
He’d hand-picked all his male staff straight out of the military and would have hated to think any of them were guilty of plotting a kidnapping.
“Thank you, gentleman, for your patience.” Hannah smiled at them all. “You may all leave now through the rear entrance and take the rest of the day off. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t discuss this amongst yourselves once you leave this room. Report for work tomorrow as normal and I’m sure all will be explained to you.”
Matt watched all the men leave, and then Ellen led the women in.
“Thank you for waiting so patiently, ladies.” Hannah smiled, even though she had a good idea that one of the women in the room was behind the kidnapping.
Matt glanced over at Lacey who was glaring at him with something approaching hatred. Did she know what was coming?
“Ladies, can you please place any handbags on the table in front of you, and empty your pockets of any keys or phones.” Hannah asked.
Matt watched as several of them pulled phones from their pockets, while others just placed their bags on the table.
“David Roan is going to check all of you with a wand to make sure you haven’t missed anything, and Ellen will just do a quick bag check while you watch what she’s doing.” Hannah explained.
“What’s all this for?” One of the women asked nervously. “Shouldn’t we be told if we’re going to be searched?”
“You’re not being searched.” Matt shook his head. “These are basic checks, and nobody is asking you to completely empty your pockets or bags. Ellen is looking for specific things.”
“But if you think we’ve stolen something, shouldn’t you have to tell us?” The woman continued. “This really isn’t fair.”
“In your contract of employment, it actually states that we can carry out quite invasive searches if we suspect you of theft of any sort.” Matt scowled at her. “Perhaps you should try reading your contract some time, so you understand what we can or can’t do.”
“What Matt was trying to say is that today’s events are nothing to do with theft, which is why these checks are what you could describe as ‘light touch.” Hannah reassured the woman.
Once David had checked everyone over with the wand, Matt glanced back at the table again. Most people had two phones.
“Please unlock your phone screens and turn the volume up to halfway, holding the handset out so that the volume can be checked by Ellen.” Hannah instructed.
She waited for Ellen to repeat the same process JT and Matt had followed with the men, and then gave Abbey the signal.
Abbey redialled the first number and they waited.
Matt glanced around and realised that Suzy and half of his fellow directors were staring at Lacey, waiting for her phone to ring.
When nothing happened, Abbey cut off the call and dialled the second number.
Fo
r maybe twenty seconds nothing happened, and Matt could almost taste the disappointment.
But then from the other end of the room a phone started ringing, and everyone turned around.
Matt turned and watched as a small pair of hands grabbed the phone to silence it, as though that was going to make a difference.
“Thank you for your patience, ladies.” Hannah said quickly. “Please gather up your belongings and leave the building through the rear exit. Take the rest of the day off, and report as normal tomorrow morning.”
The women collected their belongings quietly and quickly and headed out of the room. When the woman whose phone had rung started to step away from the table, Danny and David moved to stand in her way.
Matt turned to see Suzy looking pale and shocked.
As the last of the women departed, Luke closed the door, and every face turned to the single woman standing near the table.
“Lizzy?” Suzy gasped. “You organised the kidnapping?”
Lizzy stared around the room, her face beetroot red, and her hands trembling.
“I don’t know what you mean.” She muttered. “That’s not my phone.”
Ellen stepped forward.
“You just swiped the screen to open it and showed me the volume setting.” She pointed out.
Lizzy stood rooted to the spot, not looking at anyone, and not looking in the slightest bit remorseful.
“Why, Lizzy?” Suzy said quietly. “Why do you hate me so much?”
“Hate you?” Lizzy spluttered. “Don’t flatter yourself. It wasn’t even supposed to be you!”
As if realising what she’d said, Lizzy clamped her mouth shut.
“Who was it supposed to be, Lizzy?” Hannah asked, stepping into Lizzy’s line of vision. “If it wasn’t Suzy you were trying to kidnap, who was it?”
“It was supposed to be me!” The woman laughed a little hysterically. “They were supposed to kidnap me, and then contact the company to ask for a ransom. Not five million, mind you, but enough. But I couldn’t get away from the office, because Suzy didn’t show up for work. Claire had me running around doing Lacey’s job and hers. Instead of grabbing me, those idiots fucked up and grabbed Suzy instead. The other woman was just in the way.”