Page 14 of Nothing Hiding

"His name was Thomas Collins," McKay said. "He left about two weeks ago, after working with us for a year.”

“Did he say anything specific about your behavior?” Wyatt asked.

“Yes, he complained that I micromanaged him and bullied him, and that he couldn't handle it anymore. But I genuinely didn't mean to be so controlling. I just wanted everything to be done right," McKay said, sounding apologetic.

Wyatt nodded, adding the name to his notes. "And anyone else?" he asked.

McKay shook his head. "There are always incidents cropping up, but the others I can remember were a while back and very forgettable. Those were the main sources of recent trouble."

"Okay, thank you for sharing that with us," Wyatt said, getting up from his chair. "We'll look into those leads and see if we can find any connections."

"Please, find my daughter," McKay said, his voice strained with emotion. "I don't know what I'll do if anything happens to her."

"We'll do our best, sir," Wyatt promised, knowing with a cold feeling in his gut that everything was now at stake.

This wasn't just a potentially explosive high level security incident, it was also a family, traumatized by anxiety and fear.

He needed to get to these three suspects, and fast. All of them, in his opinion, had strong motives for this crime.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Juliette arrived back at the ambassadorial residence, just as Wyatt called her on her phone.

"I've got three potential kidnappers who had issues with McKay," he explained.

She felt her heart skip a beat. Hopefully, one of them would get results.

"I just got out of the car," she said. "I'm outside. I can get back into it, and we can go check out these leads."

A moment later, Wyatt appeared at the residence's front door and ran down the pathway toward her.

He piled into the car, and she set off, heading for the police station where Sierra was working.

As she drove, Wyatt explained the background along the way. "Don Kostaki, Michael Boardman, and Thomas Collins. Kostaki and Boardman were involved in a bad fight a couple of weeks ago and threatened McKay when he tried to break it up. Then McKay took things a step further by reporting the men to their bosses. If one of them was mad enough about that, or suffered consequences, maybe they did this as payback."

"That sounds possible. What about Thomas Collins?" she asked.

"He was an aide, who left recently after clashing with McKay. He believed he was forced into resigning after workplace bullying."

"Another good possibility." Juliette felt hopeful that there were some strong motives for this abduction. People had been angry, and with grudges festering, they could have planned a revenge move.

Juliette also realized that all these men would have known where the ambassadorial residence was, that McKay had a daughter, and might be familiar with her habits and with security's movements, if they had watched the place. A daughter who snuck out every Friday night when her father was away created the perfect storm of circumstances for a kidnapper to strike.

The police station was ahead. Juliette swung the car off the road and headed into the parking lot behind the building. They hurried inside.

"FBI task force, investigating the ambassador's case," she said to the officer at the front desk. "I believe Sierra Lowry's in here. I dropped her off earlier."

The officer nodded. "Down the corridor, second office on the left," he said.

The police station was well equipped, sparkling clean, neatly ordered, and Juliette's only complaint was that it was too warm—a common problem in the UK, where buildings were designed for cooler weather, and air conditioning was sometimes lacking. This police station had compensated for the hot day, and the bright sunshine beating onto the windows, by setting up fans. One whirred in the lobby, and when Juliette went through to the side office, she saw Sierra's head, bent over the laptop, her hair ruffled by the breeze from another, smaller fan placed on a shelf.

She looked up as soon as Juliette walked in, with Wyatt behind her. With the three of them inside, the small office felt very full.

"I've been looking at all the footage," she said excitedly. "And I think I spotted her just a moment ago."

Raising her eyebrows, Juliette crowded in, staring down at the screen where Sierra had logged into the camera footage from a street near the ambassador's residence.

At the same time, she opened the map on her iPad to pinpoint the meeting place that Emily had told her Daisy was due to arrive at but hadn't.

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