A Deadly Influence (Abby Mullen Thrillers #1)(26)

Abby’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She took it out and glanced at it. A cryptic message from Samantha—A snack? Srsly? Abby wrote back, held up at work. Just order some pizza. She should have told her mother to have lunch with the kids. Abby always took them out on Saturday. She’d have to make it up to them at dinner.

She tuned back in to what Carver was saying. Both calls had been made from busy locations. The assumption was that the kidnappers had called from these locations on purpose to make tracking them difficult.

“He told Fletcher she’s being watched,” Abby said. “But didn’t tell her not to call the police. It sounds like he assumed she would and didn’t want it to be a deal breaker.”

Griffin glanced at her with displeasure, clearly not happy with her talking out of turn. She was fine with that. Her main goal in this meeting was to stick out. She didn’t want to blend in with the rest—that would make it easier to replace her with someone else. She met his stare wearing her soft, innocent face, aimed to disarm. He really did look like a modern version of Humpty Dumpty.

Carver moved on. “The voice modulator the caller used is a common app, but it does its job. We can’t reverse the modulation. Eden Fletcher says she’d seen a stranger in the vicinity of her home, and gave us a sketch.” He took out a sheet of paper with the printed sketch and passed it around the table.

Abby gave it to Will after glancing at it briefly. She’d seen it the day before when Eden had described the man to the sketch artist. The face of a man with a high brow and a full beard.

“We also went through some mug shots,” Carver said. “But so far, she couldn’t ID the person she’d seen. We’ll show her additional mug shots today.” He tapped his stack of papers on the table. “That’s what we have so far.”

“Okay.” Griffin leaned back, intertwining his fingers. “So we’re checking traffic cams, right? We can look at cams from the areas where the call was made from, search for cars matching that model. What else?”

Abby’s phone buzzed yet again. Annoyed, she checked, thinking it would be another message from Sam, but it was Isaac this time. Just heard from Eden. This is horrible.

It was weird seeing Isaac refer to Eden. In all the years they’d stayed in touch, Abby and Isaac had done their best to avoid discussing anything from their shared past. Aside from their involvement in the cult survivor forum, they tried to focus on their everyday lives. Now, in a way, the three of them had been brought together again. The Moses Wilcox survivor group.

She hesitated, finger hovering over her phone screen as she listened to Griffin outline their search efforts. She was still angry that he’d given Eden her number all those months ago. He knew better than to do that. Still, this was not the time to discuss it. She tapped, It really is. She’ll need a lot of support

Absolutely. Any progress?

We have a few leads

Do you have suspects?

I can’t discuss that. I need to go. She shoved the phone in her pocket and turned her full attention back to the discussion.

“I need a few officers from the precinct to interrogate local sexual predators,” Carver said.

“Is it really necessary?” Griffin asked. “This sounds like a kidnapping for ransom.”

“I’m not sure that’s the case,” Abby said.

Again, all eyes were on her. She leaned forward, intertwining her fingers like Griffin did, mirroring his body language.

“The caller asked for a very high sum,” she said. “In both phone calls he didn’t give any indication he was willing to compromise. Since he kidnapped Nathan in broad daylight during a very narrow window of opportunity, it means one of two things. Either that he was a predator on the prowl, looking for a kid walking alone, or that this kidnapping attempt was well planned, and Nathan and his family were watched for a while. If it’s really the second case, the kidnappers should know five million dollars is practically an impossible sum for Eden Fletcher, a single mother who works as an office assistant.”

“Then why ask for the ransom?” Carver asked.

“To buy time,” Abby answered. “Maybe Nathan is dead, and the kidnappers get a kick from calling the family. Or maybe he’s alive, and the kidnappers are calling to feel a measure of control. We don’t know enough to make any solid assumptions, but I don’t think we should rule out a sexual predator.”

“We shouldn’t rule out a family member either,” Carver said. “Nathan entered the car willingly. Maybe the caller used a voice modulator so that Eden wouldn’t be able to recognize him. We’re trying to find Nathan’s father, David Huff. They broke up seven years ago, and the family hasn’t heard from him since.”

Griffin nodded. “I want another door-to-door canvassing. Perhaps someone else noticed the stranger that Eden Fletcher saw. If it wasn’t a random prowler, the kid was watched, and that could be our ticket in.”

“There’s another option,” Will said.

Abby glanced at him. She’d asked him last night to do some research on the Fletcher family, but they hadn’t had time to talk before the meeting and discuss his findings.

“I did some digging on the family,” Will said. “Gabrielle Fletcher is a successful social media influencer. I mean, semisuccessful—she’s no Paris Hilton, but she has quite a few followers.”