by Sara Gauldin
“Oh sure, are you going to check it out?”
“Yeah, I have to tie into it and have a closer look to find out what’s going where.”
I wrote the address on a notepad on Kirk’s desk. “Good luck,” I said.
“This should be fun.” Kirk cracked his knuckles.
“Hey, when you get a chance, can you look into any digital interaction Justin Jansworth has had with any of the victims, also any ties to his company, Vibeworks Technology.” I didn’t tell him about the email I answered. Part of me wanted to share it, but I didn’t want to assume anything until I checked out the lead.
Kirk entered a reminder into the notes on his phone about Justin Jansworth. “He should be trackable, once I get into the victims' digital lives. If he’s left a digital footprint, I’ll find it.”
“Thanks, I have a bad feeling about this guy.” I grabbed my purse and rummaged for the keys to the rental.
“Woah, do you hear yourself? If you think Jansworth is bad news, then why would you go to see him on your own?”
“Well, if I were to show up at this guy’s office in the middle of the day, I doubt he dismembers people on his desk.”
“True, but he’ll have you alone and know your name and face.”
“No worries, I’ll tread lightly.” And I would, I hoped.
Chapter 22
As soon as I was in the rental car, I locked my doors and headed for downtown. My parents drove me down these same roads hundreds of times when I was a child, but somehow it looked a little different when I drove it myself. The mural of the child on the side of the office building had faded over time, but there was the little girl in rain boots holding a colorful umbrella, her smile the same as always, as she towered over the sidewalk. I stopped a block away and found a parking spot. After plugging the meter, I checked to make sure I had my weapon and my bag ready.
I took off down the sidewalk. The day was unseasonably warm, and it gave me hope that soon spring would be here to stay. The sunshine on my gray blazer made me almost too warm, as I hiked through the revitalized area. Each time I saw a business with a camera, I paused and took a picture of the place and its address, so I could contact the business owners. All the cameras could have valuable information, but it was the one closest to the mural building that I was most interested in.
My phone buzzed, announcing a new email message. I stopped outside a coffee shop and checked the message.
I would very much like to meet with you to discuss your employment possibilities with Vibeworks Technology. I can meet you downtown. A walk would be a nice change for an interview. I’m headed downtown now. Where can I meet you?
Thanks,
J Jansworth.
Now? Wow, what’s the rush Mr. Jansworth? Walking down a sidewalk in full view of a public street seemed safe enough. I hit the reply button.
That sounds like a wonderful opportunity. I’ll meet you out front of that building with the mural of the little girl. I’ll be wearing a gray blazer. I’ll wait for you there. Thank you again for this opportunity.
I sent the message. It was a safe enough bet, I was almost at the mural now, and I had no intention of meeting this creep on my own, but seeing who showed up would be valuable.
I remembered that Flo had said Dana had gone to the building next to the mural, and I couldn’t remember what was there. The place was a four-story block building with painted brick and two nice planters. The glass windows in the front had a mirror finish, meaning that whoever was inside could look out without being noticed. I looked for a sign that would tell me what kind of business the place was, but I couldn’t find anything. I tried the glass door, and it opened with no trouble.
The entryway opened to a foyer. I recognized the intercom system to page people in past the brass plated gate that stood in front of a doorway. I flinched as my footsteps echoed with each step I took on the polished stone floor. There were no signs up showing what this building was, or who or what may be inside. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I was being watched. I could feel it. I glanced up as a surveillance camera turned in my direction.
Now was the time when I should call for back up. Kirk was right. I was crazy thinking it was a good idea to follow up on these types of leads alone.
I took out my phone and called Genevieve. She picked up after the second ring.
“Hey, where are you?” Genevieve demanded instead of a greeting.
I told her the address of the building. “I wanted to check out the camera systems in the area, and I found out that there’s a system in the building where Flo dropped Dana off.” I looked at the camera and wondered who was looking back at me.
“That’s great news. Stay put and I’ll meet you there. I’m not far away.”
“Perfect, I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
As I ended the call, I turned to go back outside and wait, but before I took a single step, the door opened, and a heavily bundled woman stepped inside from the brightness into the dim light of the foyer. I squinted as the sun glared in around her.
The woman looked at me and stopped just inside the doorway. She lifted her sunglasses and situated them on top of her head. “Avery? You shouldn’t have come here.”
I opened and closed my mouth as I tried to identify the woman who knew exactly who I was.
“It’s me, Cynthia,” she hissed before I could place her. A hat and a scarf covered most of her face and her hair. She had to be stifling in the get-up.
“Cynthia Ellis?”
“Yes. Your father should have warned me you may come here. I don’t know what you were thinking. I can’t do this. There will be consequences.”
I touched my gun. Cynthia’s eyes were wide in panic, and I felt more vulnerable in her presence than I had when I was alone.
“You don’t realize what you’ve done.” She darted to the intercom pad and typed in a security code. The gate swung open and Cynthia gestured for me to follow her through the doorway.
I looked back over my shoulder. Genevieve should be here any minute. Should I mention it to Cynthia? I decided against it. She hadn’t given any details of her intentions, so why would I warn her about my backup?
