27

Savannah had finished her breakfast and a second cup of cappuccino, when the young man who’d come to her flat to collect the ransom note, approached her.

“Ms. Rice?”

“Oh, Benjamin, like I said, it’s okay if you call me Savannah.”

He grinned. “I’m not Benjamin. I’m Damian.”

Confused, she stared at him. She remembered the name clearly, or was she going crazy? “I’m sorry, I guess I’m bad with names.”

Damian chuckled. “Benjamin and I are twins. Happens all the time.” He pointed to his hair. “If you wanna keep us apart, just look at the hair. Mine is longer than his.”

“Oh, I didn’t know there are two of you.”

“John asked me to get you. He’s starting the interrogation.”

“They came back with the hacker?”

Damian’s chest puffed up proudly. “Oh yeah, piece of cake. We snatched him. He had no idea we were coming.” Then he motioned to the door. “I’ll take you to the observation room.”

“Thank you.”

She followed him as he led her to the elevator, which they took back down to the basement. When they arrived at one of the sub-levels, he ushered her down a long corridor, then used his access card to open a door. He held it open for her.

“Go ahead. Take a seat.”

She walked inside and saw Ryder sitting at a computer in front of a big window that looked down into another room.

“Hi,” she said.

Damian entered behind her and closed the door.

“They just started,” Ryder said and pointed to the chair next to him. Then he pressed a button on a microphone. “We’re all here.”

Savannah sat down and looked into the room below. Several people were assembled: John, Grayson, and Benjamin. At Ryder’s announcement, they’d turned their heads briefly. There was one man she didn’t know: the hacker. He sat on a chair while the three Scanguards employees stood several feet in front of him, their backs now turned to the window from which she was observing.

“Let’s try this again, Otto,” John said, his voice coming through loudspeakers in the small observation room as clearly as if she was sitting in the interrogation room with him.

“I know my rights. You can’t keep me here. And you’re not the police,” the suspect said with a defiant upward jerk of his chin.

“You’re right about that,” John acknowledged. “If we were police, you’d get a phone call and a lawyer. Guess what? We’re not that generous.”

A flash of fear passed over the hacker’s face, but then he reined himself in again. “I’m gonna sue you!”

John exchanged looks with his two young colleagues, who were flanking him. “You hear this joker, boys? I don’t think he knows who he’s dealing with.”

Unexpectedly John took several steps toward the suspect, almost jumping at him. Otto’s eyes widened, and he tried to get out of his chair, but John gripped the armrests, and got right in his face.

“Let’s talk, Otto. Let me explain how this is gonna work: I ask questions, and you answer them. Simple. Do you understand?”

The suspect nodded, his eyes still filled with fear. She knew that John could look intimidating, but clearly sitting in a chair in a bare room with three tall and muscular guys bent on getting answers scared the living daylights out of the man. Savannah clasped her hands in eager anticipation. Her heartbeat accelerated.

“You hacked into Kerry Young’s database and photo files to get access to photos and addresses of young girls aged nine to twelve. What did you do with the data?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Otto said. “I didn’t hack into anything.”

“We have proof you did, so let’s not quibble about that. Thirteen girls were kidnapped in the last few weeks, all after photoshoots at Miss Young’s studio. If you don’t answer my questions, I’m going to have to assume that you’re the kidnapper. And I’m not very kind to people who hurt little girls.”

Savannah thought she could hear a growl coming through the speakers, but it was probably static in the line.

“I didn’t kidnap anybody. I didn’t. I swear.”

“Then who did?”

“I don’t know. I swear.”

“You swear a lot. You’d better search your memory, because if I think you’re no use to me anymore, I might just discard you.” He turned his head slightly. “Boys, why don’t you tell our guest what I mean by discard, since he clearly isn’t familiar with my vocabulary.”

Grayson stepped closer. “I believe the correct translation for discard is being beaten to a pulp.”

The hacker gasped in fear.

“Thanks, Grayson,” John said politely. “Now, Otto, how about I repeat my question and you search your memory really hard and tell me what I want to know?”

