Chapter 84

CHAPTER 84

C AMPBELL, SAXBY, brADDOCK, AND WALKER rode with Devine and Hastings in his SUV. They pulled up in front of the restaurant.

Devine glanced at Hastings. “Did he pick this place?”

“Yeah. He came in and told me he wanted to go out to eat. We had to scramble. The feds and everything.”

“Didn’t he have dinner?” said Campbell. “Was there a reason he needed to eat that late?”

Hastings shrugged. “Half the time I have to remind him to eat. It’s not a priority.”

Campbell said, “Then he was meeting someone here. And they picked the spot.”

“Agreed, sir,” replied Devine.

They all went inside and flashed their badges at the woman who came out to greet them. The restaurant wasn’t open yet and would not open again until the crime scene processing had been complete.

Hastings led them through the dining room to the table where they had been eating. Hastings pointed out the locations where his men and the feds had been stationed.

“Okay, when it was noticed that he was missing, what happened?” Devine asked Hastings.

“All the security, us and the feds, converged on the bathroom. Then we spread out and covered all the bases.”

They followed Devine down a hall to the rear of the building. There was a door off the kitchen. He opened it to reveal a storage closet. A short walk down the hall led to the rear exit. Devine opened the door into a wide alleyway behind the building lined with Dumpsters. It could be entered off the street to the east and led to the next block over.

“Plenty wide enough to drive through,” noted Braddock.

“Where all the delivery trucks come probably,” noted Saxby.

“Did the sentries stationed here also converge on the bathroom?” asked Devine.

“Yes, it was an all-hands-on-deck call,” replied Hastings.

“How long between everyone leaving their posts and the wall being put up around this place?”

Hastings thought for a moment. “Maybe a minute.”

Campbell opined, “So if I’m Glass, I knock out his own guy, go hide in that storage closet. The alarm sounds and he hears everyone rushing past. He steps out, exits out the rear door, and…”

“And what?” said Hastings. “Hoofs it on foot? We would’ve seen him.”

Devine walked into the kitchen. They all followed him.

He asked the same woman who had greeted them where the staff took their breaks.

“In the alley,” she replied. “Smokes and water.”

“I know they’ve been held here for questioning, and I need to talk to all of them.”

A minute later with the personnel lined up in front of him, Devine asked who had been out in the alley at the time in question. One young man, he was a busboy he told them, had been taking his smoke break. He was in his early twenties, with a small goatee, a thin frame, and he looked exhausted.

Devine held up his phone with a picture of Glass on the screen. “Did you see this man come out?”

“No, sir.”

“Did you see anything unusual?”

“What do you mean by unusual?”

“Something you’d never seen before in that alley,” replied Devine.

“Oh, well, yeah, I did.”

“What was that?” Devine said patiently.

“Most all the vehicles you see back there are delivery trucks. Food, wine, that kind of stuff.”

“And last night?” said Devine.

“Well, there was a real fancy ride that pulled in while I was smoking a cigarette.”

“Can you describe it?”

“It was a Tesla.”

“Did you see the person driving?”

The busboy nodded.

Devine held out his phone again with a different image on it. “Her?”

The man looked at the photo of Mercedes King. “Yep.”

“Then what happened?”

“Some dude came out wearing a hoodie. Never saw his face.”

“Where did he go?”

“He got in the car and it tore out of here.”

Devine looked at Braddock. “Didn’t anybody ask these questions before?”

“Yeah, they did,” said a befuddled-looking Braddock, while Hastings nodded in agreement.

Walker said to the busboy, “I was here doing some of the interviews, but I don’t remember seeing you here.”

Devine looked back at the busboy. “Care to explain?”

“I went off duty right after I saw the car. Finished my smoke and went home. Just came back here when one of my buddies told me what happened. So I wasn’t here last night to answer any questions.”

Devine took a moment to ponder all of this.

Mercedes King aka Anne Cassidy has Danny Glass. But she was in Ricketts last night. So how could…

“ Exactly when did your boss go missing?”

Hastings told him.

Devine did the math in his head and then turned to Campbell. “I’m assuming Nick Dawkins has a private jet?”

“He does. Dassault Falcon. Why?”

“I need you to check to see if it filed a flight plan last night. Ricketts to Seattle.”

“Who is Nick Dawkins, Devine?” asked Braddock.

“One of the money men behind the Termites aka 12/24.”

Campbell made the call and two minutes later he had an answer.

“His jet touched down in Seattle two hours before Glass went missing.”

Devine said, “I overheard Mercedes King saying that they were going to have Betsy call her uncle last night. She was in no condition for me to ask if she had, but I’m assuming Betsy made her plea for her uncle to do what her kidnappers wanted. Then King probably called Glass on the flight here, made the arrangements, and executed the plan,” said Devine.

“What plan?” said an exasperated Hastings.

“ Her plan, as opposed to the Termites’ plan.”

“Why would Mercedes King have Glass’s contact info?” asked Saxby.

“Because she’s been feeding Glass inside intel. For her benefit, not his.” Devine turned to the others. “I need your help. And we don’t have much time.”

“Do you have a plan?” asked Saxby.

“I do.”

“Do you know where they’ve got Glass?” said Saxby.

“I think so, yeah. But I need to make sure.”

“How do you do that?” asked Braddock.

“I need to talk to someone.”