“What is this place?” The doorway opened to a stark, white hallway with florescent lighting and beige industrial carpet.
“Shhh, wait.” Cynthia opened another doorway, this one to a stairwell. I followed her up a flight of steps and into another bland hallway. She opened a door and waved me in. I heard her lock the door before she turned on the lights. I looked around a small office suite that looked like it was meant for only one or two workers.
“It’s a workspace.”
“A workspace? Whose workspace is this?” I demanded.
“Right now it’s mine, but Jeff worked here before me. I’ve kept up the rent.” Cynthia turned on a lamp on the desk and sat down.
“I don’t understand. I thought Jeff was looking for a new job,” I asked.
“He was. He did some P.A. work.”
“P.A.?”
“Yeah, personal assistant. It’s mostly an online job. But Jeff hated the woman he did the most work for. She’s some kind of YouTuber. He did all the leg work, and she made all the money. I told him he was an idiot.”
“But why here? If he was working remotely, why would he bother renting office space?”
“It’s a thing nowadays. It turns out that not everyone’s cut out for working at home, or worse, in a coffee shop. Some people need four walls and a high-speed connection to do their job.”
“I can see where it would be quieter.” I looked around the bare-walled office. The silence was suffocating. I couldn’t imagine a life chained to a desk.
“It is, not that our house is all that loud. I guess he knew I didn’t want him around.” Cynthia was blunt, nothing in her expression showed any flicker of remorse.
“Why didn’t you want your husband around?” I asked.
Cynthia sighed. “I would think you would understand. We came from diffe
rent worlds. He never understood why I lived the way I did. He wanted me to be some homemaker, and that wasn’t who I was. For a time, it looked appealing. I thought I could change. But you can’t change who you are.”
I considered Cynthia’s words. Why did she think we had that in common? Maybe it was the line of work. “Are you in police work?”
“Police work? No, I run my family’s business.”
“Oh, I just thought…”
“Never mind what I said,” Cynthia blurted. “Tell me again, why are you here?”
“I’m following up on a lead,” I pulled my notebook partway out of my bag as proof. A moment later, I felt awkward. I didn’t owe her an explanation.
“About Jeff’s case?” Cynthia asked.
“Somehow, I feel like I should be the one asking questions. But in a way yes. I’m looking into a related case.”
“Ah, the young lady who died. She was a friend of yours, wasn’t she?”
“My dad tells too much.” I gave up and pulled a chair over to the desk.
“Your dad is an honorable man. He was always patient and kind to your mom. I didn’t think he would hold it together when he lost her.”
It piqued my curiosity. As much as I wanted to know more about the case, the chance to know more about my mother was irresistible. I took the bait. “It was a bad time. Dad said you knew my mother?”
“I did, she was the toughest woman I knew. You remind me of her a little.”
“Tough in the business world?”
“Business world, is that what you call it?” Cynthia looked at me with a contempt I couldn’t quite understand.
“What are you talking about?” I leaned toward her, wondering if I should have trusted her in isolation. Something about Cynthia put me on edge, and I couldn’t help wondering why my father still felt some sense of obligation to her.
“You don’t have to play dumb with me. We both know what your mother was involved with.” She laughed, but the sound was out of place. “Oh, the stories I could tell.”
I chewed my lip, trying to push down the impulse to wring each story, true or otherwise, from her. “Look, I get it. You have some kind of history with my parents. But that still doesn’t mean I owe you anything. Why are you here? You came here for a reason.” I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I was willing to bet Genevieve was here and wondering why I wasn’t.
“Lower your voice, these walls are thin,” Cynthia said.
“And so is my patience with your secrets. What was your husband doing here?”
“I already told you, working. And I intend to find some proof of the other business ventures going on in this building.”
“Business ventures?” I asked.
“You may be missing the bigger picture here.” Cynthia rolled her eyes.
My phone was ringing now; the insistent buzz in my pocket was obvious.
“Sounds like you’re getting a call.” Cynthia’s eyes narrowed.
“I have to take this unless you want the FBI to raid the place.”
“So like your mother.” Cynthia shook her head, and for a moment, I saw a glimmer of sadness, something I hadn’t seen in her before, mingling with her raw contempt and sarcasm.
“Genevieve?”
“Am I in the right place? I see the mural, but I don’t see you.” There was an impatient edge to her voice.
“I’m upstairs in suite two-ten. I ran into Cynthia Ellis in the lobby. We’re catching up.”
“Small world, I’m coming in.”
I looked at Cynthia. “Please buzz Special Agent Richards in.” I made sure I spoke with authority.
Cynthia held up her hands. “Sure, all you law enforcement types, just like your mother, like I said.”
What was she talking about? I started to ask but Genevieve interrupted.
“No, I didn’t submit a resume… Maám? Maám? Are you all right?” She wasn’t talking to me. The hair on the back of my neck stood up.
Genevieve said something else; it was a muffled sound that I couldn’t understand. A wave of unease hit me out of nowhere. This was all wrong.
