Page 100 of Preying Heart
The call goes to voicemail, and I don’t bother to leave one.
“She’s not answering. I don’t feel good about this.”
“We’re almost there,” Justin says, cutting off a bus to make a sharp turn.
As soon as he pulls up to the complex, I’m out of the car and running for the lobby with Glock bounding next to me. I show my badge to the doorman and ask, “Have you seen Remi Bruckner and another female, a brunette with curly black hair?”
“She went up earlier and hasn’t come down as far as I know,” he says. “Are you talking about the lady who was with you earlier?”
“Yes.”
“They could have gone out the back way. Why don’t you go up and check?”
I rush by him to the elevator and hit the button repeatedly to get it to go. As soon as I get off on her floor, I barge to her door and pound on it.
“Remi. Lucy. Open up.”
There’s no answer. I can hear the television going, but they’re not coming to the door. Glock tugs at my pant leg. I look down and spot a phone—Lucy’s phone. She must have dropped it on the way in, or did she already leave?
Justin catches up with me, and I show him the phone. “We need to get down there and look at the security videos. They’re not answering the door and Lucy’s phone is dropped here in the hallway.”
Ten minutes later, as the guard shows us the videos for the evening, I spot them.
“Back up the video? That’s them.”
A man wearing a cowboy hat is holding on to two women wearing hoodies.
“I saw that man come in,” the doorman says. “He had a card key so I didn’t question him. He wore dark glasses and a bandana over his face like an outlaw.”
“Did you see the three of them leave?”
“Let’s go to the videos in the garage,” the guard suggests.
“Zoom in on the license plate.” I point to the clunker pickup truck Gavin shoves Remi and Lucy into.
The guard takes a grainy screenshot and prints the picture for me. It’s not much to go on, but Justin calls in an alert on the vehicle—kidnapping in progress. We don’t have much to go on, but I’ve seen enough.
“I’ll call the officer stationed outside to see if he heard anything,” Justin says. “He has a tracker on Remi’s phone.”
“He does? Why don’t I have it?”
“You’re a civilian,” Justin says. “She has to give you permission.”
“Eff that!” I run after him as he confronts the officer sitting in the stakeout car.
Justin looks back at me. “He says the device isn’t active. Maybe Remi forgot to turn it on when Gavin showed up.”
“What about the tracker?” I demand, and when the officer brings up his device, I grab it from him.
My adrenaline shoots through the roof.
“They’re going north.” I show the dot on the map to Justin. “About an hour out. I bet they’re headed for the Farm.”
“Hey, give the tracker back,” the officer shouts, but I’m already on my way to my truck. “I’m going after them.”
“I’m calling in backup,” Justin says, grabbing me. “Let’s go in my SUV. I can put on the siren and get us there faster.”
Remi
