32

On his way to his office, John’s cell phone pinged with a text message from reception.

Detective Donnelly here to see you.

Coming, John texted back.

He put his hand on the small of Savannah’s back and ushered her down the corridor. “Donnelly is here. Let’s see what he’s got.”

“Do you think he’ll be able to help? I mean, he sent me to you in the first place,” she said doubtfully.

“There’s something you need to know about our relationship with the police.”

“Yes?”

“Donnelly knows that we’re vampires, and whenever the police suspect that a case might involve preternatural creatures like vampires and the like, he sends the case to us. So when he couldn’t find any leads in the real world, he asked me to evaluate the situation and see if I could find any connection to vampires. If we don’t find anything, we send the case back to them.”

“Are you saying that vampires are behind this?”

“No. The fact that many of the children were kidnapped during daytime hours led me to believe that no vampires were involved. I still believe that, now even more so. None of the thugs we’ve encountered so far were vampires.”

“But if there are no vampires involved, why didn’t you send this back to Donnelly to deal with?”

John met her inquisitive gaze. “I was supposed to. But I couldn’t.”

Understanding suddenly lit up her eyes. “That’s what that argument between you and Samson was about. He didn’t want you to help me, did he?”

John sighed. He didn’t want her to get the wrong impression about Samson. “Samson only did what he had to do. We’re short-staffed. We didn’t have the capacity to take on this case.”

“But you took it anyway.”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “Because I couldn’t bear to see you suffer.”

“But how did you convince Samson?”

John let out a slow breath. “I told him I’d quit if he didn’t let me work this case.”

She stopped and turned to him. “You risked your job for me?”

He’d risk much more for her if it came to it. He’d risk his life. For her and for Buffy. But she didn’t need to know that. “It’s just a job.”

“Oh John, I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. I just need you to stay strong. We’ll get through this. Will you do that?”

“Yes, John.”

He tugged at her hand. “Now let’s talk to Donnelly.” He pushed the door at the end of the corridor open and entered the reception area.

Donnelly shot up from the seating area, and the woman sitting with him did the same. He waved. “John.”

John walked to him and shook his hand. “Mike, good to see you.”

Donnelly turned to Savannah. “Evening, Ms. Rice.”

“Hello, Detective Donnelly.”

“Grayson got me caught up on everything. I brought a sketch artist to work with the children. This is Emily Bolton.”

They exchanged greetings, then John said, “Ms. Bolton, I’ll have somebody escort you down to the medical facility. I believe the children are still down there being checked out.”

It took only a minute for John to arrange an escort to take the sketch artist to the children, before the three of them went to John’s office. Once the door was closed behind them, Donnelly sighed.

“I have some news for you too,” Donnelly announced.

“I hope it’s good news. We could use it,” John said.

“Well, you tell me. Remember the ransom note you had analyzed? Well, there was indeed a chemical substance on it. It’s actually a compound used in dry cleaning facilities. Which gives us reason to believe that the paper was stored at a dry cleaners.”

“Can we narrow it down any further?”

“Afraid not.”

“There must be hundreds of dry cleaners in the Bay Area,” John mused.

“That’s all I have. It’ll take us weeks to check them all out to see if any of them might have a connection to the trafficking ring.”

“We don’t have time,” Savannah said, her voice shaky. “We need to find Buffy now.”

“I know, Ms. Rice. I understand. But I’ve got nothing other than a hunch on where the paper is from. There were no fingerprints, no DNA, nothing.” He looked at John. “Were you able to trace the phone number used to contact the kidnappers?”

John shook his head. “No. I put Thomas on it. But we got nothing, no location, no IP address.”

“IP address, that’s it!” Savannah suddenly said excitedly. “The hacker.”

“What about the hacker?” John asked.

“Remember how he told you that he traced his boss by the email address he used and told you that each time it came from a different location? He was able to trace the IP addresses from wherever this man sent his email communications via the malware he’d sent in his link.” She snatched a quick breath. “Is the hacker still in one of your cells?”

“Yes. What do you need to know?”

“I need to find out if he kept a record of the IP addresses. And if the malware is still active and still sending data back to him.”

John reached for the phone and dialed a number. The call connected immediately. “Thomas? Can you talk to Otto Watson, the hacker we’ve got locked up downstairs, and ask him whether he kept a record of the IP addresses he tracked his boss’s email address to? Apparently, he tricked his boss into installing malware on his computer that tracks his IP.”

“Clever guy. When do you need it by?”

“Five minutes ago.”

“I’m on it.”

“Oh, and Thomas, when you have those IP addresses, send them to my computer. And can you somehow check whether the malware is still sending back any data we can use to pinpoint him in real time?”

“Sure.”

John hung up and looked at Savannah. “It won’t be long.” He moved behind his desk and sat down, then quickly logged into his computer. He turned up the volume on his notifications, then drummed his fingers on the desk.

Savannah started pacing. Donnelly rounded the desk and leaned against it, looking down at John.

“So, uh, Grayson said, the kidnappers were just, uh, regular guys, right? Any chance their boss is different?” he asked cautiously.

“Mike, you can stop being cryptic. Savannah knows about us. She knows what I am.” He slanted Savannah a look and she met it. “And she’s not afraid of us.” She’d touched his fangs, kissed him, trusted him. He couldn’t ask for more.

Donnelly said, “Oh, well, then we’re on the same page. So, you don’t think the kingpin is a vampire?”

“I can’t be sure, but at this point I see nothing that makes me suspect that he is. The kids didn’t know what time of day it was when he came to take Buffy.”

Just then, the computer pinged, and John looked at the screen. Thomas had sent him a file. He opened it. “The IP addresses. And a note. Thomas thinks the guy might have ditched his computer. Nothing has pinged back from it in the last couple of days.” He looked at Savannah. “What do you need me to do now?”

Savannah was already walking around the desk. “Let me sit. I’ll do it.”

He made way for her and let her take his seat.

He watched her as her fingers flew over the keyboard and her right hand clicked the mouse, copying and pasting items, plotting them on a map, and doing so over and over again. She was confident in what she was doing, and driven. Ten minutes later, she turned her head. “I’ve got all the locations. Detective, we just need to overlay this map with one containing all dry cleaners in the area and see if any match.”

Donnelly nodded. “No problem. Let me do that.” He motioned to the keyboard. “May I?”

Savannah got up and Donnelly took her seat. “I’ll just need to log into our database,” he explained. “Give me a sec.”

John put his hand on Savannah’s shoulder, squeezing it gently, and she smiled at him for the first time since he’d returned from Russia with bad news. Finally, he could see hope blossoming in her eyes again.

“Here we go,” Donnelly said after a few moments and pointed to the screen showing a large map of the city. “Bingo.” He pointed to several of the locations that Savannah had marked. “All these are dry cleaners, or dry cleaning facilities. This is good. I’ll make a few calls, see what the department has on these locations and the owners and their employees. It might take an hour or two. Can I stay here and use your office?”

“Of course,” John said. “We’ll help you with anything you need.”

Donnelly waved him off. “Nothing for you to do right now. Why don’t you take a few moments to relax and let me work on this?”

“I get the feeling you’re throwing me out of my own office,” John said with a raised eyebrow.

“Glad you got the hint. I’ll ping you when I’ve got something.”

John nodded. “Come, Savannah.”

“I can’t just do nothing.”

“You’ve done enough,” he assured her.

“But there must be something I can do.”

Donnelly looked up from the computer. “Why don’t you see how the kids are? I’m sure they’d love to see a friendly face.”

Grateful for Donnelly’s suggestion, John took Savannah’s hand. “I think that’s a brilliant idea.”