“Get out of there!” I yelled. It did no good, the line already went dead.
I shoved my phone in my pocket and took off out of the office suite and down the steps. I found my gun before I reached the landing and continued through the gate and into the lobby.
As I reached the sidewalk, I looked around expecting to see a struggle. But I was alone.
Chapter 23
My heartfelt like it would beat out of my chest as I took out my phone and called Commander Jennings to request backup.
He answered on the first ring. “Avery?”
“The killer has Genevieve. I need backup!” I blurted out the address of the building before Commander Jennings could respond. As I ended the call a sound at the door caught my attention.
Cynthia pushed the front door of the building open, out of breath. “What’s going on?”
I turned on Cynthia realizing that our family history chat was distracting me while the killer took the next victim. “You already knew this would happen. They took Genevieve.”
“Who?”
“Don’t play dumb. Whoever killed your husband was here.” I advanced on Cynthia but stopped short. I had to keep it together and figure this thing out, fast.
Cynthia’s face went pale. “They were here. I missed them. We both did.”
“Go inside, I need to find out where they went.”
“Avery, let me help,” Cynthia said.
“You? You said yourself that you ran your family business. What can you do?”
Cynthia paused for a long moment. She opened and closed her mouth, then shook her head before she turned and went back into the building. She punched a code into the security panel and once again the gate opened.
I pointed to the elevator. “Go upstairs and lock yourself in. I’ll send someone to check on you.”
Cynthia put her hand on her hip and didn’t move. “You might want to see the footage first.”
“Footage?” I asked.
“This place is wired, I have access now, and I’ve been working on getting in since Jeff…”
“You knew that this was the place… Why didn’t you tell me?” I shouted.
Cynthia put her finger over her mouth to hush me.
“Not here. Look, if you want to find your friend, we have to see where they went, who took her.” She waved me into a utility area where they kept the surveillance. She closed the door behind us. “Here.” She pointed at the image on the monitors that looked like the front of the building. “Back up the footage for this one, and see what happened.”
“You don’t know how?” I asked.
“I’ve been trying… Look I didn’t learn this stuff when I was younger.” She sighed. “All right, I’m a Luddite, and Jeff handled all of that. I bet you know how to run it.”
I looked at the system. “Maybe I can figure it out, but I don’t have time now.” I took out my phone and called Kirk Nelson’s number.
He answered after a few rings. “Avery, perfect timing. You’ve stumbled into a hornet’s nest with this one. The IPs are all out of Russia and China.”
“I know, look, I need your help with a surveillance system.”
“Sure, I’ll have a uniformed officer give me a ride over. What’s your location?”
I rattled off the address without hesitation. “Look, there’s no time. Genevieve was abducted. I think the killer has her. I need your help”
“What? How?”
“I’ll tell you everything, but right now I need to get into his camera feed.”
“Avery?” He wanted to demand more, I could hear it in his hesitation. “Right, read off the specs on the machine.”
I read all the numbers and manufacturer information I could find on the unit.
“Right, you need to choose the source, like we did before,” Kirk told me what to look for.
I followed each step, wanting to rush, wanting to
run after whoever took Genevieve but forcing myself to sit still and listen. I could hear the strum of my pulse in my ears. The shuffle of Cynthia pacing behind me was almost enough to push me over the edge.
Then Genevieve appeared on the screen wearing her gray blazer. Great minds think alike, but today our shared wardrobe choice was the worst kind of serendipity. I watched her approach the building. She looked up at the mural and looked at her watch. She turned her head, looking up and down the street for me. The guilt made my stomach churn, as I watched her walk into the setup I put in place. I should have warned her.
“Avery? Did you find it?” Kirk asked. “Patrol is on the way.”
“Yeah, I see her. She’s alone. No, now someone is approaching her. It’s a woman.”
“Oh, my God, I didn’t know.” Cynthia leaned toward the screen.
“Do you recognize her?” I turned toward Cynthia, hoping for something that wasn’t there.
“No, I mean it’s a woman,” she said.
“Avery, what does she look like? Take a screenshot.” Kirk prompted me back to the screen.
I followed his directions and froze the frame and zoomed in on the woman. “All right, I see her. She is Caucasian, slim… She has short blonde hair. I… I can’t get a good look at her face.”
“Good, what, never mind, we’ll sort that out later. Advance the footage—speed things up and see where they went.”
“Right.” I obeyed Kirk and watched as Genevieve shook the woman’s hand, looking at her like she was crazy, but Genevieve was always polite, a constant professional. I could see Genevieve take the phone away from her ear and then put it back. The woman collapsed to the ground with her hands on her throat. Genevieve bent to help the woman.
The man came from inside the building. He was wearing a stocking cap and a trench coat with the collar pulled up, as though it was freezing outside. He reached around Genevieve with a cloth in his hand and held the cloth over her face. As Genevieve went limp, the woman sat up. “Oh no, they chloroformed her,” I said.
The pair stood Genevieve up, supporting her limp body between them, and then walked her back into the building. “She’s here, in the building somewhere.”