Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“I’m…” I hesitated. “I don’t think so.”
He rolled his eyes. “The fact that you have to convince yourself of it and that you hesitated to answer means that you’re likely confused. And you wouldn’t be confused if she didn’t mean something to you.”
He had a point.
“Aha!” I heard our person of interest crow. “Look at this.”
Bayou, the child’s father, came over from where he was comforting his wife, Phoebe. Phoebe had two other kids stuck to her sides, so she chose not to come over. But we held every single bit of her attention.
Sam and I walked over, arriving at the same time as Bayou.
We all looked over Folsom’s shoulder.
“What am I looking at?” I asked.
“This is the inside camera of the car he’s driving,” she explained. “The car they’re in is a Grand Wagoneer. It has one of those kid cams where you can see the back seat. Like a dome-like view, give or take.”
She pointed at a blob in the back seat.
Bayou and Phoebe’s youngest son, the one that was stolen, lay in a pile of blankets.
He was three, so old enough not to suffocate where he was, face down.
“Is he breathing?” Sam asked, sounding horrified.
“Yeah, look.” She pointed. “This was a few seconds ago. He turned his face to the other side.”
I watched him do just that.
“Where are they?” I asked.
I’d done the legwork to get us to this point. I’d found a few police reports of abandoned cars and pinpointed where he’d started and left based on cars reported missing in the area.
Eventually, it’d led us to a brand-new car being stolen out of a mother’s driveway.
A mom car.
A Jeep Grand Wagoneer.
From there, Folsom had done her magic and not only tapped into the OnStar on the vehicle but had also tapped into their camera system.
“I can shut it off,” she said. “Take over control of the car completely using the onboard computer. But my worry would be he’d just steal another one that I couldn’t control like this.”
“We need to be in place when you do it,” I said, looking at Sam.
Sam nodded.
“Where is this car located?” I asked.
It’d been a little over fourteen hours since the abduction.
They could be anywhere at this point.
“Utah,” she answered. “Park City, to be exact. A tourist town. Look at all the snow on the road.”
My belly hitched.
Snow meant difficulty flying.
“What’s the weather like there?” I asked, looking at my watch as if that would give me all the answers I needed.
“Sunny and high of fifty. For the next three days,” she answered, almost reading my thoughts. “You can fly there easily. I can keep an eye on his whereabouts as we move.”
I gestured to Sam. “Let’s get the helo fueled up, then we can go. I can carry four people total.”
Sam looked at his watch. “I have the fuel. We keep it on hand for other landings from family.”
Ten minutes later, I was doing my preflight checklist while Sam was fueling us up.
Fifteen minutes later, I was in the air and flying toward Utah.
“Gonna need a fuel up halfway,” I said as I flew. “Can you find us a place to land and do that, Folsom?”
Folsom proved herself.
Time and time again, she found me what I needed before I’d even asked.
Though she was sitting in the back of the helo now since Sam had taken the front, she’d still given me her every thought as if she was sitting right next to me. Even Sam had cracked a smile a time or two, despite his utter horror at the situation.
Bayou sat beside and to the left of Folsom, and she allowed Bayou to keep hold of her phone for the entire two-hour trip. His eyes never left the screen, and instead of saying she needed her phone back—which she likely did—she’d let him have it to give him peace of mind at seeing his son in the back seat of that car.
“Up on your left is a place to land,” she said. “About a half a mile out. There are two cars already there waiting.”
I frowned as I thought about the logistics of this.
How had she…
“I know a few people up here,” she explained. “They’re fellow hackers.”
I glanced at her in the mirror, then nodded.
Hacking, from what I understood, was a weird business. They hated each other, always going out of their way to make sure that they one-upped the other person, but when in need, they were always willing to lend a helping hand.
Sure, that helping hand always came with conditions, but it was a helping hand still the same.
“See it,” I said as I started my descent.
Five minutes later, we were in our vehicles.
Folsom was in her own, and the three of us were in a large F-250 made for a king.
“You sure you trust her by herself?” Bayou asked, sounding worn out and sick.