“Please don’t hurt me. I didn’t know.” Suddenly tears shot to the hacker’s eyes.

“You didn’t know what?”

“I didn’t know what would happen to the girls. All I did was provide access to the website, and then, when my client liked a girl, I sent over her details, you know, from the database. I swear. That’s all I did.”

“Who’s your client?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll ask you again: who’s your client?”

“I don’t know.” The hacker started crying. “I really don’t. He emailed me a few months ago. I never met him. He pays me via a dead drop. Cash.”

“Liar!”

“No, it’s the truth.”

“So some mystery man just contacted you out of the blue to hack into some random photographer’s website and database, and you expect me to believe that? How stupid do you think I am?”

“She’s not some random photographer. Kerry and I dated a while back.”

John drew back, giving the hacker some space now.

Savannah couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The hacker and the photographer knew each other. Did this mean that the photographer was involved after all?

“Go on,” John said, his voice now more controlled.

“I might have bragged to some of my buddies that I had a really successful girlfriend and what she was doing. You know, taking kids’ portraits, and that the kids were really cute. Anyway, after we break up, I get this email, and I suppose I was a little pissed at Kerry for dumping me, so I wanted to screw with her and her business.” He sniffled. “I had no idea what the guy really wanted. I thought maybe he was a rival and just wanted to steal clients or business or whatever. What do I know?”

“Yeah, what do you know?” John shook his head. “Then what?”

“There were reports in the papers about a few girls disappearing, and I recognized three of them from the photos. So I got suspicious. So the next time he contacted me, I said I wanted out. He said there was no out. I was scared.” He tossed a glance at Grayson and Benjamin, then looked back at John. “You see, I couldn’t stop. He wouldn’t let me stop.”

“How do you contact him?”

“Only by email.”

“You’re a hacker. Have you tried to track him?”

“I did. After I realized he wouldn’t let me quit, I sent him an email with the usual link to the photos, but this time I embedded malware into it, so that once he clicked on it, it installed a small program on his computer that let me track his location.”

Savannah nodded to herself. That’s what she would have done. The hacker was smart.

“But he moves around a lot,” Otto continued. “Whenever he contacted me, he did it from a different location. He never used the same location twice.”

“So you’re telling me you have no idea who he is or where he is?” John leaned in again. “None at all?”

Savannah noticed how the hacker lowered his lids, an indication that he was hiding something. John must have noticed too, because he added, “Otto?”

“He’s gonna kill me.”

“Not if I kill him first,” John said.

Otto’s eyes widened. Then he swallowed. “A couple of weeks ago, I gave him the name and address of another girl he requested. But this time I followed the girl, and I saw when she was taken.”

Savannah gasped, her heart beating frantically into her throat now.

“I followed them. Two guys in a van.”

Just like the two guys who’d tried to grab her. Savannah shivered.

“Where to?” John asked.

“The port of Oakland. They brought her there.”

“Do you know where exactly?” John asked.

Otto nodded. “I know the dock number and which building. I can write it down for you. Show it to you on a map if you want.”

“Why didn’t you go to the police after you saw them take the girl?”

Otto shook his head. “He knows who I am, where I live. He would have killed me.”

John straightened. “Fine.” Then he turned to Grayson and Benjamin. “Get the exact location from him.” A moment later he left the room.

Savannah turned to Ryder and Damian. “What now?”

The two young bodyguards exchanged a look.

“What’ll happen to the hacker?”

“Oh,” Ryder said, shrugging, “he’ll be handed over to SFPD when we’re done with him. He’s an accessory. He’ll do time.”

Savannah nodded. “Good. I guess your work is done.”

Damian shook his head. “Time to suit up. We’re going in.”

“What do you mean?” Savannah asked. “Aren’t we gonna call the police?”

Ryder winked at her. “And let them screw this up? Trust us. This is what we do best.” Then he smiled. “Now let’s get your little girl back.”

And those were the best words she’d heard in five days.